Herald Readers Smash 50,000 Comment Barrier
by Alphaville Herald on 16/05/09 at 11:35 pm
Militias, mafias, land barons, Lindens, griefers, Goreans, furs & fashionistas form huge drama pump
by Pixeleen Mistral, Herald Editrix
Friday, the Herald staff assembled at a local sushi bar to sample the fugu, watch the reader comment counter, and place a few friendly wagers. At issue – the content of the 50,000th reader's comment.
The wagers were – of course – entirely a skill-based virtual game, so nobody was really gambling — except on the fugu. If any money spacebux changed hands, it was something like playing zyngo in Second Life – just another game the Lab seems more than happy to tolerate.
Back at the sushi bar, Audrey from typesetting bet big on the recent crypto-mystic quantum mechanics fad, while the sports desk hoped for Nacon to call someone an idiot – yet again. As the comment counter ticked to 50000, a classic Herald topic bubbled up to the top of the heap and everyone's favorite – Gorean sex – claimed the place of honor. For the record, the 50,000th Herald reader comment was from Herald writer The Wanderer - who will risk his virtual virtue to get the Panther Girl story in classic Herald style.
urizenus sklar
May 17th, 2009
Ah I knew that was coming but didn’t think it was coming so fast.
Adric Antfarm
May 17th, 2009
let me be known minus me you all would be like 49992 or something.
corona anatine
May 17th, 2009
this prompts the question
what do you call a person who spends (wastes?) their hours counting up the number of comments the herald has recieved?
The Wanderer
May 17th, 2009
Damn. I was hoping someone else would be 50,000.
Now I GOTTA go back to Panther-Country and get raped.
Ah, well…one must risk all as a member of the 4th Estate!
Aya Pelous
May 17th, 2009
yawn
Prokofy Neva
May 17th, 2009
I’m past 20,000 comments on my one blog, and I’m only one blog, and have not been running as many years.
You’d have reached this landmark faster if you stopped moderating comments in a biased fashion when they criticize the editors, especially Pixeleen.
But you *do* need to moderate comments, because you used to fail to do this, and that meant that people like me who worked hard as reporters could be bullied and harassed and stalked endlessly in the comments, and the editors never defended me. So I stopped writing, and you lost tens of thousands of comments as a result. Furthermore, Uri, you’re a total hypocrite because when I attempted to siphon comments finally off to my blog, which at least has two rules to somewhat reduce the insanity (you have to use SL names and can’t incite damages in RL and SL), you accused me of censorship. But then five minutes later Pixeleen installed commenting moderating under the guise of having to control massive grief attacks and spammers. Bullshit.
When you’re ready to grow up and moderate comments fairly, and stop your obsession with this very tired old flogged story of the W-hat/V-5/PN/Woodbury goons, you’ll get more participation and your traffic will stop tanking, which it has been doing for months.
The Herald needs a new editor if Uri is too busy.
urizenus sklar
May 17th, 2009
>what do you call a person who spends (wastes?) their hours counting up the number of comments the herald has recieved?
I think you call it a computer. You see, they have these newfangled devices…”computing machines”. And you will find it hard to believe that not only can they count things but they can actually output the result. In numerical form! See the screenshot at the top of this article for an example of this amazing new technology!
Sigmund Leominster
May 18th, 2009
Typical speculative Herald reporting by Uri there. I mean, honestly, this “computing machine” stuff is straight out of science fiction! Next you’ll be spouting crap about “flying machines” and “long-distance talking devices!” I’m away to a barn raising before I take the buggy downtown to buy more quills and ink.
Satan
May 18th, 2009
@Prokofy
Firstly, covering griefing is just good journalism. Good news is drama. Secondly, while I realize that it looks bad, you have to realize that while I was writing for the herald Uri never spoke to me once that I can remember. Pix was upset by my griefing. She did NOT support it or encourage it. She lectured me about it and told me she felt like I was wasting my potential and that my antics would get me into trouble. I can’t fathom how that reflects badly on the herald. If it reflects badly on anyone, it’d be me.
Thirdly, the whole censorship thing. The PN did have a means for flooding comments section with thousands of comments automatically using Linden Lab’s own servers. They had the means and they have done it. I have done it. Obviously this makes comment moderation a necessity. Instead of all of the spam appearing on this website, it goes to their inbox. This means that THEY suffer because of it.
Now, you have noticed that the comments are being censored more. This doesn’t just effect you. Only around %50 of my comments get through and this is because they want the comment section to be more like ‘Letters to the Editor’ than a chat room. That is understandable. I have seen that the censorship effects comments coming from everyone but before then I took it personally as well. Their allowing for the whole quantum physics discussion was a rare exception and it was noticeably rare. I had not expected them to approve the last half of the comments but they did and I think I know why. I know for a fact that I had about 5 or 10 comments in that thread that weren’t approved. They were obviously following the discussion with interest based on the tagline of this article which oh-so-laughably coincides with the discussion. I appreciate the hilarity of my own comments, preaching about god in geek-speak and ‘oneness with the quantum field’ like some sort of star trek cult is funny, but I actually believe what I have said. Some quantum physicists are trying to explain the unexplained by ironically creating fictitious particles called ‘virtual particles’, another example of the human intelligence clinging to subjectivity and attempting to construct it’s own reality. Unlike the actual kooks who take the whole study a step further, it doesn’t seem logical to me that if my intelligence is just a fragment (for lack of a better word) of the collective consciousness that I could somehow drastically alter the fabric of reality by observing a new reality, which seems as though it’d violate the will of the collective consciousness which constructed reality as a whole and thus not be possible. I am simply pointing out that I believe this is evidence of the existence of God, the nature of our existence, the nature of good and evil, and the nature of death. I am particularly interested in understanding death right now for obvious reasons. I don’t think many people will argue that an interest in understanding these things is FAR more productive than many things that I have done in the past.
The fact that this comment will likely NOT be published clearly demonstrates that the censorship effects everyone and that there is no reason to take it personally. I know that as Pix is reading this comment she is laughing her ass off and wondering “Should I publish it or not”, since it’d obviously be a tragedy not to let something so hilarious be approved.
Urizenus Sklar
May 18th, 2009
Prok says,
>I’m past 20,000 comments on my one blog
yes Prok, I’m sure you are. But 19,000 of those are from you commenting on your own posts.
marilyn murphy
May 19th, 2009
awww. i wanted that number counting job! once again, some new fangled machine robs people of job opportunity. i had a great name for the position too. i wanted it to be larry.
Corona Anatine
May 19th, 2009
My own fault for looking foolish i guess by posting comments when not fully awake
At0m0 Beerbaum
May 22nd, 2009
“You’d have reached this landmark faster if you stopped moderating comments in a biased fashion when they criticize the editors, especially Pixeleen.”
Pot meet kettle.