Montana has (provisionally?) changed it to The Banned and The Dead, but I feel there is something blunt about 'The Dead'. Frank Fisher, on the other hand, sees no problem with that (precisely because it's blunt...?). He half-jokingly suggests The Disappeared, which would be useful but for the historical connotations. Montana reckons something like The Good, The Bad and The Banned or The Banned Played On would be apt. For those appreciative of Queen I recommend The Nevermores.
Any other suggestions?
Who else is missing?
Olching Darling, long time no see. I have not been 'killed off'. I contemplated suicide, in fact I tried very hard to be struck off but it never happened; only lots of deletions.
ReplyDeleteI asked the mods and Matt Seaton to take me off the register. Matt's pathetic posts on the Uri Dromi thread and others were the last straw after some of my run-ins with Matt about PetraMB on the John Pilger thread where she insulted my father's memory (an Auschwitz survivor!) for which I never got an apology from her. May she rot in hell!
Hermine
P.s. Has anyone got an idea what happened to Krisco? He was such fun.
xxxxxx
P.s
ReplyDeleteHermine's xxxxxs were meant for Olching and others.
All very true Annetan, Broadmoor or perhaps Gitmo would be more suitable for them. I dont really know why the radical nutjobs managed to get so far, perhaps just by shouting loudest (or issuing death threats against those who disagree, like Pizzey, Dr Gelles, Susan Steinmetz, etc), but it really is a shame - without them there might even be quite civil and 'inclusive' gender debate, though perhaps they would say that without them the debate would never have started. Perhaps the decent fems should start issuing death threats and killing pets, send Kizbot out to kidnap Bindel's goldfish....
ReplyDeleteKiz, i think you should email the mods and ask them to change the name of "what do you want to talk about" to your suggestion, much more apt. Funnily enough, with this Woolly thing they seem to have allowed talk of modding temporarily on the thread.
Hank - i think Kiz's jibes were aimed at me, but maybe given the recent turn of events with yourself, Woolly etc they were a touch close to the wind, but remember Kiz wasnt here for much of the recent goings on...
Montana has solved the last piece of the riddle Kiz - ultima mistook Annetan for Montana - so instead of scolding you and Montana for cheerleading this horrendous abuse, she targeted you and annetan. If i were you Annetan, i wouldnt hold my breath for an apology...
ReplyDeleteWhere is everyone? Kiz, look on the what you want to talk about thread, BTH has charged in with a classic, you remember the row over disabled people and flipping burgers? Go and have a read of his latest effort. I honestly dont know with him whether he actually believes these comments were serious or not, because he does this quite a lot. Or perhaps i really do need to make sarcasm and banter more overt, i dont know...
ReplyDeleteLooks like Tanya Gold is making a late-season push for the Worst Cif Contributor title. That's five or six truly awful pieces on the bounce. Pity her early form wasn't better (worse). Still, there's always next season if she's still got a job.
ReplyDeleteJay, BTH is an obsessive - he scours the comment archives to find "suitable" quotes, and probably doesn't even remember the context or the debate. Another one that's more to be pitied than scorned.
ReplyDeleteThanks Hermine, that clears things up. Qutie honourable of your to see the 'suicide' through...you're always welcome here.
ReplyDeleteLester, I'd be delighted to read your post re Dawkinsian atheism if you ever get round to rewriting it...
I just popped onto CiF and discover Harry Phibbs arguing against the minimum wage. Absolutely horrendous stuff. But I suppose the tirade of posts is best summed up with zounds' comment (which will be deleted, so I save it here):
zounds
23 Apr 09, 10:21am (33 minutes ago)
Fuck you, Phibbs.
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Made my day.
Actually Scherfig, just read Gold's article, and I think she makes a couple of valuable points. It's just that the article is poorly written. The Hitlerisation and 'Nazification' of culture, history, and art is indeed an insane mark of our society. she just doesn't quite understand what she is writing about.
ReplyDeleteZizek's written good stuff on Schindler's List being essentially the same as ET, namely a story of redemption and 'making up' with a father figure. I can't quite reconstruct his argument here from memory, but it's a good read if you can find it.
"Another one that's more to be pitied than scorned."
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, i do usually feel pity and only occasionally does this rise to contempt when he adds spitefulness to his other admirable qualities of sycophancy and banality.
Tanya Gold - if that isnt a late charge for the title i really dont know what is.. What a surge! What a devestating burst of acceleration the old girl has! No one even saw her coming.... Biddy and Bindel must be feeling the pressure, could be a photo finish.
Though on a serious note, that Peter Beech is fast shaping up as quite a monstrosity, jesus, first the shakespeare, now this whine about needing a black poet laureate...
olching - none of the points she makes is in any way original. The lame attempt at humour, the lack of basic research/correct spelling and the usual maudlin "me, me, me" slant is 6th form at best. She brings no insight or interesting observation to the topic.
ReplyDeleteAs a professional journalist who has been paid for this shite, she does not get a pass just because it's a serious subject.
What next?
"War: A good thing or a bad thing?" - Tanya Gold thinks it's really bad, and tries a few jokes along the way.
Complete bollocks, shouldn't be in the Guardian, imho.
Have to agree with Scherfig, i find her completely intolerable. Its just not suitable for a broadsheet paper, its tat.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree, Scherfig, it's poorly written (and the 'me'-centric slant is dreadful), but the issue itself is an entirely appropriate observation of the role of all things 'Nazi' in our society. Of course all the Nazi cult in popular culture trivialises the issue beyond repair. It's just I suspect she doesn't really understand that she's hit a target.
ReplyDeleteYou make a better point in your 6 lines above than she does in her whole article, olching, i think thats the problem - she is actually slightly thick and hence doesnt really have much to say, other than me, me, me....
ReplyDeleteOlching, thanks for giving me a home and making me welcome here.
ReplyDeleteHow can I post under Hermine instead of Anonymous? Wordpress says that my moniker is not mine.....an error...
Hermine, sign up with blogger; not sure how wordpress and blogger are compatible...does anyone else know?
ReplyDeleteI agree to some extent, olching. But what degree of self-awareness is displayed here by Gold thinking that she could treat this subject in this way and make it work? Appropriate modes of discourse and all that.
ReplyDeleteEven the thickest of journos could work out that if their "style" is humorous? fluff pieces (see Gold's articles for the Mail), then the topics should be selected accordingly.It could be interesting to read eg Bidisha's take on this subject. Love her or loathe her, Biddy would bring something to the table here.
Anyway, a bit of editorial control from the Guardian should be preventing such aberrations as Gold's piece from seeing the light of day. I can just imagine the eds handing out the homework assignments:
Hitler and Nazi culture - Gold, you're Jewish, aren't you?
The Apprentice, episode 5 - Polly, you take this one. And use statistics.
The budget - Brooker, and don't make it funny.
Formula 1 - Monbiot. Easy on the petrol aspect though.
etc etc
JayReilly (11:03)
ReplyDeletePeter Beech is quite a snide litte cock I thought from his repsonses to that rather Bidishaesque Shakesepeare piece.
As for Bidisha's bit today, I queered my pitch by failing to read her opening sentence properly, and hastily threw a poorly placed arrow of condescention... oh well, can't win em all... heh heh.
Agreed - Beech is shaping up to be the male Bidisha, perhaps "Mandisha".
ReplyDelete"I queered my pitch by failing to read her opening sentence properly, and hastily threw a poorly placed arrow of condescention."
I wouldnt feel bad about a wayward snipe, bitterweed, just remember the hundreds that you, and every other poster, have landed on her in the past, she is a walking pincushion.
Lordy, just read that Tanya Gold piece. The words "rope", "money" and "old" do come to mind.
ReplyDeleteHa ha, she is a tad prickly. Did you know that our colleague Monkeyfish made some typiclly acid/witty comments about the (inferred)relative safety and comfort of her suburban life (with her mum and dad), in a thread last September, where she actually accused that he was threatening her with menaces because he had established where she really lived, and would get legal onto him ? I shit ye not. Absolutely fruit fucking loops that was. I think it's when he first started getting pre-modded.
ReplyDeleteAs for ultima (previous comments), she seems to get the wrong end of the stick like it's her job...
Brian Whitaker said...We try to prevent it. The fact that the mods may not always spot it and delete it is another matter, but that doesn't legitimise personal abuse.
ReplyDeleteAnd when Phil Hall posting as Ishouldapologise called me a Nazi I reported it as abuse and of course the moderators left it up. One rule for friends of the Milk Monitors it seems...
Oddly I've just been listening to the Burritos on the way in to work.
ReplyDeleteSwiftyBoy
I remember that actually, Gold getting in a strop about that, hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes think maybe Ultimas misudnerstandings stem from the fact that English isnt her native language, but she still speaks pretty good english so im not really sure thats an excuse, perhaps her bile just gets her in such a rage she cant be bothered to read things properly...
Just for clarification I am against smoking but fully in favour of other people's rights to smoke if they want to : they keep Mrs WML and her Oncology colleagues busy after all and we have cats to feed, a mortgage to pay and bicycles to maintain. It is only polite of them to not inflict it on non-smokers especially when we are eating. Few smokers ever showed any consideration for others, there is a selection effect there as those showing consideration were hard to identify as smokers, but sadly the antisocial ones forced a change in the law.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said... How can I post under Hermine instead of Anonymous? Wordpress says that my moniker is not mine.....an error...
ReplyDeleteHave you tried a google account? You can set the display name to whatever you like even though you login under your email address. For example you lot can't see the nick@nickcohen.net that I sign in with....
@Jay:
ReplyDeleteI'm not 100% sure ultimathule is even real? Surely no one (not even a Finn) could get the wrong end of the stick so consistently and take umbrage so mightily without at least one dark night of the soul played out in the public domain? I mean, the posting equivalent of running through the Bigg Market on Saturday night with no clothes on shouting "I'm not a man-hating Finn, I'm a big sweaty lady and anyone who wants a go can have one if they catch me"-type scenario.
Ah, now, CiF posters as cricketers, that's a game I've been waiting for (can't do footballers, sorry).
ReplyDeleteSo. HankS as Fiery Fred Truman. Always up and at 'em, and ready to be nasty (plus FT was dropped for being too bolshy, wasn't he?)
LesterJones - Sachin Tendulkar, has all the shots and a lot of subtlety
Questionnaire - Michael Holding, effortless (intellectual) atheleticism and a nasty bouncer in his armoury.
Olching - Garry Sobers, best of the allrounders
Right, that's enough cricket. Work beckons.
P.S. Hank - agree about FuriusC. An utter pillock.
Highly likely, Swifty, i do wonder if she isnt a figment of my imagination. Before her latest embarrassing faux pas led diatribe she did have the distinction of possibly the most shameless outburst i have ever seen on cif, all of about a month ago.
ReplyDeleteHaving slandered me with a torrent of spiteful fantasy, she then flatly and violently denied that she had ever shared a personal story with myself and scherfig. When i said i remembered it well as i had asked around the boards for her to say well done for calming down and being a bit human, she responded that i was probably trying to find her to "chase her off the boards", and repeatedly called me a "liar" because she had never shared such a story. Then, the final nail in the coffin, someone went back, dug up her personal anecdote and posted it for all to see.
Then she ran away and didnt mention it again.
What sort of person behaves likes this...
Jay, I found the article and comments in question. Out of decency I didn't post a link or any details, but referred to it obliquely (as did dotterel) to verify your claims. My comment was deleted.
ReplyDeleteI remember you and dot coming over to verify the claim, the support was very welcome, i thought i was going mad. I think the whole row got deleted didnt it? One of the most ridiculous outbursts i have ever seen on cif - its times like that i feel a bit bad for her as i think she must honestly be a little mad.
ReplyDeleteOf course, no-one's mentioned good old Halgeel yet. Can't fault her ahem, single minded determination, and she does have a rather vehement view of US colonial involvement in Africa... but that article on Russian human rights lawyer assasination a couple of months back. She was determined to hijack the thread into a rant about US hegemony (and Somalia of course). After a few attempts trying to point this out to her, she accused me of being pro Israil and also having posted in favour of using white phosphorous on Palestinians. Now, I *like* that. That's proper mental.
ReplyDeleteI might add the mad female posters do stand out as more interesting than the male ones. Anyone else find this ?
ReplyDeleteAnd where, oh WHERE did spacepenguin go ? He/She/It was ACE.
@Jay:
ReplyDeleteThose long dark Finnish nights must get just that teensy bit longer when she stomps into the junior common room. I think what depresses most is the complete lack of humour or self-awareness - I spent quite a bit of time in Finland, and the Finns I worked with were absolutely not the dour drunks of popular imagination. Sadly, none of this is apparent from reading her grinding her axe in defence of the indefensibly bad writing from Mrs Bindel et al.
And I still can't get over the fact that Julie Bindel comes from Newton Aycliffe.
"After a few attempts trying to point this out to her, she accused me of being pro Israil and also having posted in favour of using white phosphorous on Palestinians. Now, I *like* that. That's proper mental."
ReplyDeleteI'll give you that, that is first rate Cif mentalness.
"I might add the mad female posters do stand out as more interesting than the male ones. Anyone else find this ?"
Perhaps loony males just come across nasty, whereas loony females come across more mental, eccentric and generally interesting.
"I think what depresses most is the complete lack of humour or self-awareness"
I think thats what makes her comical, they are traits also found in Bitethehand, in abundance.
A test message
ReplyDeleteHurrah! Thanks Woollyminded and Olching for advice. It seems to work.
ReplyDeleteOh, ultim is comical as long as you're not going head to head with her - do that and its fatal; the old addage, "don't argue with someone stupider than you 1) they'll drag you down to their level and 2) they'll beat you with experience."
ReplyDeleteShe certainly has plenty of experience in that area.
ReplyDeleteYou and your lover, Jay...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the Phibbs thread has descended into a good bout of Tory-bashing. Zounds rules supreme, and the latest pick of the day is this comment by nega9000:
nega9000
23 Apr 09, 3:06pm (7 minutes ago)
Well said Zounds, but don't worry about me. The mods and I get on quite well. I think it comes from the time I gallantly leapt to the defence of a female sports journo as she came under attack from the knuckle-dragging hordes who took issue with a woman having the temerity to write about football.
This time, and actually in defiance of the editor's own position on profanity, I self edited in an attempt to mitigate potential offence to others. The undisputable fact of the matter is, Harry Phibbs is a cunt. Demonstrably so.
Had I said 'Harry Phibbs fucks his polo horses', I would quite rightly have been moderated as this is only unsubstantiated and defamatory speculation. But he is a cunt.
As the great CP Scott said, facts are sacred.
Think I've used up my goodwill from the mods yet?
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I think your goodwill is well and truly finished Olching, you can join us normal folk who get slapped in premod for anything from a stray apostrophe to the cardinal sin of quoting home office figures.
ReplyDeleteNo, Jay, that wasn't my post. It's from Nega9000. I wouldn't dream of descending to such insults...you know me :0)
ReplyDeleteolching
ReplyDeleteYou are clearly some kind of talent scout. Surely we have the beginnings of the makings of an "Almanac of CiF Profanity " here...
Zounds and nega9000 both get entries straight away...
Ah i see. They need a medal, that is some of the most gratuitously robust abuse i have seen for a while.
ReplyDeleteYes, we should start it. Bitterweed, you're in it as well. You qualified long ago.
ReplyDeleteI particularly like the thoughtful comma in Zounds' comment ("Fuck you, Phibbs."). It's very impressive to see that - despite knowing the futility of posting those three words - he still managed to find the time and clarity of thought to place the comma. Truly remarkable.
Good punctuation spot, olching. Proper use of the comma should never be dependent on how ephemeral the comment is likely to be. A chap should still have principles no matter how abusive he chooses to be. Zounds is obviously a thinking person of great integrity.
ReplyDeleteMy personal contributions to the Almanac of CiF profanity was telling some writer (wish I could remember who, now)that he appeared to have spent too long sniffing his sister's knickers, and another that he seemed like the sort of person games teachers warn you will turn into if you masturbate too much.
ReplyDeletePuerile sexual insults, it's true, and soon deleted, but they pleased me.
Olching, agreed, superb comma use - the mark of a scholar and a gentleman.
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoyed Jay's (now deleted) post on Peter Beech's "Why isn't the Poet Laureate effnik?" thread - "Peter, you are rubbish".
ReplyDeleteNot sweary, but understated and pithy. I don't think it could be improved, really.
Peter
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff, and of course no one ever takes an anonymous slur about their sexual/ incestual predilictions as lightly as they should.
We would need the name/date/author of the artcle though.
@Bitterweed:
ReplyDeleteMy contribution is the third comment down on this one:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/17/brussels-mep-pension-taxpayer
I was in a bit of a mood that day, to be fair.
Apparently, Zounds followed through with another comment, which yeractual saved to his website:
ReplyDelete"zounds
23 Apr 09, 11:44am
Censored yet again for a profound cry of workers pain! Although my post was at least as evidential and well researched as Phibb's, with a touch more honesty if I may be so bold.
I'm serious though. F*** you, Phibbs! Have you ever tried to live as a single person (which you must surely be) in London on £5.05 an hour? How about raising a family
You wouldn't scratch your own arse for that, let alone clean the coke from some corporate toilets, or care for the sick and dying, or sweep the streets or pack mail order or clean plates or any of the multitude of jobs that keep this economy ticking over (note that I didn't include 'opinion piece writer in that category). And now you expect us to apologise for jeopardising the economy in such a reckless way with our exorbitant demands for a basic (not even fair) living wage? F*** you again!
And when we are so bold to wonder if perhaps a multi-million pound salary or pension for running the banks into the ground and recklessly gambling with our money is, perhaps, a little extravagant, and maybe their should be some sort of cap or higher taxes to recoup some of the money we're piling into those self-same banks, we're told 'Oh no, we couldn't do that, we'd be punishing those hard-workers, let them keep their pensions'. So let me get this straight-
To make the rich work harder, pay 'em more. To make the poor work harder, pay 'em less.
Funny that. So thrice I say to thee- F*** you, Phibbs!
Can I make it clearer?"
This man is a living legend.
Jay: "Peter, you are rubbish". Excellent! Brevity, soul of wit, and so on.
ReplyDeleteSwifty: "how little fucking work she does for the double pension, expenses and lovely fat salary, the venal, gravy-train-hopping fucker." A ring of poetry to this one - alliteration, hard consonants, disgust in every syllable. Nice work - and not deleted!
Well what do you know? Those deleted comments of mine were on that very Chris Hallam thread you link to, olching.
ReplyDeleteI also liked, but certainly couldn't track down, someone who wrote a propos Roger Hicks' endless paeans to socio-biology: 'if you flog that dead horse any more, Roger, someone's going to call the RSPCA'. Not obscene, by any means, but amusing I thought.
Peter - Richard Hadlee - could carry the whole team all on his own!
ReplyDelete"I might add the mad female posters do stand out as more interesting than the male ones. Anyone else find this ?"------------
ReplyDeleteNot sure. I was always fascinated by Giyus&Trolls, in all his various guises.
"Mad as a badger's bum?" enquired the cynic.
"No more than the military-industrial complex might demand" replied the world-weary journalist.
"Even when he was stalking your movements, having established your role as a neo-liberal stooge?" the cynic retorts.
"And as if by magic, he was gone," the modfather ensured.
Swiftyboy, superb, that's EXACTLY what we're looking for.
ReplyDeleteOlching, heh, nice find there. I like this zounds person.
@scherfig:
ReplyDeleteWhen all around me scoffed, I knew the Lingustics degree would come in handy one day.
I was surprised to get away with it, to be honest - given that La Honeyball seems to be persona grata at CiF. If you can be arsed and aren't prone to sudden, liberty-threatening outbursts of homicidal rage, read her Brussels blog - some of the most craven, toadying, lickspittle toe-the-party line boswellox it's ever been my pleasure to read.
I believe she contributes to Labourlist.org as well.
Ah, thanks Lester - but only New Zealand (apologies to any kiwis).
ReplyDeleteOn female posters, what happened to sweetcheatgone? She was excellent.
AllyF, Hmmm true... and I know he's anutter, but he was such an *evolved* troll I always thought maybe the mods were a bit, well, scared of him...
ReplyDeleteOthers
Of course, non-potty mouthed comments are welcome, so lets agree terms:
concise, and hopefully funny due to sheer contempt, outrgage and loathing conveyed in the post. The odd f-word is a bonus... now don't be shy!
Apropos of nothing, Tessa Jowell's on Sky News bigging up the Olympics. She looks tired, poor thing - who wouldn't be, having to be cheerleader in chief for this monumental white elephant? "Oh fuck, not Olympics Minister" to paraphrase John Reid.
ReplyDelete"You can't put a price on national pride" she reckons. I'd beg to disagree, frankly.
you're too kind, chaps. It seems I've been banned, or at least being pre-modded, so maybe I'll set up home here for the time being. I'm usually a well-behaved boy but I must have got out of bed the wrong side this morning (extreme left), but still, those cunts censored almost every post today! Including bodacious Bidisha for insinuating that she didn't quite get the gig through her ample writing talents because, frankly, it's drivel. And I mean the style and pace as much as the god-awful lefty-liberal content.
ReplyDeleteI shall watch this free-speech blog with much care from now on. In the mean time I shall retreat to my natural home- www.libcom.org
toodles!
JayReilly said...What sort of person behaves likes this...
ReplyDeleteWhen the topic of depression or bipolar disorder came up quite a few CiF regulars shared their personal experiences. She would not be the first person to forget something she had posted a while ago and deny ever having written it - BrusselsExpat I think it was in my case.
zounds said...you're too kind, chaps. It seems I've been banned, or at least being pre-modded
ReplyDeleteIf you grovel to the CiF Milk Monitors who long for attention I think, promising to be good in future then they may well take you off pre-modding. My failure to take the initiative got me permanently banned. Learn from this.
Bitterweed said...Oh, ultim is comical as long as you're not going head to head with her - do that and its fatal; the old addage, "don't argue with someone stupider than you 1) they'll drag you down to their level and 2) they'll beat you with experience."
ReplyDeleteAnd even if you win then all you've done is win an argument with an idiot. I often fell into that trap!
Here's a couple of feminist pronouncements that amused me. No profanity but they have their own charm.
ReplyDelete"There is no end to the testosterone driven stupidly of the human male."
(The spelling of 'stupidity' is the clincher here.)
And I don't know where to start with this next one - I can only hazard a guess at its meaning. How to insult about 70% of the world's population in a short sentence?
"I particularly find offensive your comparison of women to Muslims."
Stopped off to pick up a set of spark plugs on the way home. The guy in the spares shop was on the internet looking at cif. I asked him if he ever posted. He didn't but said he'd been looking at cif more or less everyday for years. He agreed it was going downhill fast; "They're banning all the best people now."
ReplyDeleteHe said he was a big fan of WML and HankScorpio. I told him I missed monkeyfish and he shot back "No way, that cunt should have been banned, he really had it comin" And he didn't even have the right sparkplugs in stock. Useless twat.
Monkeyfish (& others)
ReplyDeleteHow many lurkers, like your sparkplugs guy do you think there are on CiF? I suppose ther;s no way of knowing but I'd be interested to hear people's guesses. It's quite interesting because I've noticed that the recommend comment tally seems to suggest a much 'leftier' readership than the postership.
Someone called Hegelian posted this on Henty Porter's @Labour is stifling the right to protest Blog
ReplyDelete"Then again, Mr. Porter, you should also look close to home and the Mr. Brown/mods/woolyminded fiasco...how can this be 'comment is free' and have 'liberty central' when it doesn't have 'free' speech. What is a freedom of speech without a strongly protected allowance to offend?"
Its been there for over 24 hrs!
"Peter, you are rubbish."
ReplyDeleteGlad this tickled you, Swifty, i just couldnt be arsed engaging with the man but wanted to note my disdain, so kept it very short. He has written two large steaming piles of faeces, showering us with his excrement (which i'm certain he is able to do only by some flagrant act of nepotism), and to top it all off he has the sort of murmuring, vacuous style of a 6th former waffling on about existentialism. He is the male Bidisha.
"And at least I know who she is, although admittedly I'd probably have a heart attack if I thought too much about how little fucking work she does for the double pension, expenses and lovely fat salary, the venal, gravy-train-hopping fucker."
The unmistakable mixture of contempt, disillusionment and weariness that New Labour have so prolifically cultivated...
""I particularly find offensive your comparison of women to Muslims."
ReplyDeleteThat really is gold.
Welcome zounds. You'll be delighted to know that yeractual has a website dedicated solely to one of your comments, so it seems:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.yeractual.com/phibbs/
Peter, I've thought about this, too. I don't know. I've also often wondered whether two posters might end up knowing each other (like with Linda Grant and Ishouldapologise). I know lots of people who read and apparently comment (though don't know their nicks) on CiF, but in general? No idea. Certainly thousands.
Monkey, that's an incredible story.
Bitterweed
ReplyDeleteJust caught the Bidisha thread. Hmmm...how can I put it? Lukewarm?
#Look, kid, I - how much you weigh, son? When you weighed one hundred and sixty-eight pounds you were beautiful.#
What's happened? You coulda been a contender. You coulda been somebody...
A spectre is haunting cif, the spectre of self-censorship...it's Bidisha FFS. Both barrels..it's the only way. Anything else is capitulation. Seaton was so happy with the 'tone' he even condescended to drop a few pearls of wisdom from his cloud.
Mad as a tube of cornflakes.
Olching, yes and another interesting thing is multiple poster names. PeterG is my second main cif incarnation (I haven't used the old one for a couple of years), and I have another one I use occasionally for jokier comments. I know other posters who also have more than one posting name so I wonder if it is a widespread thing.
ReplyDeleteWhat are your other names? Are you in the 'phonebooth' yet? Tell me there if you want.
ReplyDeleteI really only have one.
Oh, hello, this looks interesting. I'm DoNotLickLesHambles by the way (the less said about that the better: I fucking loathe my username). I presume I can take refuge here the next time I overegg my indignation at having all my quarrels with Nazis moderated into oblivion?
ReplyDeleteMonkey - Biddys article was just boring though, not her usual nonsense, better to keep your powder dry... She is trying to draw us out with piffle like that, i tell you, draw us in with largely unwarranted abuse and then we will be in premod or banned for when she wants to unleash her next bowel movement. Play the long game i say.
ReplyDeleteHumanist-hermit - anyone is welcome, even Ultima...
ReplyDeleteLay off Seaton, monkeyfish, his pearls of wisdom were appreciated by a better man than you.
ReplyDelete"Excellent observation" gushed BiteTheHand. And if there's anyone on Cif who is NOT sycophantic, it's BTH. So Matt must have deserved that rare praise, right?
:D Phew, I get in on a technicality.
ReplyDeleteOlching, have emailed Montana for access. If you want to give me an email address I'll tell you.
ReplyDeleteSeen the latest open thread?
ReplyDeleteFull of right wing I don't care about anyone but me idiots.
Jeesh its depressing!
Peter, I've asked Montana to pass on my email address to you.
ReplyDeleteAnnetan, such is the nature of CiF now. It's pretty dreadful.
Welcome, DoNotLickTheHumanistHermitAndLesHambles....
Thanks, olching (I really, really need a new username.)
ReplyDeleteThe minimum wage thread is encouraging though...
Yep bitterweed... I remember when Bid freaked at monkeyfish... basically accused him of stalking her (in real life, not tinternet!) and I'm pretty sure that was the beginning of the long road to being permanently untrusted... my, i love that graun doublespeak... 'untrusted' not pre-mod... not banned... just 'The Untrusted'...
ReplyDeleteWould make a good samurai film, it would...
Nice one from the open thread:
ReplyDelete"It isn't fashionable to say so, but far too much has been poured out on pensioners in recent years.
...one 80-year-old I know claims that free fares, plus senior railcard giving 1/3 off train fares, saves him £8000 a year."
What d'ya reckon, annetan? Go along with this? Millions of pensioners X £8000 = Trident or ID cards (probably). Basic economics, innit?
FYI - the culprit here is Bromleyboy. Bear that in mind on future threads. What a wanker!
kizbot
ReplyDeleteBrilliant - "The Untrusted"
How's you anyways ? I'm thinking of going to Crete in July... know anywhere good ?
Lester
ReplyDeletespacepenguin was regulara CiF higlight a couple of years ago.
By the way, has anyone else checked out Ophelia Benson's Butterflies and Wheels ? Been going there on and off for a few years. Some good stuff there...
bitterweed CRETE... I love crete been there loads of times... even worked there for a few summers. I'm a bit of an old anarcho punky hippy so I love crete because it has places where you can camp on the beach and stuff... My favourite part of Crete is the South west but pretty much all of the south coast is fab... When I go, I always spend some time in Hania, The old part is venetian gorgeous and even the beaches are ok and it's got a decent camp ground too... My favourite beach is Sougia, but paleohora (quite close) is nice too... if you're into walking up mountain paths the E4 route is also fab... North coast is rubbish though and Malia is to be avoided at all costs...
ReplyDeleteIf you need anymore details let me know...
Bitterweed
ReplyDeleteSorry, I meant to say that I "miss" him/her, I remember him well, brilliant poster I thought...ran into him a few times on Bostonians blog, along with MartinRBD and and cynical steve, always liked Martins posts...space penguin was a resident physics expert and very knowledgeable, I definitely learnt a few things from him.
Evening all,
ReplyDeleteNothing to report, just thought I'd say hello.
PatDavers! Nice to see you. Have to thank you for recommending me for post of the month a while back. Regards.
Bitterweed. You alright sunbeam?
Mine hostess. Sorry if I was bit intemperate on your Iowa celebration the other week. Wanted to carry that conversation on but:
a) I was shedded.
b) My internet connection was down the following day and remained so for a week, then I went away for a week, then got it sorted earlier today.
Kizbot
ReplyDeleteGreat thanks - I'll definitely be in touch about that heard good things about Hania, but I never made it to the Island, lovely ;-)
Lester
I miss him/her too, but it's symbolic of a change on the site.
The quality of journalism-based comment seems to have been depleted intentionally, for market reasons. Back then the below line posts were more often a few hundred or a thousand considered words, sometimes pompous or impossibly dense, but sometimes erudite, witty and highly informative – spacepenguin. (Also who was that Doctor form new Zealand – he really was shit-hot too). I guess the editorial take was attention span required was too much to capture the requisite audience / advertising revenue ? I don’t know, I’m only guessing.
Unfortunately most of that seems to have gone and just left third rate think pieces (“thick pieces”?), which are then barked at by neocons, railed at by increasingly frustrated thoughtful people (often lefties and libertarians alike who then get their posts deleted, apparently by sanctimonious school kids, and for erratic reasons). Oh and more than a few irreverent yobs ...
staybrite
ReplyDeleteAll good thanks mate. Still rolling and tumbling...
Just looking at the banned and dead list, isn't SzekeleyKarl (Karl Naylor?) a mate of yours Olching?
ReplyDeleteHe did have a blog of his own, is it still going?
don't read my livejournal by the way, it's shit. i just can't be arsed to create a Google/Blogger account that this stupid site keeps demanding. I have now replaced it with a somewhat less unpalatable link.
ReplyDeleteI was only on CiF since about... 2007. The only change I have noticed is that people are now more pissed off. Also this recommendation function seems to have interesting effects on people's posting styles. They want to edge in the witty one-liners near the top of the line so they can clean up on recommends. Or maybe it's just that they finish quicker.
Oh my! Welcome to all the newcomers. Humanist-hermit - I still feel bad about telling you to 'grow up' about a month ago. Don't even remember why I said it - kind of odd for me 'cos I usually like your comments. Hope I've been or can be forgiven?
ReplyDeleteStaybryte - today was the 'big day'. Haven't listened to any local news yet, but I'm guessing there are quite a few newly married homosexual couples in the Hawkeye State right now.
Gotta go over to the Phone Booth to send some invites. Anyone who hasn't done so - click on my profile, e-mail me so I've got an address and I'll send you the invite.
"I'd like to know how many readers there are, but I'd like to know if anyone ever had their mind changed by a thread as well."
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of times.
"i love that graun doublespeak... 'untrusted' not pre-mod... not banned... just 'The Untrusted'..."
Its cute isnt it, like the "community" guidelines, we're all a little community, guys, and when we're naughty we get pushed out the circle of trust, we let the whole team down, yeah?
Praise from BTH is the modern day equivalent of branding - everyone then knows you're scum.
Matt's been a bit busy on threads today hasn't he... What brought that on? Trying to be more down with the kids? Build up a chatty relationship with ciffers..? most peculiar considering his usual high-handed manner...
ReplyDeleteStaybryte, yes, he's still going, and he's got easterneuropewatch going. He's back as UndergroundMan. He's an interesting deconstructive left wing Tory, if that any sense. SEorry the cider's getting to me.
ReplyDeleteCan we start a new thread? Kiz, you do it. I don't want to start a semi-inebriated thread...
ReplyDeleteThis made me chortle from the open thread...
ReplyDelete'Raise the age at which people can retire and draw a state pension.
Most obviously it would cut down our spiralling pension bill
But it would also increase employment, especially in sectors where people are traditionally reluctant to work.
Most people are healthy enough to work after 65 in some capacity or other, and should do so.
The current pensionable ages were set at a time when peoples life expectancies were much lower.
Most people can expect to live nearly 20 years after they retire. It is too much to ask the state to pay for.'
it's the final sentence that shattered the rib... Too much to ask the state to pay for it? The state? Nope... I've paid for my own pension working for a pittance my entire working life and paying taxes to ensure the fucking STATE pays the likes of Fred Goodwin a fucking humongous pension... OOooh but I'm laughing on the other side of my face...
Olching... I'm on my 3rd rum and coke myself.. and anyways, as I complained before I tittled off to Corfu for Greek Easter, I don't know how to do it... I need instructions... simple... instructions..
New post in top right hand corner...
ReplyDeletesurely the the LuCifer Club, or similar satan-invoking name would work. I was going to pretend Lu meant 'Ex' or 'former' in Greek, but that would've been too perfect.
ReplyDeleteGram Parsons was awesome. Check out the Louvin Brothers too :)
Ach... just realised 'tis a 'scroll down' job! and still evil Microsoft tries to get you to use a 'z' instead of an ess....
ReplyDeleteNot banned yet but staying silent and counting the daisies......
ReplyDelete'I was going to pretend Lu meant 'Ex' or 'former' in Greek, but that would've been too perfect.'
ReplyDeleteYou'd never have got it past me... ;-)
Lads, I've just spent a very fun hour reading the last slab of posts here... thanks for leaving me in a good mood to doze off to.
ReplyDeleteI was particularly tickled by the profanity & abuse hurling stories.
Sometimes, when confronted by some pompous oaf/oafette's stuck-up, arrogant, linguistically overcooked, intellectual 'bowel movement'excuse for journalism all I do is... get cross... I need to lighten up!!
(Maybe light up!!!)
So, thanks, I learned something...
I think that I caught the delightful scent of Flann O'Brien somewhere here the other day ("Yer nam is Jams O'Donnell!" - The Poor Mouth) so I must be in good company. Maybe I can still be saved from turning into the stalker that Gordon Brown deserves...
Nitey nite :-)
Oh, Montana Wildhack - I don't remember this episode *blushes* - yes, you are utterly forgiven.
ReplyDeleteHey LaRit good to see you here. If you fancy talking then you have my email from BNH.
ReplyDeleteHello Staybryte.
ReplyDeleteSzekelyKarl1s latest incarnatiomn is UndergroundMan. He has a blog called seumasmilnewatch (I don't think he likes Milne much). Come to think of it, nor do I, but not so much because of what he says, but because of how he says it - he's up there vying with Monbiot for the "most leaden prose" category award.
If there are anz tzpos n this post, please blame an umnfailiar kezboard, and NOT the palinka. No way.
Pat.
SpikeParis was banned also challenging moderaters on CIF
ReplyDeleteI can never forgive the bastard CIF mods for banning Hank and WML.
ReplyDelete'I can never forgive the bastard CIF mods for banning Hank and WML.'
ReplyDeleteor monkeyfish...
Yes - let's not forget that Monkeyfish was a victim of the purges, too.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember calling woolyminded liberal a nazi.
ReplyDeleteWhat i do think is off is that the whole bus campaign thing was obviously to woolly's credit. He got no credit from the guardian for that. they all rode on woolly's bus so to speak. the groundswell of opinion in support of the idea came from him.
not that i agree with woollyminded on more than one or two things.
Anyone read matt Seaton's comment on Ben Pogrun thread:
ReplyDeletemattseaton
24 Apr 09, 4:11pm (about 10 hours ago)
Staff
The point surely, 21numbers, is not that any discussion of racism and Israel is banned, but that many delegates (rightly, in my view) took exception to Ahmadinejad's branding of Israel as a "racist state" (as though it were equivalent to and the same as apartheid South Africa or, worse, Nazi Germany).
Ahmadinejad's purpose in crudely labelling Israel thus is plainly and simply to delegitimise Israel and deny its right to exist. That's an annihilationist position, which he shares with those who prefer to call Israel such things as "the Zionist entity". As Seth Freedman and others have said, Palestinians don't need enemies when they have friends like the Iranian president.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/24/durban-racism-conference-ahmadinejad