Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt, Plus A Note From Mike

from the conversation dept

Sun, Jun 10th 2018 12:00pm — Leigh Beadon

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is discordian_eris with a reaction to the latest instance of egregious police misbehavior:

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them” - Maya Angelou

Law enforcement at all levels have shown us who they are. Unreliable, unprofessional, undisciplined, and corrupt to the depths of their souls. Unfortunately this is America, so there really isn't a viable solution.

The cops are too cowardly to clean up their act. Legislators are too cowardly to pass reforms of almost any kind. And the judiciary, all the way up to the Supreme Court is too cowardly to do their fucking jobs and actually enforce the constitution. District attorneys can have video and audio of cops murdering people in cold blood and refuse to bring charges.

Every single time the list of the most corrupt countries comes out, I am astonished that the US is considered one of the least corrupt. Until, of course, I remember that the list is compiled by Americans.

In second place, we've got a response from That One Guy to the San Diego Comic Con's latest legal attack on the Salt Lake City Comic Con:

“This was a very expensive case; the reason this case was so expensive was because of defendants and their counsel and the way they litigated this case,” Bjurstrom said.

Translation: 'Our legal thuggery cost us a lot of money because our target had the utter gall to fight back and the ruling only gave us a tiny fraction of it back. We want more, make them give it too us.'

'Actions have consequences' does not an 'exceptional' case make.

But San Diego Comic-Con’s request went a step further than simply asking Battaglia to enjoin the Salt Lake convention operators from infringing its trademarks: it asked the judge to bar the Salt Lake convention from using the words “comic convention” or phonetic equivalents to “Comic Con” or “comic convention.”

So essentially they tried to claim ownership over the very concept of comic conventions by saying that no-one should be able to use the purely descriptive term of it.

Yeah, at this point I would love to see the USPTO come to it's senses, realize just how bad this trademark is and yank it entirely. It wouldn't help the Salt Lake Comic-con, but it would at least prevent the thugs in the SDCC from going after more targets.

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment from Thad about the revelation that the FCC lied about a DDOS attack to distract from John Oliver:

This was blisteringly obvious from the get-go, but it's nice to get confirmation.

So what are the legal ramifications of this? The FCC lied about a DDoS attack to downplay the size of the public response, kept records proving that it lied, and then fought FOIA requests for said records.

There are numerous court challenges to the Title II repeal. These emails look an awful lot like the sort of thing that will appear with the word "Exhibit" on them.

Next, we've got a response from stderric to the school that turned a student over to the cops for jokingly listing the school for sale on Craigslist:

Kylan Scheele got a great educational bonus thanks to his prank, and it's probably the most important lesson Truman High School ever taught him: this world is full of idiots, and the biggest and most humorless of them all tend to be attracted to positions of authority.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is an anonymous commenter, with a theoretical future timeline of the Salt Lake City Comic Con's woes at the hands of trademark bullies:

2019: Salt Lake City Graphic Novel Gathering has been sued by Wizards of the Coast for infringing on their Magic: The Gathering trademark.

2020: Salt Lake City Superheroes Social has been sued by Joe's Super Hero Sandwiches for infringing on their trademark.

2021: Salt Lake City Place for People to Meet to Dress Funny and Pay $45 for Celebrity Signatures has filed for bankruptcy, citing the excessive costs of rebranding every year.

In second place, we've got a comment from Berenerd about FlightSimLabs installing stuff on users' machines and threatening Reddit:

FSLabs new motto: CRASH AND BURN!!!!!

For editor's choice on the funny side, we've got an anonymous reply to that comment adding a little extra color:

(Beeping in background) Terrain. Pull up. Terrain. Pull up. Terrain. Pull up.

Finally, we've got another anonymous comment about the humorless school-for-sale, in response to someone who questioned the low, low price tag:

There's a hefty discount because the buyer will be stuck with the current administrators, who are clearly a net liability. No asset would behave in the asinine way described here.

That's... not quite all for this week folks. Unfortunately, we also have a bit of sad news to share.

A Note From Mike:

We recently received a note from a friend and neighbor of one of our most prolific commenters, Roger Strong, informing us of the unfortunate news that he had passed away towards the end of May. One of the things that I’ve always talked about concerning Techdirt is that what keeps me going and what keeps it interesting is the community that has formed around the site. But it’s an odd sort of community. Most of the participants have no interaction with one another outside of the site, and many members of the community have no clue who others really are.

I am quite certain that, over the years, other vocal members of the community have passed away, but this is the first time that we’ve been directly informed of such a passing — and Roger’s very kind neighbors told us a bit about what a kind, compassionate and helpful individual Roger was, which was something that I think was clear if you read his comments. He was always a very passionate member of the community, always full of insight and useful perspectives. His friends informed us that being a part of the Techdirt community was an important part of his life, and just reading his comments helped give them another chance to experience Roger’s passion and ideas. We will certainly miss Roger’s presence and thoughtful comments.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

33 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2018 @ 12:13pm

Wow. I'm sincerely sorry that he passed. We didn't always agree on things (who does here?) but I will miss his insight and humour.

Hope this doesn't sound too form letter-y, but I honestly appreciated discussing things with him.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 10 Jun 2018 @ 12:47pm

Damn.
I am sorry to hear of his passing, glad that his comments will stay with us.

I sometimes wonder where some of the names of the past have gone, and this shows us the double edged sword of finding things out.
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That One Guy (profile), 10 Jun 2018 @ 2:01pm

Sad to hear of their passing, but such is life I suppose.

Nice to hear that they enjoyed their time here(though with one notable exception I imagine anyone who doesn't wouldn't stick around long), and that the legacy of sorts they left in the form of their comments were of help of their friends.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2018 @ 2:09pm

That's sad that Roger Strong is now gone. Another Techdirt 'regular' whose comments I enjoyed reading was John Fenderson. Has anyone heard anything about him since he disappeared?

And just this past week it seems that Techdirt has gained a commenter with as much passion and energy (if not chutzpah) as the character perhaps best known as out_of_the_blue.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2018 @ 2:16pm

Re:
Who was the other person that passed away, if you don't mind me asking?
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DocGerbil100 (profile), 10 Jun 2018 @ 3:08pm

RIP, Roger Strong.

So long and thanks for all the comments, Mr Strong.
We're much obliged to your memory.
:'(
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 10 Jun 2018 @ 3:14pm

Re:
I miss John Fenderson. We went both head to head as well as in agreement at times. And sometimes my seeking his advice on technical issues.

Maybe notably we discussed baking, to the consternation of one of the Tim's (I am sorry I cannot recall which) who remonstrated us on not discussing the article at hand, but thought the discussion fascinating(?).

I do not know if John has suffered the same fate as Roger Strong, as yet, but we are all destined to meet that fate. Whether someone has the ability or opportunity to report to this community the passing of any contributors is beyond our control. That we acknowledge, either on the blog or just personally, that someone is missed might be important to us, whether they are still capable of comprehension of that acknowledgement is something mankind still does not know...factually.

Who the hell are you thinking about that came up in the last week who emulates out_of_the_blue, who was a troll that has only been emulated by other trolls and flagged by everyone else. Did you just learn his name?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2018 @ 3:35pm

I call for a post of Roger Strong's best comments in honor of the man.
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That One Guy (profile), 10 Jun 2018 @ 3:58pm

Re: Re:
Sorry for the confusion, I didn't intend to imply that someone else had passed away, merely that if someone doesn't like a site they're not likely to stay around, with the exception of TD's biggest fan(atic) who constantly claims the site is a cesspit and yet has been here for years.
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That One Guy (profile), 10 Jun 2018 @ 4:01pm

Re: Re:
I'm pretty sure the one they're talking about is Blue actually, the tells are similar and more than once they've slipped up and referenced their own posts from years back.
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TripMN, 10 Jun 2018 @ 4:01pm

Response to: Anonymous Coward on Jun 10th, 2018 @ 3:35pm
Seconded.

I didn't always agree, but i definitely appreciated his viewpoint.

Return to the stars, my good man.
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Pixelation, 10 Jun 2018 @ 4:03pm

RIP Roger Strong.
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 10 Jun 2018 @ 4:18pm

Re: Re: Re:
I am fairly certain that blue is gone, whether that means in the metaphysical sense or just not with Techdirt anymore, the follow-up trolls just don't have his je ne sais quoi.

They try, but they all fall short. Blue had his own special way of failing to say anything sensible that the other just don't match. They are also wrong, but the just don't stand up to blue's standard of silliness.

What is really interesting is the blue is held up as a standard to be emulated. That one emulates down is a different method of emulation than I have been aware of in my life's experience. I hope I don't find others, though politics certainly offers the possibilities, or maybe hard core examples.
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Michael Chermside (profile), 10 Jun 2018 @ 4:32pm

Thank you for mentioning Roger Strong
Mike: Thank you for making the point of mentioning Roger Strong's passing. As you say, Techdirt is a peculiar sort of a community, but it is still heartening to see a commenter acknowledged.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2018 @ 6:49pm

Re: Re:

"Who the hell are you thinking about that came up in the last week who emulates out_of_the_blue, who was a troll that has only been emulated by other trolls and flagged by everyone else. Did you just learn his name?"

This apparent newcomer with a lot to say (and is not shy about saying it) who most commonly posts as "ROGS" (which upon first glance made me think of Roger Strong) and gets many posts flagged. See some here:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180608/13175339994/fbi-hoovered-up-two-years-journalists-p hone-email-records-to-hunt-down-leaker.shtml
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Arioch (profile), 10 Jun 2018 @ 8:10pm

Roger Strong
This is so sad
I may not always have agreed with his opinions, but I will miss the discussions that these prompted.
My condolences go out to his family
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ROGS, 10 Jun 2018 @ 10:05pm

A touching Obituary.
In journalism school, they told us that the sign of a real journo is that they can write a good obituary.

I think your juxtaposition of this RIP in the funniest comments of the week is exactly that...

This is what sets you apart from the boble heads!
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2018 @ 7:02am

Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Jun 10th, 2018 @ 3:35pm
Thirded, especially for a fellow Canuck. :)
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2018 @ 7:53am

Damn, out_of_the_blue is dead? WHY then is his handle all over?
Perhaps the wackiest aspect of Techdirt: you encourage whom you call a troll, pretend just so can laugh at, but make comments in advance, the many "out_of_the_blue just hates" fill-in-the-blank as if trying to draw out, and now HERE, several of you going on about him!

WEIRDEST SITE ON TEH INTERNETS.

Anyhoo, you can look on The Register for JohnFen. Coincidence of 7 characters, huh? And gives same indications as John Fenderson, software developer.

People are just abandoning Techdirt. Rare to see ol' Gwiz in last year, for instance.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2018 @ 8:00am

Re: Re: Re:

TD's biggest fan(atic) who constantly claims the site is a cesspit and yet has been here for years.

A) It's not just a claim.

II) You kids may preach to the converted, and you're not converting.

3) Techdirt is sheer entertainment. It's a target-rich environment of pirate-fanboy-trolls in every direction, Masnick is a cartoon blatant corporatist, and it IS just possible that a person would support copyright, patents, and Rule Of Law, isn't it? You may not know any "conservatives" personally, but are a few still around.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2018 @ 9:10am

Re:
_Damn, out_of_theblue is dead?

One can dream.

you encourage whom you call a troll

No one's encouraging jack shit. You yourself proudly proclaim your inability to leave what you described as a cesspool.

It's hardly surprising a Prenda fanboy like yourself would use somebody's passing to toot your own horn. You're furious that the only way you would be profiled is if one of your comments makes it in "week's funniest" because of how skullfucked-dumb it is.

Have a SESTA vote.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2018 @ 9:22am

Re: Damn, out_of_the_blue is dead? WHY then is his handle all over?
It's very strange that you would speak so boldly, in a manner befitting a chest-thumping speech, of an individual whom you have claimed to not have made posts since 2014.

Especially on a website that you claim people are abandoning. If the person no longer posts here, and the audience who might have seen his content is shrinking, why do you make this much effort?

It's almost like you are the individual in question and your statistics about the visitor trends are not what you claim them to be.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2018 @ 9:32am

Re: Damn, out_of_the_blue is dead? WHY then is his handle all over?
Also the "John Fenderson" on Ghacks, who is definitely the same guy. (I should google before I comment). I wonder why such a long-term prolific poster chose to divorce himself from Techdirt -- to break the addiction maybe?

Anyway, it's good to know that he's still around -- even if he's now apparently boycotting Techdirt.

And as far as "trolls" go ...

... yes, a certain amount of drama (if not the ocassional barroom brawl) seems to be a major factor for keeping people involved. I couldn't count all the online communities I've known that slowly withered away after the last resident troll left. Human nature I guess, many people like a good fight, it's invigorating, it gives them purpose and imbibes a kind of tribalism against a common enemy. Especially in a place where most people choose to be anonymous, and will never have to own what they say nor worry about their "real life" reputation as a result. It's a delicate balance to be sure, and many online communities do indeed self destruct from acrimony. But that said, I would predict that when the last troll leaves Techdirt, the comment section will turn into a shell of its former self.
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Thad, 11 Jun 2018 @ 10:07am

Sad to hear about Roger's passing. I hope he knew how much his comments were appreciated.

And while I'm on the subject, I'd just like to say that Techdirt's got a great community of thoughtful people. I certainly don't always agree with everybody, but this is a good place to come for intelligent, rigorous debate by well-informed people.
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Ninja (profile), 11 Jun 2018 @ 10:48am

I asked myself a while back where the hell did he go. Sad to hear about it. He was a source of insightfulness here. And some good laughs.

I keep coming back here everyday because of the content but also because of this awesome community. I always say it and I'm going to repeat: thanks TD for all your effort into bringing awesome content. But I'll also add my thanks to everybody here for participating in this 'peculiar' community, even if we disagree ;)
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2018 @ 11:25am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
I hope someone informs us when you pass away as we can cele... I mean, respond appropriately.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2018 @ 12:53pm

Ah hell naw
You don’t get to be the hero of this story you fucking sick ass creep. You busted up a wake to spread you inane horseshit. You are mentally ill and need to seek help.
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Kal Zekdor (profile), 11 Jun 2018 @ 1:46pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
...this hurts my brain.

You realize that a corporatist would, practically by definition, push for stronger IP laws? Your characterization of Mike as a pro-pirate "everything should be free and damn the consequences" fanatic is completely at odds with your characterization of him as a corporatist mouthpiece.

I say this as a conservative that supports (reasonable) copyright, patents, and rule of law: fuck off. Sincerely.
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That One Guy (profile), 11 Jun 2018 @ 2:36pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Expecting their arguments to make sense or even be consistent is like expecting a great dane to be good at philosophy; it's just not in their skillset.

The one thing they can be consistently relied upon for is entertainment as they continue beating on the same old strawmen.
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2018 @ 6:55pm

Re: Re:
I would predict that when the last troll leaves Techdirt

Yeah, not going to happen. out_of_the_blue has declared himself "unable" to leave. He and Dick Bennett are going to hang around as long as the length of copyright doesn't last forever. And they apparently have no shortage of fellow concern trolls to fluff them up.
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Wendy Cockcroft, 12 Jun 2018 @ 5:56am

Re: Re: Response to: Anonymous Coward on Jun 10th, 2018 @ 3:35pm
Yep, do it. I didn't always agree with the man but when I did it was because he knew his stuff politically as well as technically. I'll miss him as well as John Fenderson.
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Wendy Cockcroft, 12 Jun 2018 @ 5:59am

Re:
Yep. This is one of the few places where I come to read the comments as well as the articles. I've learned so much from you guys over the years.
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Kevda (profile), 13 Jun 2018 @ 5:12pm

Thanks Mike for posting this here.

I've been a part of forums before, and I know how connected people can get to the topics and or other persons online, even though it is typing at a keyboard perhaps thousand(s) of miles away from each other. Whether it be friend or adversary.

And it is no word of lie that this was a very big part of his life. He was a very private and solitary person. We know because we lived next door to him in our apartment building and my missus being the resident manager here wouldn't see him come and go a lot, even at Christmas. We would make sure he got a gift, even if it wasn't much, because there didn't seem to be a lot of family around for him. We never saw visitors come and go.

He had mentioned when she took over this building about 3 years ago (and myself by default helping out after my regular job) that he worked in IT, worked out of his apartment and in programming and that he would be willing to help us out with any computer problems if we had them.

Well that happened one evening when for some reason we couldn't access the net for office work despite the bill being paid up. I knocked on his door, probably with that "we're screwed here wide eyed I'm staring into the cyber abyss and you may as well ask me to explain quantum physics to somebody, can you help us please?" look. Our office most certainly won't.

He helped without any reservation at all. Making sure everything was up and running,even bringing some of his own gear over, to make sure that wasn't the problem, eventually tracking it down to an IP/ISP/Gateway that somehow had been shut down,changed or whatever. I'm a technoretard at this stuff just trying to explain that he did a great job of diagnosing and getting us up and running again. That's after had talked to our ISP "tech" earlier on the phone and getting nowhere other than "you must have a problem on your end with your computer"

Ok.....we kinda figured that out, thanks for the help...

Afterwards sat and talked with him in our office and got into world events a bit, Syria, East Ukraine, and past geopolitical events and blowback in today's world. It's when I knew that I was dealing with a person who was far more savvy than just getting someone back online. It was an enjoyable bit of time spent with him. He soon said he had to head home, (this was later in the evening, our computer crisis and our subsequent small chat about the world). He never ever expected anything even though we tried but Deb would send over the odd plate of food from time to time.

Just an example of what kind of guy Roger was, there were many more instances but won't go into them. He was just a genuine good guy.

Knowing what I know now, I have no doubt he was heading home to peruse this site. People here are correct, forums can be that "odd community" where everybody gets together, whether it be to intellectually joust just for the sake of it, or for a type of companionship in online give and take. Simple fact of the matter is people's possessions will be scattered and will eventually disappear, their words (legacy) for good or bad preserved on a forum like this never will. Just like Roger's and all that post here.

I know he appreciates this, have no doubt about it.

The best to all of you and thank you Mike.
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