On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 16, 2014 22:20 UTC (Thu) by flussence (guest, #85566)
In reply to: On the sickness of our community by karath
Parent article: On the sickness of our community

If "lying" isn't correct, what (in your opinion) should we call the act of mass-deleting replies to a blog post and following up to each and every one with a multi-paragraph copy-paste reply claiming they all consisted of the string "fart fart fart" and were removed for "irrelevance"?

I have a few suggestions in mind, but LWN is hardly an appropriate place for that kind of language.

And as for no evidence, there's an open confession from the man himself above. Isn't that good enough for you?

to post comments

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 16, 2014 23:09 UTC (Thu) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (8 responses)

If "lying" isn't correct, what (in your opinion) should we call the act of mass-deleting replies to a blog post and following up to each and every one with a multi-paragraph copy-paste reply claiming they all consisted of the string "fart fart fart" and were removed for "irrelevance"?

Keeping one's personal blog clear of misogynistic drivel?

(It's not as if Matthew hadn't announced beforehand what was going to happen. If people can't read they probably shouldn't comment, either.)

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 17, 2014 17:26 UTC (Fri) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link]

It's a bit hard to confirm that's the case when the only reference point available is the aftermath. I'll just have to take your word for it.

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 21, 2014 13:06 UTC (Tue) by nye (subscriber, #51576) [Link] (6 responses)

>Keeping one's personal blog clear of misogynistic drivel?

Moderating (including removing) posts is often useful, and sometimes necessary.

Replacing them all with "fart fart fart" is being an asshole; there's a difference.

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 21, 2014 13:09 UTC (Tue) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (5 responses)

You don't get it, he _removed_ the 'fart fart fart' posts.

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 21, 2014 13:23 UTC (Tue) by raven667 (subscriber, #5198) [Link] (3 responses)

I don't think the posts he was removing actually contained the string "fart fart fart", they contained BS and he replaced it with "fart fart fart" as a value judgement about the quality of the post, which is a bit taunting and provocative to the people who have been moderated.

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 21, 2014 13:25 UTC (Tue) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (2 responses)

I was actually reading the blog post in question when there was only one 'fart-fart-fart' comment. So I kinda doubt it.

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 21, 2014 17:46 UTC (Tue) by raven667 (subscriber, #5198) [Link] (1 responses)

There is this one comment which stands

http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/32778.html?thread=1206538#cmt...

but many like

http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/32778.html?thread=1314314#cmt...

> Original comment read:
> "Fart fart fart fart"
> and as such has been screened for irrelevance.

Is it your contention that each of these original comments _actually_ said fart, maybe that is true, I presumed that they said something bilious and nasty and mjg59 just replaced them with fart to keep the discussion from being derailed and to highlight the irrelevancy of the hateful comments. Which I think is his right, it's his site and his hosting.

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 21, 2014 18:02 UTC (Tue) by mjg59 (subscriber, #23239) [Link]

Several of them weren't bilious or nasty, and there are several comments that *were* bilious or nasty that I left there. The ones that were removed simply contained arguments that were so fundamentally wrong and incompatible with observed facts that merely removing them would have been insufficient in demonstrating my disdain.

On the sickness of our community

Posted Oct 21, 2014 13:45 UTC (Tue) by nye (subscriber, #51576) [Link]

>You don't get it, he _removed_ the 'fart fart fart' posts.

No, that's not what happened.