Thursday, October 13, 2011

A Moment of Appreciation for Our Readers

The Spawn of Endra says:

It seems that some of the bloggers I follow -- and they wouldn't necessarily call themselves "Old School", mind you -- are plagued with readers that are total dumbshits. Some of these IDIOTS even attempt leave really inane comments that totally miss the point, or proffer up little bits of shit about gaming like they just discovered gold. These bloggers read books, people! Get with it! You know how frustrating that can be. You ask, will anyone ever understand me? CAN anyone ever understand me? You write follow-up posts about how stupid everybody is.

Well, actually, I don't know how frustrating that can be. For some weird reason our readers don't act like idiots, and their comments are usually cordial and insightful. And I'm happy whenever anyone leaves a comment at all, to be honest. But maybe that's just my perception of things and I'm not skilled at identifying idiots. Maybe I'm an idiot! Hmm. Better reflect on that.

At any rate, if you're reading this, pat your self on the back for not being a stupid numbskull wasting my genius time with foolish comments. Good job! Please treat yourself to a cookie or beer or something. You've earned it!

10 comments:

  1. Now I have to resist the urge to post something deliberately dumbass and shit-stirring.

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  2. Will do. Drink a beer, that is. Cheers.

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  3. I think the IDIOTS all flock to blogs that are "user-hostile" or otherwise dead set against the slightest smidgen of disagreement with the blogger. At least, that's where all the complaints about IDIOT comments are.

    It's hard to be sure, though, since user-hostile bloggers delete any and all comments from IDIOTS, so we never learn by example what an IDIOT comment looks like.

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  4. i don't think i've had an ass post on my site yet. some spammers, but blogger seems to catch them first these days

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  5. @EP: Don't restrain yourself from any sub-lethal response.

    @Crockett: Yes.

    @Tenkar: Spambots should die.

    @Tal: I think you're right about folks seeking abuse (if that's what you mean). But my experience (as a possible total dipshit) is that a lot of people have some ideas that MAY be useful to me. If they aren't I let them go. I don't decry the (yet further) decline of THE GAME. I don't even comment on them.

    --
    Lesson for myself: Not everyone is obsessing on my quotidian obsessions.

    For full disclosure, I was referring to posts by Senor Alexis:

    Whither weather?: http://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2011/10/if-we-could-have-real-weather.html

    and the follow up post:

    Don't fuck with my genius==> Weather: http://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2011/10/enough-with-rpg-crap.html

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  6. STOP sending me crap from the RPG universe

    Oh, right. Somehow I mistook him for an RPG blogger.
    Alexis - if somehow you read this, no response required. It's all good.

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  7. @Spawn: On further reflection, there may be an element of masochism in so-called IDIOTs. But really, i was just ironically pointing out that people called "IDIOTs" seem to exist mainly on blogs (like Tao of D&D) where the blogger is only too eager to call absolutely everyone an IDIOT. Which may indicate that it's not so much a matter of the quality of the comments as it is the feelings of the blogger towards ideas that don't match his own.

    Seriously, that's what gets me about Alexis: not his particular approach to D&D, which doesn't appeal to me, but frankly I'm fine with it being meaningful to him. It's the inherently contradictory attitude of seeking approval for your ideas via a blog while simultaneously becoming enraged at any and all commentary on those ideas.

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  8. Because I'm an IDIOT I'm not going to peer through Alexis' archives to find the helpful post where he explained the kinds of comments he doesn't like. I don't think the post covers the gamut of comments that get his highly mobile and uffish goat but it did explain why he hated me in particular: he doesn't like suggestions to read or consider things (because he already read and considered everything he had to 20 years ago) and he doesn't like people trying to engage him in conversation (because he has enough people to care about already and they all overcame his efforts to brush them of in person, thereby proving their worthiness).

    He has some good stuff to say but I do wonder why he blogs, or at least why he doesn't disable comments.

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  9. Half the reason I read the Tao of D&D is to see Alexis excoriate some poor well-meaning commenter, and the other half is because Alexis is a fucking mad genius who focuses on almost exactly every part of DMing that I do not focus on.

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  10. Well said Carl. Conversely, during the long periods when I don't read Tao, half the reason is to not see Part A, and the other half is to not see Part B.

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