A couple of months back, a propos of the ongoing debate over Margaret Thatcher's funeral arrangements, I put a semi light-hearted comment on this blog to the effect that the affair should be private. As in privatised, that is.As is often the case with blogging, this post has now belatedly come to the notice of a bunch of Argentines who, under the leadership of one Carlos A. Carpanzano, last night invaded this blog to proffer their own, less than savoury suggestions on what should happen to the Iron Lady's mortal remains.
To add insult to injury, some of the comments were in Spanish and, even worse, most of them were anonymous (I am currently having a long internal argument with myself about whether to ban anonymous posters from the blog.)
How do other visitors feel about it? Should we strike back, send a task force, remove these Argie occupiers from our territory? Or is it, in the spirit of universal brotherhood that is the blogosphere, just time to let bygones be bygones?
16 comments:
If you want some translation I'm happy to help, though there is a fair amount of swearing and the typical 'pirate' [and worse] name calling as well as the typical insistence of referring to Britain as England... a little pet hate of mine (as a hispano-Scot)
If you ban the 'anonymous' entry I will not blame you...
Finally, I'm a bit of a newbie in blogland, is there a way of discovering whether your entry was linked to by the Argentinians? I would love to create some 'well mannered' disruption...
[Oh! whilst we are in this subject, if anyone has got the time (plus adequate knowledge) to make some edits in the Spanish entry in Wikipedia for the Falkland/Malvinas' war please do so, it's currently an extensive article which is clearly biased]
You know my views on censorship, Paul, but banning anonymous comments won't stop people from leaving a comment in any name they like.
See what I mean?
Three points on that. Firstly, although the use of noms-de-blog
gives protection from the prying eyes of employers etc who may not like or agree with what you are posting, your real identity often becomes fairly well-known within the blogging community. For instance, everyone knows who "Inamicus" is, except the people he actually works for.
Secondly, even if this is not the case, the use of a pseudonym can, in time, give you a distinct and recognisable identity within the blogosphere, even if it is not your true identity. For instance, I have no idea who "Phone Cam Foolery" is, but I like the name, and his posts (more on Guido's blog than mine) can usually be relied on to be entertaining. Similarly the precise identity of "Media Scum" is a mystery to me, but given the nature of his posts, it is clear he is in the Lobby and therefore reasonably well-informed (and worth listening to) when it comes to political matters.
Finally, though, posting as anonymous is simply lazy and annoying. It takes a few seconds to think up a decent pseudonym. If people haven't got the time to do that, they shouldn't be here. If they haven't got the wit to do it, then I'm not sure I want them here.
Well, that's anonymous postings dealt with, then.
But what of the "other" names? Would-be stirrers could, if the fancy took them, simply type in the name used by another non-blogger. Or any name at all.
The only way you're going to prevent people from leaving anonymous comments to which others might take offence is to restrict comment to fellow bloggers.
But that would reduce your comment count, as well as the appeal of your blog.
And it wouldn't stop people taking offence - beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that.
The only lobby i actually go into is the entrance to my local pub, but, never mind, thanks for the kind words...........
Oh, and i suppose it can be said that you had had to endure a lot of what could be termed 'argie bargie'
If the Argies want some more they'll get some more. Just name the day and give us a year or two to pull our boys out of Iraq and Afghanistan and Kosovo and Bosnia and Serbia and Northern Ireland and Belize and Timbuktoo and they won't know what's hit them.
The Catering Corps ain't scared of no one.
Senor Frame:
My pet hates are Little Scotlanders and the way England is so often referred to as "Britain" and also ignorant folk from abroad ranting about things they know nothing about!
How about life-prolonging/saving drugs available free in Scotland and not in England, or the Scots government discriminating against English students?
Your argument is HIGHLY OFFENSIVE and out of date.
"Hispano-Scot" indeed - there is no such race as "Scot" - UK bloodlines are a mongrel mix!
Media Scum
My apologies. That was based on a misreading of a comment of yours on Guido about the decline in standards of regional political journalism. When I first read this, it appeared as though you had been present at the Chris Meyer lobby lunch, but reading back over the thread I now realise you were actually writing from a NE perspective as a consumer of local news. Sorry!
anonymous 3:47,
You've left me a tad confused, I'm sorry I've offended you, I was merely attempting to point out that the British navy is British and not simply English.I suppose it's just the unionist within me...
Ban those anonymous contributors now! My local newspaper The Staffordshire Sentinel (tremendous publication; always right) doesn't allow unnamed correspondents on its excellent Your View pages. If it's good enough for them, it should be good enough for you.
Are you the editor?
Might be rather a shame if you banned anons, Paul. I've noticed on a couple of occasions when you have criticised Alastair Campbell, you've swiftly received a hostile post in retaliation. I'm no conspiracy theorist but I'm curious to see if this interesting trend continues...
Stephen
I'll give you a private response on that one if you drop me your new email address as you promised some time back!
To "The UK Daily Pundit":
What you said is not only really hurting for argentinians army, but also british army (there were also british ppl killed, you know?).
War isn't a game, and if you think so; if you think you're so powerful...
Then don't call anyone, get yourself a gun and come here, let's see how good you are...
Then you ppl don't understand why musulmans hate you... the americans do too. There's no solution for you guys.
I'll just ask you to think before you write. When you use blogs, everyone can read what you wrote, so try to be more careful if you are not ashamed of your ignorance.
I know this is and old topic, but i felt like answering such a hurtful comment.
whatever...
go argentina!!!!
i don't even know what your talking about...
at least we have two stars in our football shirt.. :P
Post a Comment