I haven't noticed any. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
It's pretty appalling stuff, Africans as savages, advocating eugenics, as well as comparatively innocuous things like calling other contributors evil, and being a bit too eager to express hatred for entire nations, etc... I personally think ET is walking on thin ice by tolerating some of this stuff, though I understand the desire to err on that end.
Just because a somewhat intellectual argument can be made for something (though I think there is a bit too much of the visceral in these comments to preserve any intellectual integrity they may have) does not mean ET should be obligated to provide a platform for them arguments. And the rest are just sophmoric attempts to ignite flame wars. Kudos for those who don't take the bait.
I don't know just where I stand on banning. It hasn't set well with me in the past. Doesn't ET have a mechanism like DKos where if you are troll-rated enough times you can no longer comment? Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
the dKos problem:
Major problem over there right now is that the young Kossacks who self-appoint themselves to enforce the FAQ (the jaded among us refer to them as the Kostapo) are not learned in the law and the FAQs are not drafted with legal precision.
If ET goes this route, I suggest that a Code Jerome be drafted by a team of lawyers, where all offenses to the security of the Realm, both felonies and misdemeanors, be very precisely defined, with copies of the Code distributed to each reader.
Trial as well as appelate procedures should precisely spelled out also.
I much prefer the English system, but unfortunately the jurisdiction is apparently France.
Perhaps this conversation could lead to a second thread about what we see as positive going on here.
That would be nice too. "When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins
That's why I can't spell it out in english, it's very crude.
I got his point, though.
I don't really get why one would invoke it as an insult though, seems to go against everything a heterosexual man in good health and spirit stands and strives for. Oh well. (In french of course it's another matter; though the word is invoked often, the content it carries is so far divorced from the original term that it carries no signifaction for the user; perhaps it did long ago, but its new meaning was reified so far into the past that the etymology is no longer relevant. Not so in english.) Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
Well, apparently you "got it" enough to find it worthy of repetition... Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
And if the word is wholly inappropriate in all circumstances, if one were to hypotethically allow for its usage in english, then this might actually be that application given the antics of more than a few over there.
Other than that, have I expressed to you just how much I enjoy pies of all sorts? Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
How unKraftwerkian.
They want to throw people under trucks on the Interstate? "When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins
What kind of water is under that thin ice? If t ose comments were in any way anonynous I'd see a reason to worry ore. But tge hidden comment mecanism is quite good at preventing the casual reader from seeing them, and that should preclude the need for banning. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
I just think it cannot help the reputation of the site, or encourage readership, when it seems that each time I pull up the recent comments list, there is something offensive to read. And not offensive in some ideological sense, but simply sophomoric. The hidden comments only work after so many people have rated a comment. I understand you and I probably see more of the recent comments than the "casual reader", but comments are comments. I often visit other blogs I know nothing about and try to judge from the comments what the vibe is there. If someone who is mean seems to be dominating threads, I probably won't go back.
But some of that is a matter of taste too. For example, I think Lana is funny, even though she can be mean. But she's also not contributing almost every other comment either... Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
I'm against any banning policy. This site has got a troll-rating feature and a God-given right (what's an atheistic version of this?) to ignore any posts/diaries, wouldn't it be enough? But then what do I know, being a citizen of a country where freedom of speech doesn't really exist and everything is being censored???
:)
BTW, mr R Kulisz (is that him the last nasty offender, right?) may well be a Pole living in the Evil Twins Country or recently left it and is now experiencing a cultural shock. Then you may want to greet him with an authentic Polish word "Kurrrva" and he'll be happy.. or not
