Off topic
Right, I think we've all blogged ourselves to death on the whole banning issue. It reached a peak last week when all the active threads on the GU sports site were closed at once as people got a little 'emotional'.
Feel free to vent here - (I wonder how many posts I can get). I am refusing to comment on the issue or release "Nerbe" (my new alter-ego) onto the blogs until MOAB [mother of all blogs] arrives or as a means to direct comments here.
Also - can someone tell me what Blogidarnosc actually means/refers to? I am being thick here and have no idea.
Oh - and I can get rid of our email addresses if you want - I plan to direct people here in MOAB and there are people out there who dislike what they refer to as "the clique"
posted by Unknown at 7:17 AM
29 Comments:
Blogidarnosc - Solidarnosc (the Polish "Solidarity" organisation - think is's the Polish word for "solidarity).
Yes, please - no open e.mail addresses.
GG
Cheers for the info GG
I should add that the only way I can take out the email addresses is to remove posts.
I can't edit them after they are published (or don't know how).
By the way, Ebren - thanks (again?) for all the work you've put in.
It's gone quiet now: I guess most are preparing for the MOAB, if and WHEN it comes.
I haven't been on the GU blogs for long, so I don't have a stock of "best blog" memories to parade (though I was on that Puskas blog). But I have been digesting the shenanigans and honing arguments, so I think I'll be able to hold down an end - and, most important, stay cool.
All the best to all the best,
GG
GG you loon - your email isn't on here.
Well - that's the last ten minutes of my day at work put to good use ;-)
ebren -
right, Dave.
GG
yes Ebren, GG is right about Solidarnosc, this organistion, behind its leader Lech Walesa became a very stong union party in Poland after the collapse of their communist regime-I have no problem as far as email or my name on your site because I really don't care.As they say in Ireland 'It's better in the sun than in the shade, there is more light and it's warmer".
Cheers.
guitougoal
Actually I only post on JR weekly's thread because I am too busy to get involved on the other blogs...hope to hear from you there.
No-one ever emails me anyway. It's deeply upsetting :(
As long as we stay cool and try to avoid agreeing with each other too much - even though we do agree - we should be fine on the MOAB.
Hi all,
Ebren, you can leave my e-mail address, I don't mind.
Andrew, I agree with you. Also, I did answer your email, did you get it? These things are known to lose their way when they have a couple of oceans to cross.
I hope the MOAB doesn't come around today, I have absolutely no time, deadline, pressure, argh....
And so, bye for now
offside
WE'VE BEEN DELETED (again)
On Kevin Mac Carra's thread this morning. The beginning of the exchange between greengrass and myself is still there (around 8 am).
The answer to my leading question was, of course, Godot but greengrass chose Father Christmas. I then asked him what he would choose if he could ask Father Christmas one present for the England team, at which point the moderator got scissors happy.
Now, I ask you, how far off-topic was that?
I think we could have exchanged a dozen posts along the lines of " I think he should drop Lampard", "No, he should drop Gerrard, really", "No, Lampard, he's fat", "No, Gerrard, he's a scouse", "No, Lampard, he can't ghost-write", etc... ad nauseam, and it would have been fine.
I despair.
Oh, actually, maybe something else made the moderator snap. It could have had something to do with greengrass' final answer, the present he'd ask Father Christmas for the England team: "pink lurex tights".
Can't you just picture Peter Crouch in those?
Offside - I am rebelling.
I am currently reporting comments that offend my literary sense.
On the RW thread today I reported a post that consisted of "Lampard…NO!".
And I quote:
"Please tell us the problem. For our reference, internally this comment is known as Number 385419, was written by bass46, at February 9, 2007 11:44 AM, and starts with Frank Lampard... NO!
"This comment serves no purpose. Or porpoise. Or has poise, poetry, pageantry or pachyderms"
Yes, I saw that one. I was tempted to post "Iniesta... YES!" in response but I saw it too late.
Ebren, if you start reporting posts that lack literary quality, you'll be busy. Swamped, even.
Do you think they'll take us seriously if we ask them to include three more buttons? I mean, below "Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment" we could have something like : "Entertaining? Enlightening? Recommend this comment".
I'm nominating FigJam for this week's literary award.
hey, I'm not part of the "clique", but i have to say I dislike glendennings approach, the things posted to zizou in particular were completely wrong (although yes, zizou did refer to letter bombs, which is wrong), I personally feel that his posts are equal or worse to those of the banned bloggers. perhaps suggest a deal: negotiate an amnesty, and promise to behave in exchange for the removal of russell brand. A full time moderator could easily be paid for if they put a "patronising jar" (same idea as a swear box) on barry g's desk.
Anyways, like i said, you lot sometimes get on my nerves, but i'd rather have you on the blogs than of host of the other idiots that are there. And I'm sure I annoy people with my posts from time to time.
I'm going to start reporting comments, because seani has asked us to play by his rules - fair enough, it's his game - and he constantly refers to all the complaints he receives, so fighting fire with fire may be the only option.
I don't want to, I really don't. But I'll tell you - when you've had the editor of GU publicly putting you down despite your best efforts, you don't feel so conciliatory.
PS. No sign as yet of the MOAB.
Brack,
welcome to the underground/otherworld. And thank you for adding to the diversity.
And no, there is no clique.
At least, I don't think so. And if there is, I'd like to dissociate myself from it. I only ever speak/write in my own name. Except, of course, when I write on behalf of the unfairly banned, the gagged, the oppressed, the greengrassed. Anyway, he's back now, so...
Andrew,
are you sure you want to stoop down to their level? If you insist, I suggest you take a leaf out of our multi-schizophrenic host's (FourNebrentables) book of stylish complaints. See above.
Oh, and a silver coin for the first man to spot the MOAB.
Ismael/Offside
OFFSIDE AGAIN
The flag went up again today on Pleat's thread (which has my name all over it)
In response to a "Wenger is killing English football" post, I posted a few lines that were swiftly deleted. Here they are:
"A word of warning
Wenger is not only killing English football, he is also poisoning England's water reserves, destroying the wildlife and randomly shooting passers-by from his upstairs bedroom window.
You've been warned."
Et voila, the flag went up, offside is offside. Well, at least I thought I was offside, now Cally has got me all confused with his explanation of the interpretation of the rules.
God, that blog is excruciating.
Banned again!
I latched on to some speculation on the Pleat blog about when the MOAB would come, invented a scenario where all the journos were in Blackpool to plan the MOAB, dreamed that their meeting was a smoke-screen, that they were in fact recruiting a bunch of Nora Batty-lookalike Blackpool landladies to moderate that big blog, posted my ruminations, and -
BANG! -
a letter from Sean, the black spot.
Farewell, dear friends - or?
Greengrass Unlimited
Offside - while funny, you were 'technically' accusing him of a crime.
Unless you had proof he could have sued the Grauniad and after this
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,2011095,00.html
Their lawyers are probably busy.
That or there is twitch mod.
GG - never!
I will happily publish your banned comments here.
Also, I appear to have written "twitch" instead of "twitchy"
This makes me fell like a twit.
Ebren,
what proof did the other guy have that Wenger is killing English football? They still haven't found the corpse (allright, who said West Ham?) nor the murder weapon.
And I know for a fact Wenger likes to hurt small animals. Like pigeons. I read it on a blog, so it must be true.
And greengrass is at it again. I'm not going on strike this time unless someone can explain to me all there is to know about Blackpool and who this Nora Batty is. I'm lost. Was that really offensive?
Dammit - busy today and missed all the fun!
Does anyone else think it strange that they allow banned posters to return under obvious aliases? In the case of GG he made no attempt to hide it whatsoever.
GG, if you haven't yet returned under a new name then please do.
Evening all!
Here are the posts which, I believe, led to my latest ban, interspersed with a few explanatory comments:
1) After some speculation about where the MOAB had gone...
miro, offside -
word has filtered through that they are all in Blackpool, wearing "Kiss me quick, squeeze me slow hats", breakfasting on candy floss and cockles and laboriously learning to say "Eeh, bah gum - yon wind's proper bracin'".
They have a strenuous schedule: lessons in etiquette with Bernard Manning, in natural law with Punch and Judy, in rhetorics with the donkeys on the sands.
Greengrass
******************************************
2) After some irritating "No, he isn't!", "Yes, he is" exchanges...
Gombo -
what's more, THAT goal in the 1966 W.C. final was NOT over the line and Alan Ball does not have a squeaky voice and Nobby Stiles was the epitome of elegance and...
Greengrass Unlimited
********************************************
3) More on the MOAB...
Gelley,
latest word on the Promised Land Big Blog is that the journo "conference" in Blackpool is but a smoke-screen: the whole of GU is instead there to groom a troupe of Nora Batty-lookalike Blackpool landladies, graduates to a grrrl of the Donald Rumsfeld Academy of Diplomacy, to moderate on that very blog.
Greengrass Unlimited
**********************************************
4) After someone had accused, as I saw it, Guitou - of all people - for being anti-French and pro_English...
BenBoadu -
I too am incensed at guitougoal's obvious hatred of ze French and his perpetual excuses for ze English players like Rooney.
Guitougoal's failure to leave aside 'is nationalist feelings when discussing football is typical of ze English posters on zese blogs.
Merde! Guitougoal - 'e is French?
Le Greengrasse
************************************************
5) Stirring it...
Dear Gooners,
let's all calm down a little, please. It is indeed sad to see a once-great player becoming a spent force, no longer contenting himself with diving all over the pace but instead resorting to petty gamesmanship.
Move on! Cherish the memories of "Titi" (unfortunate name...) but find new havens for your blinkered loyalty.
It's not as though we had Scousers on here every week, reverently whispering "Dalglish" or "Shankly", is it?
Let's all allow Thierry grow old gracefully - you know it makes sense...
Greengrass
*****************************************************
In retrospect, I regret having allowed my irritation over Mr. Glendenning to make me tar all the GU staff with the same brush; for this, I have apologised via Sean.
P.S. offside -
Nora Batty was a formidable, uncouth (and eminently lovable) Yorkshire housewife in "Last of the Summer Wine", a TV series I think you might enjoy.
(GG breaks into emotional song)
Don't strike, offsideinTahiti
Far better to keep on writing.
He shall not faze us,
Mister Glendenning.
Just keep on posting.
Just keep on penning.
(Sobbing uncontrollably)
I shall be back.
Greengrass
GG - that is genius.
- He was offside, though.
- No, he wasn't.
- 'course he was.
- wasn't
- was
- wasn't
(...)
Evening,all!
Just for the record: my part of today's correspondence with Sean (I do not believe I have the right to reproduce his part).
1)My first e-mail (under the mistaken impression that his e-mail to me constituted a warning, a yellow card:
Sean -
thanks for taking this step. What can I say?
Well, sometimes things get a little "The bloke in red did this!", "No! The bloke in blue did that!", "No The bloke in red..." on the blogs, and I can't resist poking fun.
Goading? Were my posts to Windbag "goading". Thought he was a pain in the neck from the beginning, but have grown to appreciate him more and more (which applies to a great number of posters; a very salutary result of your blogs).
I can be perfectly serious on occasion - Marcela brings out that facet, as did a very good David James article a few weeeks ago - but sometimes the posts just make me mischievous.
Are you asking us to be serious all the time? Isn't humour serious?
I've been thinking a lot about blog behaviour. I have noted the standards set by, in particular, your colleague Barry Glendenning. He employs a rough-hewn variety of humour; does he wish to reign alone in this field? I don't see how my occasional horse-play is any worse than his, and I do think that his francophobic comments a few days ago were far more out of line with Talk Policy than a gentle "Nora Batty" dig at the mods (no malice, just a dig).
How about "wanker" - one of your journos (an excellent writer!) used this word a few days ago - and such? Is this personal abuse? Where do you draw the line - and are you and your mods roughly in agreement on this?
I could go on for ages, but I assume the coming Megablog will cover this ground, and more.
Again: thanks for getting in touch. Your blogs are invaluable: never mind varying quality of articles! I am happy to be a part of the community you have spawned. Hoping for more clarity on what is OK/what isn't.
Sincerely,
Fred
2) My second e-mail to Sean, having
tried to post and failed:
Sean -
banned again!
Pity - I thought your latest e-mail was a well-meant reminder of what I had promised to aim for,
I believed it to be part of a dialogue, and treated it as such.
Obviously, it wasn't. No yellow cards!
This I find sad. I stand by the points I made earlier today: your "one law for the rich, one law for the poor"
implementation of GU's talk policy is hardly in accordance with the Guardian's historical sense of fair play.
I don't expect you to come out and criticise your colleagues, but I'm certain you understand what I refer to.
As to "annoying other bloggers": we, the banned and our sympathisers, have had a discussion about why we don't report things we find offensive. Our opinions differ somewhat, but most seem to favour having it out in the open.We by no means always agree with one another, but the blogs can at best be self-regulatory.
As I posted the other day when pleading for better treatment of Guest1977, I wouldn't mind having
someone on making racist comments as long as they were open to discussion - perhaps better to have
them out in the open, being criticised by what is always a vast majority of anti-racists!
I wonder if those - in my opinion - easily-offended posters will turn up for the blog on blogs...
Sincerely,
Fred
3) My answers to some points made by Sean in his second e-mail to me:
When he had pointed out that death threats had been made against journos and that us being self-regulatory wouldn't work...
"I completely agree regarding such threats: despicable! Nor do I want racists on the site, but with regard to racism and self-policing, please check how Guest 1977 was treated by us on David Pleat's site at the weekend: would a mod have deleted/banned him at the first cry of racism? Did we treat him well?"
When he told me of some of the things that the GU don't want on their blogs, plus the things people
mainly complain about...
"I have already pointed out that I (happily, I suspect) know nothing of Lorraine Kelly.
Spelling and grammar? How petty! Are we to disenfranchise the semi-literate and dyslectics?
That clique business is just a silly provocation: OK, we took the bait and fired it back, without malice...
Almost anything on earth would improve the quality of some of the debate (see below)."
When he pointed out that patrons and bouncers in a night-club would object if I came in and made a nuisance of myself...
"Am I not a patron amongst patrons? I like the "bouncers" analogy, though - that's accurate.
I am annoyed by the "No, he didn't!", "Yes, he did" moronic nature of some blogs. Do you like this trash? Should I report it?
Obviously I should not meet it with humour, because then those boring posters apparently complain."
Andy -
thanks; I shall!
GG
GG,
they must have an identity crisis obviously you don't, my advice to you, if I may , stay who you are, don't change except may be the color of the grass.green for blue...bluegrass -not french but royalblue-
but for the sake of blogidarnosc don't lay your trademark on the bottom anymore, the morons are operating under a Glendingding manifest and you are probably on the top of the list. They probably are more ticked off about the messenger than the message. let us know extra muros.Be well.
guy -
thanks; good advice, which I shall heed.
No new name as yet.
Not sure whether to post it on here or not (spies, spies everywhere; paranoid - moi?).
Maybe I'll e-mail it to Pater Ebren.
I'm keeping all my chins up.
Peace, love and pit bull terriers,
GG
I have no idea why i should have had a slap recently and in fact going back to the GU posts, whatever I said has disappeared. It's a complete mystery to me.
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