A Thing Or Two About Anonymous Comments

Just to let you know, there is a practical reason for NOT posting as Anonymous to this blogger.com hosted site:

Anonymous comments can end up in the SPAM folder.

I'd also like to add another thing about Anonymous comments:

I'm not a huge fan of them.

So far, my experience with Anonymous posters have been bleak and rude and very unhelpful.  I've found that the Anonymous people accuse me of being things I'm not, relishing the fact that since I can't tell who they are I can't return the favor other than pointing out their folly (which they'll ignore anyway).  I've found that the Anonymous person to be something of a coward, refusing to put their name to a political position, preferring to hide in the shadow and think themselves clever for hiding so well.

If I ever post an Anonymous Trolling Comment of Little Worth, it's because I want to make a point of how foolish that troll's comment really is.  Most of the rest of them I leave in the SPAM folder.

If you want to leave a comment, do so.  But have the decency to put your name to it, especially if you're going out of your way to insult somebody.  If you're insulting me, heh, I can laugh it off.  I've survived middle school: I've heard worse.  Insult someone else, you'll get called on it.  But own up to what you write: you owe yourself that much.  If you can't respect yourself to put your name to your opinion, how the hell should you expect us to respect you for it?

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A Slight Follow-up To Name Changing

So I asked my fellow Coatesian Lost Battalion Horders about suggested new titles for this blog.

Wartenblog?

/headdesk

(four more blogs to 400)

UPDATE (3/23/13): Good news, everybody!  Wartenblog is already taken!  In both English AND German!  Bwhahaha. Wait, is that really French language...?

(with the current Presidential blogging, now up to 397, three more blogs to go)

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Name Changing

I'm coming up on the 400th (this is I think 395) post on this blog and once again I'm thinking of changing the title.

I originally started off (back in 2006!  Where did the time go...) with the notion of getting out here to discuss and suggest ways of reforming our political system.  I've ended up ranting about current events, Presidential campaigns, the general nuttiness of the Far Right, etc.

To be honest, I get more traffic and interest covering some of the local Florida stuff - Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott can suck it - and with the political campaign coverage.  I still rant about the need to fix our broken electoral system and other woes, but not with the academic focus I had hoped.  I can still argue about the Amendments We Need, it's just not the focus of this blog anymore.

So I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog.  The address - reformamendment.blogspot.com - I don't think I can change, but the blog's title I think can change.

So...  I need to come up with a new name.

Off the top of my head, these are the early suggestions:

• Cup Full Of Moderate Crazy
• The Always Sober Never Sane World Tour
• I Did What Last Night
• You Might Notice a Trend (although I'd give this over to Nate Silver if he wants it)
• Idea Tossing Blog
• This Blog Is Named X For a Reason (X being a variable)
• Steve

Other than Steve most likely being taken, does anyone have any suggestions?
And yes, Culture ship names are already taken, damn those trademark laws.

Please use the Comments to leave your thoughts.  I will be turning off the Comments filters for the time being.

If you can't, email me.

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Starting Off The Post-Election Blogging, I Want to Say Thank You

I went to bed last night at 1:00 AM, well after the Electoral vote count was called for Obama (yay) and with a slim Popular vote count for Obama (keep it up), and well after making sure that the worst of the worst Florida amendment ballots had crashed and burned to defeat.  And so this morning I know I got a lot of things to write about.

I want to start off by thanking the people who stopped off to view the blog during these final months of the election.  Especially everyone who came by looking for the blog entry reviewing the Florida 2012 amendment ballots.  The pageviews for that got into 1,000+ hits within the month, becoming the second-most viewed entry on this blog.

It's a bit amazing what I get from the page count stats on this blog.  It's showing me what search terms were used, showing me where the searches are coming from (Japan?  The second-most views are from Japan?  ...I mean, I'm thrilled I'm getting readers that far overseas... But now I feel the need to send a gift basket or something to the local consulate...).  It's been a thrill watching the daily pageview counts go from 7 per day to 100 to 200.

It's a pity I can't get more of you to post a comment though.  Is it really that hard to use one of the account options that Blogger allows?  I'm seeing it allowing Yahoo Open ID, Google, I think Facebook logins...  Do me a favor, someone.  Let me know what you're seeing for Login options for Comments, I will read your Anonymous submission and post it as long as it's clean and on-topic.

My next posts are going to be covering observations about how the 2012 Election went last night (messier than it ought to be: forget voter fraud, the TRUE scandal of voting is how effed up is this system), and a deeper comment about the Florida Amendment votes and what it should mean for Rick "Ass Kicked" Scott.

Big smiles, Obama people.  Big smiles!

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You Can Leave Comments If You Want

One thing about managing a blog site is, you know, getting feedback on what you write.

I suffer a bit (okay, a LOT) from writer's block, and part of the reason for that is that when I do write something and publish it... I get little back in the way of commentary, critiques, etc.

I know criticism itself isn't fun to endure - you make something, and hope that everyone likes it - but this is a political blog.  I know there are other people's opinions.  And there is a chance - yes, I admit to it, I am human ergo I am flawed - that I may be wrong, and it takes someone else pointing out and arguing with better-cited facts where I may be a tad off.

The only criticism I don't cater is that of the Troll: the ones who show up to crow or taunt or mock without fact or reason.  The "HAHA youre librul you suck" type.  The "You Morans" type of comment.  Which is why I placed a Moderator system to the Comments section to this blog to filter out the non-serious stuff.  (I also got a ton of Chinese spam on my literary blog, which is a different story altogether.  How the hell did China find my Book With The Blue Cover site anyway?)

The Comment section should allow for people with Google or OpenID or Yahoo accounts to post comments.  I thought I left an option for any non-account people as well, but I may be seeing a different screen than non-users (since I'm doing this through Google account already).

If it doesn't allow for non-accounts, please let me know.  I gots Twitter, find me @PaulWartenberg or use my email p.warten AT gmail.com.  If not, you can usually find me on TNC's threads over at the Atlantic blogs.  Also: If people don't like having the comments moderated, again please let me know.  I'm just not too keen on the wrong kind of traffic, okay?

But please, if you can, Post Comments!  I wanna hear back from the seven of youse.

Now, back to job-hunting...

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