“Be yourself. Unless you can be Batman.” – The Lego Batman Movie
Well, be ANDREW Breitbart, if you can. He was pretty darned awesome, in many ways. But Breitbart.com became known during the campaign for being a haven of comment section trolls even as the writers tried to stay above the level of Conservative Tree(nut)house and, rather, somewhere as close to actual journalism as their editor would allow them to be.
It’s the comment section I’m addressing here. Some people seem to be attempting to generate a flamewar between us and The Right Scoop, and I’m not having it. Scoop provided a site where I met many great people. I was temporarily banned over something at that site. I made it clear to him at the time that I was “unbanned” that I was only coming back if I was wanted.
BECAUSE I RESPECT SCOOP. He worked hard to produce that site, and it created many fond memories for me, and I’m not interested in undermining his due pride in that site… or letting others do it. On occasions afterward I would make subtle and overt contacts with Scoop to see if I was wanted there. The answer was always a resounding silence.
Despite that, I hold Scoop in high regard, Sooper in even higher regard, Duckie and the rest amaze me. We see how difficult it is to keep things running, and they’ve done so for years. They’ve earned respect.
Now we’ve gotten a wave of regulars from over there coming over here and telling us that people are spam-advertising over there. That’s not good. I can say with certainty that we’re not doing it; the closest I recall is one (1) instance where, when a mod from here was over there (back when they weren’t banned) – they gave a direct reply about a new site that had been formed. That’s it.
Beyond that, we have no control over what others might do. No control, but possibly influence. If there is any influence, I ask that anyone reading this NOT promote the site over on TRS. Other places? YES, please do….
….if you do it politely and in keeping with the site rules. For example, here, if you see something that would be enhanced or countered by something from another site, by all means, post links. Just make sure that they’re links appropriate to the story at hand, and not spam (which WILL get pulled and get you carded.) That absolutely includes links to Positive Heartbeat, TRS, RedState, DailyWire, Patterico, TheBlaze, The New York Times…. whereever.
Even Breitbart.
Meanwhile, I mentioned in an open thread last night that we had yet to ban anyone. That does not mean we won’t ban people. If you’re a troll, you’re gone. Because those are the other people to whom this post is addressed… the trolls. Coming over here and disparaging and making personal attacks will get you removed, no matter how friendly we might have been in the past. Rules are rules for a reason. It seems like some people are interested in shouting “First!” and wearing their “first banned” badge as a mark of honor. It will merely declare you someone who is incapable of following even the most basic rules of civility.
And, to the readers who have gotten this far… thank you. We appreciate you visiting and the contributions you make, whether promoting us in a polite fashion in places where it’s encouraged (like Facebook or Twitter or other open-link sites); we appreciate the articles you’ve submitted, we appreciate the engaging comment sections (even if I haven’t been able to participate as much as I’d like, while we’re still finding our legs) and we appreciate you trying to stand up for what you think is right, even when much of the country seems desperate to make everything into a binary choice.
Very little is binary. Certainly not your options in web sites.
Thank you.
