(Just to make it clear before we start, This Is From Glenn. I’d use the blink tag to say so, but that’s just so Mosaic 1.0.)
Having come to the conclusion that no one here is paying any attention to a certain individual’s commentary because of his abusive and abrasive style, and noting that it’s a real pain scrolling past all of his frequent posts, they’d best be shortened a bit.
So I yanked all the vowels. This makes his comments significantly shorter while making them only slightly less incomprehensible.
Does this mean it’s now forbidden to have arguments in PeterDavid.net’s comment threads? Not at all. Arguments are fine, including vigorous ones, as long as you maintain a civil tone. Does that mean you can get away with saying anything here, as long as you say it well enough? Pretty much.
If a case can be made by X-Ray that his posts should be restored, I’ll consider it. In the meantime, he can post anything except the letters a, e, i, o, and u.
Special thanks to Teresa Nielsen Hayden for the inspiration.
• 
“Speaking of “shrouding,” is “The Paper Chase” available on DVD?”
The original film is, yes. The TV series, including the pilot which had the classic “shrouding,” is not. At least, not to my knowledge.
PAD
“Welsh is not my native tongue, so I’m completely lost when I see his posts now.”
It reminds me of Vulcan.
“It reminds me of Vulcan.”
All I know is that either Tom Jones or T’Pau are probably reading those posts now and laughing their áššëš off.
Well, so we asked, and so we are answered.
PAD’s blog, PADs rules.
Fair enough.
Srry, X-Ry. Y’r scrwd, nd t’s yr wn dmnd flt.
Try t b cvl nxt tm.
PAD: I don’t like it much, but ok. I’m not the one paying the bill for the wesite, well….directly at least.
Glenn,
My post appeared. Sorry I didn’t let you know sooner, I was off-line.
——————–
But you know what WOULD be funny? making it so that all of his stuff is translated into redneck:
Or route his posts through babelfish so they all appear in French.
I’m amused, if only for the pun.
I’d think most of the readers here should share that sentiment, if only because I don’t see how it’s possible to be a fan of Peter’s without enjoying puns.
Talk about rewarding someone’s bad behavior. This guy is now famous within the realm of this blog. He was just looking for attention and you’ve all given it to him beyond his wildest expectations. You’ve all been played.
“Talk about rewarding someone’s bad behavior. This guy is now famous within the realm of this blog. He was just looking for attention and you’ve all given it to him beyond his wildest expectations. You’ve all been played.”
And you know what? It’s still funny.
Bill,
There’s a reason I am but the humble student and you the master.
Bork, bork, bork.
I never would have thought of that.
*************************************
Ok, fun’s fun. Playtime over. Either give him back his a,e,i,o,u’s or ban him outright. This is funny as a one off joke and it does make his posts finally make some kind of sense for a change but it is a lame joke in the long run.
Either believe in free speach enough to let him rant and let those of us who let our weakness get the better of us do our dumb thing from time to time or be the propper home owner and throw out the guy who acts like an @$$ and keeps taking a dump in your pool.
Rewarded?
He’s almost universally mocked and ridiculed here yet he keeps coming back for more… you have a VERY strange definition of reward….
LOL. Good one, love it.
This is just hilarious! (And so are Bill’s versions … although I had a harder time reading the Swedish Chef version than the vowelless ones!)
And this is still erring on the side of free speech, and only banning as a last resort. Wouldn’t it be nice if this could be done to people who came into our physical homes and refused to stop yelling endless, witless insults at us?
PAD:
“After giving it much thought, I’ve decided Glenn’s move isn’t petty, but merely this: Poetic justice. Poetic justice and a celebration of free speech.”
OK, I’m confused. How is taking what someone else wrote, and changing it (before it’s seen by others) a celebration of free speech?
I’m not attempting to accept or condem troll rantings, but it sure doesn’t seem like free speech to me if this person isn’t allowed to speak without it being altered.
“OK, I’m confused. How is taking what someone else wrote, and changing it (before it’s seen by others) a celebration of free speech?”
Did you actually read my entire post in which I answered that in the very next sentence?
The disenvoweled one didn’t appreciate the fact that he had untrammeled free speech privileges here. In fact, he flat out proclaimed he wouldn’t care if he were banned. His stated reason for being here was to “lambaste” the site’s host. That’s not simply voicing an opinion; that’s targeted harassment. So now he has curtailed privileges…just as he would see happen to, for instance, those who want to maintain the right to burn a flag in protest. Free speech is no longer the gift he took for granted; it’s the right he has to fight for, same as the CBLDF, the ACLU, and many others fight for free speech rights all the time. He gets to see life from the side of those he holds in contempt.
I think it’s fitting.
PAD
Wouldn’t it be nice if this could be done to people who came into our physical homes and refused to stop yelling endless, witless insults at us?
Who are you letting in your doors? I can’t say that I have ever had someone do that in my house.
same as the CBLDF, the ACLU, and many others fight for free speech rights all the time.
Let’s be honest, the CBLDF rarely fights for free speech, they mainly fight to get someone who did something stupid off or they ride the coattails of the ACLU.
And the ACLU is not fighting for free speech all of the time, sometimes it is just petty agendas that are being fought for.
Great Idea. Let us see how long x-ray will even bother to post on this site.
Great Idea. Let us see how long x-ray will even bother to post on this site.
Much as I love the praise I cannot take credit for the redneck or swedish chef translations: they are from various sites on the web where you can paste in stuff and get it translated into funny stuff.
Of course, one definition of funny is being able to repeat funny stuff that funnier people have said, so, in that spirit, praise away.
“Let’s be honest, the CBLDF rarely fights for free speech, they mainly fight to get someone who did something stupid off or they ride the coattails of the ACLU.”
How about I’ll be honest, and you’ll be wrong. Unless, of course, you count “something stupid” as going into the comic industry at all. I swear, I simply can’t comprehend the hostility some comics fans feel toward an organization that has the simple mandate of trying to protect the public’s rights to buy, sell, and read comics.
“And the ACLU is not fighting for free speech all of the time, sometimes it is just petty agendas that are being fought for.”
Ðámņ you, you petty Bill of Rights you, with your stupid, petty rights and stuff.
And, of course, if you want to try and twist my casual use of “all the time,” meaning with regularity, into “all of the time,” which means 24/7 and isn’t what I said, feel free. That, of course, is a blatant lie, but I suspect the ACLU might defend your right to say it…
PAD
“ACLU is not fighting for free speech all of the time”
Hey, they are the only ones fighting though. When you only got one guard, you don’t complain if he occasional guards the bank down the street do you? So they have petty agendas. So what? they are still willing to go to the mattresses when it counts.
Genius. Pure Genius. Taking the troll’s blatantly idiotic statements and turning them into even more blatantly idiotic statements – I wish I could have thought of that. Now if only there was a way to point out idiots in our everyday lives as easily. (I know Bill Engvall came up with the “Here’s Your Sign” concept where all the stupid people would be forced to wear signs pointing themselves out, but I haven’t seen anybody wearing theirs. Maybe we could give our little goofball here the first one.)
Either ban him or let him post. Otherwise it comes across as whining–“Stop picking on me or I’m going to take my vowels and go home”
If you’d like, Dave, perhaps we can offer him the opportunity to buy his vowels, like on “Wheel of Fortune.” That’d be cool. Five hundred bucks for every vowel. $2500 into the tip jar gets him back all five vowels.
Naaaah.
PAD
To all who are upset that x-ray lost his vowels, I’ll give him some of mine.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
oooooooooooooooooooooooo
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
If you’d like, Dave, perhaps we can offer him the opportunity to buy his vowels, like on “Wheel of Fortune.” That’d be cool. Five hundred bucks for every vowel. $2500 into the tip jar gets him back all five vowels.
Naaaah.
Speak for yourself, buddy. I could use the cash.
Well, I dunno. It’s PAD’s site, and he has the right to do whatever he wants with it: It’s essentially his “home” on the Web, and anybody who abuses the privilege of being a guest deserves whatever’s coming to him. I tried explaining that to X-Ray once, but, as I should have expected, it went over his/her head.
But still … I don’t know. I get PAD’s argument that this move puts X-Ray in the position of those whose rights are disregarded — those whose rights he would see disregarded had he the power — but it also seems to fuel the martyrdom complex folks like him/her seem to have (despite running all branches of government at present).
I chose to respond to X-Ray from time to time, civilly. I didn’t expect to change his/her mind, though miracles can happen; but I found it useful as a means of working through my own various thoughts. As in why is the flag amendment a bad idea? Because once you monkey with the First Amendment to allow exceptions, it becomes completely malleable and, eventually, means nothing. (That may or may not have gone over X-Ray’s head; he chose not to respond to it but instead responded to ancillery comments in my post.) Ultimately, I chose to just have fun with him. He responded to one of my comments with “God, you’re obtuse,” so I made sure to use the word “obtuse” in each and every subsequent comment, and gently turn some of his tactics against him. I get the impression that he’s not as dumb as he appears — he even stated straight out that he’s deliberately brusque, simply to be provocative — and his lengthy post on this thread looks like it’d actually make some discernable points if it, like, had vowels and stuff. I don’t quite see what X-Ray gains from it, but then I’m kind of obtuse.
Trolls’ real danger is when they get us to sink to their level. The two best moves are to ignore them, as PAD advised, or engage them civilly, as I and some others tried to do (though, OK, I got a bit snarky toward the end). Responding to him in kind just feeds the martyrdom complex. It’s better to be, well, better than him.
But still: It’s PAD’s site; Glenn maintains it; and ultimately it’s their baby — my rambling thoughts are irrelevant. In a perverse sort of way, I’m going to miss X-Ray a tiny, tiny bit (in a Frank-Burns-on-M*A*S*H kind of way) — but then I’m not the one who had to endure repeatedly being called a liar by him.
So I’ve just said nothing in five paragraphs. (Six, now.) So what else is new? 🙂
I dunno … it’s PAD’s site, and his right to do whatever he wants with it. And X-Ray was indeed abusing his privilege. It just seems like de-voweling him just feeds the martyr complex that people like him (or her … why do I automatically assume X-Ray’s male?) tend to have, despite controlling all branches of government.
I interacted with him, more or less civilly (though I got a bit snarky toward the end). I figure it’s best to be cordial even despite his nastiness, or to ignore him as PAD advised. Sinking to his level in the tenor of responses just tended to .. once again … feed the martyr complex.
In a perverse kind of way, I’ll kind of miss X-Ray. (Had a bit of fun with him, too, gleefully labeling myself as “obtuse” after he flung it my way as an insult.) But then, I’m not the one who had to deal with routinely being called a liar by him on every thread. So I can’t really argue with what’s happened to X-Ray. The karma that got him wasn’t quite instant. Close enough, though.
Sorry, all. I didn’t know my first post went through, so I paraphrased it and shot it through again. Sigh.
Well, this is certainly a novel way of dealing with the problem!
I think there may be a better way. If there is a program or script available to do this, then there must be a method of publishing identities of all those posting on the site. For example, when I make my posts, I am required to put in a name and e-mail address. Perhaps this could be modified in some way so that the site would determine where the postings came from (IP, then get the registration of that IP automatically providing the name of the owner), or could be made to require that each contributor identify themselves not just by a nickname but by their true identity.
This to me seems reasonable. My biggest problem with this individual is that he or she could hide behind a cloak of anonymity. Strip that away and I think the problem will take care of itself. Or who knows? Maybe he or she will actually make some useful and cohesive comments and take part in a decent discourse on the subjects raised on this site without being abusive and ignorant? (I can dream…..)
Y’know what? Wouldn’t it be funny if this clown was the same Phillip Shropshire who was annoying Teresa a few years ago?
“I get the impression that he’s not as dumb as he appears — he even stated straight out that he’s deliberately brusque, simply to be provocative — and his lengthy post on this thread looks like it’d actually make some discernable points if it, like, had vowels and stuff.”
I read it in its inexpurgated form and am reasonably sure he didn’t write it. It reads more like a William F. Buckley tirade and makes accusations about me that have absolutely nothing to do with anything I wrote. I think he lifted it from somewhere and did a cut-and-paste to drop my name in, replacing the actual subject.
PAD
Why does anyone give a rats a$$ about this chump and his “free speech” rights? He’s been rude to the owner of the site, rude to his supporters, and just running off at his mouth like he’sa got something to say, and its just verbal quasi-political vomit. Keep him Vowel deprived, and lets move on here people!
Maybe because believing in free speech means standing up for even speech you disagree with and the right to say things that you yourself wouldn’t. I think that X-Ray is a world class twit. I also believe that he has every right to show the world how stupid and uninformed he really is.
Granted, PAD has every right to deny him a forum to vent on or show his @$$ to the world. But editing all his posts to this level is silly. Either believe in the concept of free speech and let him make a daily jáçkášš out of himself or believe in the concept of this being a private site with ground rules and ban him outright.
This middle ground game stinks too much of, “look at what I say (free speech) and not what I do.” I would have more respect for the action of banning him then this child’s game.
Freedom of speech doesn’t mean that anyone you go to has to publish your words, let alone on your terms. This site, being PAD’s, means he publishes what he wants, how he wants. Censorship would be if a third party came along and told PAD what & how to publish.
To put it another way, there have been times when something PAD wrote for Marvel was changed before it was published. Did PAD complain about freedom of speech? No, because he’s ‘playing in someone else’s yard’, and they have the final say about what appears. If he doesn’t like it, he can take his stories elsewhere. Same thing applies here.
I agree. I said much the same in the bottom two thirds of my post. I’m just pointing out that I would have a wee bit more respect for PAD and Glenn right now if they were to just ban the twit outright (since they don’t want him around and he refuses to post anything that isn’t flat out stupid and rude at this point) rather then saying that they won’t ban him because everybody has the right to free speech and then turning all his posts into (even moreso then they often are) nonsense.
Do Pad and Glenn have the right to mess with the posts here? Sure. It’s their rules and they’re calling the shots because it is their site. It’s their home. And because of that they can ban him outright and it has nothing to do with stopping anyones free speech rights. They’re not banning somebody for coming over to the house and having a friendly debate here. They would be banning somebody who just wants to show up and take a dump on the living room floor and call it debate.
X-Ray showed again and again that he would just rant and, if slapped around a bit with a few facts, would just change his postings to snide name calling and stupidity (even if it was sometimes fun to see how fast you could burst his bubble of believing he knew what he was talking about.) PAD has shown that adult debate against his points or views have a place here and have had for a long time now. X-ray has shown that he has no knowledge of what adult debate is or means. No one who posts here would think the lesser of PAD for banning the guy. But this just comes off as silly, a bit petty and below what I thought were PAD’s and Glenn’s standards here.
I would give him back his A, E, I, O & U’s or just ban him. But it’s PAD’s call. I’m just throwing my two cents in.
You know, I am going to miss x-ray. I am not going to miss his asinity, but I will miss the debates. Not the ones he was in, but that he started. Knuckles and I have had two debates on subjects started by him, and I believe there were others. It was simple really. He posts imflammatory crap, and then someone replies to the reply…and bingo, you got a debate going. Still, perhaps some new conservative will come along…one who is polite, and makes sense.
Nice. In a single elegant stroke you solve all your problems with him AND make him sound more a blathering idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, than he already is.
To everyone who thinks the move was lame, I can only offer this in defense: I’ve been a regular reader (and sometime participant) here for a little over a year, now, and there have been very, very few trolls, compared with what you’d see on similar websites. This I like. There’ve been even fewer trolls who get to the point where they become obnoxious enough to justify discussing in and of themselves, and even fewer to actually be shrouded, disemvowelled, or outright banned. This I like even more. Said three (by my count) were summarily dealt with after and ONLY after numerous and repeated offenses, including but not limited to racism, slander (or is it libel online?), and VERY personal verbal attacks on PAD and his family.
This tells me that PAD is a very tolerant man, one who is far, far more so than most other people running a blog these days. I’ve seen people of all political stripes repeatedly disagree with PAD on any number of topics, often in an extremely uncivil manner, yet not get banned.
Why? I can’t speak for PAD, but I feel that it’s because there’s a big difference between having a discussion or debate and shouting obscenities at the rafters. I, for one, have no problem booting, banning, or taking liberties with the people who get in the way of that… it’s the price you pay for being an obstructionist šhìŧhëád. Especially when EVERYBODY and their mother has given said šhìŧhëád every possible chance to climb out of the grave he was digging for himself.
Just one guy’s opinion.
OK, so what’s gonna happen with him already? This vowel stuff is just as someone said, silly. And it’s extra work for Glenn. Betcha you know who gets a kick out of that too.
He can buy vowels with CBLDF donations. $1/vowel. The letter “A” (as respect to PAD) would be $5/use. But reasonable prices to encourage further vowel purchases.
The ultimate irony in all of this is that we were all supposed to be ignoring the troll. Well, not only are we not ignoring him (and I’m as guilty as the next person in this), we have a whole furshlugginer thread devoted to debating the merits of disemvowelling him, (disembowelling him?), letting him on, off. in between. Yeesh! This guy is having a field day with us!
No offense intended anyone, but if you think this yotz would give even one measely cent let alone $1 for a vowel, I mean come ON…..
I think this “vowel movement” is a pretty brilliant solution, actually.
I sometimes start reading posts without looking at who wrote them. This makes his posts stand out clearly, and it’s a lot easier to skip this guy’s particular brand of tripe. And yet he’s technically not deprived of his ability to post here.
Got him on a technicality…gotta love it…
Sorry Peter, but your banning of you-know-who’s use of certain vowels just makes his replies more intelligible. Doh!
After reading through the bowel movements I got to wondering if X-ray is really Todd McF. or John B. Then I remembered that Todd doesn’t like writing, and John, well if he isn’t going to put any effort into his art, why would he put any effort into a post?
Having googled some of the more verbose and discernable phrases from X-ray’s above rant, I can safely say that several of the statements appear on multiple websites with the same exact phrasing. He did NOT actually take the time to write it.
Upon further review, it looks like he used this site to generate his rant. Way to go, X-ray. When I have a legitimate complaint, I take the time to actually think one through.
Say, did yotz-boy take weekend off, or are we really rid of him? Anyway, Happy 4th everyone!
I understand the frustration with X-Ray, and could understand the necessity of banning him, but might not editing him in this way just inflame him to claim that anything he says which seems idiotic is just a matter of a deliberate modification by PAD and Glenn? It isn’t hard to maintain the high ground with tone-deaf fools, but this may be more a matter of snarky fun than any kind of wisdom.