Questions and Answers – IOTW Report

Questions and Answers

Tuesday, 4 December 2018, 9:41 BFH Uncategorized 39

Last week we had a successful idea suggested by Forcibly Deranged, an open thread where readers could discuss a wide range of topics that concern them.

I just received an email that would be a good way to kick off another one of those threads.

It’s from GeoFraz. He says he’s a bit concerned that one of The Bigs has begun holding comments in moderation for approval, a move that makes one feel that free expression is becoming more and more rare on the internet.

Feel free to express yourselves in our comment section.

But remember, free speech is not free from consequences.

39 Comments on Questions and Answers

  1. I’ve been reading IOTW for several years now. I’m not sure if I found your link from Breitbart or vice versa, but I’ve enjoyed both of you ever since. However, as of late, I have an issue with Breitbart that I’m curious to know if you or anyone else at IOTW have experienced. Here is my last contact to them to explain better:

    “Dear Sirs,

    After ten years of reading Breitbart I’ve decided to cease doing so. I’ve contacted you twice before now requesting to know why of late so many of my comments are being held up for “approval by Breitbart News” and I’ve received no response. The comments were never approved and therefore censored. For a media outlet that holds itself up as truth tellers among so much fake news and lambaste others for censorship, I find it quite hypocritical that you’re doing the same and won’t even explain why.

    Sincerely,
    [Redacted]

    This has happened over the last three months or so. And no, my comments did not contain profanity, harassment nor slanderous accusations, just my opinions. And yes I do realize that they use Disqus to manage their comments but as I stated to them in previous communications, if they criticize Google and Twitter for this, why not Disqus? Why not find another network platform? They have options.

    Anyway, thanks for the rant time. But I really would like to know what your contributors and readers think.

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  2. About a week and half, or so, ago, I tried my hand at using a gravity fed HVLP sprayer. I’ve used spray guns before (a long time ago, and using alkyd paint) and I wanted to try shooting water borne material. Has anyone here done this with an HVLP? If so, how did you achieve success with it? I abandoned the compressor-driven gun and went with a turbine-powered one, but I either had too thin a material or too thick and couldn’t dial it all in. I know there are plenty of YT videos of people shooting latex. I’m particularly annoyed with one guy who was proud of the fact that he didn’t even know what all the controls were on his paint gun — and didn’t care, either. But there he was, spraying away. Arghh.

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  4. Years ago Breitbart (or perhaps it was Disqus) used to hold off posting a comment until it was assured that there were not profanities contained therein. I noticed that they stopped doing that a long while ago and haven’t seen it crop up lately. Admittedly I am not a frequent poster there, but I did post within the last two weeks and it was not present.

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  5. Any time there is monitoring or approval needed for comments or the comments are disabled. You know you’re on a liberal snowflake site.

    I especially like the YouTube videos with comments disabled, like 15k views, 128 likes and 5.7k dislikes. You know upfront that the video is pure cancer.

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  6. Focus on meatspace. The odd comments here or there are OK but if that is your main focus I believe that you are doing it wrong. Now is the time, past time actually, to develop real world meatspace friends, allies and possibly tribe members.
    Commenting into a meaningless echo chamber accomplishes nothing. Some forums are worth more than others.
    YMMV

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  7. The sites that I post on that hold comments in moderation, pending approval, all claim to worry about vile posts from trolls. It has been my experience that the regular readers usually tackle troll problems on contact. I guess it comes down to being a matter of trust. Here at iOTWReport, I really enjoy the freedom to simply post and there it is. Anything else, feels like censorship, and kills the banter option.

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  9. Breitbart may be dead but his spirit is dying slowly. Someone commented earlier that the same thing is happening to Fox.
    BTW, is Tom Malone (first in line to buy iHeart, local distributor of Rush Limbaugh) a good guy or not?

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  10. Guys thanks for the feedback. But I need to clarify something: my issue is not with Breitbart holding questionable comments and monitoring for harassment/trolling. Its with being denied access to an open forum without an explanation of stating exactly what was objectionable. Not one of my comments held for approval was ever posted. Breitbart has consistently published articles critical of other social media forums for doing the exact same. Except they didn’t even have the courtesy to send a me a terse TOS email.

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  11. Obviously we’re not as big as Breitbart, but if we have to take action over a comment it happens with a thorough explanation as to why.
    I would expect Breitbart to have the good sense to avoid the behaviors of the left.
    The thing I hate most about Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. is their totalitarian actions with ZERO explanation as to why they did what they did.
    It’s a faceless cold hammer, which is exactly what the left loves.
    They want to instill fear, paranoia and reticence.
    It is downright unAmerican and needs to be eradicated.

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  13. I’m going to try this again, since my attempted comment disappeared into the ether.

    I pointed out that Big Tech is suppressing conservative speech in multifarious ways. Also that Disqus was bought out December 5, 2017, by Zeta Global, which was founded by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley.

    Then my comment added that after a discussion last night with a friend, I went on a Google search to find what was on the internet from Alexandria Ocasio Cortex before her candidacy. Well-scrubbed (including caches), i.e. essentially nothing. Three items — news article in which she commented in 2012 and 2013, and an item on “fastpeople search”. While I was doing this (fast typist, using a variety of boolean searches), Google stopped me about 20 minutes in, saying “unusual amount of activity from my IP address” and demanding proof that I was not a robot.

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  15. Sounds pretty crappy to me. Years ago I used to follow a humor site and make occasional comments, usually not even concerning politics or any other sensitive subjects. The guy who ran the site was weird – he warned that comments were subject to “moderation” (i.e., censorship), which I understood. However, he would allow your comments to actually POST, then come along after the fact and “moderate” the ones he didn’t like, sometimes even after other people had commented on them. To me that’s even worse than not letting them appear at all. One time I made a remark that several other commenters seemed to think was witty. Next day my comment was gone. All I can imagine is that he didn’t like any “competition” in the humor department. Anyway, I walked away and never darkened his doorsite again.

    🙁

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  16. This site is the only one I’ve ever been inclined to comment on. I enjoy reading the comments. Most everyone here is unrobotic, decent and kinda insightful n sh*t.
    Reading the comments at other sites…fox being a prime example, one gets the idea that the comments are that of nasty,emotionally damaged, mean and or possibly paid trolls.
    Don’t know as much as I’d have you think I do, but I think moderation is a non-issue here among us grown ups.

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  17. reread my comments on gateway pundit and whoever added words in my comment that i did not even say
    wtf?

    i have also been banned of of powerline blog
    don’t know why

    oh well,i just move on to sites like these and don’t look back

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  20. With regard to “totalitarian actions with ZERO explanation” – –
    It’s a faceless cold hammer, which is exactly what the left loves. TRUE
    They want to instill fear, paranoia and reticence. TRUE
    It’s also easy.
    Totalitarians are lazy and fear competition. They don’t like anything complicated. The brute force approach is the path of least resistance. If they don’t like something, it’s just a wave of the wrist to make it go away.
    It’s actually hard to make Freedom, competition and Capitalism work. It is a very dynamic equation where it is difficult to control all the pieces parts.
    Totalitarians can’t be bothered with that. That’s too hard.
    They want it simple. In other words any asshole can be a Totalitarian.

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  21. “…being denied access to an open forum without an explanation of stating exactly what was objectionable. ”
    -@geofraz

    Yep, that behavior, and unexplained banning without any discernible TOS violation, are the reason for the “nightshade” part of my handle. I’ve been banned or just posts held so many times that on some boards, I’m a nightshade of an apparition of a spectre of a ghost of my original handle…you get the idea. And if the idea is SUPPOSED to be to invite behavior modification, you would think – at least with the holds – that they would mention what the PROBLEM is? Nope, you’re left to guess, so you can’t fix whatever it is they don’t like.

    And this is on allegedy “Conservative” boards. I was once banned from the very liberal Wonkette for going after someone fantasizing about child molesting, and they scrubbed me COMPLETELY…THEN the mod did a long rant bitching about me by handle, but since she didn’t include what I said and my account was gone, her little liberal comrades had no way to know just WHAT or WHO she was apoplectic ABOUT.

    The conservative ones sometimes correct SOME posters publically, even edit their comments AND say why they did so. That is a GOOD lesson for EVERYONE.

    …but only SOME posters.

    …others (me) are just flung into the outer darkness with no courtesy whatsoever. I was once, apparently, banned for saying Hillary Clinton may suffer from esophageal varices. Pretty benign and likely true, but I’m pretty sure disease speculation isn’t in the TOS, and I cant imagine even a Disqus bot programmed to scrub “esophogeal” automatically…

    …in fairness, CONSERVATIVE platforms have all their support (patreon, facebook links, VISA, etc.) Threatened in ways liberal ones NEVER have to worry about. Consider GAB getting summarily deplatforned because of some nut shooters postings back along. They didn’t really do anything Twtter doesn’t do, but Twit is lib and GAB is NOT, so ANY excuse to get rid of opposition is good to Democrats.

    …that said, if you are fearful of consequences for opposing liberalism, or even for not censoring those who DO, maybe running an honest blog ain’t for YOU. I hear Soros is hiring, and he’s got cookies…

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  22. I only comment on one other site and it’s with my real name. That one is monitored fairly closely and will block or shut down a thread rather quickly if it goes overboard political or nasty. But then, everybody there has the ability to start threads which means things could get out of hand quickly. In fact one of the games played by the regulars is the posting of one word replies when they see it coming. ‘IN BEFORE THE BLOCK” With the thread sometimes being closed before the word “Block” gets posted. Rare that there be more than a half dozen replies after it starts to go south before it gets shut down. Different set up in that you have numerous or multiple threads going that can last for days, weeks and sometimes longer.

    Regarding the comments you see at other sites it prevents my participation or ongoing following of the typical things to be found on them.

    On another note, have always found Br. Big most accommodating and fair in that I believe there’s little to no censorship which when you consider the characters and sometimes emotionally challenged group here, is truly amazing. I’m afraid I’m qualified to lead the group to be considered as the emotional midgets.

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  23. …also, I like IOTW because they don’t fear “Anonymous”, even though many here dont like that type of posting. This is because “Anonymous” posters may have valuable information about things because they work for Government or certain organizations that could fire or even imprison them for “wrongthink”. We live in a world where metropolian LEOs can be dismissed for things posted ON THEIR OWN TIME, and big city firefighters can be blackballed from ever working again for something their WIFE posted. These things and more HAVE happened, and will AGAIN.

    Also, some who work for Government contractors have a high degree of PC judgement at work because employers are nervous about losing contracts due to something an EMPLOYEE says that is picked up by some Stalinist apparatchik that just happens to work in Procurement. Please believe me when I say I WISH I didn’t know what I was talking about, and leave it at that.

    …if you want to hear THOSE voices…and I DO…then that’s the ONLY way you get them. Yes, you get idiots too, but that’s true in real life also, nicht wahr? An intelligent adult can judge for THEMSELVES what to believe and what to reject.

    And I thank IOTW and BFH for treating US like ADULTS.

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  25. “reread my comments on gateway pundit and whoever added words in my comment that i did not even say”

    …yep, I’ve had TONS of fun with GP, @southernsue, and they DO have heavy handed mods there. I’d point you to MY account, but they blew it away.

    …the ones they KNOW about, that is. Maybe I’m still there. Or maybe NOT. THEY’LL never know…

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  27. I love this thread and am enjoying reading all the comments but isn’t anyone going to answer AbigailAdams question about the gravity fed HVLP sprayer? I don’t even know what she is referring to but I would help if I could/

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  28. @geofraz – By chance do you use a VPN (virtual private network) connection? I have found that it is common for commenting oversight to be radically different, usually much more restrictive, when I use my VPN, especially if my apparent location is Ukraine or some other sketchy place.

    An unrelated VPN oddity is that many U.S. news sites won’t even let you browse if they think you’re in Europe due to the new EU privacy law that went into effect this summer.

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  29. @Uncle Al. Good tip. I will have to disable mine when that happens.

    But, i’m a paid troll so. . . frikin soros is a tightass btw.

    TGP has devolved into drive by reporting. Its quite boring nowdays. BB throws a fit if you type soros name. Try it.

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  32. I like this site because it’s a daily laugh. I am grateful that pretty much anything goes. Hat tip to all y’all for the high standards maintained here.

    The level of class and wit is unequaled anywhere.

    Now what exactly IS the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

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  35. Aggressive moderation is frustraiting, especially since I never use profanity. But life goes on, i gave up on National Review and will give up Breitbart when the time comes.

    BFH
    Your site may not be as big but your fur hat is way bigger!

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  38. My first encounter with censorship came when I wrote a letter to The Houston Chronicle regarding George Bush and the Willie Horton ad.
    They called me and said it would be posted in Sunday’s paper.
    Well, they posted it but EDITED the fuck out of it.
    It resulted in making the opposite point and me looking like an idiot.
    I was furious and I showed all my friends and family the actual letter I wrote and the one they published.
    It was a criminal act, what those assholes did to my words. 🙁 🙁 🙁

    Lately I posted to Runners World and they deleted my comments shortly afterwards. Thing is, my posts were tame.

    Bottom line, donate any extra funds you have to iotw, they are the ONLY free speech site known to man. 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  39. Are y’all retired?! Or just surfing the net while sitting at gubment jobs? ‘Cause I can barely find time in some days to look at this site, much less comment…
    Whatever: Thanks for your vigilance, keeping all lanes of the information superhighway open and notifying us periodic commuters of the roadblocks!

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