Donal Meta

Coincidentally, two of the sites where I used to contribute have Meta threads going today. Nothing draws comments and participation like a Meta thread.

At the Truth About Cars, in No Manners, No Comment: How To Get Banned At TTAC, editor Bertel Schmitt banned someone for being rude to a contributor. Long time users invoked TTAC founder Robert Farago, who was born snarky, but Bertel said that was then and this is now. Naturally people popped up to say:

“Hey, posting on the internet requires a thick skin.”

“Hey, I’ve seen other stuff that was worse.”

No one was banned at dagblog, but in Skin, co-honcho Genghis also complained about bad manners towards a contributor, with similar responses.

Once again I quote this old Barry Eisler post about, How To Argue:

I have a feeling most people who suck at argument believe they’re actually good at it. They’re not, and in fact they’re not even arguing — they’re masturbating. Good argument is intended to persuade another. Masturbation is intended to pleasure the self. It’s the people who can’t tell the difference who mistakenly think they’re good at argument. I hope this article will improve the effectiveness of people who are interested in good argument. And I hope it will help people who until now have been masturbating to recognize what they’ve been doing, and to stop doing it in public.

Obviously no one is going to stop metabating in public – it’s like the rats pushing the pleasure button – so I’m dropping the idea of DonalPrime, and instead launching Donal Meta. Posting on the internet requires a thick foreskin.

BTW, bring your own wipes.