Look, I don’t want to make a major production out of this, but it’s apparent after yesterday’s shitshow in the comments thread to this post that my laissez-faire approach to commenting is being taken advantage of by folks who are convinced of their own political righteousness.
It’s gotten to be a boring drag and it’s a pain in the ass to moderate, to be honest with you. So, like it or not, I’m making some changes.
If you insist in going off on a tangent in a comment thread, I’m no longer going to suggest politely that you back off. I’m simply going to remove the comment, no questions asked. If you persist in doing so, I’m going to remove your posting privileges.
Before you go all ballistic on me or start asserting your (nonexistent) 1A rights, I am offering a compromise. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to put up a weekly post for open comments, where you can freely jaw about any subject near and dear to your hearts. You want to rail about a crappy movie you saw recently? Go for it. Taking a trip to Tuscany and looking for recommendations? Ask away. Tried a fabulous new bourbon and want to share? Lay it on us.
More to the point, want to engage in a political wankfest that winds up resembling the later rounds of the first Rocky Balboa — Apollo Creed fight? Enter your own private Thunderdome, brother. I won’t stop you.
I figure this lets those of you who really want to get into the nuances of things that bore the crap out of most of the readership here have a way to do so, while marking out a clear space for those readers to avoid.
This does not mean that I won’t touch on political things in my other posts. Politicians are like people. (So are college athletics administrators and head coaches, for that matter.) They say and do stupid things just like the rest of us, and when those stupid things touch on college sports, well, I reserve the right to bloviate.
What I expect, though, when you comment in response to posts like that, is that you stay on topic. Going off on a tangent is what ruined yesterday’s discussion and that’s not going to be tolerated in the future.
If you want to complain that you’re uncertain as to what constitutes a tangent for me, consider me Justice Stewart: I know a tangent when I see it. Trump’s syntax and grammar? Tangent. Obama’s golf game? Tangent. Insight into Hitler’s mind as to what he meant when he included “Socialist” in the name of the party he headed? Tangent squared.
Bottom line, if you’re not sure whether a comment of yours might run afoul of the new rules here, best not to post it in a regular thread, but save it for the weekly open thread.
Sorry I’m having to do this, at least to some extent. Please don’t waste your time or mine trying to explain in the comments to this post why it’s unnecessary or wrong. That’s kind of like wrestling with a pig. You should probably save your energy for tomorrow’s Playpen.
Thanks. This is a great idea.
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Thank you, Senator! That will be a welcomed relief from political BS!
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Thank God. I don’t comment often but those tangents ruin it for me trying to read and possibly engage in the thread.
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Thank you.
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Amen! Amen I say!
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Thanks.
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Wow. Miss a day and you miss a lot. Sounds like things went sideways
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Yeah, and it happened later, too. I think there were about 40 comments the last time I’d looked at that thread.
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The Comments Section: what once drew me to this blog, now drives me away.
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I know what you mean… hey, wait a minute! 😉
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Having been a moderator and an Admin on a forum back in the day. Sometimes you just have to get direct to the point and ban someone for the good of keeping quality conversation. It is a private blog.
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That is exactly what happened to me. Years ago, was a place where you could get a relatively high percentage of thoughtful comments and polite debate. Hopefully, this will help.
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Due for a long time. Amazing the crap that goes through their heads all day.
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Many thanks, Senator.
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Boy did I miss something!
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Thanks, Senator….seems like a fair and equitable solution to me.
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Since you mentioned all that stuff in the post, does that mean commenting on it now is on topic and therefore within the new rules? 🙂
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Try me. 😉
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I normally don’t read the comments. I took a moment to glance at that thread from yesterday. Man, that escalated quickly.
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Thank you very much.
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I’m perfectly fine with this as long as you call it “Your own personal Thunderdome”. That’s awesome.
🙂
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Thank you! When I see more than 100 comments then I know some jackass went political and I leave (sorry). Can’t wait to ask some questions on building a pig pit in the open section. Since it’s open comments and the opposite of a safe space, what shall we nickname it?
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“Dawgs With Bones To Pick?”
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Sorry, should have made that clearer. Until somebody comes up with something more clever, it’ll be called the Playpen.
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Awwwww…no “Personal Thunderdome”?
Oh well, I’ll still read it, I’m sure.
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The Weekly Dumpster Fire sounds about right to me. It’s descriptive, yet light hearted (ish) and totally hip, man. Plus, it leans neither right nor left.
You’re welcome.
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A Playpen as well as a Thunderdome is not too bad of an idea. Any comments that stray too far can be asked to take the discussion to the applicable area. Folks who don’t ever like to see the political bloodbath can stay in the playpen to talk tailgaiting, bbq, fishing, etc.
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How about the Playpen for stupid fucking morons, lying fucking shitbags, and just plain fucking idiots. Saw all that and more in the thread. Actually, I we see that from the same place in every thread that goes off-topic. Personally, it’s worse than the same predictable tedium in these shit shows.
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It’s either political or a Richt good vs Richt bad shouting match.
My vote on the name is some version of Thunderdome.
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The problem with going the Thunderdome route is that I hope to encourage non-political topics as subjects, too.
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Fair enough. Either way, thanks for all you do with the blog.
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I like both: one for BBQ, booze, and fun stuff, one for knocking down and dragging out.
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Thank you. The falcons need to hear the falconer.
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Can you move comments to the Playpen? Sort of like a dunce room?
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I have a different place in mind to move those kinds of comments.
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My initial reaction in reading the post was to add a “Thank You”. Looks like lots of folks beat me to it.but I’m going to do it anyway. Thank You.
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I would be inclined to agree with Russ,”The Thunderdome” would be appropriate, but the techie tech fans/ stingtalk rejects in the IT department here have used it for their conference room. I cannot be part of it, sorry…….
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Call it “The Dawg Park”. There are a bunch around town where people take their pets to play and relieve themselves. Seems like a fitting analogy to me!
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Love it. GTP’s off-leash park.
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Hitler Stalin Pol Pot Trump Clinton. Gay rights, circumcision, declawing cats, wearing a burqa. A plane taking off on a treadmill, the nature of glass and why it is rippled in old windows. Driving down a 2-lane interstate, and one lane is closed ahead–do you immediately move over or wait until the very last 20 yards and zipper. Is the correct usage of English what is technically correct or what has passed into the popular vernacular (forte, begs the question, et al.)?
Did I miss anything?
Works for me, Senator.
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Man, Michael Stipe went too far with the new lyrics to “It’s The End of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”!
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😎
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Thanks Senator. I used to really enjoy the comments but have definitely reviewed them less and less the last few years.
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The Pigpen, where one gets just as dirty, and it only annoys the pig.*
I want to say I saw Grizzard make that joke in a column years ago about arguing, but I can’t be for sure.
*this is in no way saying that anyone on here is the pig and is not the intent so please don’t take it that way 😉
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You calling me a pig?!?!!!!?! 😉
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Why I gots to be a pig??
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The correct quote is “Never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty but the pig loves it.” Thanks Senator, I know it will be some work to police this mob so good hunting.
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Our Lady of Blessed Dawg Water, it must have gotten ugly yesterday.
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Never read all that yesterday. Posts like that bore me.
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That’s why I love to read this blog and read the comments almost never. I’d rather not know that I really don’t have anything in common than the fact I love the Dawgs! Lol
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Thank Christ
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Thank you, there are some folks with good football insight that can ruin a thread with their political posts. Sorry to have to be a hall monitor for adults.
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This makes me sad. I’m one of those guys who enjoys watching the poo fly, I guess. It seems like there are a few “usual suspects” that drag the comments down to personal attacks. Just drop the ban-hammer on them, they’ll shape up.
What if there was a thread-collapse function? Users who weren’t digging a particular back & forth could just click an icon or something (maybe just click anywhere inside the particular thread) and the initial comment and all follow-ups collapse, no scrolling needed. I’ve already found some code on github, it should be pretty easy to create a wordpress plugin.
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Eh, the monkeys can still fling, if they’re of such a mind. I’m just confining the area of damage.
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Yeah, I just don’t see that separate open comment post gaining traction, but I understand where you are at.
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Honestly, I’m more concerned with the regular posts and comments keeping traction than I am about the new feature gaining it.
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Actually the open post threads are some of the most used threads on other blogs. Thanks for doing this Senator. Hopefully we can rally around the theme of the Dawg’s kicking everyone’s ass on the field and leave the name calling to family reunions.
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I am a political writer by trade, and one reason I am a Dawgs fan is that it provides me a way to experience some solidarity with people with wildly different political views at a time of peak polarization. Politicization of sites like this spoils that opportunity, so thank you! I’d also add that the bane of comment threads, including and perhaps especially on political sites, is the frequency with which people take them over to undertake irrelevant, redundant, and often very personal disputes. Open threads are the best way to indulge them without screwing up the forum for everyone else.
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I’ll add my “thanks” to the chorus.
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Outside of pure Dawg Porn, I think the best posts and discussions are the ones on the state of the industry in general…….or where we just get to play UGA Athletic Director and come up with (obviously the best) master plan for future facilities.
/hey at least we here at GTP have a master plan. Amirite?
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I had read a little of the thread earlier in the day but did not go back to it. Went back to it today to see what all the fuss was about. Man did that thing go off the rails in a hurry. After the first few post, it was hard to find anything that even remotely related back to the original subject. Glad to see that in the future that kind of crap will get shut down in a hurry. There are way too many snarky comments to be made about opposing coaches and teams to waste it on politics.
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1 poster is often directly linked to it.
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This is a good rule of thumb. Sports is sports. It’s supposed to be a respite from the crap of our everyday lives, which now unfortunately includes wall-to-wall politics with Left-this and Right-that. Sports and politics don’t mix. We see this time and time again when we inject politics into sports. It becomes divisive. When we should all be pulling in one direction as Dawgs fans or Falcons fans or whatever, now we’re divided because of something that has nothing to do with what’s happening on the field. And then it bleeds over here where we should just be talking about the ins and outs of the school and team we love. As Offspring once said, “You gotta keep’em separated.” 😏
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Exactly! Sports is supposed to unite us. Whether you are a Liberal Dawg or Conservative Dawg, we can all agree that Urnge sucks! We need to unite to make sure that anything wearing Urnge should be ridiculed, detested, and if possible eliminated from the face of the earth.
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Not to start another pissing match, but we’re just gonna have to agree to disagree on this assertion. Whether it be playing the national anthem before a game, doing military flyovers, or publicly funding billionaire capital projects; sports and politics are inherently intertwined and they were long before you or I became fans and they will continue to be long after you and I leave this Earth.
That said – I agree with the rest of what you’re saying about rowing in a single direction behind our collective sporting teams.
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As for my part in yesterdays sh*tshow, my apologies. I’m not a frequent blogger and probably should have sat that one out.
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We all make mistakes. I try to give a lot of grace because I know how much of it I myself need. FWIW, I think your apology here is refreshing. Finding one in the comment section anywhere is kind of like finding a unicorn.
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Had a real busy day yesterday and completely missed the shitshow. Just glanced through the comments and am glad I missed it. I hope that I am not thought of as one of the guilty parties. I make the occasional smart ass political comment, but am usually just trying to be funny or needle someone a little. I for one will be happy to abide by the new rules.
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Refreshing..thanks.
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Thanks. I don’t comment here a lot myself, but I do peruse others’ words in search of new Dawg insight and info. I’d rather do my politicking elsewhere (which I do, a lot).
This all reminds me of an observation made by one of my favorite US History profs at UGA (Vipperman). When calling off the Friday class before that year’s Cocktail Bowl (’81, baby!), he explained he liked encouraging spectator sports in light of their key role in bringing together Americans of disparate heritage, background, political views, etc. Gets harder for children of former historic enemies to want to kill each other when they’re both waving Dodgers pennants at the old Ebbets Field.
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Yesssss!
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I’ll be happy to back out of it but as soon as it rises I’ll fight back.
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Can we still fight about zone vs man blocking schemes?
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Stop the presses. Short popcorn maufacturers…..
I would be lying if said I didn’t find entertainment value in Derek et. al. rants, but GTP, in the end, is a place to celebrate our love of the Dawgs.
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Great idea, Senator. I’m sick of hearing about the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor.
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I saw the topic of the post and knew exactly where it would end up comment wise so I went right to the next post. Looks like one of my better decisions yesterday.
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“The Buttercup Lounge”
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Go Dawgs!
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Love this. See enough of the political bs everywhere else. You do great job and is why this is by far best UGA blog.
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I can’t wait ’till tomorrow!
We’ll see who gets the first post up in “The Playpen”. I probably won’t be awake that early, but I can’t wait …I’m makin’ my list of folks that I want to tell, “GFY”.
Maybe some of us can even have a spelling contest!
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Your timing stinks.
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Aw hell, D. This is Blutarsky’s way of saying “You kids go play in your room” which is a heavily moderated “If you fuckers don’t stop squabbling and fighting I’m going do drop you off on the stoop at the mission and run off with the fuckin’ Carnies. Assholes.”
Be of good cheer, fellow GTP’ers, the season is nearly upon us! Go Dawgs!
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Grow up.
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I am not taking any of this shit. I pay way too much.. Oh wait..
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I salute you, Senator. Good move. This will make a great blog even better.
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When I was just a little fellow and would misbehave, my parents would threaten to sell me to the gypsies. Scared the shit out of me. ( They wouldn’t have actually done that would they?)
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Good work….thanks for the UGA Football blog.
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Great idea, hope it works. I expect you will have to implement the timeout a few times to break some long ingrained habits, but should make, almost, everyone’s time more productive. Time for Dawg fans to get focused on football or the Governors will slip up on us!
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Senator, as a 10 year poster on this blog I purposely avoided commenting here yesterday to let the dust settle a bit. Given what has transpired I agree with the action you are taking re: giving a wide open thread once a week for everyone to say whatever they want to talk about. But the truth is that the real problem is the incivility of certain posters here. If someone says something substantive a poster disagrees with on the merits–fine. You and I disagree on the venue of the WLOCP and those discussions have always been civil and sometimes humerous. But those particular guys (I’m not saying any names but you and everybody else on GTP knows exactly who they are) attack people personally with the vilest statements, name-calling and innuendo imaginable. They shouldn’t be here–they should be on one of those awful vent-type blogs like Stingtalk. I admit that I myself have responded in kind to some of those attacks and I am not proud of it–I was just not willing to be their punching bag and when necessary I can dish it out better than anyone–I just don’t like to stoop to that level. Why don’t you simply ban THOSE guys? You don’t need to reshape the most successful football blog on the internet. Just getting rid of the bad actors solves the problem. Just sayin.’
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Mayor, let’s just say I hear ‘ya and hope this move is a wake-up call.
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