Larks' Tongues In Aspic (Part 2)

It would be really nice to offer up a recipe for Larks' Tongues in Aspic but there seems to be a recently imposed ban on the import of Larks' Tongue and though the import of live Larks is not restricted the notion of creating a flock of mute Larks is somehow unappetizing.

We are left with little but to disclose more research on the goals of trolls. Based on lived experience harking back to the dark days of the internet when WAIS and Gopher were your friend, email might well take a day to deliver and files were shared using a rather inconveniently named File Transfer Protocol (who knew?) the crufty bastards amongst us know you just don't feed the trolls. And they know why--the scorched eyeballs and blistered fingers from flame wars are why enough. While they know why not to feed the trolls no one really knows why the trolls exist and where they breed.

Until now.

Canadian researchers led by Erin E. Buckels have been studying trolling and the Dark Tetrad of personality resulting in a very interesting report that is the first comprehensive study of the personality traits of Internet trolls. You remember the Dark Tetrad don't you? Well for those who just can't put their finger on it the Dark Tetrad of personality is narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and last but by no means least, sadism.

Dark indeed.

The gist of this report is the revelation that self-described online trolls (so clearly you know who you are) score highly in these personality traits. It is also interesting to note the researchers found it worthwhile to independently study direct and vicarious sadism.

Wow.

In fact the authors noted "It was sadism, however, that had the most robust associations with trolling of any of the personality measures..." and observed that this trait is so strong "that it might be said that online trolls are prototypical everyday sadists." Somehow "everyday" and "sadists" just do not belong in the same sentence.

Flipping the coin (heads you're a sadist, tails you're a troll) the researchers "found clear evidence that sadists tend to troll because they enjoy it. When controlling for enjoyment, sadism's impact on trolling was cut nearly in half". As the title clearly states "Trolls just want to have fun."

But wait! There's more!

The research also indicated a strong positive relation among online commenting frequency, trolling enjoyment, and trolling behavior and identity though causality is yet to be determined. The authors suggest that it is the antisocial nature of the troll that leads to higher usage rates of technology (and commenting) while other research suggests that it is the technology that actually causes the antisocial behavior.

And therein lies the rub: the research is inconclusive. If one allows for trolls (e.g., comments on a blog) does that cultivate the inherent sadism within the commenter? Or does virtual world sadism act as a relief valve literally and figuratively venting what might, should it remain bottled up, manifest itself not only in a more violent manner but bleeding over into the real world? Conventional wisdom falls clearly to the former and we just shouldn't feed the trolls.

With all apologies to true fans of King Crimson.

Larks' Tongues In Aspic

The cold weather must have caused some brain freezes or perhaps the silly season is simply upon us now but one member of The Other Dunwoody was witness to a bizarre sight right here in daVille. Seems that some poor bloke of a certain age and gravitas was approached in a local retail establishment by what turned out to be a somewhat ruffled pro-Dunwoody crusader. What ensued was described as indistinguishable from a verbal assault as the crusader opened a rather large can of Dunwoody Whoopass and gave the confused patron a super-sized portion. While clearly a case of mistaken identity this elderly gentleman fled the store and was last seen heading southbound in a Buick sporting Florida plates and an "Ask Me About My Shih Tzu" bumper sticker.

There does seem to be general consensus that this fractured fairytale that Dunwoody has become just might be getting a little out of hand. This matter was hotly debated at the most recent TOD editorial meeting and while the conclusion was this was most likely a spontaneous outbreak of cerebral flatulence caused by cabin fever it was decided TOD should do what little it may to bring the overheated rhetoric out of the real world and back into the realm where it is only the bits that bite.

To wit: a better blog.

Not that any content on this blog will substantially change. Oh no. But what TOD can do is re-affirm the observation that they really will give anyone a blog and offer a few helpful hints to get folks started.

Some say you need a theme to blog around. Perhaps. Perhaps not. If you want a blog dedicated to the Dunwoody Ship-in-a-Bottle Social Club then go for it. If you just want to publish the random drivel that spews from finger to keyboard that's OK too. Not particularly novel, but it is still OK.

What you will need is an account--probably on one of the two services that dominate the public blogosphere. First is Google's Blogger and the other popular alternative is Wordpress. Both are more than adequate, easy to use and supply a variety of themes. Blogger has plenty of cool gadgets and integrates to other Google offers (like calendar). Wordpress is big in academia, particularly where posting mathematical equations might come in handy. There is a JSMath gadget for blogger but this is not as well integrated or flexible as the Wordpress offer.

Both provide minimal analytics and with very little work can be hooked into other more powerful analytics systems. Most folks use Google Analytics but there are others if you have some philosophical opposition to Google running the planet. You probably won't need that at first since no one will be reading your blog. At least not early on and depending on what tortured souls actually visit you may wish for never.

Some consideration should be given to copyright of your material. You must decide if you want re-distribution (copying) or if you'd prefer back-links. You might want to look into the Creative Commons suite of licenses. None of this is enforceable without expending significant dollars but it does encourage the casual cut-and-paster to really read what they're copying before they republish. This can save everyone a lot of grief. Especially the poor SoB who copied your crap without reading it only find out that what it really says is exactly the opposite of what he thought.

Then there is the touchy subject of comments. If you've been paying attention to local blogs you've noticed some fairly recent changes in policy. One blogger dropped the gadget showing recent comments which had the immediate effect of dramatically reducing comment traffic. Others have moved to comment moderation where the blog owner approves any comment before it shows up on the site. Some no longer allow anonymous commenting though most still allow handles (like PollyAnne) which is not too far from anonymous. This tightening of the free-speech-free-for-all is most likely due to the inverse relationship between number of comments and total information content of those comments. Or it could just be that most commenters have gotten really nasty of late. Of course here at The Other Dunwoody this is not a problem because we simply do not allow comments. While this was initially met with cheers of enthusiastic support lately there have been some who would like to offer their witticisms using our bits rather than getting their own blog and the point of this post is to encourage them to exercise their right to free speech on a blog of their very own. Furthermore we suspect these folks may in some way be responsible for scaring that potential age-in-place taxpayer all the way back to Fantasy Land.

So are you a candidate to write that better blog? Well if you're reading this tripe you clearly have too much time on your hands--time that might be better spent writing than reading. And if what you read here really, really pisses you off, you owe it to yourself to point your browser over to blogger or wordpress and make a fool of yourself in the virtual world rather than down at the gas station.

Most Prolific Writer

By far the most prolific writer, even before the Whirled Wild Web, remains Anonymous. And there are some folks that take issue with that.

A recent AJC editorial posits that anonymous posts and comments have no place in "legitimate journalism". Legitimate journalism is readily identified by phrases like "unnamed sources" or "remaining anonymous because he was not authorized to speak on the record" or "unidentified sources". That's where the irony gets knee deep. This editorialist cited a case where a judge may have disclosed information on a case that, well, that judge just shouldn't ought to have. That's right. Legitimate journalists are the only ones allowed to divulge information, especially when it is sensitive. But it gets better. Because this is the electronic age no one can really prove that the judge actually made the offending comments, or even that the judge's computer was used. The only thing that may be certain is that the judge's internet account was used.

Then it gets local. A Dunwoody blogger, who shall remain nameless, thought he might encourage greater and more lively debate by allowing anonymous comments. Indeed. This change also did what it generally does, which is remove any inhibitions some folks might otherwise have against vitriol. That anonymous posting degrades the quality of conversation is well demonstrated in local school and police blogs (where anonymity is rationalized as necessary to prevent retribution from the man). Anonymous rants on these blogs have rendered them virtually useless, totally predictable and incredibly monotonous. But there are large number of comments on any given post.

So this Dunwoody blogger gets blasted by a local blog-o-phile, we'll call him "Roger Luddite", who has a consistent non-stop rant about folks "hiding behind anonymous" and using "fake names".  He seems to think that the value of the comment is directly related to whether the poster uses his "real name", a pseudonym or simply remains anonymous even though the "real name" is the only one that cannot be verified. (As Thaddeus Osborne Dabell once remarked: "it isn't the name that matters, it's the initials".) Now Mister Luddite considers himself quite the mover and shaker and presumes that everyone in Dunwoody knows him, knows he really exists and assumes we actually give a rodent's rectum that he does and what he says. But in his rather narrow world, if you're posting on the internet, then by god, you should use your "real" name or your comments just don't count. But in taking such a strident view, he prevents open discourse by implying that given a "real" name he might launch an ad hominem attack to advance his own opinion, especially since he already engages in ad hominem in absentia.

Of course this ignores a few key realities. First, since the days of 1200 baudbps modems and bulletin boards, folks have been using "handles" when posting online, much like folks did and still do on CB radio. It is, and has been, the way these bulletin boards, and now the web, work.

And, if you follow Mister Luddite's logic, what must we think of "Poor Richard" or "George Sand", and other great intellects forced by circumstance--often an ignorant and bigoted populace--to use pseudonyms? Are their works somehow diminished  by the fact that the "real" author's name remained hidden or has the world been a better place because important ideas were offered to the public? Is a good idea, or a sound and legitimate criticism, any less worthy because the mind behind the words chooses to remain unknown? Conversely, is there any value, positive or negative, in knowing that it was indeed Mister Luddite who said something?

At the end of the day, if you cannot filter the sound comments, the profound analysis and the informed opinion from the increasing noise on the internet, regardless of the name on the tagline, then maybe you're not as smart as you think you are.

No Comment

A neighbor recently asked why this blog doesn't allow reader comments and received the neighborly answer of "not sure anybody reads it and not interested in soliciting comments".

After some reflection it was obvious this question deserved a more public and thorough lambasting.

First, this is not your wailing wall, it's mine. You want one, then create your own.

Then, for the most part, reader comments are little more than self-aggrandizing, pithy quips or worse yet, useless, counter-productive whining. If all the more you have to offer is whining, and anonymous whining at that, then try here, here, or even here. Whine to your heart's content.

As has been mentioned before, it is pretty well documented that if you are staring at a brain-sucking screen, reading a blog, and especially if you have read this post this far, you are probably an idiot. And frankly my dear, no one gives a damn about your idiot comments.

And how is it so certain that you're an idiot? Well, by now you've been twice labeled an idiot with numerous opportunities to link away and yet you persist in the hope you might be able post a comment offering up that last little piece of your mind.

So here's a bit of unsolicited advice: you just might want to become more self-aware of your general reading habits.

Ask yourself: do you read more blog postings than magazine articles? No, not People Magazine---a real magazine, like Economist, Scientific American, or even Garden and Gun. You know, something to make the synapses fire, perhaps put a few facts in your head, or offer a reasoned opinion. And did you know there are these really cool things called books? They're a lot like magazines except they are generally smaller, though thicker and with way more pages. Some have pictures. And, there are these really cool places called libraries. And you can go to a library and borrow a book to read without even paying! That's right---it's FREE! So instead of squinting a this screen, proving you are an idiot, you could be curled up in a comfortable chair, with a favorite beverage, reading a really good novel or an excellent historical work.

At the end of the day, if you would quit reading blogs, quit with your whiny comments, and start reading books and some real magazines you might get yourself informed, and you might wake up one day and find you are no longer an idiot. You might even have something to say that is worth hearing. Just not on this blog.

Does Blogging Make Successful Politicians?

First, let's get the semantics out of the way. This is not about statesmanship, moral integrity or character. It is simply about political success--getting elected, then getting re-elected. Nothing more.

That said...

Much has been made (largely in the self-indulgent blogosphere) about a certain Dunwoody city councilman and his blogging activity. There have been some suggestions that his political success is caused by his successful blogging and that other bloggers might follow in his keystrokes.

As with all cases where correlation is taken as causality, there are links between the two, often strong links. Before blogging was cool, let alone the thing, this particular blogger had been active in his neighborhood, personally engaging the county on a variety of topics. At the early stages of his political career, the blog was a convenient way to keep friends and neighbors informed and publish important government documents--much like a newsletter. Often the postings carried a bit of watchdog tone, advertising events and actions that some in government might prefer kept quiet. So, much like the pamphlet publishers during the formation of our country, the activist-blogger is more a part of the Fourth Estate than the establishment. Any transition between these two requires a significant paradigm shift and in this case it was the formation of the City of Dunwoody. And that shift is over.

After election to the city council this activist-blogger's career took on the characteristics one expects of an elected official and the content of the blog turned a bit more inward towards the city and became noticeably more congratulatory with criticism reserved for the dark forces of DeKalb County and the occasional billboard vendor. This represents a difficult transition from an outside agent of change to a establishment insider that few among us can make. This particular blogger skillfully navigated this dangerous political and blogging passage.

The point is the blog did not make the politician--the politician made the blog. To suggest otherwise is akin to suggesting that someone with Tourette Syndrome would make a great public speaker simply because you can't shut them up.