Sunday, February 19, 2006

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS

I should have done this a long time ago. I thought the nastier anonymous comments would have died down by now, but it appears that some people just never get it out of their system.
This blog was set up as a discussion board for Monmouth County Republicans, but it seems that certain individuals, primarily from one town, have pirated these pages for their own malicious fun.
"Colleen" went way over the top.
You are in my house. I make the rules here.
So, you can still post comments, but now you have to register with Blogger. It's easy, some of you have already done so.
I will still delete inappropriate comments. Remember it is not censorship when it is on private property.

16 comments:

Sue Veitengruber said...

Thanks, Abe. People will still offer differing opinions. This country was built on a difference of opinion. (I wonder if pouring all that tea in the Boston Harbor today would be an EPA violation?)

I believe your action will allow more civilized, intelligent and informed debate of the issues.

Honest Abe said...

At least we'll know who's saying what. If not their real name, at least a screen name.

Rich Kohler said...

How-ell
How-ell
How-ell

Or, if you prefer:

Abe
Abe
Abe

Whoo-hooooooooo

Jackie Corley said...

Definitely a good move, Abe. People get mighty mouthy when they know they don't have to "own" their statements in some capacity.

It's reasonable for someone to maintain anonymity for want of privacy, job protection, etc. It's unreasonable to be anonymous so you can spew vitriolic trash that you would not want connected to you in the clear light of day. The latter is simply cowardice.

Downtowner said...

anonymity by some is a thing of necessity. by others it is something to abuse. i think abe did the right thing here. it also gives him an opportunity to see, first hand, the stuff i was commenting about with regard to the fringe people who are patently deranged.

Honest Abe said...

Sharon Migliaccio,
First let me apologize for the foul comments left on my blog. I looked for "Colleen's" IP. My web tracker only retains records of the most recent 100 hits before rolling over. Also, if more than one individual is logged on at a time, it does not tell you which one posted a comment. This past week has been a very busy one and I have not had my usual amount of time to monitor this site. By the time I saw Colleen's comments and looked them up, the web tracker had already rolled over and all IP records of that time frame were lost.
Against my better judgment, I left the comments up Saturday evening because your husband was engaging in a dialogue with "Colleen" demanding "she" provide proof of her allegations. I admonished "Colleen" to "settle down". Sunday morning I had had enough of the entire mess and removed all inappropriate comments. I also deleted all comments, including my own, which deviated from the topic of the thread. This process took up the better part of the morning. In order to prevent any further "Colleens" or others like it, I disabled all anonymous comments.
Disabling the anonymous comments is still not foolproof, as a few weeks ago somebody attempted to impersonate a well-known local publisher by registering with Blogger under the name of his newspaper. When brought to my attention I removed the comment and referred the publisher to Blogger for further help. If problem posters remain a problem I will either enable the "comment moderation" feature or disable comments altogether.
I am not required to track IPs; indeed, Blogger does not even offer that feature. I use a free web tracking service, statcounter.com., which is a completely separate service from Blogger. Its primary purpose is to track how many people visit a website and where they're from. If I disconnected it I would have no way at all to track IPs.
I also have no way to block an IP, which obviously would be a useful preventative tool.
I wish you the best of luck with your pursuit. "Colleen" posted comments which served no purpose but to insult and hurt, and "she" will no longer be welcome to post any comments here, of any kind. When found, they will be deleted.
Again, I apologize for any pain caused by "Colleen's" comments.

Downtowner said...

THE COURIER has just launched its own blog, at www.bayshorenews.com. There is a blog section and we do allow for aninymous postings for the moment.

Of course that doesn't mean we want the problems that have been served up to Honest Abe. But, we hope everyone takes the time to stop by and see what we're doing.

Downtowner said...

well to be precise, the blog is at: http://www.bayshorenews.com/blog/. check it out and see how you like it.

Downtowner said...

Abe:

Mr. Gallic has said some hard things about me on the monmouthrepublicans blogspot. I am not allowed to post there, regardless of what is said about me. This may be off topic, but I would appreciate it if you allow me the venue to give my rebuttal. This is to my great advantage, given the fact that you get more traffic.

I understand if you cannot do this, but am asking in case you can.

My response to "Lincoln Day +1" was:


"Well, I have not endorsed any candidate for any election. Giving one's opinion and giving an endorsement are different things entirely. Second, I have always been an advocate of the best people for the toughest jobs and this elephant-donkey stuff is better left to elementary school lunch rooms in my estimation. Third, I supported that chairman you're crowing about so much and things seemed to turn out for him (though I think he has turned out to be a great disappointment). And, I do not believe that neither Mr. Niemann nor Mr. Gallic knows what the heck a Republican is, unless making money is what the new definition of the word is.

"As for the Middletown Republicans, I have yet to be challenged by a fact error or a false statement outside of party rhetoric nonsense. I have my facts and I've presented them and you counter them with partisan nonsense opinion. I was a Republican when I made those statements and, in some part, the inability for this party and this chairman to comprehend the difference between right and wrong is a substantial reason why I am a Democrat now. One can dress the facts up all they want and bark about them to kingdom come outside the tent, but there are things that are true regardless of how they are framed.

"If you intend on making allegations against me, it would only be fair to allow my comment, given the fact I have always permitted the same to anything I have ever written or commted about anyone. But, then again, that would reflect honesty...something that is largely devoid from the current county Republican chair's administration, in my considered opinion."

Thank you for the consideratino of this request.

Honest Abe said...

You can post it here.
Interestingly, I was in fact at Lincoln Day, regardless of what "Ronald Reagallic" wrote.
What I found interesting was the fact that they blocked off most of the parking lot to make it harder to find a space and create the impression of a packed house. Still, Serena and Tom pulled off a nice bash. Any drop-off in attendance is not a reflection on them; I'm sure people had other reasons.

Downtowner said...

Thanks Abe:

Interesting observation about Lincoln Day. There seems to be a lot of effort into appearances by the county and at least somewhat less interest in candor and substance at this juncture. Maybe that will change.

Oh yeah, and there's a lot of lying too.

Jackie Corley said...

Other Republicans complimented Serena to me this morning when I spoke with them. I understand the event was well-attended but not as well-attended as in past years.

Purcell's editorial being passed out in that room is just precisely.

Jackie Corley said...

And by precisely, I meant priceless.

um, yeah.

Ms. Swift, signing off.

Art Gallagher said...

I noticed that RR doesn't have any links.

I wonder how much of his traffic is coming from Abe and how he would drive traffic to his blog without links from Abe and Jackie.

Not that I'm suggesting anything. :-)

Honest Abe said...

He would leave comments on other blogs and post his URL.

Sue Veitengruber said...

Abe:

I noticed your comments about cleaning up the posts on your blog. I do not believe that name calling is pertinent to any thread. Nor should outrageous lies have any place for any amount of time. Hopefully now that comment moderation has been enabled you will be better able to police the posts.

I would like to bring your attention to the "DiBella is in the race" and "Howell" threads in your January 2006 archives. I noticed that posts (under my own name) have been removed but there are still posts which refer to me, and others, in a deragatory, name calling manner which is not petinent to the thread. Please review this posts. I think I have been more than patient.