I’ve kind of gotten tired of its moronic trolling. I haven’t banned many people from this site, but does anyone think that the creature contributes anything of value, other than demonstrating how moronic leftists are? Which needs little demonstration?
33 thoughts on “The Douchenozzle”
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I figure he is a Mann groupie come to troll you.
My thoughts as well.
Rand, you are far more tolerant of BS than I would be if I were in your position. I can think of one other poster I would also shitcan if I were you. I bet you can guess pretty easily who I am thinking of.
Is there an ignore list module you can install? Perhaps it’ll fix the other issues with the commenting system at the same time (cause that’s how software works, right?)
Rand,
As gruesome as DN’s entries are…as twisted and grotesque his purported logic….I don’t see anything that DN has done that is bannable.
He (I assume it’s a he) hasn’t flooded the place with spam
He hasn’t really insulted anyone in an unacceptable way.
He doesn’t use foul language.
His only crime is making moronic contributions. I don’t think that’s ban-worthy. Maybe he wants you to ban him so he can sue you. 😉
The best thing to do is simply ignore his posts. After all, banning, shutting down speech, is the sort of thing done by the left.
I think he is talking about this ‘Guest’ idiot but DN was the other one I was thinking of. He really gets off on trolling Rand about the lawsuit.
He’s definitely referring to dn-guy when he says Douche Nozzle. It’s not the first (and likely not the last) time Rand has used that moniker for dn-guy, and helps distinguish dn-guy from the former “dc-guy”.
Guest is a completely different kind of a pest and annoyance. I wouldn’t be the least surprised if “guest” was Mann himself. Humans and egos are funny that way…
I’m pretty sure that “dn-guy” is the troll formerly known as “dc-guy.” I call it Douchenozzle for the same reason that Douchenozzle calls people who believe in limited government “teabaggers.” Because someone told me that people who agree with Douchenozzle like to be called Douchenozzles.
Frankly, if you’re at the point where you’re using that kind of language to refer to a poster… you should probably have banned him long ago.
Unless you were just keeping him around as a punching bag, that is.
I kind of use the leftist trolls as a reference mark for my ideological position.
If I can hear my blood pressure rising in response to DN guy’s (or gerrib) posts, I know I’m still sane.
I’m with Gregg.
Rand, the visceral reaction that DN-Guy elicits from you borders on clinical in nature. Most places tell you “do not feed the trolls”, yet you feed him every chance you get and every time he posts. You seem to go out of your way to call him a “moron” every time he posts, almost as if there’s an auto-reply built in to the commenting software. In fact, if I didn’t know better, the immediate response and use of “you moron” to every one of his posts almost makes it appear that you are posting as this troll and then responding to yourself just for effect.
Honestly, your reactions to him detract more from my enjoyment of the conversations than his original posts do. I think that everyone can make their own assessment of the relative value of this particular troll’s contributions, and react accordingly. If he starts bringing up your family or other things like past bannees have done, I would agree with a ban, but otherwise I tend to agree with Gregg on this one.
“…almost as if there’s an auto-reply built in to the commenting software.”
That’s a potential solution…
As Greg wrote above…other than expressing views that chap your hide he/she really hasn’t done anything worth banning. Truth be told those comments of his/hers are added value…think about it, after dealing with his/hers comments here, when you have a run in with someone like him/her elsewhere you will not be as gobsmacked with their total lack of reality.
I’m with Rand on this one. A blog is a personal media site of which Rand is the owner and editor of. The rest of us are simply guests here. If Rand feels that a particular person’s contributions detract from what he is presenting to the world, he has a personal obligation to remove that person and there content. I understand and sympathize with the comments above, but I personally prefer troll free zones. There are plenty of places elsewhere on the web to get other perspectives.
I agree with Gregg but I am not the boss in charge of free ice cream.
Your blog, your rules.
I agree with Wodun and Larry J. Your blog is your office — you pay the rent. The rest of us ride for free. I personally would let DN rant and constantly make a damn fool of himself/herself. But, I don’t pay the rent.
I like to keep a pulse on what they are saying. If I don’t keep up with the latest talking point du jour, I can get blindsided by it elsewhere. So, yeah, in the absence of actual abuse, I think banning might be counterproductive.
I have stated multiple times that I think dn-guy is doing a sort of performance art a la Stephen Colbert. He isn’t really a Lefty, he takes the Lefty position and exaggerates it to ridiculousness.
And although I have stated this several times, dn-guy never responds to it. Never denies nor even acknowledges.
On the other hand, when we’re discussing space related topics (which do tend to come up now and then) he’s on-topic and makes useful contributions.
I actually like having the token Lefties around this place. It keeps TTM from becoming an echo chamber. They say steel sharpens steel; that’s why I’ve urged Jim to “dammit, step up your game”. So, to dn-guy: dammit, step up your game.
I enjoy laughing at him. He’s also an interesting example of what I call The Rise of the Stupid Left. When I went to college (I know:, another old guy starting off “When I was a kid. . . .”) the Lefties I encountered were just as bright and well-read (if in different literature) than the conservatives. (Brightest of all, however, were the libertarians. No brag, just fact.) Somewhere along the way, and it might be because of the general dumbing-down of society, the Left got really, really dumb. Maybe it had to do with the fact that computers enabled these guys to avoid reading and thinking, and they could just bring up a Talking Point and parrot the party-line.
I forgot to add that Baghdad Jim and Admiral Gerrib would miss the Douchenozzle. He actually makes them look smart by comparison.
I always wonder if the Usual Suspects cringe, even just a little bit, when their fellow traveller appears.
I am surprised that none of them spoke up for dn-guy, especially since people who argue with him every day did.
Rand, I’ve always viewed a blog with a comments section, or indeed any forum-type website, as an extension of the host’s home. The commenters are thus guests.
Now, if I’m invited into someone’s home, and go out of my way to annoy and insult the host (the homeowner), it ought not to surprise me if I’m shown the door. The host, of course, is the one to set the rules and the tone – it’s their home, after all.
So, seeing as how you’ve raised the issue, my main opinion is that it’s your place, so your rules.
Going further, I found many of his posts involving your lawsuit offensive in the extreme, for reasons too numerous to mention.
Frankly, it speaks volumes of your patience and tolerance that he wasn’t banned long ago.
Your blog, your rules, your valuable time, Rand.
Ban the b@stard.
Agree with everyone that the guy who gives the free ice cream picks the rules on who receives it. But I dare say advice is being asked. If it was me, every time the idiot tried his guilt by association schtick, (“the company you keep”, “the people you associate with”) I’d ban him for a period, because who would want to be associated with him? But more importantly, when someone makes arguments like that, they (as Ed mentions above) need to up there game. Calling them moron or ignoring them won’t get them to do it. Being kicked off the field for being an ass might get there attention. And make mistake, DN is a very slow learner.
This sorta makes me sad. It is aways fun to laugh at the leftist trying so hard to make an intelligent argument and then failing so completely. But it isn’t my site that he has been crapping all over so I totally understand Rands move. So Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish.
” It is aways fun to laugh at the leftist trying so hard to make an intelligent argument and then failing so completely.”
Well, even without Douchenozzle, we’ve still got the Usual Suspects to provide us with laughs.
A number of thoughtful comments here. After reading through them, I would say that I agree most with Gregg and Johnny B. What you should do is let him continue to post but simply ignore him. Never respond to anything he posts ever again. It’s not worth your time and if he finds he can’t get a rise out of you, he will probably stop trying.
It’s absolutely Rand’s call. I, personally, don’t find dn-guy’s comments worst-in-class, but maybe that’s just me. I’m quite satisfied to give the guy credit when he says something sensible. But I’ll also mete out suitable lumps when he posts based on fact-free, if lamentably widespread, leftist cliche beliefs or starts up again with his unicorns-and-fairies-based notions about energy production or whatever daily fiction the Warmists are pushing. It’s a bit like puppy training except that, leftists, being perpetual puppies, don’t generally respond nearly as well to it as real canines do. Still, emotional idiocy should be answered with rationality if only for the benefit of the larger audience of bystanders.
Eliezer Yudkowski suggests that maybe you should keep the articulate opposing viewpoints around, not that DN is very articulate:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/lr/evaporative_cooling_of_group_beliefs/
As for ignoring dn-guy, back in the halcyon usenet days of the late 90s I quietly organized sci.space. * to ignore a certain pest named Th*m*s L** El*fr*tz- a total whackjob, spouting vile, crude nasty personal attacks compulsively. It worked fairly well until the general S/N ratio of usenet went irrevocably south.