Abuse the privilege of commenting on Consumerist posts and we ban you.
BANNED
Miss_smartypants: Troll.
Ghost_of_Awesomist: Insisted that the $55 Mac and Cheese customer was a “rube” who got what he deserved.
goaway147: Don’t rant about the immorality of the Morning Deals.
JB3: Saw no similarity between a swastika and a totenkopf. Disparaged those that did with a litany of hateful words and phrases. Go figure.
A flux of new commenters means axing the old; with the dawn so comes the duck! — BEN POPKEN
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A haiku for miss_smartypants:
Oh miss_smartypants.
Shit, I wasted five phonemes
I’ll try later on.
As a recent short-term ban-ee on the Sims 2 site, after leaving a mildly critical comment in a moderator’s guest book, I sympathize with those who are banned.
How interesting that those who enjoy the benefits of living in a democratic republic that so far permits free speech are so eager, when they have power themselves, to deny it to others. As a recent short-term ban-ee on the Sims 2 site, I sympathize wholly with the banned.
Whew. Miss_smartypants seemed a bit off her rocker ever since her article about arguing over a $50 rebate (that she agreed to) and refund (which she wanted instead). She just doesn’t seem quite… erm… sane.
For anyone who still doesn’t know where the term Rube comes from, read wikipedia’s Rube Goldberg entry. The guy was a genius in a roundabout way. A really roundabout way.
He:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=rube&searchmode…
See second definition. Although yours is interesting
Rube Goldberg rocks.
let’s see — someone can be a quadriplegic bigot and someone else can say abortion is a “tickle”.
Reading over Mss_Smartypants replies I am rather amused by two things. First her stance that Wal*Mart should sell the Nazi shirts because it’s not fair to pull them because some people are offended.
That post followed one about how women shouldn’t breastfeed on an airplane because it offended her personally.
Reading over Miss_Smartypants replies something pops out at me.
On the one hand she objects to someone breastfeeding on a plane because it offends her personally.
On the other hand she thinks Wal*Mart should sell the shirts with the Nazi link because it is unfair to make them stop selling things because it offends a limited number of people.
Oh, good lord, spare us all the shrill, tenth grade censorship protestations.
Consumerist is here to inform and entertain. They’re entirely within their moral obligations to cull comment accounts that do not support that end.
Damn. It didn’t appear to post my reply so I retyped it and *pop* there is my first and second attempt to say the same thing.
Sorry about that all.
PS I used Rube Goldberg referance in a paper for honors english and then had to turn around and explain what it was to both teacher and fellow students.
Lively and pugilistic debate is good and fun. Commenters become candidates for banning when we feel they’re undermining the quality of the conversation to an exceptional degree.
If I may ask, Ben, what was it that pushed you over the top on these people? Was it an isolated incident for each that did it for you or was there a moment where, over time, their posts taken as a whole were getting to be too much?
I ask because, in reviewing my comments, I question if one or two of my comments may have been inappropriate. I hope not. I love adding to the lively debates on this site.
I certainly don’t want to be on the chopping block.
There have been times where, after reading a few comments from people (like Ghost-of-Awesomist and Miss SmartyPants), I’ve realized that they seem to be impervious to reasonable thought and civilized communication. I start to respond to their invective but end up throwing up my hands in frustration and disgust.
Fortunately, that’s right about the time that Ben does some banning and restores some civility and order around here.
I like cheese.
I thought Pelagius, that you got banned on Gawker?
Oh really? Not last time I checked. What a frightening prospect? How else would I kill time between service calls.
Sorry to hear about the others. Anyway, here I am, a student of consumer behavior and the millions of problems an individual can have created for him for a small fee.
Hmm..must have been someone else with a familiar Commenter name.
I can sort of see the “immorality” of posting the morning deals (not reading the guy’s original posts mind you) as bringing more n00bs i.e. more competition i.e. more chance to spoil hidden deals and what not.
/please don’t ban me
No, magilacudy, goaway147 was upset because that was the day that Planned Parenthood was giving away doses of the morning after pill. You can read his comments (and the associated Morning Deals post) by going to:
consumerist.com/commenter/goaway147
Oh ok. Wow, totally did not expect that.
let’s see — someone can be a quadriplegic bigot and someone else can say abortion is a “tickle”
You’ve never heard the “abortions tickle” line? It’s on a t-shirt. I assumed no one said anything because they’d already heard it before.
I found the “tickle” reference, but who was the [alleged] “quadriplegic bigot?”
I can totally see why goaway47 was banned. His remarks were over the top and he kept going even after Ben told him to can it.
But Miss Smarty Pants? She was definitely a smart-ass but a lot of her comments were insightful.
I found the “tickle” reference, but who was the [alleged] “quadriplegic bigot?”
rit was: http://consumerist.com/consumer/h%26r-block/hr-block-leave…
As another commenter said, a quick read of Miss Smarty Pants’ comments reveals some hypocrisy on her part. She rails against the idea of WalMart pulling the Totenkopf shirts, saying that it shouldn’t matter that a few people are offended. And she also decries breastfeeding on airplanes, saying she finds it offensive.
Oh my God. What an asshole. I hope he gets audited.
I mean, I hope quadriplegic bigot asshole rit gets audited.
And though I don’t wish catastropic injury on anyone, rit should remember that each of us is just one car accident away from paralysis.
bluegus32: I think the problem might have been that she would occasionaly make one semi-insightful comment. And then proceed to hammer it home while growing increasingly worked up and decreasingly coherent.
She was offensive, and I thank Ben for packing her off to the airplane toilet, where she can be offensive in private.
So how long until the trolls start competing to get their names on the front page on the banned list?
I applaud Ben for doing this. I know from having run a popular pre blog era blog/message board how hard, or easy, it is to make the decision to ban someone and then enforce it. I also know that it is generally useless to argue with the powers that be on the intertubes…I’m sure Ben has very good reasons for each banning beyond what we can see in the comments. Most of these types of people, ones that end up being banned, are active email nuisances too.
You’re doin’ a heck of a job Bennie.
I feel like I need to post too, lest I be banned. This is the cool people (read: not banned) room. I must be a part of it.