Tips on commenting

Language Myth #15: Television makes people sound the same »

Tips on commenting

Wed 6 Mar 2013 by abagond

General tips for this blog:

Learn how to disagree: The seven levels of disagreement.
Remain on topic. I like to keep things loose but I do reserve the right to delete off-topic comments. If you follow the general drift of the thread you are pretty safe unless I declare something off topic.
Keep it civil. Imagine that I invited you to my house for dinner along with some others.
Do not use sock puppets: Pick a name and stick to it. If you need to change it for some reason, then make it clear in a comment that you are doing so.
Beware of trolls: They can be useful and entertaining, but remember that deep down they are attention whores who do not care one bit about the subject at hand – except maybe to derail it.
You do not have to read the whole thread to comment. Some go on for hundreds of comments!
You can comment on old posts. Plenty of people will see your comment.
To find a topic use the Search box on the right. If I have not covered it, you can suggest it or talk about it on the Open Thread (see the link at the top of the page).
Grammar and spelling are not a big deal so long as you write understandable English.
Try not to use your real name or real picture. Some do, but just so you know I have had one case of stalking and several where people asked me to delete all their comments. Likewise, do not feel you have to say anything about your true identity. There is no good reason anyone needs to know it.
Please do not assume that the feelings of white people are the centre of the universe.

Avatar: For a custom avatar set it at https://en.gravatar.com/ . It might take a few hours to show up. All comments past and present for a given email address will have the same avatar.

Blockquotes: Type <blockquote>blah blah.</blockquote> to get:

blah blah.

Broken Record Department: This has the posts on the arguments we have heard and argued a zillion times, like “Africans sold their own into slavery”. Most broken records are meant to derail, not enlighten. If you truly want to argue them, the posts await.

Boldface: Type <strong>blah blah.</strong> to get: blah blah.

Comment policy: how and why commments are deleted or moderated. I stop certain behaviours, not ideas.

Italics: Type <em>blah blah.</em> to get: blah blah.

Links: Type the URL without any punctuation touching it. It is best to put it on its own line:

http://abagond.wordpress.com/comment-policy/

Open Thread: Where you can comment off-topic on anything you like.

Video: If you put the YouTube URL on its own line it will embed the video. On the Open Thread or threads of more than 300 comments put the URL in parentheses to turn off embedding.

Unembedded:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WcWHZc8s2I)

Embedded (parentheses removed):

See also:

Posted in stuff | 16 Comments

16 Responses

on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 14:15:40 Thomas Conlon

yeah use quotes please!
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 14:58:46 lifelearner

Just practicing embedding an image

hopefully it works!
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 15:03:23 lifelearner

http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/originals/0f/34/da/0f34da2eff65d403425dbd7510a810aa.jpg

it didn’t take, but if anyone was curious this was the image
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 15:13:02 abagond

I took out the embedded image example. The WordPress editor kept screwing it up.
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 15:14:55 leigh204

Here’s a reminder for those commenters who try to use sock puppets to support their arguments. You will be banned if Abagond finds out.
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 15:22:12 kidether

I really hate using the word troll. When I think of a commenter talking s*** for attention, I think of a disowned child bullying to feel satisfaction.
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 15:47:47 King

A troll is person who is intentionally dropping “shock statement bombs” in hopes of getting negative reactions from other posters. The true troll does not really even believe most of what he’s saying.

A person who holds a contrary belief to the majority opinion and who states that belief is not a troll. But you can see how it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference initially.
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 18:02:44 Linda

Abagond, I tried embedding my video in the “Language myth #13: Black children are verbally deprived” post

http://abagond.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/language-myth-13-black-children-are-verbally-deprived/#comment-162513

and it didn’t’ work. I didn’t use parenthesis and it still didn’t embed…so what went wrong?
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 18:20:06 Legion

Linda, try the following as an exercise, it will solve the problem.

• Pick a thread to post in.
• The FAQ thread is a good experiment thread.
• Pick that same video with the Jamaican men.
• Do not copy the url of the address bar; do the following:
• Scroll down. You will see a “Share” option. Click it.
•Another form of url comes up. Copy it.
• Paste it to your chosen thread.
•Voila embedded video!
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 18:20:43 eco

@Linda

Isn’t https the problem? Try removing the “s” from https or the whole “https://” part of the link.
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 18:30:57 Legion

Eco is correct. I removed the “s”, and this worked. I did not try removing all of “https://”.
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 18:31:54 Legion

The “Comment Policy” thread is the experiment thread.
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 18:49:06 Linda

Thanks Legion and eco…it worked
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 18:53:44 Legion
on Wed 6 Mar 2013 at 23:46:53 Mbeti

my problem with #10 is probably due to the intense lack privacy I experience on a daily basis – combined with the fact that if you or your comment become popular public knowledge for any reason – guess how fast your picture and real name will be revealed.

Its also a point of integrity with me ,one less thing I gotta lie about.
on Fri 8 Mar 2013 at 10:26:32 satanforce

Beware of trolls: They can be useful and entertaining, but remember that deep down they are attention whores who do not care one bit about the subject at hand – except maybe to derail it.

I resent that statement.