Upon reviewing the 1400+ emails that arrived while I was away, I regret to announce that I received two of a negative nature. The first was from one Roger M Roeder. Mr. Roeder had engaged in a debate with another reader and was so offended with his own comments thread that he’s publicly threatening to delink SDA because of it.
The second offered this critique; ” …when it comes to the substitutes you picked, I think you did a really poor job. Had they been politically otherwise oriented I could have lived with it [..] I really hope I don’t come as close as I did as this time to deleting your bookmark.”
Well, then.
Let it not be said that I am too stubborn to consider suggestions as to how I might improve or tweak the blog to fulfill the personal needs of each reader. I acknowledge it is no longer sufficient to entertain others for free in this day and age. Indeed, I’ve been inconsiderate in overlooking something that every blogger who writes for the pure enjoyment of doing so should offer their readers – a complaints department.
To that end, this afternoon I revised the previous complaints mechanism. The new and improved version is now outlined in the SDA Compaints Manual (3rd edition, approved June14, 2005). In order to have your complaint considered by the SDA Standing Committee for Complaints the following protocols must be adhered to. Not adhering to these protocols may result in a dismissal of your complaint without a hearing. The relevant portions are exerpted below;
a. In a business sized envelope, include a $50 deposit (which will be refunded if your complaint is upheld), your return address and phone number where you can be reached. Mail to the address provided.
b. Write the details of your complaint on plain white paper.
c. Fold the paper neatly in half, and then in half again.
d. With your left hand, press said paper against your forehead.
e. Using a hammer and four (4) 2″ galvanized nails, secure it firmly at each corner.
When you have submitted notarized documentation that establishes that the above procedures have been met, the SDA Standing Committee for Complaints may consider your concerns.
But not too f*cking likely.
…or, to save time, just find the dial and change the channel. oooh my aching ribs. 73sTG
BRAVO! ENCORE! (imagine a dark stadium filled with people burning their fingers while holding Bic lighters in the air)
ROFLMAO…but I can’t find my 2″ galvinized nails..will 4″ spikes suffice?? And I only have $100’s..will you accept them??
Thanks Kate…I needed a good laugh
Damn, gotta start over, i used an air gun and they went right through… :-\
Hey, until this very moment I had no idea that it was you, through your guest bloggers, who were telling your visitors to F*ck off.
Now I know better.
F*uck you too.
See ya in the funny papers. You’re gone from my reading list.
Ahhhhhhhhh…Paul has left.When’s the party???
Paul Martin?
To hell withem all Kate!! Us bikers gotta stick together y’know!
I never have any thing too deep to say…I’m just here and over at borque’s lieberal emporium for comic relief. They don’t even respond to my posts any more.
Which is actually good ’cause i got only high school plus 33 years of hard knocks so I’d only lose it in a DEEP discussion and start stalking people. My parole officer would not appreciate the extra paperwork, no siree!
Anyway Kate keep it up or whatever it is you woman like to hear and well……gotta go.
Kate:
I don’t know what all the fuss was about – I enjoyed most of what I read, while you were away.
I guess it’s kind of like going to Wendy’s and finding out they’re closed, so you have go to McDonalds instead. It’s still a hamburger, but it’s different and not what you wanted at the moment.
I loved your response!
I don’t like nails, but I do have a screwgun…
1400 emails???
Crikey when do you sleep?
Sean
No not Paul Martin
He still needs his daily fix of SDA to keep him going in his daily quest to
KEEP YOU GUYS OUT OF POWER
Excellent, I was losing so much sleep wondering if dear Paul was actually going to f*ck up your day by leaving.
As if you have to bow down to him…
And as if his leaving would wound you…
I apologize for making Roger all “whiney” Kate. I simply called it as I saw it. I’ll not comment further if that is your wish…
um, for what it’s worth, Liberal justice policy (Not in My back yard – referencing financial compensation for victims instead of punishing criminals etc), giving oneself a double-hyphenated label (libertarian-conservative-socialist) that contradicts itself, narscisism, an extremely thin skin and passave-aggressive responses to debate/change really are common MoonBat traits…
You’ve started me thinking Kate. I’m going to borrow some parts of your complaint procedure. However, due to increased UV radiation caused by ozone depletion, and increased temperature and humidity levels caused by global warming, I am amending the process slightly in order to best protect the complaint documents from fading or base deterioration. Rather than being folded and secured in a place of maximum exposure to UV, heat and humidity, I am requiring my complainants to carefully roll up their prepared documents and place them where the sun does not shine.
I was the second one quoted. It was meant as constructive criticism. I just don’t care for the idea of tuning in to Bill O’Reilly and getting Howard Dean as a substitute host (or to stick with the hamburger analogy, going into Wendy’s and finding all they’re selling is tofu and sushi).
From now on I will forward all the complaints I get to you. You can be the official complaints department of conservative Canadian blogging.
RG
Hey Kate,
I think you take yourself and this blog WAY too seriously.
Things here are getting quite..well..laughable.
π
Yet another day when I’m glad I used my bookmark.
Paul1 go to Rabble your taxes paid for that crap. Your taxes paid for it.
Yet another day I’m glad my bookmarks sent me here.
Go to rabble paul my taxes paid for it.
You to go there.
Hmmmm, I thought the guest bloggers were covering the bases just fine Kate. It was the guest Moonbats who were the let down. Apparently the latest rash think their opinions are sacrosanct and unassailable….or that observant commenters are not allowed to draw attention to their two flapping left wings. π
Good for you, Kate.
Back in the day, before the ‘Net was publicly-available to every yutz with a phone line, I was the Sysop of a discussion-oriented BBS, a primitive technology that only allowed one person at a time to enter comments, but which (along with about four or five others back in Edmonton) was rather popular amongst a certain circle.
Imagine my surprise when some people started complaining that I wasn’t allowing them to say absolutely anything they damn well wanted on my BBS. Their argument? Why, freedom of speech, of course!
It never occurred to them that this BBS had a policy that was attached to the fact that it was an extension of my home; that I did this gratis, providing computer, dedicated phone line, software and modem, all expensive and all for free (to them); that the comments were transmitted over a common carrier (the phone line again), thus attracting the provisions of the Criminal Code; and that all of the aforementioned points meant that I had a public duty to police certain more over-the-top or lewd comments!
People seem to think that if it’s on the ‘Net, then dammit, somehow they’re paying for the privilege of using it and they should be able to do what they want, say what they want, and get out of the experience whatever they want in exactly the way they want. It’s a commons. At minimum, people should expect that, like the rest of life, you can’t always get what you want, and leave it at that.
Thanks for doing this, Kate. I know it’s largely a thankless task, which is one of the reasons I’ve hesitated to start my own blog. Well, that and the fact that I’m pretty convinced I’d have nothing worthwhile to say, anyways… π
“giving oneself a double-hyphenated label”
My label is ‘asshat’. Always has been. Always will be.
After paying to host this blog out of my own pocket – costs that increase with rising traffic, by the way – a few friends generously agreed to fill in for me (meaning there was someone to watch my back in already open comments sections) and there are people who feel they have the right to demand different content …. or else.
Does it not occur to them that the alternative is no content at all while I was gone, and that maybe – just maybe – there are another 5 – 6000 readers besides them who tune in here to read?
It’s just … mindboggling.
Kate: I usually stop by here before I get going with my workday.
Just to catch up. Or make a comment or two.
This morning was just the best!
I got a really good laugh and believe me, I am adopting your complaints department protocols.
Thanks for great humour, intelligent comment and exacerbating debate you allow here.
Bravo!- π
Kate – how can we help with the costs?
I take full credit and full blame for everything that was posted under “Danger Guy”. I proud of the work I did, and I hope Kate is pleased. If not, I’ll take whatever criticism you would like to deliver, constructive or otherwise.
Kate should not have to listen to comments properly directed at me. To that end, I’ve created a post dedicated to comments, positive and negative, concerning my spell as a guest blogger. If you’ve got a spleen that needs venting, there’s the place to do it.
—————————————
My experience as a guest blogger
As one of the guest bloggers, let me say that I tried to conform to Kate’s style. Anyone who goes to my blog knows I am more of an essayist. Kate’s posts are short and punchy. So I tried to be short and punchy too.
But while it’s easy to mimic someone’s style in a superficial way, I would never try to mimic their content. Kate has an eye for news and a way of seeing things that are uniquely hers. I have my own take, and when Kate asked me to fill in, I understood it to mean that she thought my sense of what was post-worthy was not totally unlike hers. But I would never try to pass for Kate, and I even edited a post when a comment made it clear that one person thought it represented Kate’s opinion.
I corrected that misunderstanding right away.
So whatever you thought of my posts (and see above for where you can make your opinions clear), know that small dead animals is back under original management. Thanks to Kate for giving me an opportunity to help out, and thanks to all of you for patiently waiting for Kate to come back.
And for all of you with complaints, I promise that my complaints procedure is far less painful.
Cheers!
With all due respect: I am shocked and disgusted by the attitudes being expressed by most commenters on this thread, and yes you too, Kate. The arrogance and presumptuousness literally oozing from the original post and the comments are much like everything I οΏ½hateοΏ½ about Liberal-Socialists. To actually see fit to create a post, because of 2 complaints, shows an incredible thin skin and political immaturity; not to mention a good dose of arrogance.
The one thing that distinguishes (I would hope), most righ-wing blogs, from moonbat drivel, is tolerance for dissension. Usually, when cursing or conservative baiting shows up on a right-wing blog, the offender is ignored, thus completely neutralizing the culprit. Andrew Scheer gets a regular dose of ignorant conservative baiting by anonymous posters, yet deals with them in a dignified manner, thus proving that he is above them and that he is comfortably conservative; he doesnοΏ½t need to grandstand in order to feel relevant.
Your idea of having others post on your site while you were gone, was not only the right thing to do, but necessary because you have a large and loyal readership. This mornings post, and the subsequent comments though, fall far short of what IοΏ½d expect of someone with such a large readership. On my site I bait Liberals, even calling them names, just like SDA, so I expect the occasional counter-attack. The reaction on SDA, today, shows that the moonbats got to you, and your readers.
Little Green Footballs gets vicious, hateful, threatening mail, not just from moonbats from jihadistsοΏ½ now thatοΏ½s scary. Yet, the LGF reaction is to occasionally post an especially nasty email for public consumption, or to use the ignore button. Come-on folks, suck it up!
One-way Trackback Intolerance
Michele issues the regrettably necessary quarterly reminder about one-sided Trackbacks. She’s right. I also agree with her punchline, “I am caring less and less about my intolerance,” at least with respect to blogging. Put me firmly in the “Don’t Like?…
You know, I’m not the first blogger to notice that we are sometimes treated like a public utility. There is a place for registering disagreement with the content of a post – it’s in the comments section, or by clicking a new link.
Simple as that.
If it were a case of “skin thin”, then I would direct you to the various rantings, name-calling, misrepresentations and attacks on other blogs directed at me for my views. Do a search and see how often I respond.
But when I get emails from readers complaining about THEIR OWN COMMENTS THREAD, the absurdity if the situation is just too good to ignore.
Again, with all due respect: The greater the readership, the greater the responsibility. And, for a volunteer, who gets no renumeration, that’s a tall order; but an important one.
By the way, thanks for the incredible amount of time you put into this…. 1400 emails…. sheesh!
DebrisTrail:
“LGF reaction is to occasionally post an especially nasty email for public consumption”
Well, is that not, in effect, EXACTLY what Kate just did?
How, pray tell, is it any different than what you suggest is the ‘proper’ response?
Except of course, Kate did the talking instead of posting an e-mail from someone else.
Besides, it is very nice to get the house rules laid out in such clear language!!
Geez, you don’t run this place, KATE does.
And THAT is why she has readership and traffic. All at HER expense.
I am sure if she wanted guidance she would seek out those in whom she felt confidence to assist her. As it is she could be the one doing the guiding on most of these places and I have found none as articulate and funny as Kate!
Suck THAT up, bub!
Snowbunnie: Thanks for confirming my point!
What do you mean, “the greater the responsibility”?
The greater the responsibility for what?
I write, you read. Both are voluntary positions, but as I pay for the privilage, and you don’t, you don’t get to choose the content or the tone or set expectations for myself or others.
Nor do I represent any political party, any other individual or any employer.
In other words, there is no “responsibility” to the readers at this blog or any other.
I have a “Satisfaction Guaranteed or 100% of Your Money Back!” policy.
Kate: Ok… point well taken; but as bloggers, don’t you think we put ourselve on public display, or that part of us that we want to anyway. If our public display is political, then we can expect political counter-punches and counter-opinion. I’m just saying that anyone who can dish it out, should be able to take it. For example, my critism today has nothing to do with 99.9% of what goes on in SDA, which is very admirable. But,it is my “opinion”, that anyone, blogger or not, who can dish out loads of opinion, should be able to take the same.
By the way, reading your post, through the filter of this medium, is perhaps misleading; in otherwords, maybe I misunderstood it. But, the intolerance shown by readers who can dish it out, but not take it, is in the English language called hypocracy or duplicity, and I’ll call them on that no matter what side of an issue they are on.
Having been an unpaid and unrespected moderator on a popular right wing BBS, I can confirm the observasions of posters here that most idiots on the net think that the privae unpaid labor and expense in setting up internet chat venues is treated like an entitlement from the monbat/asshat cult.
You are correct that when a poster enters a BBS or blog comment log, you have entered an extention of the owner’s property and you are a guest ….civil manners dictate you respect the simple house rules of the host….apparently guest manners do not apply to the moonbat elite because it is always the left that scream the loudest for their right to say any thing they want in some one else’s home/backyard. Apparently some people’s rights trump yours.
I spent years as a moderator keeping these “asshats” ( great term Sean ;-)) from lowering the quality of debate and offending the majority of posters with the excercise of their “rights” to “our” property.
In the end analysis if people are not civil enough to police themselves you have to turf their butt from your site before they turn it into the same degnerate jibbering moonbat cesspool you see at unmoderated sites….at least Rabble has the sense to ban any dissenting opinion to keep the resident asshats from filling their bandwidth with bile and foam.
You’re doing a great job Kate…your blog has blossomed from a daily must stop into a net community where the discussion is civil and topical…..don’t mess it up by taking a hands off policy with hyper critical dorks and trolls…it’s your house, your guests enjoy the company here, enforce the rules of your house for everyone’s sake.
Sad to say the more popular it gets the more time it consumes policing as it becomes a magnet for Moonbat asshatery π
My last point: Kate and WL basically disagree with what I have to say. Yet, where is the hate filled cursing common in moonbat culture? Thanks for taking your shots, without throwing crap! Cheers!
The “debris trail” appears to be wads of sanctimony and conceit.
Kate, You are WONDERFUL. Dont let the commies think for even one second they have any say. As you so eloquintly put it, f**k ’em!
Kate, 2 complaints out of 1400 e-mails is a credit to you. The posts submitted by your guest bloggers were informative and entertaining, and I enjoyed that some were not of a political nature. You have a high readership and thus will have differing viewpoints. I personally read your blog for that very reason. There is nothing wrong with a good debate nor a dissenting opinion, as long as the language is not abusive or obscene. Those do have to be dealt with.
However, I think your reaction and the reaction of your readers is over-the-top. I agree Kate, it is your blog to run as you see fit. However, why accept comments then if you are going to take such a drastic response to the ones you don’t like? And, the very direct and harsh nature of some of your posts, incites the very type of comment you are now taking umbrage with. You can’t have it both ways.
In the end, if you open yourself to the general public via a blog; what do you expect?
“Yet, where is the hate filled cursing common in moonbat culture?”
Well, you can start here:
http://myblahg.blogspot.com/
and then go here:
http://thegreenlantern.blogspot.com/
or here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/
And if you really wan’t your tummy in knots go here:
http://leftwingparanoia.blogspot.com/
I’m one of the trouble makers so I should probably be quiet… But…
Kate is completely right with her assertion. Two have these two individuals (one very publicly) demand that Kate change the format or content to suit their own personal preferences is completely out of line. What these two individuals did was, to my understanding, send e-mails to Kate/post on their own sites their sanctamonious demands. Aparently thinking the world revolves around themselves, these individuals think they also have some kind of power over Kate.
Kate quite properly reminded them that they do not.
Yo Ol’ Mudda! There is a vast difference between honest commenting and being a cursed “blog-hog”. The former are “participants”, while the latter are “squatters” that impose themselves upon the talents of others.
Richard: My point was that Kate and WL took thei their shots, without the filth and vitriol common on many moonbat sites….
Kate, I think by “responsibility”, Debris Trail is referring to the administration aspect of running a blog with high traffic, such as yours.
However, I am a little perplexed that you on one hand, brag about the popularity of your blog, and then on the other hand, say you bear no responsibility to your reader. If you do not feel responsible, then why have guest hosts, why care about the quality of your posts and the comments you receive, or why even care about the marauding moonbats?
Old Mother,
I’d say Kate feels huge responsibility — to put out quality content, to do what she can to patch up the sinking ship that is this country, to use a wicked sense of humor to remind people that this is a responsibility that she imposes upon herself — because that’s the kind of person she is. People who don’t like this arrangement are free to go elsewhere. PS: there’s an old Texas saying: “it ain’t bragging if you done it.”
Yo Jeff! The discussion originally stemmed from Kate receiving 2 complaints out of 1400
e-mails regarding the guest hosts and their posts on her blog while she was away. It has nothing to do with blog hogs. My point is that a .14 percent complaint rate, which is almost statistically insignificant, does not deserve the drastic reaction from Kate or you readers.
Conversely, Kate’s 99% positive response rate, is what is significant and attests to her success. Giving all this airtime to 2 negative e-mails which Kate has chosen not to share, makes all of you sound just like the whining moonbats you detest!
Kudos to Andrew at “Bound by Gravity” who over the last while, has taken many shots in the chin with increasing class and dignity. His responses to criticism are measured and mature. He has certainly earned my respect.
“However, I am a little perplexed that you on one hand, brag about the popularity of your blog, and then on the other hand, say you bear no responsibility to your reader.”
You are perplexed because those two statements bear no relationship to each other.
I post what I wish to, when I want to, and under my own terms.
That the blog is popular is a consequence of running it as I SEE FIT, not as a result of tweaking or editing it to please certain individuals.
This comment is a little odd, all things considered’;
“However, why accept comments then if you are going to take such a drastic response to the ones you don’t like? And, the very direct and harsh nature of some of your posts, incites the very type of comment you are now taking umbrage with. You can’t have it both ways.”
Well, yes, actually, I can have it both ways.
But, that said, you think bit of tongue in cheek ridicule is a “drastic” response?
Do you realize you’re talking to a blogger who has had commentors who have claimed (on several other sites) to have had charges laid against her under Canada’s hate crimes provisions?
Anyone reading my comments section would quickly realize a) My comments policy is very generous to critics and b) that to defend myself against every criticism would take more hours than I have in my day.
I tend to ignore the majority and let other commentors wrestle with dissent opinions if they choose.
That, however, is also a matter of my choosing. In this case, I chose otherwise.
The 1400 emails I refered to sifting through arrive at my business address – they include work related emails, spam, friends, lists, -blog tips, requests for linkage while a minority are comments from readers.
Hey Debris: who said I disagreed with you? π
You are correct in stating that IF I go into the public arena and make my opinion known I must be prepared to defend it and have my ego bruised by dissenters…that’s open free discourse, proper charter right exercise and responsibility….but that is in public.
The difference is, this is Kate’s house…just like my blog is my house…just as any blog or chat BBS venue paid for and operated by a private individual ( or group of private individuals)is their privately owned and operated property…this is not the public domain…it is a grey zone between the private and public realms…those operators paying for hosting of their own blog or BBS ops have a right to request the ground rules they deem fitting…you post on their dime…you opine at their indulgence…one would think that common courtesy would dictate user decorum as a priveledge extended to be someone else’s guest, but we live in an age of situational ethics and relative civility.
The issue that started this thread was about some guy complaining about how Kate runs her own house and demanding she run it to suit his sensibilities. That arrogance and presumption seems to transend political labels, except, for me to add; that in my experience it resides strongly and in the majortiy on the left side of the net community.
I don’t want it to appear that in relaying this message I was in any way disagreeing with or challenging you Debris. I value your persectives.