Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The words do not have to be perfect.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

This fight is for everything.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

“But what about the lurkers?”

The revolution will be supervised.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Come on, man.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

People are weird.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

You are here: Home / Music / Friday Night Music Open Thread

Friday Night Music Open Thread

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There’s been a lot of talk on the threads this week about trolls and what should be done about them.

I think Cole’s rules have always been pretty clear. The banhammer (temporary or otherwise) only comes out for egregiously bad behaviour – actual physical or emotional threats, truly offensive -isms, 9/11 truthers and the like. In such instances, one or more of the front pagers contact Cole (who has, I note for those who complain that Cole never reads his own blog, usually already seen it) and Cole decides if they get banned.

The front pagers might very occasionally delete comments which are highly offensive or gratuitously derailing of a thread which has nothing to do with the shit they are spouting, but otherwise, you’re all adults and you can deal with a few dickheads yourselves.

Speaking for myself only, I kind of like the trolls – be they one note weirdos, Republican ratfuckers, ex-PUMAs for Trump, or just DougJ in a new hat. They are an integral part of this blog’s history – from Doug trolling Republican Cole, through Brick Oven Bob Bill (if you don’t know who he was, I suggest you google), to Mikey the Goatfucker, the helicopters are not laughing guy, Uncle Clarence Thomas, Unlimited Corporate Cash, and that guy I managed to flirt out of existence in one thread after he resorted to copying the entire thread into successive comments in an attempt to crash the blog.*

More to the point – it’s election season. There are going to be trolls, and trolls in increasing numbers until we get to November. If we banned everyone who said something stupid in the next 5 months, the blog would consist entirely of posts from Tom and Richard on which none of you fuckers would be allowed to comment.

Also to remember – just because someone disagrees with you, even to the point of complete exasperation, that doesn’t necessarily make them a troll. Or mean that they should be banned to preserve your delicate sensibilities.

If you really hate trolls, ignore them, or install one of the filters that some kind person will link to below a few comments in, or send them pancake recipes, or read one of the other threads.

Anyway, I’m listening to Grimes this weekend (a long weekend here in Sydney). What are you listening to?

* If anyone knows when that thread was, I’d love to read it again. That was fun.

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  2. 2.

    MomSense

    There is a graduation party in the next neighborhood just through my back woods so I’m listening to their dance party.

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Also to remember – just because someone disagrees with you, even to the point of complete exasperation, that doesn’t necessarily make them a troll.

    QFT Now, some P.J Harvey.

  6. 6.

    Mary G

    Wasn’t there a troll talking about helicopters and a credenza? I remember laughing almost to the point of breathlessness.

  10. 10.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mary G: Yes, there was. The helicopters were not laughing and he was ready to fax his credenza/credentials to Cole.

  11. 11.

    trollhattan

    Please don’t ask me why I remember this, it was Brick Oven Bill. He was an actual, not merely electronic, stalker and proudly so. Those were the days, my friends.

  15. 15.

    Sarah, Proud and Tall

    “Michael Gass says:
    October 15, 2009 at 11:45 pm (Edit)

    Dougj,

    The cops that tracked that balloon didn’t make jokes.

    The helicopters didn’t make jokes.

    The people making jokes are here…

    And… they are wrong for doing it.”

    Michael Gass says:
    October 15, 2009 at 11:53 pm (Edit)

    Litlebritdifrnt,

    You call me a liar.

    You think I can’t back it up? That I don’t have the documents to prove it?

    Fine.

    Dougj… give me your email address… I will scan my documents… send them to you… and prove that Litlebritdifrnt is an idiot.

    Period.

    Because I DO have the documents… and I CAN back up everything I say.

    So… give me the address Dougj… I will relish you saying “ok… he does have them”.

  27. 27.

    JCJ

    I’ll try again.

    Why no love for Unkel Klarunce Th0mas?

    (I spelled it properly at first but it got nuked)

  33. 33.

    Eric U.

    I like the trolling by Rising Ben, but he can’t behave himself and eventually goes past what is acceptable. Too bad. Maybe he does it because he realizes we are being entertained

  40. 40.

    ruemara

    I’m not fond of trolls, mostly cos they’re not very clever. Boring. But they are fun to bat around when I have the mood come on. Funny, my phone nearly autocompleted the first sentence as “fond of Catullus” which is true, but odd of it to save.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    HBO is re-running their movie “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight,” about Ali’s Supreme Court case. It’s a little odd because there is no actor playing Ali. It’s all archive footage. But it also makes sense, because it’s all about the machinations inside the Supreme Court, and defendants never appear there.

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    I got to listen to the new ABC album, which sounded like old ABC which is fine by me. With this fancy car, I have a CD player so all the old CDs are getting played. Today was pre-punk. Forgot how much I liked T-Rex’s Calling All Destroyers.

    I’m hanging out in a kava bar because I didn’t feel like sitting at home alone. But they’ve filled the normally mellow space with black lights, disco & fog. Mellow night out ruined. It takes years for me to do this type of thing.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Bobby Thomson: He was nuked because he or she used a slur for transgendered people to refer to the non-transgendered African American woman that prepped the lectern for Secretary Clinton on Tuesday night. That is over the line and that’s why I put him, or her, in time out.

  50. 50.

    CaseyL

    Trolls have been more or less welcome here since the Golden Age of DougJ. Some are tres amusant, like Laughing Helicopter Boy; some are just maddening. Hard to tell until they build up enough of a record for critical analysis.

    I just hate the ones who derail entire threads into a dreary back and forth, when commenters try to actually engage with them.

  52. 52.

    shortribs

    Facebook messenger and sites like reddit are inundated with spam and comment bots, I wouldn’t be surprised if some crafty campaign in the next few years gets caught pushing comment/troll bots on political blogs.

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MattF: Yep, same one. Tuesday night was way over the line. I know we have at least one transgender commenter here and she doesn’t need to have to wade through that type of thing.

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: honestly I almost never delete anything out of moderation, rather I approve it and it shows up as a comment. I’ve had to delete maybe half a dozen obvious spam emails – work from home and earn 8,000 a day, things like that. Then there’s the folks that don’t understand or realize that FYWP didn’t eat their comment, just stuck it in moderation and have reposted it, right into moderation, four or five times. Had that happen the other night. I cleared the first one, deleted the other three, and replied to the commenter explaining what was going on and that I had no idea what was forcing the comments into moderation. That’s usually it. Honestly, even the folks that are trolling, and lets be honest most of those folks are really semi-trolls, understand there are limits and don’t go over the line. Our friend this evening, and most nights this week since/including Tuesday, went way over it Tuesday and has gotten progressively worse every time he or she has reappeared. So there’s really not a lot to talk about.

  60. 60.

    Helen

    Oh man, thanks for that Balloon Boy thread link. I just read the whole thing and it was an hour well spent. I cried laughing at least a half dozen times.

  61. 61.

    Petorado

    I think Sarah would appreciate Brinks trucks backing up with Nimmo.

    Sometimes trolls and music can result in a happy ending.

  62. 62.

    Origuy

    Am I the only one who gets these autoplay ads? I thought they might stop after the CA primary, but now they’re selling McDonalds. And yes, I know how to disable Flash in Chrome, but that’s a pain since it breaks streaming from Comcast.

  64. 64.

    burnspbesq

    The Berniacs are convinced that the uncounted ballots in CA going to save Bernie. They’re going to be disappointed. Around 40 percent of the uncounted ballots are from two counties (LA and SD) where Clinton kicked ass.

  68. 68.

    MattF

    @burnspbesq: I’ll take it for granted that they haven’t actually explained how saving Bernie would happen. In the real world, that is to say.

  70. 70.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: Sorry to disappoint. At my previous locale all comments were moderated. I had some significant issues with a lot of the stuff that was approved/the rules for what was and was not acceptable. But it wasn’t my site, so I had to live with the rules.

  76. 76.

    shortribs

    @Eric U.:

    Although the bots I’ve run into online have not been quite that good

    They’re getting better. A few bots on reddit that will scan a thread and generate natural sounding comments based on the conversations that are being upvoted. Difficult to detect unless they’re a known bot or they slip up and duplicate a phrase in two separate comments under different nyms.

  79. 79.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Honestly, I think Right To Shite and its various incarnations should get a little bit of play, then a block, because it TBoggs a thread, and it’s not at all creative about how it does so. If it had new material, then perhaps there’d be a case for it, but it’s fucking Gary Ruppert from Sadly, No! c. 2003 and I’m sort of bored with those reindeer games.

  82. 82.

    Mary G

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall: Thanks for the link, SP&T. Litlebritdifrt was on fire that night. Here is some epic troll trolling:

    Litlebritdifrnt says:
    October 16, 2009 at 12:04 am

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    My timbers have never been so shivered, I am so scared, I tell you.

    187
    Litlebritdifrnt says:
    October 16, 2009 at 12:12 am

    You know we are all entitled to throw our toys out of the pram every now and again but this is ridiculous.

    Litlebritdifrnt says:
    October 16, 2009 at 12:02 am

    @Michael Gass:

    Oh gosh you are so precious! You really are, I just want to scritch your wittle headypoos, I really do. If I give Doug my e-mail addy (I think he already has it) I am guessing that you will e-mail me one of those neato “Private Detective” certificates and badges that can be had for just $19.95 plus shipping and handling from the ads at the back of “True Crime”, you are such a funny and precious troll, yes you are, “who’s a funny and precious troll?, you are, yes you are you pretty little thing”

  84. 84.

    Carl W

    @Major Major Major Major: I’ve read it. A really fun book. Sadder in places than the books I usually read, but that’s what you get with nonfiction :)

    Have you read the author’s other book about the OED (_The Meaning of Everything_)? I have it, but haven’t read it yet.

  85. 85.

    RadioOne

    I guarantee that I will say something extremely stupid on this blog within the next five months because of the drama of the general election. It’s just how I roll.

  87. 87.

    Captain C

    @burnspbesq: On my Facebook feed today someone posted an article which claimed that 12 million CA primary votes (presumably all for Bernie) were going deliberately uncounted. As in 2/3 to 3/4 of the ostensible vote. At this point, all I can do is roll my eyes and move on.

  88. 88.

    Johnny Coelacanth

    I tried to get into that Grimes album, but could not. It had enjoyable bits and pieces, but they fit together in a weird way. It was like a hot blueberry and prime rib salad.

  90. 90.

    TheMightyTrowel

    Hee hee trolls of years gone by… I’m listening to obnoxiously rowdy australian ska pop punk this weekend. Going to see these guys live when they come thru my city in a few weeks!

    https://youtu.be/6hgpiGUcjZg

    ETA this song makes my cats run around like the lunatic motherfng party machines they are

  92. 92.

    NotMax

    Don’t mind what are usually referred to as trolls, generally speaking.

    Do mind those who insist on hijacking thread after thread.

    Do mind those who repeat essentially the same thing over and over and over, ad nauseum, sometimes for days on end.

    Do mind the profusion of all caps and exclamations some seem to believe is effective conversation.

    Loathe the ones who shift into bilious and insulting without cause (all too often confusing raw nastiness for snark) or from the get-go, and (of course) also the obvious bigots of various stripes.

    Never shall understand the jollies gotten by posing as one or more trolls. The so-called humor of the whole DougJ shtick escapes me entirely.

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    @MomSense:
    Coming home today, I passed three graduation parties. People, parties don’t mean that you can just Park your car in the middle of the street, cause they’ve run out of parking spaces.

  100. 100.

    Matt McIrvin

    @MattF: After that R-troll started diversifying a bit: started using nyms that began with other letters, and even did about a day of pretend-liberal concern trolling as “Ben”, which was probably the most successful trolling they’d done so far.

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