Last night, there were over 3,000 people viewing the CoverItLive live blog, and 8,815 comments. The bulk of those comments were approved by a set of volunteers, along with Soonergrunt. I’m not sure about everyone’s commenting name, and I don’t want to leave anyone out, so I’ll just say thank you to all who helped out. I was busy cooking and taking care of some guests, but when I peeked in at the festivities, there were a bunch of polls and electoral vote counts going on, and I was impressed to see that you learned how to use all of the CiL features.
Thanks also to John for footing the bill for the whole thing, allowing me to spend my spare change on whiskey and sin.
Comrade Jake
Well done guys. Bravo!
Yutsano
HE CUT INTO TUNCH’S TUNA BUDGET?? This will not end well for the hairless ape…
dmsilev
The system held up pretty well under the strain, though because of the massive comment volume having any sort of conversation was basically impossible.
Schlemizel
I don’t want to be a spoil sport but I hated it. comments went by way to fast (hey I’m old slow down ya damn kids!). But it is probably the only way the thing can work at all – I can’t imagine what a pain in the ass trying to approve all the crap was like. Thanks to you guys that took that burden on.
As I said, I hated it but you really should ignore that because I can’t think of how it could have been any better.
The Red Pen
I don’t know if this is an Open Thread or not, but if anyone would like to see the entire Wingnut psyche mapped out succinctly, here is your one-stop shop:
freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2956433/posts
Short:
flukebucket
I loved it guys. Thank you all so much.
SectarianSofa
It was a little hard to both track the conversations and the news sources at the same time. Worked pretty well, considering. It was a brilliant time. Thanks to everyone.
Cheryl from Maryland
Thank you all.
Eric U.
since the two main subjects were bra selection and the fact that people weren’t wearing pants, I shouldn’t be surprised that I’m getting an ad for women’s underwear. Google was probably stumped on who would want to pay for ads about not wearing pants
Big R
Soonergrunt was dragooned into service, apparently.
blingee
For future reference. Rasmussen was wrong on EVERY swing state except NC….and the popular vote which they had at a tie. Don’t forget that! Mmkay! In fact I think they overestimated NC by the same margin they did all the other swing states so basically the same built in bias for everything.
Hopefully Nate and Wang point this out in their analysis. I am pretty sure that Ras was by far the least accurate of the major pollsters. Excluding totally out to lunch Gallup.
The Moar You Know
Given the number of comments (I speedread and could barely keep up, Mrs. Moar couldn’t keep up at all and was trying to deal with her first intro to the BJ culture to boot) I am stunned that the mods pulled it off as well as they did. They deserve medals. Truly stunning work by all last night, and the commentors – well, there’s a reason I’ve been here five years now. I spent last night cheering and laughing my ass off.
Rommie
It worked great for me until Ohio was called, and then the gerbils were launched from the wheel. The comments do scream by at warp speed sometimes, but it’s either that or a dead BJ website.
Brandon
@Schlemizel: Agree. And I couldn’t figure out how to turn that darn noise off.
@The Red Pen: Open thread, why not? Here’s my contribution.
I would be really happy for someone to start busting the pundits on Obama’s “no mandate” “narrow” victory last night. For example, that nasty Krauthammer last night. And in 2004:
Shameless. And he’s not the only one, it’s the new Villager meme as validated by NPR.
JPL
A fun time was had by all. Thanks to those that participated.
burnspbesq
@blingee:
And Nate went 50 for 50.
Corner Stone
I’m not a fan of the CiL strategy, but meh.
Chuck Turd
I couldn’t think of a more appropriate handle than “Chuck Turd”. Sorry.
Scout211
@Schlemizel:
Me too.
Maybe there should be a slo-mo replay for the older set?
I had fun watching the comments whirl by but had to move to slower websites before I had a stroke . . . .
Steeplejack
@Schlemizel:
For future reference: there is a button at the bottom right of the CoverItLive gizmo that allows you to turn off auto-scroll. Then you can go through the comments at your own leisurely pace. That’s what I did. Came home at midnight, fired up CoverItLive and was able to go back through all the comments and get caught up.
Robin G.
I tried, but the chat just went too fast. Total kudos for the effectiveness on the tech side of things.
Side note: the only person feeling more vindicated today than Nate Silver is Richard Lugar.
blingee
@burnspbesq: Not quite. I think he got the senator in ND wrong. He called it for the Republican and the Democrat won. Still very accurate. Both he and Wang were pretty much dead on as I had expected all along.
jibeaux
I didn’t join in the fun, but since I’m trying to avoid sounding like a total gloating ass on FB (I know I’ve earned sounding like a total gloating ass, but I’ve been through two painful elections myself where I didn’t appreciate gloating and I’m trying to be nice under my real name) I need to smile here about my two favorite quotes of the night:
1. Guy on Fox I don’t know explaining to Karl Rove why Ohio was sewn up (because the precincts outstanding were in Cleveland) and saying “even if Republicans take Parma, the famous place with all the [I swear to God I thought he was going to say ham] bowling alleys….”
2. Brian Williams, apparently being forced at bayonet to talk about Donald Trump’s tweets against his will, saying “Trump, who long ago missed the exit ramp to relevance…”
The Red Pen
@Eric U.:
I literally joined for five minutes, during which the PANTS/NO-PANTS thing was in full swing.
What was that about or does what happened in CoverItLive stay in CoverItLive?
Genine
I’m glad it worked out. Everyone did a fantastic job. The lag was crazy. By the time I’d go to approve a comment, it was already approved and the pop up telling the comment was already published slowed me down even more. But as we got closer to the call for Ohio, there were so many comments, that really wasn’t an issue.
I like CIL but it didn’t seem condusive to conversation because things were going by so fast. It was hard for people to talk to each other. It was more of a talking AT each other forum.
I still think we should use it, though. Maybe it won’t be so crazy during mid-term elections.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Fantastic job by the moderators (Moderation in pursuit of liberty turns out to be a virtue after all, who could have predicted that?). Agreed about how the comments flying by at Ludicrous Speed made it impossible to hold a conversation, but I don’t see what you can do about that given the volume. It was more like being at a virtual campaign rally than a kitchen table conversation, but for those of us unable to get to an actual physical campaign rally it was a fine substitute.
Eric U.
@blingee: how many polls did he have to work with in ND? Seems tough to call a race like that
strawmanmunny
I mentioned it last night, but will do again in this thread. BJ was my main source of information last night and it was terrific. Really appreciate everyone that posted. Much, much better than having to watch the bloviating idiots on TV. I mean, y’all bloviate, but you’re not idiots. :)
28 Percent
@The Red Pen: Is it wrong that I find it ironic that his classmates told him that his boy scout uniform made him look gay?
moew qwlfare
That was fun! Thanks for letting me power trip, guys.
I think we were actually fighting to be the fastest to approve comments in the queue sometimes.
“That comment has already been approved.”
D’OH!
“That comment has already been approved.”
D’OH!
“That comment has already been approved.”
D’OH!
“That comment has already been approved. Would you like to turn off all future alerts?”
FUCK YEAH!
“That comment has already been approved.”
D’OH!
Of course, some of us occasionally were afk for ice cream or gin and tonic (pro tip: not at the same time, folks), or we decided to sit back and let The Other Guy Handle It If He Was So Goddamned Determined To Be First, so there may have been a couple of delays for approvals.
The one thing I would have liked to see was the ability to add more than 25 people to the pre-approved list so we didn’t have to manually approve the other 2975+ people as they commented 2975+ times each, but I guess that’s a limitation of the software or the price point.
Raven
@Big R: Fuckin draftees.
Comrade Mary
Oops. I guess I should give up that nym now that Ass Pull has left us.
max
Thanks also to John for footing the bill for the whole thing, allowing me to spend my spare change on whiskey and sin.
Amen. Thanks John and mod people.
I will say that I hope next time people (mods?) don’t use the polling feature because it kept hanging my feed and slowing down the chat (both trying to read it because the browser would choke for a couple of seconds every time one appeared and because the incoming comments would seize for 30 seconds or so and then appear all at once). Of course, some of that may have been on my end – I was watching three video feeds simultaneously. (Wonders of technology.)
I take the blame for the pants thing. I brought up John’s lack of pants in service of the traditional comedic virtue of pounding a joke into dust just for the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Sorry about that. I think.
max
[‘I went from 3:30 AM yesterday til 4 AM this morning… and boy are my arms tired.’]
Schlemizel
@Steeplejack:
and while I had it stopped another 150000 comments loaded up 8-{D
Mnemosyne
@Schlemizel:
What ended up working for me was scrolling up slightly so I wasn’t getting seasick from the constant refreshing at the bottom and then scrolling down at my leisure. It made it harder to “converse,” but I was able to read what other people were saying without too much trouble.
RedKitten
Seriously, guys. Fantastic work. I didn’t even have to watch TV, because everybody was pouring in the information as soon as they had it. Yes, it was hard to keep up, but it’s not like we get a night like that very often! And yes, it was amazing to share that Ohio moment with all of you — the joy in here was overwhelming.
BGinCHI
@Steeplejack: Did you get to see any of the polls? I thought those were the funniest thing we did.
To all those who thought it was too fast, I agree. But with that many people, how can you slow it down? Maybe 2 or 3 separate CiL feeds going at the same time? Like stages at Lollapalooza?
It was a lot of clicking to get everyone in. Thanks to everyone who played: you’re all winners in my book.
I think I have something in my eye.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Great job by the mods. Many thanks to Cole for putting up with us between elections and then for footing the bill for CIL. Seems to me that the comments would have flown thick and fast no matter how they were displayed. CIL makes commenting possible without burning down the BJ server.
quannlace
The usual suspects. Liberal media, socialist foreigners and illegal aliens (wouldn’t that be the same thing?), the rest brain-washed by public schools and single moms wanting the government to take care of them.
Plus, a general wail of ‘America is doomed, DOOMED!” Some folks vowing to become ex-pats. When they mention where they’d like to go, they seem to be under the illusion that Texas has already seceded from the USA.
Oh, and some making that the patriotic demand that Republicans need to damage the country even more to save it from liberals.
Un-fucking-lievable.
The Red Pen
@28 Percent:
Apologies if this is too post-modern, but I don’t think there are any wrong responses to that post. This is a possible exception:
…unless the commenter was laughing themselves to tears.
Schlemizel
BTW – would it be possible in the future to allow Silver & Wang to just tell us what the results will be and avoid all this voting bullshit? It would be a whole hell of a lot less stressful
burnspbesq
Well played, everyone. Compare last night to 2008.
If you start to run low on wingnut tears, there is a huge supply at The Corner.The 2012 KJ Lopez varietal has been rated 94 by The Tear Spectator for its strong aroma of flop-sweat, with hints of chocolate and mango.
Schlemizel
@Mnemosyne:
Yup did that but again just no way to keep up & respond in a timely manner. It was like being in a room with 3499 other people & we are all shouting at once. It was fun but I got a headache pretty quickly & it stopped having any conversational quality about it that I love about BJ
The thing I ended up doing was just scanning for updates from the different networks so I didn’t have to flip around. It got me to FAUX just in time for turdballs ‘math’ speech. I missed the nice lady’s walk around bit though (seriously with that much air between your ears do you have to wear a divers belt to stay on the ground?)
Morbo
Thank you, mods! Thank you, mods! Thank you, mods!
PeakVT
First, thanks to the moderators for approving bajillions of comments.
Second, while I’m still not a fan of CIL, a lot of my objections have to do with the client. It needs a reduced line height so that comments don’t scroll off the screen so fast. And it needs a reply functionality like the BJ comments. The ability to easily address another commenter makes the site better, IMHO.
Schlemizel
You guys keep this sort of thing up & I may never be able to stop grinning like an idiot!
Well done burnsie – very well done!
beltane
@burnspbesq: In 2008 I was euphoric and very, very hopeful. Now I’m seeing this victory as one battle in an ongoing war and my anger at the Republicans has not abated one bit.
Has anyone heard from Jennifer Rubin? I hope the poor dear hasn’t slit her wrists. Someone should check to see that she’s OK.
Jay in Oregon
@The Red Pen:
Someone needs to tell him that he doesn’t need to suffer alone, that he can get the help he needs.
Seriously, though: fuck Fox News and fuck Rush Limbaugh and fuck all of the right-wing assholes who like to pretend that all of their hateful bile, lies, and scaremongering is harmless and doesn’t affect real people.
Tokyokie
@Eric U.: Not much in the way of polling and a race that was decided by about 3,000 votes. (CNN is saying 93% of vote tabulated, but the State of North Dakota site says 426 of 426 precincts are in.) Calling that one was pretty much a coin flip. Although flipping a coin would be far more accurate than the pundits were.
Violet
Thanks to everyone who made it possible. Somewhere in the midde of it my computer crapped out but I made it back for the celebration.
joes527
@The Red Pen:
Wow.
Just wow.
RedKitten
@The Red Pen: Holy fuck. Seriously. It’s amazing to realize just how delusional some people are that they GENUINELY believe this stuff.
I was defriended this morning on FB by a right-winger. She’d previously been a fairly moderate conservative, and we were always able to see past our differences, but her family started getting more and more wingnutty, and she started drinking their Kool-Aid. Last night she called all Obama supporters losers and implied that his re-election would somehow cost her husband his job (but declined to say how, of course). I gently called her out on it, and bam…de-friended. It makes me sad to see someone slide into the abyss of insanity like that.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Schlemizel:
Don’t be surprised if we start to hear complaints about how Wang and Silver (The Great Silver Wang) are messing up the electoral process with their predictions in a fashion similar to how the TV networks used to call the election before the polls had closed on the west coast, followed by calls for their predictions to be censored prior to the election.
gogol's wife
I enjoyed it, but I think it breaks my modem.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I only approved comments when it seemed like everybody else involved had stepped away. I also figured any lag was only going to help because as already mentioned, this was like drinking from a fire hose. It went by way too fast.
And about every 10 minutes, my client would hang. I’d have to close the window, then come back in. I’m sure the other mods got tired of that pop up window saying “so and so has entered the building”.
But, there was some great snark and as always, some hysterically funny posts.
jibeaux
If anyone needs a good shorthand for the demographic /cultural problems, there was a decent one emailed by some GOP strategist: “we’re a Mad Men party in a Modern Family world.”
Svensker
It was great and thank you all who did it. And thanks to our blog host. Wow, great job!
Things moved really quickly and I was scanning KOS, Huffpo, 538 and a few others, too, but a lot of info came from the BJ comments.
Also, too, pants.
Also also too, thanks AGAIN to all who GOTV. You did it and boy am I grateful.
Does anyone have a video of Shep Smith saying what a dick Romney was for not conceding? Would love to see that.
Svensker
It was great and thank you all who did it. And thanks to our blog host. Wow, great job!
Things moved really quickly and I was scanning KOS, Huffpo, 538 and a few others, too, but a lot of info came from the BJ comments.
Also, too, pants.
Also also too, thanks AGAIN to all who GOTV. You did it and boy am I grateful.
Does anyone have a video of Shep Smith saying what a dick Romney was for not conceding? Would love to see that.
Ash Can
Watched the returns on the tee vee with M-80 last night, so missed the CIL festivities altogether. Still had fun, although probably not as many guffaws as I’m sure I would have had here.
@beltane:
Maybe she got blind shitfaced and fell into the Potomac.
The Moar You Know
@beltane: In two days. Long enough to make sure she’s dead, but not long enough so that the leaking fluids trash the carpets.
Roger Moore
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Limit each poster to one comment per X minutes. That would discourage people from posting tiny little snippets of thoughts. I think it would bring it back somewhat in line with a regular B-J post.
blingee
lol… so todays right wing meme is “stocks plunge after Obama win”. Of course they will be back up by the end of the week because that is just how stock markets work and it’s not like the stock markets didn’t already know who was going to win.
But of course when the stocks do go up the right wing will move on to another nontroversy. Business as usual. Fine with me. I’ll be buying stock and taking advantage.
Lurking Canadian
Holy crap, that stream of consciousness last night was moderated? Wow. My hat is off to the moderators, along with my apologies for posting so much. It was hard to keep up with just letting it scroll past.
Mnemosyne
@quannlace:
Texas is one of the many red states that takes more federal dollars than they pay in, so, as I said to Taco last night, if they want to secede, bring. it. on.
They won’t, though. They’re like whiny pre-teens who constantly threaten to run away from home even though they secretly realize they can’t actually support themselves alone.
Yankeedevil
It was blindingly fast but also a whole lot of fun! Thanks to Mr. Cole of course, and thanks to all the hysterical liberals with great senses of humor! Also, the swearing. The swearing was awesome.
Yankeedevil
It was blindingly fast but also a whole lot of fun! Thanks to Mr. Cole of course, and thanks to all the hysterical liberals with great senses of humor! Also, the swearing. The swearing was awesome.
The Moar You Know
@RedKitten: If her husband works in defense that could easily happen, if the fiscal cliff is allowed to happen – and that scenario of the House GOP letting that occur was always a lot more likely under Obama than Romney.
I’m staring very nervously down the barrel of the same gun. I voted for Obama anyway, I do the right thing instead of the expedient thing – but I could very shortly be looking at the brutal realities of being fifty, unemployed, and a mortgage with about 15 more years to go. There could be legit reasons for her fear and she doesn’t want to hear about how it’s going to be ok, is what I’m trying to say. Because for some of us it may well not be.
NCSteve
So, enough about that. Is this the place I come to complain about how that sellout Senator-Elect Elizabeth Warren has thrown those who were solely and entirely responsible for her election under the bus?
jibeaux
Nate seems to have changed his twitter handle from Nate Silver to Nate Silver #1, which I think is adorable.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Is DougJ trolling the comments at Larison’s blog now? Inquiring minds want to know.
The Red Pen
@The Moar You Know:
The irony is lost. My brother likes to complain about “the debt.” He reads Reason magazine and likes the, “If you want higher taxes, set an example and pay more voluntarily,” argument.
He’s a Colonel. I told him, “If you want lower government spending, you could set an example and quit your job.”
Of course, he doesn’t mean HIM. When the right talks about sacrifice, it’s supposed to be someone else. [Although my brother gets points for actually risking his life in Bush wars even though he opposed them. He does know something about real sacrifice.]
Soonergrunt
It was a lot of fun in a “holy shit, I can’t keep up!” kind of way.
The volunteer mods were fricking awesome. Each of you guys did a great job. I almost never was totally caught up.
And I do think that this is the way we should handle these kinds of short-term heavy loads. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than upgrading servers for the once-every-four-years load that would then need to be upgraded again in…4 years.
RedKitten
@The Moar You Know: And that’s fair enough, if that’s the case. But she never explained — just then started yammering about how she has a right to say what she wants, and why are libs always against free speech, etc. etc.
trollhattan
what the hell happened to my comment? FYWP
Soonergrunt
@RedKitten: Well, a Romney victory would CERTAINLY have cost me my job. He and his running mate had my agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs in their crosshairs from day one.
And that would have hurt doubly because I’m not just an employee of the VA. I’m a client.
trollhattan
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Sure reads like him–we need a DNA check on that comment, stat!
Soonergrunt
@trollhattan: Nothing in the mod filter at 12:43 CST.
burnspbesq
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
At Larison’s blog, I wouldn’t assume that that’s trollery. The author of that comment could be entirely sincere about it.
Corner Stone
@Mnemosyne:
No. They do not. They receive less than $1 back for every dollar sent in.
trollhattan
A solution to Prop 13 at last? California Dems may have supermajorities in both houses.
sacbee.com/2012/11/07/4967740/california-democrats-on-brink.html#storylink=cpy
trollhattan
@Soonergrunt:
Thanks for checking. I didn’t get the “your comment is awaiting moderation” message, just a submit and “poof.”
WP keeping me on my toes.
jibeaux
@Soonergrunt: One of my FB friends said the R/R position on veterans was a dealbreaker for her as the wife and daughter of veterans. Another one chimed in to say their position on women’s issues was the dealbreakers. I thought, but did not say, I hope it’s o.k. to have about four hundred dealbreakers.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@burnspbesq:
Agreed. I’m quite sure this was a serious comment, actually.
Openly hankering after a dictatorship seems like rather a strange way to flaunt one’s American “patriotism” if you ask me, but given that the commentor in question sees no irony at all in calling upon a Spanish and/or Chilean role model for the purposes of stopping the Reconquista here in the US, I suppose anything is possible.
Mnemosyne
@RedKitten:
People seem to have a lot of trouble with the concept that they’re allowed to say whatever they want, but that’s not the same as the right to never be challenged on anything they say.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: I say without irony as a lifelong Cali resident: please God let this be true. Prop 13 destroyed the schools overnight while I was in them – one year we had pencils, and the next year we didn’t have desks – and it rendered the legislature useless. 32 years and counting without a functioning legislature. What would YOUR state look like if that happened?
I’m not saying can it entirely, but the supermajority part of it MUST go, and so must the exemptions for corporate-owned properties.
Lurking Canadian
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: It is quite typical for “libertarians” to be okay with any amount of government repression of civil and personal rights, as long as the people being thrown out of the helicopters are poor, or advocating on behalf of same.
“Intolerable tyranny” means lining the wealthy up against a wall. Lining the leftists up against the wall is “tough leadership”, “making the hard choices” and “serving the true interests of the people”.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
I lost my first “real” job (at a school for adult developmentally disabled) immediately after Prop 13 passed, so I have a deeply held desire to piss on Howard Jarvis’ grave, wherever it may be.
The other thing we need to correct is term limits (another gift from the brothers Koch), which assure our legislature remains amateur hour. Am not holding my breath.
LD50
@RedKitten: Ah, yes, the “if you tell me why I’m wrong, you’re taking away my freedom of speech” argument so beloved of slower-minded wingnuts.
arguingwithsignposts
Good thing we have Obamacare still. I’m gonna need it from all that clicking to approve comments!
arguingwithsignposts
Good thing we have Obamacare still. I’m gonna need it from all that clicking to approve comments!
Maude
Someone must have approved me. I got my comments posted right away. I held my finger down on the left mouse button to slow it down.
The commenters were impressive. The info flowed in real time.
The mods were great.
IRC is a lot easier. I know I shouldn’t say that, but I have used it when things are fast.
eric nny
BJ CIL was the only way I got any timely info last night. I don’t have TV and I think NPR was recounting the ballots themselves last night. You guys were calling the states and it would be another 1/2 hour before NPR would call the state. Big F. I will say, next year I’m breaking out the laptop. Think about trying to keep up with that mass of flying comments on a smart phone. Made me nauseous. Or was it the gin?