Housekeeping: Video Killed The Commenting Star

At 7 pm on the dot, L. Phillips said it out loud.

Is it just me, or did both of today’s threads go straight to hell in a handcart?

It wasn’t just him. I watched it happen. I was as much a part of it as anyone else, although it struck me when we went from trucker music to Jerry Reed. Ordinarily, it happens with comments where someone goes off on a tangent, frequently an exceptionally stupid tangent, which then gives rise to a discussion about the exceptionally stupid tangent, which leaves SJ as the locus of an exceptionally stupid tangential discussion. That wasn’t what I had in mind when I wrote the post.

But now it’s happening with music videos, which has the virtue of being more enjoyable to listen to, but as blatantly reflected in the comments to the post, are no less likely to spiral into oblivion, squeeze out the room for thought and leave SJ looking like the worst thread ever posted on reddit. Again, that wasn’t what I had in mind when I wrote the post.

So it’s time to drop the hammer because this is not the way it was supposed to happen. New rules are that Guitardave and Howl get to post a music video if they choose, because I like them better than you, and the rest of us, myself included. will stick to substance. Comments about alt covers of the music will be trashed. Music videos by other commenters will be generally trashed, absent some extremely good reason for special dispensation.

I know it’s fun for many of us. I know you like it. I know it’s an easy way to participate without fear that you’ll say something stupid and get ripped a new asshole. Sorry, but it went off the rails (or into a ditch, according to your metaphorical preference) and took over. A little was cool. Too much is not. Now it’s done.

10 thoughts on “Housekeeping: Video Killed The Commenting Star

  1. Guitardave

    “your metaphorical preference”…I was just being silly/stupid. I think comments going off the rails is more appropriate, as they’re all linked together… the first one derails and the rest follow, with yesterday being a prime example. Sorry I added to it when I veered off into ‘the best trucker song’ thing.

    1. SHG Post author

      This wasn’t about you or anyone else, as much as the way things were heading here. I didn’t help either. If anything, it was mostly my fault for letting them get out of hand, so it’s my responsibility to be the hardass to put an end to it.

        1. F. Lee Billy

          Unlike you wizards of the internet, I am incapable of posting albums and such in the comments section. (Believe me, I tried.)

          Be that as it may, am unable to resist: Smack My Bitch Up, by The Prodigy, 1997. You will not be disappointed. “Smack my bitch up, smack my bitch up, da de da te dah.” (Repeat for five and a half minutes.) Great choral and solo accompaniments, trust me.
          These are trying times for everyone. There’s nothing left to do but smack your bitch up. 25K ?, 1K ?.

  2. Steve White

    At the risk of making a tangential comment right at the time when tangential comments are being banned, I wanted to share some things I have seen in media about the virus.
    I hope this will be allowed under the rubric of “anything that helps fight the virus is OK”
    1. The general idea that keeping a 6 foot distance in public is sufficient is being challenged by research indicating the virus will stay in the air, after a sneeze or cough, for half an hour or more. So, no, 6 feet is not sufficient – in fact, no distance is adequate to be really safe. ‘
    2. Related to that, the claim that masks do not protect the uninfected public is challenged by scientists in the media, (primarily outside the US). One virologist said the public health people were “talking out of both sides of their mouth” to say masks do not protect, and yet making a huge issue of the mask shortage for medical workers, and said it was likely the US authorities were lying because they did not want the public to horde masks which are needed by those workers.
    Best to completely avoid breathing the same air as anyone you do not live with.
    Again, sorry for being off topic, but this is information people can use.

  3. John Barleycorn

    A Song Of Trees
    A Labyrinth,
    And The Sea

    -Lifted from Good Soldiers and Closely Watched Trains.

  4. Noel Erinjeri

    Couldn’t resist…and it’s easier to beg forgiveness than obtain a special dispensation.

    [Ed. Note: I couldn’t resist either.]

    If His Admiralness kills my link, know, O Reader, that it was to The Doors “The End.”

    Noel

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