We have moderators! To better protect this blog from terrible comments by terrible people, I’ve invited several longtime Mammotheers to be mods, and they have graciously accepted. You may know them as Kittehserf and emilygoddess, but from now on they will be known as, well, the same names but with “MOD” at the end, and they will help to enforce the comment policy and keep discussions running smoothly.
Those of you who aren’t mods, feel free to contact me or any of the other mods when you see a troubling comment or a commenter who deserves the boot. You can email whichever of us is on duty at [email protected] or you can put a request for a ban (or moderation, or for an over-the-line comment to be deleted) in the comments themselves.
To make it easier for all of us mods to find these requests in the comments, please accompany your request with the words “MOD REQUEST” in all caps. Put that in the subject line of any emails you send as well.
Hopefully with more mods on board and a tougher stance on trolls we’ll be able to keep the comments a safer place for everyone. (Except asshole trolls, but they don’t count.)
I’m also bringing back Troll Challenges for some annoying commenters who might not deserve a full ban, just to see if they’re willing to follow some basic rules. Feel free to suggest Troll Challenges to me and the other mods.
EDIT: Added the new mod email address.
Challenge: accurately define “patriarchy,” “rape culture,” “privilege,” or “satire.”* You don’t have agree that it exists, or applies in any particular instance, you just have to know what the concept entails. Literally all you have to do is understand the words you’re using.
*or “public relations,” “consent”… there’s a long list.
I would prefer that the trolls have to make a weeping angel barbie before they can post. Those were the best use of barbie dolls, ever.
A troll challenge? Well, they know so little about female anatomy and sexuality. Maybe we should give trolls a pop quiz to make sure they know the difference between actual sex in the real world and porn.
Honey badger types should have to list all the perks and cookies they get for saying awful things about women.
Judgytwit should have to write a coherent sentence with no “LOL” in it.
I’m not the only one who judges adults for not being able to conduct a conversation that isn’t entirely in text-speak, right?
IDK, I think they’re tied with that episode of Trading Spaces where the designer made a shadowbox-type art piece with Barbie and Ken in various Kama Sutra positions.
JudgyB packs so much pettiness, rage and gibber gabber in her tweets that her poor writing really doesn’t make much of an impression. While her PR work was a hell of a show, she’s reverted to her usual humorless reactionary rants denouncing random stupid troll tweets, retweets or memes.
She tweeted a meme that is a random stock photo of a woman and a ridiculous paragraph about cuckolding with the sentence, “women should be able to choose whose genes she wants her child to have regardless of whether or not it is her husband’s”. No source, no name and super fakey, it attracts a number of fellow empathy-free conservative dipshits.
All this leads to possibly the stupidest twitter conversation about evil feminism, TeRPer BS and birth control you’re ever likely to see, unless you follow a lot of JudgyB types.
I’m hopping off her dreary hate train, but here’s a link to start of this nonsense if you’re feeling ghoulish.
https://mobile.twitter.com/JudgyBitch1/status/485200270339485697
This is pretty off topic, but I needed to purge this from my brain.
Troll challenge: write their post in iambic pentameter! (Or at least write a couplet, before going on to their troll-ments.
Correct!
Anyone who mentions the Titanic has to swim the Hellespont – or the English Channel.
Oo! They have to name one female inventor in comment they make! And they can’t name the same person twice.
*in every third comment they make
Me and my missed words. lol
Congrats mods and yay for troll challenges! It might make them marginally more interesting, but I doubt even the most well thought-out challenge will make them learn anything.
Congratulations on becoming mods, emilygoddess and kittehserf!
If I may make a suggestion for something other than troll challenges: do you think it would be a good idea to have an icon on the sidebar to contact the mods, similar to how you can click on the picture of little David to email him? It may make things easier for those who can’t remember the email address or future newcomers who didn’t see this entry.
@cassandrakitty:
Absolutely not! There are reasons I spend so much of my online time where I do and while writing in full words and phrases isn’t at the tippy top of my list, it is on the list.
I can only take so much text-speak before I go all “Get off my lawn ya darned kids!”
At the top of my list are great blog posts and an interesting and fun commentariat*. So, thanks for that, everyone!
*These both actually occupy the top spot together.
In all seriousness, I’m going to be very not pleasant to the next MRA who comes here complaining about how all men, meaning heterosexual men, are seen as pedophiles and molesters by a misandric society that demonizes male sexuality. Since I have a many friends who are fathers and interact with little children all the time with no problem, I always knew this was bullshit, but it seemed far from the worst of their bullshit.
That was before David posted a Senator Cools’s anti-gay rights speeches that include the homophobic hate-mongering that accuses gays, particularly gay men, of being predatory pedophiles. AVfM and other MRAs made excuses for Cools or tried to make this about how much marriage sucks, diversity or free speech. I don’t know if they’re being disingenuous or are just thick, but when Cools references a 25 year article in “The Journal of Homosexuality” about pedophilia and then name drops fucking NABLA in a speech against gay rights, she’s clearly peddling a toxic form of homophobia. The same toxic homophobia that the Religious Right’s new anti-gay hero, Putin, is using to defend Russia’s anti-gay laws.
If someone pretends homophobia don’t real and then complains about straight men being oppressed by pedophilia witch hunts and false accusations, we’re going to have words. That’s less of a troll challenge, more of a troll evisceration.
Troll challenge: explain how is babby made, biologically correctly. Explain how the various birth control options function. Parse the US First Amendment.
Also, for you yarnish people out there, I saw this demonstrated on an episode of QI.
http://www.designboom.com/technology/pedal-powered-un-knitting-machine-by-imogen-hedges/
Anyone mentioning Sharon Osborne has to provide documentary evidence that she ever self identified as a feminist and/or act as nursemaid to an aging manchild?
Being the daughter of one man who loves kids and married to another one, the whole “society treats men like pedophiles!” thing has never rang true to me. No one ever acted weird about my dad wanting to play with/cuddle kids, and no one does with Mr C either. Perhaps this is because they don’t come across as predatory creeps?
In reality most societies have far more of a problem with people making excuse for people who sexually abuse kids, especially if they’re prominent members of their communities.
“I would prefer that the trolls have to make a weeping angel barbie before they can post. Those were the best use of barbie dolls, ever.”
NOOOO!! The image of an angel itself becomes an angel, remember?!?
I *really* like the idea of making trolls explain a form of birth control in each comment. Not like there aren’t LOTS that they should’ve culturally absorbed the existence of.
As for Woody, every time he defends/praises Elam, he must include one thing Elam’s actually done to help men, with a citation.
Challenges: Speak in iambic pentameter. wRiTe ThEiR eNtIrE cOmMeNt LiKe ThIs.
When using gendered pronouns, use the opposite gender for what you’re trying to say every time. If they don’t quite deserve the ban and they fail any challenge, their name must become Shit McFarteater, because I am a fucking mature person.
Also, besides explaining how babbie is made, explain how covering female’s contraceptive hormone expenses are a female-only privilege. Assuming they’re being prescribed for contraception (there are other reasons to prescribe), then the female is clearly having sex with at least one person who creates sperm. So how the fuck is the “prevent pregnancy” outcome only helping females?
I don’t know if The Big Head will send it direct, but David’s onto that. (Should it be David and the Mockers now?)
LOL: here’s a song by the 80s NZ band The Mockers, that pretty much sums up the trolls: