But you need fire or acid to stop them regenerating.

I?d like someone to explain why I should give a rodent?s rectum either way. Either he's a bigot having a public temper tantrum, or just acts like a bigot?

Morbid curiousity? The same way you want to know what colour that pus is going to be?

I'd like someone to explain why I should give a rodent's rectum either way.

I find it interesting, in a car-crash sort of way. I'm not asking anyone else to.

Though, y'know... I have family on the Coast. And some of them didn't cope very well with my "coming out?

Or are you really going for the fight-back-with-pantsless-Ron meaning?

[ETA: although really slashing won't help you, you need to go straight for the fire or acid with trolls]

See, I disagree. I think there is someone in there, but it's that relative you have to see every Christmas, the one you try desperately to avoid having to talk?

Just because its wearing meat doesn't mean its a person.

Yes, verb got nouned. This is a process I thoroughly approve of.

Professionally, I have to be able to make the distinction. The tactics for modding and?

go on, jog our memory

He is still a fool,?

I'd like someone to explain why I should give a rodent's rectum either way.

Morbid curiousity? The same way you want to know what colour that pus is going to be?

Well, I'm certainly morbidly curious as to how it pans out for him come the election, not so much?

In practical terms, I tend to agree with that. Allowing persistent non-listening in a discussion erodes the community regardless of motivation. Troll is as troll does, perhaps?

I do get that, however.

Oh, no — but honestly the spectacle of never-were politicians having a pissy-fit over their list rankings got tired fifteen years ago. :)

But can I also take the opportunity to note that there are also people who are not trolls or tinks, but who sometime simply disagree with most of the crowd, and might be a bit frustrating at times? I do think the T-word is sometimes overused in?

Yes.?

So there isn't a message that pops up when you post:
This community caters for a range of opinions between and You should be technology positive and non-bigoted (although we do?

Arguing with doctrinaire libertarians can be a fun way to pass?

I get the same thing with extreme social conservatives. One of the things that makes me wonder if the 'political?

That was a prime example not of differing ideas but of a wilfully unpleasant approach to conversation by just one person. I don't know anywhere offline that would put up with such behaviour.

If this is a conversation space,?

There's a reason Marxists become Actoids

I generally have more of a problem with people who confuse politics with the more dogmatic fringes of cultic religion.

My theory is that it is like one of those bangles that doesn't quite join to create a full circle – the extreme ends are?

Ah ha! Too much merlot!?

Partly that (last night, I hope obviously), and partly tbh a fairly severe case of earthquake-brain.

An athletic shoe, I'm thinking.

Clap if you believe in fairies?

Only the pretty ones.

It's not what we tink, it's how we're tinking.

And what's wrong with twink? Although it's hard to get off an LCD screen.

'I tink a taw a puddy cat. I did, I did taw a puddy cat.

ETA: Clap if?

(although lurkers being arguably a lot less annoying in general than trolls or tinks)

Really really sorry, and Emma you might want to remove it.

I?m not sure what trolling means these days. To me it means (or?

And I scrolled down the page, idly thinking, "no, I think a warning will do, this isn't that bad OH FUCK OH FUCK"

It's gone. People can find it themselves if they wish.

It depends on how cool you are, obviously. Please post your CV and we will judge you, quietly but with great intensity.

I wouldn't think so, Jo. I mean, if you're lurking, you're lurking. Unless you're lurking with malintent. Perhaps it's a bit "if a tree fell in the woods and no-one was there to hear it" sort of thing.

And very much more invisible, except to themselves. EDIT: Speaking as a long-time lurker before I ever dared to post. And occasionally, when there's a fascinating ping-pong conversation between two or three, and one doesn't want to?

Thanks. The Interwebz; it's a jungle out there. Note to self: read to the bottom of the page, dumbass!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvOYPg9LoyQ

It depends on how cool you are, obviously. Please post your CV and we will judge you, quietly but with great intensity.

Oh no, the thought of trying to rewrite my CV for maximum impact is driving me to the heights of grand panic ...

(or is inciting an incipient?

I guess there is, but what's so bad about lurking on (say) tech threads that are interesting, but actually contributing is so far above my level of?

Tough luck for him. This is the net, he's gonna get called it a lot.

Nice. Warren Beatty styles.

But still, maybe 10,000 reading some discussions. So many! Who are all these people??

Ah, lies, damn lies and web statistics. I remember the stunned mullet look on the boss who wanted to know how many people had read his missive online. "What do you mean you don't know for?

I tend to think that's a good thing. I knew?

Question though: What proportion of lurkers are OS?

Ummm, that would be me.

To be honest, as a Kiwi living elsewhere, I read the discussions to keep up with what's going on in the country and what people are discussing (and?

Being able to keep up with PAS threads in a timely manner is disturbingly high?

LOLZ. What's their favourite food?

Once you get past the cliché of that song, it is actually a pretty good song.

Speaking to the substance of the post, the underlying contention is that there are two classes of internet commentator who have different opinions to those of the author: 'tinks'?

The Nielsen figure was for readers who contribute somewhere on the internet, not necessarily here.

Depends on what "53% of readers contribute" means – if it's "ever contribute" then, well, I get the feeling PAS has a solid core of a?

I guesstimated it.

Do you know if they're all separate individuals or are they the same people coming back repeatedly? Is there some way of knowing? NB:?

A wee while ago in the 'Limping onwards' thread, Danyl got into an argument that ended up with him criticising the local culture's 'enforced niceness', specifically citing the situation where, when an outsider insults a regular, the moderator sternly steps in (in marked?

Lurkers – Is there a connection between guardian lurkers, pedants and those waiting with a ?weapon? loaded with expertise (sniper ?). I don?t post often these days but at times I catch myself dying for a chance to show how smart I am (second?

Yes I'm sure that was the word Emma used to describe you

Performance art, David. You'd know about that.

You say that like it's a bad thing

I enjoy that, personally. So many smart, insightful and generous people.

We discussed some time ago the relationship between views?

Perhaps Russell could?

Speaking to the substance of the post, the underlying contention is that there are two classes of internet commentator who have different opinions to those of the author: 'tinks' and 'trolls', who are either stupid or evil respectively.

I think Emma is arguing that some, not all, commentators fall into?

Nope. Not at all. You have to bear in mind that I?

I am astonished when people complain about the treatment the p-troll has received here.

Yeah, David, I think you might have chosen UTTERLY the wrong dude to defend against our terribly 'dehumanising' discussions.

If they even make it onto here in the first place. Intellect is the?

The key word there is "sometimes". I'm talking all the times.

And unless you believe in unfettered individual freedom to disrupt a conversation at the expense of many others,?

My mistake

Thanks?

To be fair, without that context some of Kracklite's recent responses did seem a?

I've always said you looked like Carly Simon.

heh

To me it's offensive because he's reducing a group of people to one feature of their lives. The gays in O'Connors mind all seem to want the same thing (or have the same "agenda", if you will) – and that's not the same thing that?

In any case, no, you haven't missed the "Damien O'Connor is a?

Good to hear some perspectives on why it was offensive. The media thing seemed like a beat-up to me.

As a lurker, that's almost exactly what I was going to say. In?

Of course, it was also news because it was it was the very last fucking headline Goff and his party needed this week.

Scoring the lead story on both 6pm TV news bulletins was a spectacular piece of foot-shootery.

Seriously, Danyl? Because what I actually said was:

Consider Damien?

Blogger expresses possibly harsh thought about politician. Astonishing. I have?

That just made it all the more poignant. Thanks for your contribution, hope to see some more.

I've experienced this quite literally thousands of times. In the?

First, I can Bore For My Country on web moderation. People know this. And many of them have heard me discuss this "what to do with Tinks" issue over the last couple of years. It's at the forefront of my mind right now because I have?

True. How do we nurture that?

yet another example of a PAS regular being pointlessly poisonous

I would wholeheartedly embrace the idea of Danyl wearing an apricot scarf, but I have a feeling that Warren Beatty never *whined* this much.

Unlimited and Computerworld are 2nd and 3rd, and The Standard 10th. No sign of Kiwiblog.

__For purposes of clarity, "high internet users" means "people who?

I have someone that song reminds me of (who doesn't, etc), and now Danyl looks exactly like that in my head.

Not ignoring Sacha's question. Lunch,?

How bizarre.

no hurry

That's a good question; can you separate out the people refreshing a given page to see new replies (which would be a lot of us, a lot of the time, in the absence?

To clarify, leaving out repeat visits is what I meant when I mentioned "unique" views or posts or visitors.

As Mark noted, measuring the number of absolute unique visitors is very hard, and different people do it differently. Google Analytics (which gave us 40,000 uniques in?

That's one of the hardest things to teach young scientists. They get this idea and are all like "I'm so amazing nobody else could have thought of this" and then you show them the five other groups working on the same idea – sometimes they learn.?

Really? Because this week I saw no in depth analysis of the Labour party list, no commentary on the balance and worth of the people. Oh and I saw?

This wasn't a cunning plan. O'Connor won't win his seat, and in the next electorate selection he'll be challenged by a union candidate and lose. His?

Also, the habits involved in seeking ideas that turn out not to be new are mostly the?

He was an enormous arse yet he was offended by being called "from the south of a bridge"?

If it was, then for this thread as I write, that's 87 posts out of 1888 views – or about 1?

My feeling of stupidity is generally self-induced, right after I've hit "post", but before I've caught up with the rest of the thread.

That's an interesting approach

I've accepted that that's my default setting here. Mostly it's something I like, but if my ego's taken a bit of a bruising from other sources I'm?

Dear Danyl: you?

Mostly my posting is limited by my?

I can very definitely assure you that it isn't. Your assuming that it is is something people can draw their own conclusions from.

BETRAYAL

But not that, I really don't think. Danielle's tweets are public, or Danyl wouldn't?

What, I can't leave you guys alone for five days?

..& as for trolling or what-have-you, I think an offhand comment on a twitter feed oughtn?t be taken too seriously. I?ve said far worse things about my clients on facebook.

ETA: ah,?

Don't worry, everyone's done that. It's part of his charm

Maybe she's like the Highlander. You know how Sean Connery's character already had a Spanish name on his home planet? That sort of thing.

ETA: Or maybe she inceptioned Danyl. 'We planted a simple idea: you shall call your?

I find it difficult enough to keep up with the web sites I enjoy, let alone..
I'm on twitter and I honestly don't?

He was a Spaniard by the name of Ramirez by the time whatshisface met him. But I should stress these are memories harking back a quarter of a century.

excellent

I fell asleep and bumped my head halfway through that.

Reading through the rest of your twitter feed it does seem to be about me, at least more so than it should be for someone who plays such a minor role in your life. But knock yourself out, I guess. Ditto for this?

And before you had time to illustrate how your blog post indiscretion differed from Danielle's tweet indiscretion, or how exactly it did not constitute you expending too much emotional energy on Caleb d'Anvers. Such a shame!

(I'm terrible at both maths and feed-searching, so if anyone would like to do the search, and then break?

which Emma insists is totally not about me, but is an expanded version of a comment she made a few days ago which is . . . about me.

Ohhhh no it isn't! (srsly, this is where we are now, right? And someone can just repost this whenever Danyl repeats?

Awkwardly unflouncing, just for you: I don't think it was indiscreet, just funny in a weird way that someone I don't think I've ever engaged with before tonight is crowing about 'fucking with?

Oh will you children behave?
And Danyl. When in hole stop.
Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.

Calling somebody an idiot = completely hilarious. Gotcha. You may resume your flouncing.

Sad but true. Back here we call that Kiwiblog I?

Thank you.

But isn't that absolutely what happens? Humans behave, often, appallingly badly towards people they have no connection with – people they don't know – whereas when they do know them, because there's a connection there's a disinclination to?

On the basis of your contributions, I think of you as being very smart.

You're absolutely right, unfortunately. But in my less misanthropic moments?

Not quite what I meant, I don't think. I meant that so long as it is possible to maintain standards of common courtesy, we?

And good riddance to him. Prick voted against Civil Unions. He should have been out long ago.

Having been in a similar situation some years ago, the real problem is that if you ever tweet about?

Jacqui: I know stupid — hell, I've been the spokesperson for stupid — and you're not even on the short-list. Sorry.

Well, not after he had a public bowel movement on everyone who'd allocate resources to key marginal campaigns — which Tasman-West Coast is. Chris Auchinvole has a far from impregnable majority of 971. And the last (and only) other National?

Will you stop? You are?

I heartily endorse this statement.

Jacqui, here?s a suggestion.

Instead of feeling all ?stoopid? picture yourself as a bad-ass knowledge zombie, chowing down on a free 24-hour buffet of?

Yeah I thought that too and then I discovered I can get my scientific journal tables of contents via twitter. So now I have a twitter account that alerts me to new science, on my iPad.

But I probably should two accounts so I can?