raydeebug: Hey, at least they’re grown on Earth. I don’t want no low-grav Martian apples taking over my local grocery store. Why not?
1: The interplanetary subsidies really just create more costs in space pollution and radiation exposure-related health issues.
2: The little tripods, while adorable, mean the dang things keep getting out of the fruit bowl and scaring the cats.
In order to finish what we began back a few weeks back, we once again need to temporarily shut off commenting starting… well, any minute now (It might take a while for the shut down to thoroughly propagate). Things should be back up to normal (whatever that means) come Monday morning — though you will likely need to reset your password when you log in for the first time next week. As always, your patience is appreciated. [More]
Do you wish you could make neat symbols like < in The Consumerist comments? Here’s how! [More]
Corporate guerrilla marketing efforts are getting more sophisticated, as well as more annoying. A Consumerist-reading blogger is under constant commenting attack from either paid Home Depot plants or a well-organized squadron of people with a lot of spare time on their hands who really, really love to defend the big box chain’s honor. And who share the same IP address. [More]
A Florida man is being sued for $15,000 for leaving a negative comment on a transaction to buy a $44 clock, breaking his perfect rating, NBC 2 of Florida reports: [More]
Blogging at SF Gate, personal finance expert and author Erica Sandberg writes about how things you do online — including your choice of friends in social networking sites and even comments you leave on blogs — can influence creditors. [More]
Update, 11/24/09, 8:24PM
We’ve made some progress addressing the login problems that some of you have been experiencing, and I’d like to share some information about what we’ve learned today, and the steps we’re taking to address these problems.
There was no security problem
Some of you reported receiving what looked like someone else’s account information in your password reset email. As soon as we found out about that, we stopped sending out reset emails, to avoid exposing any account data. After investigating the issue, we determined that what looked like account information was actually data generated as part of database operations by this site’s previous owner. No actual user data was exposed, and we are now in the process of reviewing those records to make sure all affected users get the information they need to log in to the site.
If you want to keep access to your Consumerist commenter login, it’s a good idea to update your profile with a valid email address. Sometime this fall we will transition to a new blogging platform and we will need to email everyone new passwords to migrate them over. So go into your Consumerist profile and make sure there’s a working email in there. Just click “profile” at the top right of the page, then “edit my profile,” plug your email address in, hit update, and you’re done.
Hearst Corporation, a large print, television, and internet publisher, has notified one of its bloggers that he needs to stop removing the vowels from certain comments on his blog. Apparently Hearst’s lawyers have some concerns about the practice.
The Consumerist Comments Code, which we repost every now and again, is intended to promote a discussion filled with substantive information, insights, humorous observations and relevant personal experiences. In other words, comments that other people would want to read. Here are some rules to help make this possible… (And while we’re on the topic of commenters, don’t forget to add your email address to your user profile by going to http://consumerist.com/people/yourscreenname/profile/ so you can keep your commenter profile when we transition to a new platform this Fall)
Know those Consumerist comments that get repeated and repeated, and disemoveled, over and over again? Don’t flame, play Bingo! Consumerist comments Bingo! All your favorites are there, like “slw nws dy?,” pointing out typos, blame the OP, and more! Reader catastrophe girl has uploaded a series of four delightful Bingo cards to our Flickr Pool so you can play the home version of the game we play in our minds.
We’re disabling anonymous comments and Facebook Connect.
Our post earlier today about Chase’s sudden 150% increase in a couple’s minimum payment on their credit card debt brought out a lot of passionate comments from readers—and it also turned into a cesspool of blame. We see a lot of a particular type of sentiment on posts about credit card debt and money management, and it’s not helpful.
Attention mean commenters: watch what you say or the Justice Department will hunt you down. Seriously! The U.S. Attorney in Nevada subpoenaed the Las Vegas Review-Journal to reveal the identities of two anonymous commenters whose statements could be read as mildly threatening to jurors involved in a tax case, if you’ve never read internet comments before.
Want to get an email when someone respond to your comment on Consumerist? Sign up for free notification at Bunedoggle.com. Enter your email, commenter name, select the “Consumerist” checkbox and hit subscribe. Follow the link in the authorization email and you’re ready to go. No spam, no gimmicks, just a free script a guy named Brian Bailey put together because it had to be done.
When we wrote earlier about credit card companies’ threats to treat customers even worse in light of Congress passing credit card reform legislation, it ignited a righteous firestorm of consumer rage in the comments. Inside, our favorites.
Comment Of The Day: Where Nobody Knows Your Name
For today’s Comment of the Day, our readers took the (MILDLY AMUSING POST) about a failed attempt at sending a form letter by (MAJOR UNITED STATES AIRLINE). One comment clearly shone, though. Or maybe all of our editors just grew up in the ’80s. [More]