Policy Change

As all Readers know, I prefer that comments be more or less attached to the post topic, because otherwise things can get out of control, and I lack the patience and good humor to keep going back to the thing to fix it up.

But I suspect that a lot of you would like to get things off your collective chest, and sound off about something that has irritated / angered / pleased / aroused you, whatever.

This has become evident in the popularity of “Open Post” features (Insty can get thousands of comments in his free-for-all posts, for example).

So from now on, I am declaring my News Roundup posts to be open for all or any comments, regardless of topic.  As you know, they appear every Tuesday and Friday, so each week you get two whacks of the axe, so to speak.  (If you have trouble logging in to comment, let me know by email;  I’ll pass it on to TSII, and he will get to it as time permits.)

Enjoy — I’m not going to censor or delete anything, unless it’s completely horrible or egregious ad hominem  attacks on other Readers (my back porch, my judgment, no appeal).  I think you all know my limits by now, so it should be easy.

And FFS, please don’t use this freedom to try to fuck me over, because that will not end well (for you).

Commenting Bastardy

I know that the Comment-login thing is getting worse, and I apologize.  Tech Support is on the case, and warns that there may be some “fuckyness” [sic, good word, will steal]  while he’s exploring the innards of WordPress.

Please be patient while he activates the high explosives.

On a similar note, while talking about fuckyness:  correspondents may have noticed that my replies to emails come under my old own_drummer account.  Do not be alarmed;  this is because for some reason, when I reply using me@ or [email protected], the messages are bounced by the mail server.  This too will be addressed after the login fuckyness has been fixed.

In the meantime, here’s a little diversion:

New Time

In the past I’ve scheduled my posts to appear just after 6am Central so that people could read them either before or soon after they got to work — which many people have supported.  But several Longtime Brit and Euro Readers recently asked via email whether I could possibly give them the same opportunity, and it’s an easy change to make.

Henceforth, my daily posts will appear soon after midnight Central, i.e. early morning Over There.  (I have no Asian Readers other than a slew of what appears to be Chinese bots, and my ANZAC Readers will just have to deal with it, as the time difference is too extreme for me to do anything to help them.  Sorry.)

Speaking of Brits, Mr. Free Market shared this wonderful take on modern education with me, and I didn’t want it to be submerged amongst all the other cartoons and memes:

Brilliant.  (I know:  “Theorem” not “Theorum”.  Probably written by a Math guy.)

Damn Fucking Bloody Shit

As Regular Readers know full well, my website has been ill-treating comments (or attempts at commenting) like lions having a buffalo breakfast:

Net result is that nobody, least of all me, is happy about this.

So here’s what’s going to happen.

Over the next couple or so weeks, Tech Support II is going to rebuild this website and its functions on one of his own NSA-capacity servers.  This will take place when he’s not fighting the forces of evil and ineptitude (i.e. his regular paying job) and can devote some of his valuable free time to the rebuild.  When the time comes, we’ll all get a couple days’ warning, and then he’s going to flip a switch and migrate this whole back porch over to its new digs.

Some content — mostly, it should be said, all the comment-related toxicity — may disappear into the Intarwebz Black Hole never to be seen again. which means that there is a possibility that y’all may have to re-register, or maybe not, we’ll see.

Then all will be well:  unicorns running wild in the streets, winning lottery tickets for everybody and a massive, collective and fatal heart attack will strike dead all governmental swamp denizens.  (Hey, we can all dream, right?)

Either TSII or I will keep everybody posted as to progress as, if and when it occurs.

Thatisall.


Update from TSII:  No need to re-register for the folks. The worst case is a couple of hours of comments getting lost in the move.