I stayed away from IP.com this weekend, partly as a test to see how many trolls would show up in my absence to ruin otherwise constructive discussions.
Given what I've seen from over the weekend, and given my schedule over the next few weeks, I am now taking the draconian step of moderating all comments from unregistered users. Unregistered users are still welcome to comment, but their comments will not appear in a thread until and unless approved by an administrator. Registered users are free to comment without moderation.
Thank you, and I apologize for taking this step, which I hoped would never be necessary.
Don't apologize for attempting to bring some civility back to Illinipundit. I have fond memories of the good old days of USENET until spam overloaded it and made it unreadable. These trolls are just spam with a different spelling.
Over the years, I had promised myself that if it ever came to this, I'd rather shut down the site rather than require registration. Unfortunately, a small group of jerks has convinced me that was their goal - to shut down the site.
Hopefully, this step will make things a bit more reasonable, and allow me to focus on things other than this site for the next few weeks.
Sorry it came to that for you IP. On the bright side, maybe some past contributors will find their way back without the promise of being hounded by the hit and run anons.
It doesn't seem like that big a deal, really. It's not like people can't post anonymously - there will just be a little bit of a time delay. Of course, it's also easy to get a junk email account and register anyhow.
I say hoorah..
The imc site had to disable anonymous posts and it's possible that some of the trolls migrated here. As for me I have no problem with registering on this site.
Wow, i was gone from IP this weekend, what happened?
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Robert Dunn
Ex-Leftist, Born-Again Conservative American
"Wow, i was gone from IP this weekend, what happened?"
The two most active threads were "Straight from the candidate's mouth" and "Chesley gets community service." Both were punctuated by repetitive anonymous terminal endpoints of the GI tract whose only contributions were brief, vicious ad hominems, without the benefit of substance or even structure, that never even attempted to make a point or advance an argument. All things considered, I was amazed at how well we managed to ignore them, for the most part.
"All things considered, I was amazed at how well we managed to ignore them, for the most part."
I was, too. I apologize, though, as there's no reason anyone should have to put up with that crap.
And hopefully no we won't.
I was unable to ignore them and was completely convinced that I was indeed a stupid, lying racist who poops his pants.
"I was unable to ignore them and was completely convinced that I was indeed a stupid, lying racist who poops his pants."
I was unaware you'd converted to Republicanism.
That said, xian, for some reason our trolls were especially vicious towards you, and I apologize for that.
wow, Xian was called a racist! My gosh, i have been out of the loop. Too busy applying for DC jobs!
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Robert Dunn
Ex-Leftist, Born-Again Conservative American
IP, I think calling Xian a republican was a pretty low blow, I am not sure if it is for republicans or him.
I was unaware you'd converted to Republicanism.
That said, xian, for some reason our trolls were especially vicious towards you, and I apologize for that.
Well, I assume you are implying that you and your cohorts poop in your collective pants, as I maintain what I have said on the site before.
There is racism driving parts of the Democratic party and the same in the Republican Party, but that motivator is stronger in the Republican party and it's not even that close.
Also, you ever met seen a kid who stole from the cookie jar and then emphatically denied it without being accused in the first place? It's awesome:
You: Hi!
Kid: Hey you!
You: How have you been doing?
Kid: Fine, since I haven't been eating anything I shouldn't...
You: What? What's going on?
Kid: Nothing, certainly not me reaching in the cookie jar?
You: What are we talking about?
Kid: I don't know, you tell me, as long as you don't accuse me of eating your cookies...
"Well, I assume you are implying that you and your cohorts poop in your collective pants, as I maintain what I have said on the site before.
There is racism driving parts of the Democratic party and the same in the Republican Party, but that motivator is stronger in the Republican party and it's not even that close."
I was joking with the "converting to Republicanism" line, trying to make light of all the things that have been written about Republicans on here in the past week or so. As usual, I didn't pull off the joke very well.
I was joking too. Sorry, I should have put tone marks :P
I do believe the second paragraph.