Look, I am really upset to read that people don’t want to come to my blog because of the nature of some of the comments.
I am deleting every comment from my previous post, and I apologise to those who are innocent.
From now on any comments that contain abuse will be deleted.
I am seriously considering banning people for a few weeks. This is not on. This is my space and if you can’t respect my wishes as to the nature of the discourse here, you will have to go.
Jennifer.
No Place For Sheep 
I agree. The pieces put up here are for discussion and is not about name calling, belligerence and personal insults. It’s a matter of balance of freedom to express without the use of ad hominem.
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Well said, that man!
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Well done you, Jennifer! If we can’t play together nicely, clear the sandpit.
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There’s a sandpit?!? Why wasn’t I told? (O:
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Of course there is a sandpit. Where else would the smell come from.
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I thought that was for filtering the wine, not the cheese? 😉
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Oh no! did you keep that long comment I wrote? I thought I was onto something…
Did it get any replies?
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I’m sorry. I’ll rescue it. I was very upset.
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It had better be good samj. I am expecting at least the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything.
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It’s 41.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999989999999999999999999998
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That explains why the comment was long. Gee, Douglas Adams was so close.
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Ok, ciao Jennifer!
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Wait, is this your ball over here? It’s next to this ratty old bat…
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Ratty bat’s are not so bad, it’s the batty rat’s you need to avoid.
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I read a terrific article by Jill Filipovic on ‘The tragic irony of feminists trashing each other’ in which she talks abut ‘trashing’ as not being opposition or critique…It is not done to expose disagreements or to resolve differences,’ she writes. ‘It is done to disparage or destroy.’
When I read these words I thought of what sometimes happens here on your blog and elsewhere. Not in your posts, which are excellent, but the tendency towards abuse in some of the responses. So I’m glad you’ve put your foot down.
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Jennifer, your blog is called “NO PLACE FOR SHEEP”.
Do I misinterpret it? Maybe I don’t understand what it means?
Mannie De Saxe
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Perhaps the Border Collie or Kelpie for occasionally checking up the sheep to keep them from running wild hither dither and expose them to foxes?
Just a thought.
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Collies and kelpies who invite themselves into a paddock to monitor the sheep usually turn out on closer inspection to be dingos.
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The reality and science would actually put it the other way around.
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The dingoes turn out to be sheep? 🙂
I was thinking that a well-trained sheepdog would wait for his master’s instructions. But what do I know about it other than having read Dusty, the novel by Frank Dalby Davison.
In a nutshell, self-appointed monitors don’t float my boat. Now how I’m going to get a nutshell and a boat into the paddock?
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I don’t think you have misinterpreted at all.
No Place for Sheep.
“This is not a place for sheep.”
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Mannie, I love it that people have such wonderful arguments here. But the personal abuse has no place in good argument and I’ve had enough of it. If it was happening in my house I’d throw people out.
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How to get the honest players to direct their aggression appropriately without preferencing the sly behind the knee kickers? Ho hum. You write articles and provide a Happy Place, you can’t be expected to supervise it 24 hours a day to guarantee perfect fairness. Honest players need to take some responsibility not to get swept out of the sandpit by a rough broom or only the mealy-mouthed will be left.
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Mealy mouthed.
Good term.
What would Keating say?
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Why let the fuss bother you. Ignore any self-offended whingers and throw any bitches out.
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Nice handle.
Lemming Lyte with a big F in front.
I like it.
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Are you claiming I go with the crowd!
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Your nocturnal behaviour is none of my business.
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I had to travel yesterday to farewell a mate, so I gather that I missed the whole thing!
I have thought one or two others immoderate towards me in the past and hope I haven’t been too harsh in my efforts to put them back in their boxes. On the one occasion when I thought I may have delivered an unusually spiteful retort there was no immoderate language involved whatsoever, by design!
In general I forgive people who I can see are genuinely well intended their little outbreaks of tourettes. We’re certainly not descending to the level of trolling you can get on some YouTube comments, so that’s at least something of a positive.
Obviously we don’t want to become sheep, and we don’t want to be patronised. If we set a standard where it’s language we restrict rather than content then I don’t think we quite manage to address the difference between being merely immoderate and making personal attacks in a way that becomes a kind of trolling. You can try with language filters to take a couple of words out of posters’ vocabulary if you like but I doubt that it makes the problem go away.
It’d be good if WordPress had a flag comment feature, but I don’t think it does.
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There may be a WP plug in for that or we can do something really radical and just reply with the single word ‘flag’ (O:
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FLAG!
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Flag waving is for the patriotic.
FINGER
m!m
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😀
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Yep we could, and we might choose to try that, but of course proper flagging is anonymous and it kind of works better for that reason if you’re just trying to stop a troll.
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Jennifer, I’ve been busy elsewhere and have only just seen this. Shocking abuse of space freely given, and not to be tolerated. I often disagree with you (you know that 🙂 ) but my rule is if you can’t be polite, stay away. Keep up the good work!
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Thank you Jennifer. Of course, the most grievous insults can be given without using any vulgar language at all, and some of those posting lack any other means of emphasis.
I would like to comment, civilly, and be able to discuss, civilly, the issues of the day.
This does not mean a lack of robust debate; strong disagreements can and will arise. HG and I have had some strong clashes over the years, though rarely here.
I think we have a healthy respect for each others views, even if I sometimes get frustrated at his lengthier posts. 🙂
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