Commenting Comments

Filed in National by on September 3, 2008

A little behind the scenes brew ha ha is brewing in the Delaware blogosphere because some commenters are getting the shitty end of the stick.   I will not pretend to know all the technical ins and outs of this thing, but here is the little bit I’ve been able to gleen from being on the receiving end of a few edgy emails.

It seems that Nancy Willing, and Liz Allen (perhaps more) have been prevented from commenting on this and other wordpress blogs like Down With Absolutes.  They assumed that someone with adminstrative privlidges here had blacklisted them (which was a fair (albeit hasty) asumption I guess, given my hairtrigger banning policies*).  But that didn’t explain Mike, because he has an ironclad non-banning policy.

 It is possible that someone (this is conjecture) submitted their posting info to WordPress as spammers.

I don’t know for sure, but I can say with a very high degree of confidence that whoever had them blacklisted way up on high was not a DL contributor.  How do I know this?

Like I said, I have a hair trigger banning policy – but my fellow editors are loathe to ban people.  And I know that I didn’t do it so…there you have it.   It is regrettable and I hope someone gets to the bottom if it.

——————————————————————————-

*For the record, my personal policy is idiosyncratic but consistent.  I have banned people for boring me by reciting wingnut talking points and for making overly crude comments that are not funny but are intended to inflict actual harm.  My rational is that I get my fill of wingnut talking points from the evening news so I don’t need it here and as the t-shirt says, “Mean people suck.”

About the Author ()

Jason330 is a deep cover double agent working for the GOP. Don't tell anybody.

Comments (42)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. anon says:

    Can’t you opt out of the global WP blacklist?

  2. liberalgeek says:

    I have asked Liz to chill. This problem will rectify itself in due time. The system is imperfect, but it does self-correct pretty well, given some time.

    I plan to do a detailed post on the guts of this thing soon that will hopefully help explain why these things happen.

  3. anon says:

    … maybe you need the WP blacklist though to keep out the hordes of actual spammers… in that case then hopefully there is a local whitelist

  4. liberalgeek says:

    We could, but then I’d have to spend all of my waking hours weeding out spam. Just as a point of reference, in 8 months we have been hit with almost 30,000 spams.

    Thank SkyDad for Akismet.

  5. liberalgeek says:

    There is no whitelist function. I keep hoping for one, but no luck.

  6. FSP says:

    I’ve had some regulars get caught up, too.

  7. jason330 says:

    We’ve acted in good faith. Don’t sweat it.

  8. anon says:

    spam sucks, there are no perfect options…

  9. most likely it is b/c they are women.

    we blogs run by men are sexists you know…

  10. liz allen says:

    Lets be clear there is something sinister occuring. Why is it that (those of us blocked) just happen to be supporting other candidates.

    Yes, there is something wrong in Delaware and the politricks are stunning.

    We don’t know who did this or their motives, but we are speculating and will be commenting once “free speech is alive and well” on the blogs.

  11. delawaredem says:

    I didn’t do it. I love Nancy, and Liz amuses me.

    The question is how do you get into the universal Word Press blacklist? How many sites are Nancy and Liz visiting spreading the goodness of Tom Gordon?

  12. liberalgeek says:

    From the Akismet website:

    Help! Akismet is catching a regular comment as spam!

    Don’t worry, if you see a regular comment on your Akismet page, just click the “Not Spam” checkbox and submit and the comment will be sent back to Akismet as a mistake. The system will learn from your submission, though it may take a day or so in some cases. False positives, as they’re called, are extremely rare and we watch them closely.

  13. Joanne Christian says:

    I was wondering where Nancy was…and didn’t see her on DWA either…Just checking on our neighbors….But while you’re working on problems….how come on some computers when I “submit” my comment disappears, so I think it’s gone…I submit again…and it says I already did that, but still “edit”, appearance never shows….and then the comment gets posted hours later?

  14. delawaredem says:

    Alright, so it is up to us to release their comments from spam whenever we see it.

    Let me check now.

  15. delawaredem says:

    Joanne…when that happens it means your comment went to spam, and we released it when we found it. I have never seen you in spam, so someone else must have released you. Hopefully it hasn’t happened often.

  16. liberalgeek says:

    Joanne, that is exactly what it looks like when you are marked as spam (or moderated). We try to keep our eye on that stuff, but we don’t always catch it right away. If you would like use to keep a better eye, I’ll shoot you an address where you can send a huge check. Then we will be able to quit our day jobs and make sure that the comments don’t get spammed. 🙂

  17. liz allen says:

    Could it be because we are Tom Gordon supporters that we have been as you say “blacklisted”. Damn isn’t that a word used by the McCarthys!

    Or could it be that Tom Gordons new polling numbers put him at 15% ahead of Coons!

    Is that why they brought in the big dog Carper?

    Carper/Minner/Carney/Coons…are in same bad apple bag, from the Delaware Way orchards.

  18. delawaredem says:

    LOL. Just went to the spam filter, and one of Liz’s comments was in there. It said:

    “Lets be clear, something sinister is occurring. Only those who support other candidates are having their comments be disappeared.”

    I laughed, and was tempted momentarily to leave the comment there, but I just released it.

    Ah, Liz. I would not recognize you without that tinfoil hat.

  19. jason330 says:

    Lets be clear there is something sinister occuring.

    Sheesh. What a nut.

  20. Von Cracker says:

    Wasn’t me. I love everyone.

  21. Pandora says:

    Over at Delaware Way Nancy posted Liz’s email. It’s breathtaking.

  22. delawaredem says:

    Hey Liz….

    That is priceless. You are trying to place Coons in the Minner/Carney machine? LOL. The machine in this state is Minner/Carney/Gordon.

    Seriously, how much is Gordon paying you or Hartley-Nagle? Since he is a corrupt bastard I am sure he has paid some amount to win over such normally good open government activists like yourself. The only question is, what was your price?

  23. G Rex says:

    Zing indeed! I owe you both a beer. Been to Kildare’s yet? Stella Artois, Boddington’s, you name it! (except for the Chimay)

  24. cassandra m says:

    The thing about a good conspiracy theory is that you can’t sustain it — the heroes always disappoint you, forcing you to change to story to not just include a new enemy, but to find a new hero too.

    Sometimes a system glitch is just a system glitch.

  25. mike w. says:

    My understanding is that Akismet tends to do this often, not just on this blog. This isn’t something unique to DE liberal.

  26. person on a library pc says:

    HELLO people, I never claimed that DL was blocking me on purpose.
    Miss Allen might have but I thought that a reasonable reader of my post would ‘get it’ that I don’t AGREE WITH HER.
    YEESH!

  27. person on a library pc says:

    That was me…
    Nancy

  28. person on a library pc says:

    DelDEM you are entitled to your opinions but not the facts. The line of command is straight down wind from Carper to Minner to Carney and to Coons/Clark. Come out to the meeting near Odessa on Friday night and have a chat with the people south of the canal who are fighting the gigantic, steaming pile of shit that is the result of the Coons/Clark decimation of Gordon’s Unified Development Code growth controls specifically tailored to further enrich our HIGH DEM cozy developer friends who send them sooooooo much campaign cash. Gordon is an honest guy. He will have to clean house, hire a decent CAO and put someone in land use who is the polar opposite of Freebery/Baker. Gordon tried to control growth, dude.
    If you think Coons is so good government then lets hope that he responds to my FOIA placed last week. If I have trouble getting the information I’ll ask you to give me an inside track.
    NVW

  29. person on a library pc says:

    I was wondering where Nancy was
    *
    Hi Joanne! I was dying because I kept responding to your comments and couldn’t get through! I had a couple of zingers go right down the drain on me that were meant solely for your appreciation. 🙂

  30. person on a library pc says:

    Amending #29
    …growth controls are being removed from the code now specifically tailored to further enrich our HIGH DEM cozy developer friends who send them sooooooo much campaign cash.

  31. liz allen says:

    Del Dem and Jason: your knowledge of the workings of the Democratic Party and who is allied with whom, I could put in a thimble.

    What an ass…Gordon paying me! Who are the conspiracy theorists now you boobs!

    Maybe if you got off your computers and actually attended meetings you might have something to say.

    You see I put my money where my mouth is, how bout you!

    And to Nancy: I never said DL was blocking me, I have two other people I believe did it (although I am waiting for some evidence). Its being worked on and will be exposed.

    And to the supporters of the Coons Goons again you know nothings are backing a man who is quite capable of, and has threatened county workers, because he is going to loose the race. Him and Paoli actually believe they can threaten their way to a win… we will see!

  32. Joanne Christian says:

    Geek–Can’t send a check..I have enough people on the payroll…so I’ll just accept the service as provided…thanks…

    Nancy in the library….wish you could ressurrect your comments….some of these folks are humorless!!! Your “little friend” is back at boarding school….I made sure to say hello…she looked “shocked” I “recalled” your name….she’s a great kid!!!!

  33. D Piddly says:

    Subjective release of posts from spam????

    Why, Jason, I am shocked!

  34. po'd diddly says:

    Ok, lets see if this fake name posts automatically? Thanks for the tip Nancy.

  35. po'd diddly says:

    wow….now thats amazing! its getting even more interesting.

  36. po'd diddly says:

    Pandora my email at Delaware Way is breathtaking…over reacting just a tad. I think Sarah Palin was breath taking…
    Casandra: system glitches…I’ll say so, posting with real name….system glitch, posting with fake name…no problem.

    Try to get your stories straight please.

  37. liberalgeek says:

    Liz – grow a friggin clue. There is no story to get straight. Put the goddamn tinfoil hat back on.

  38. Al Mascitti says:

    “Gordon is an honest guy.”

    Priceless.

  39. forensic audit says:

    Al you have been lying all over the airwaves about Coons’ record. Not very honest.

  40. Joe M says:

    This happened last year, too on a couple of blogs. For some reason, Nancy was spam blocked on my blog, too, which was wierd because it’s usually lots of linkage in one comment that sets Akismet off.

    Luckily, my email warning let me know what was going on right quick and I unblocked her.

  41. Truth Teller says:

    Tom Gordon is the best hope for NCC ever since Coons fucked it up