Results tagged “commenters”

Daring to go where no online writer in their right mind should ever, ever, ever go, SF Chronicle's Ryan Kim profiles SFGate's most "prolific" commenters, Kimble McSweeney, a Dallas resident. (!) During the first three months of 2009 alone, "McSweeney posted about 1,400 comments -- about 16 per day -- on a variety of stories." And much to our surprise, he's allegedly none too shabby when it comes to penning his thoughts on the Gate, or at least when compared to the others. (While not necessarily at the level of YouTube commenters, SFGate comments, much like arguing on the Internet, can lean toward the developmentally-disabled side -- or, as Kim too delicately puts it, "playground humor.")

Generic's blog features lots of interesting local anecdotes. For instance, this man looks perfectly presentable, yet he's talking to himself. He's also wearing an AC Transit pin -- even better!

This post marks a brand new feature, in which we give SFist's blogging commenters some props, as a thank you for helping make SFist great.

One of the perks of being behind-the-scenes here at SFist is that we get to read all of the angry comments that come after a story has moved away from the home (or first five) pages. Typically they are the of the 4a.m. meth'd-out variety (our favorite kind, really). But after a post lingers in purgatory, frequently a MSM news source will pick up on it and it will cull all kinds of fresh voices. Take, for example, the "Map of Prop 8 Donors" post, which has garnered some news comments as of late. Comments we'd like to share with you.

The Chicago Tribune is, in 2008, finally getting around to dealing with the glorious, frustrating, and all-knowing voice of the commenter. This week the Tribune shut down their comment boards on all of their political news stories. What's more, the publication also yanked the Commenter's voice on a recent op-ed piece about Muslims and another story about Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich. Why? Bill Adee, associate managing editor who also oversees the online operations, "ordered the suspension of comments on politics after he noticed the number of writers unfairly trashing the candidates." But more likely, the Tribune's writers and editors are growing frustrated with seeing their pearls of journalistic wisdom adorn racist, tangential, salacious rants and lies.

Did she find a horse's head in her office chair the day before? Embattled Susan Leal, who's refused to bow to pressure from Gavin Newsom to resign her position as the general manager of the SF Public Utilities Commission, was hit by a car outside City Hall as she was leaving meetings just before noon today. She was rushed to the hospital, where they found she was okay, if a little shaken.

It's back on, folks. The Harvey Milk Club endorsement vote happens tomorrow. Again. If you remember their last meeting, voting members caught the vapors, pulled out clumps of their own hair, ran around in circles, cried -- fun hysteria like that. Ever since that childish display of local politicking, all sides have been more or less civil and relatively respectful of one another. It goes without say how disappointed we are in both sides....

Yeah, we plan on running this bit into the ground. And then some. Well, well, well. Well. Huh. It looks like Mr. Van Sant is having yet another open casting call for his Harvey Milk biopic, Milk. Seeing as how are the Gena Rowlands of bit-part/background acting, we're going to attend the casting call. Again. Clearly, our picture taken at the last audition was either destroyed by a envious auditioners, or it was lost...

Risseldy, Rosseldy: a falcon (or hawk, according to eagle-eyed commenters) kicking it in a planter in front of Sushi Rock on Polk Street. Image credit goes to SFist's very own Rain Jokinen.

In an effort to tame the trolls, SFGate's site (as well as a few others like ThinkProgress) use software from an outside company that implements a unique "block user" function. This feature blocks all comments made by a user from view by anyone but themselves (upon login). That is to say, whenever the quasi-banned user logs in to the site, they see their comments intact; but to everyone else, the offending comment is simply...

After paying up last year for disclosure violations, Senator Carole Migden is once again under investigation for not disclosing or itemizing credit card charges that total $397,000. According to the LA Times, she faces $60,000 in administrative fines if she's in breach, our Miss Migden has investigators looking all up in her credit card charging for over the past seven years. Yikes. The main cause of concern for not keeping tidy books is that...

UPDATE: Oh man! How could we have missed this one? There's also going to be a Falun Gong march! We're sick and tired of trying to figure out whether we want to make fun of the pro-FG crowd or the anti-FG crowd -- oh, they're oppressed; but wait, their leader said nasty things about gays; and then there's that weird Epoch Times newspaper that they're involved with -- so we leave the thankless task of making Gong Show jokes to you, our tasteful commenters.

We're expanding the SFist family, and we think you might look perfect in our Mormon-sized family photo. The cons include the facts that our commenters can be abusively frank and our editors are worse (much worse!) but the pros undoubtedly are sharing the scoop with SFist readers who are the smartest, freshest, smoothest, and most engaged folks in the Bay Area, period.

Oh sure, you scoffed. But the joke's on you, scoffy! A majority of commenters on an earlier post were of the opinion that the cautionary "Muni Stories" posters on the buses could not possibly be true, and must be the work of an ambitious hoaxer. There was disbelief that Muni would put up signs about, for example, a crazy man seizing control of the gas pedal -- the take-away being that a ride on Muni could kill you. Or how about the sign pictured at left, in which Central Control is unable to call an ambulance for a stricken rider. Death is everywhere!

Critical Mass bike ride turns 15 years old today

What does SF Opera music director Donald Runnicles do when he's not conducting Wagner at the War Memorial Opera House? He's conducting Wagner in London. What does SF Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas do when he's not conducting Mahler at Davies Symphony Hall? You guessed it: he's conducting Mahler in London. We knew that addicts to Mahler or Wagner existed. But to think that they live in our own backyard? Well, that's just spooky.

Wonkette did something we find most awesome: commenter-cleansing. Hee:

We're starting to run out of ways to introduce these stories about the murder count in SF, so we're going with a clip of "Miss Murder" by AFI, above.

A photo of the soon-to-be-terminiated Panhandle Bandshell

A link to a funny video re: the inadvisability of allowing comments in a business situation.

We're both flattered an saddened by our witty betters at Gawker -- flattered that they stole our idea to spotlight comments (not that we're especially innovative in doing so, but still); a little saddened that theirs is already so much better in its execution. Depressing, yet we soldier on, because many of your thoughts deserve to be read a second time. Here's this week's top 5.

Hey, want to win tickets to see the Fray at Shoreline this Saturday? That's their sensitive pop ballad on the YouTube clip above, and Gomez and the SFist Krissy endorsed Eisley are opening!

Confirming what we heard yesterday, quote-unquote "District 4" Supervisor Ed Jew, along with Michela Alioto-Pier and Jake McGoldrick, showed up for yesterday's committee hearing to find out who exactly took those 300 trash cans off the streets of San Francisco. (Turns out it was DPW, who just went ahead and did it without telling anyone first.)

Hey folks, we're back again with our favorites amongst the comments and opinions you, the readership, made about SFist's stories that ran the week of July 1. Despite the weird holiday schedule, there was plenty of excellent conversation.

The "!" is because we've been out of town and we're so, so excited to be back. So, it looks like folks are settling nicely into the new comments system. While we appreciate those of you making "guest" comments as well, we especially appreciate those of you that are taking the time to register. The Top 5 for last week were:

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week.

Folks, we gotta be straight with you -- this probably should have been the "Top 5 Douches of the Week," because there were a hell of a lot more memorably nasty comments than good ones. Even so, there were some gems this week, some high-level discussion where people brought the insight, the knowledge, or the funny--for everyone's betterment.

Things have changed since our last post about Presidio Terrace. Go on, take a look at the old post - we'll wait for you. Now, instead of one Yellow Man inside the gate, it's a bunch. And they've brought a few friends along as well in a kind of virtual demonstration, as you can see in the screenshot above. Oh my!

Come, let us gaze boldly into the amazing future together, where events such as these will affect you ... in the future.