Bullying in the blogosphere

Sound familiar? From the new UK groupblog Liberal Conspiracy:

It’s all very well wanting a civilised, engaging debate on the Internet but some of the Left’s opponents aren’t interested in fighting fair. They’ve taken the gloves off. On some prominent right-wing blogs debate is at a standstill with homophobia and defamation becoming tools of the trade. But the way the owners of these blogs behave, getting redress for a slur on your character is fast becoming impossible.

Now, many people put this down to the normal Punch and Judy of blogs and blogging but when this is happening on what the media regard as the go-to blogs, it means trouble for all of us who have higher hopes for the blogging medium. You can’t ignore these people and expect them to go away. They’re the shock troops of a resurgent Tory party.

Comments deleted to shape the narrative of discussions. Criticism ‘disappeared’. Offensive, libellous comments left unchecked to be catalogued by Google for anyone to find. A refusal to give a right of reply to those who have been slurred. Leading right-wing bloggers are creating an atmosphere in which the admission of fault and the apology are taboo; they have their own ‘reputations’ to protect after all. People on the wrong end of this treatment find themselves in a dead end.

Hmm. Wonder if some sharing of techniques has been going on with the ‘colonies’?

The last straw(man)

Isn’t Davey’s attempts to discredit Jordan a tad pathetic?  Talk about misrepresentation.  I was going to deconstruct DPF’s crappy little post - but I just can’t be bothered.  Let it stand as a testimony to its own stupidity.  What’s more interesting is the commentary that follows.  You get to see some real insight into the conservative hatred of redistributional policies - even though, in a partisan sense, there is a broad consensus about the need for such policies - the argument is about scope and targeting.

I don’t know why Jordan even responded.

I also see the moderation is working spectacularly  well - courtesy of side show bob:

Fuck you Jordan!!!!!!!!! you little commie suckhole. Why don’t you lead by example and give all your benifit back to the arsholes you so love. Then more can be more equal, what a fucking tosser.

Apparently, Robinsod’s digs are worthy of far more attention.

Redbaiter lives…moderators dead

The avenging angel of bigotted stupidity is back from some sort of hiatus.  Redbaiter’s been giving ol’ rogernome a going over.

Ironically, Red is, once again, trying to claim some sort of high moral ground.  Sorry, even as a write that I find it amusing.  What an amazing troll he is.  Of course, so far, he’s been going about his nasty little busy completely unmolested by the invisible moderators.  Interestingly,  the day DPF is out of town so it seems are his moderators….hmmmmmmmm….nih may have something.

The demerit post is descending into high farce…

Even if you don’t particularly want to feed the trolls…you’ve got to pop over to DPF’s demerit thread.  Seriously, some of the commentary is hilarious.   So is the whacked out scoring.

The following charming contributions from Redbaiter get no demerits:

“Get real dickie licker”

“You’re a real fucken Castro clone aren’t you? Except Castro at least has a few IQ points.” [and who doesn't love Red's sudden passion for one of the last Leftist leaders]

“Fuck off you smug poncing pseudo liberal”

But the execrable D4J who’s too dim to understand the rules gets 20 demerits for saying:

“F##K off Pascal you twisted Labour mongrel !!”

Doesn’t the scoring seem a little…arbitrary.  Still, it is fascinating. I would like a league table set up.  Fuck, you realise what this means?  DPF’s actually starting to make his blog mildly interesting (in a tragic train wreck kind of way).

Mass Debate

Sorry for the header: It’s puerile - but someone had to make the crack!

DPF has announced he’s going to open up a daily general debate topic to allow people to unburden themselves on a range of topics. This should be good. I see the more motivated and intelligent posters like Sonic, Tane Sam and Rogernome seizing the opportunity to vent while the ever reliable dullards like Inventory2, Bok and burt will flail about with their usual ineffectual and vaguely abusive thumpings.

To be honest, I think DPF’s not thought this through. As Ralston noted recently, the Left tend to out argue and generally outperform the Right in these electronic fora. DPF may be thinking about trying to rein in his threads in the lead up to the Election but a General Debate loosens the strictures to potentially allow National to get a hammering. I wonder if he cleared this with HQ?

Can you imagine what D4J is going to do in an unfettered environment?! Oh mother!

Hey we try to be funny, but…

Have you checked out DPF’s demerit point system for being naughty on his blog?! Oh…my…god! Comedy gold. The fact it comes from someone who has previously chucked off about “the heavy hand of regulation” is just comedic irony writ large. I honestly can’t read the article without giggling. This is almost as funny as Rodney Hide’s large and complex regulatory tome aimed at reducing regulation!

[Just noticed The Sprout commented on this!  You beat us to the punch. Well done.]

We’re celebrating DPF’s censorship by removing our moderation!

Mardy has asked whether we should drop our moderation.  Well, we’ve got a nice set of regulars and everything seems reasonably well-behaved.  So, in response to the Defender of Free Speech’s new heavy censoring hand - we’re taking our moderation off - initially on a week long trial.  If it all works out, we will probably keep the blog open.

Moderation is killing Red…

Hee, hee.  Was just over at Kiwiblog and the moderation is killing Redbaiter. He can’t quite get his head around the fact that DPF and his band of censors are clamping down on personal abuse.

It’s classic.  Despite being censored, Red keeps mutely mouthing obscenities Andrew W’s way - even though the moderators are pruning his comments as they come out. It will be interesting to see whether Pavlov is right and Red learns  a new behaviour or whether he dumbly continues to bash away blind to the censorship.

Apropros nothing in particular: I wonder if DPF’s off doing his “free speech” thing (smiles broadly).