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......

Serialized gem / siren song Tales of the City drew many folks to SF. Well, it brought us here, anyway. And the character of Mary Ann Singleton acted as a temporary stand-in until many of us arrived. To wit: Mary Ann Singleton was twenty-five years old when she saw San Francisco for the first time. She came to the city alone for an eight-day vacation. On the fifth night, she drank three Irish coffees......

We're back from our inadvertent hiatus -- here's hoping it's a less busy week for us at the day job and an even more busy week for Ed Jew news! Fang qi means resign in Chinese, and that seems to be what everyone's calling for, with Gavin Newsom now, with "grim determination," trying to figure out how exactly to get Ed Jew out of office and pick someone else to fill the seat, now that......

-- Norman Nsu to return to Redwood City. [ABC7] -- Beth Spotswood writes in real-time about this year's Macy's Passport, with SFist aluma Eve Batey as the Virgil to her Dante. [Chron] -- Ed Jew trail delayed. [Examiner] -- Press conference of San Diego's mayor reversing his decision on same-sex marriage after his daughter comes out. Really, it's amazing footage. [CBS5] -- The U.S. (well, the South) keeping us safe from teens' exposed underwear.......

Well, we suppose this is sort of like those Portraits In Grief type thumbnail portraits of murder victims we suggested to the Chron -- yesterday's paper featured a long article about Allan Broussard, a serial car burglar who was shot to death last month. He was shot clutching a car stereo he'd just stolen. A suspect has been arrested in the case, who has a long rap sheet of his own, but the cops won't......

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly! Letters from people who say they are not in a cult. An article about former SFist editor Eve Batey's promotion at the Chron! Go Eve! Also, they called us a "sassy" local blog. We loved Sassy! Cover article: A guy who makes money suing small businesses under the ADA. A review of the Kiki & Herb show. The Simpsons movie is okay. Meredith didn't much like her North Beach......

-- Power outages enrage your editor, city dwellers. [Chron, KGO] -- Bang, bang: SF Supes okay with handguns. [KPIX] -- Aging journalism fetishist and noted lover of the way old books smell, Frances Dinkelspiel, misguidedly and "ethereally" derides the Chronicle's hiring of former SFist editor Eve Batey. [GhostWorldWord] -- Top-drawer Harvard fisticuffs, darling: Facebook sued by its old college chums. [Chron] -- Trash talk to resume Wednesday morning. Grrrrul, please. [KRON 4] -- Great......

-- 4.2 tremor slightly moves the Bay Area, donuts. [Chron, Yahoo, Examiner, FCJ] -- Ron Russell on Chron business writer David Lazarus' new LA Times gig. [The Snitch] -- One Rincon Hill tops off. [KGO] -- Cal swim coach/Olympic gold medalist gets job back, $3.5 million in gender-discrimination lawsuit. [Chron] -- Antioch police accused of racism. [Courage Campaign] -- Final Harry Potter installment arrives tomorrow; controversy surrounding spoilers today. [Valleywag] -- Seagulls still reigning......

Last night when we and a few of our more tolerably-alcoholic friends took a break over at the St. Regis (why not?) -- which included SFist emerita and SF Gate/Chron rescuer Eve Batey for a few, short seconds -- we were jarred to find former San Francisco Mayor Willie Lewis Brown kicking it right next to us. It should go without saying that insouciance was seeping out of William's ears, nose, and ass. What's......

Phil Bronstein is the Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. Bronstein agreed to answer a few questions for us. His responses directly address issues brought up by SFist and SFist's readers a short time ago. Notably, you'll see from his answers below that he'd appreciate more of the same. Here's a chance hear and be heard from one of the most important drivers behind news coverage in our area. See what he had to say to us below -- and let him know what you think....

Curse you, Eve Batey! Our former co-editor is a huge horror/fantasy flick maven, and when she left SFist for greener pastures last October, we knew we'd have to watch some movies at the Indiefest Hole in the Head moviefest for her this year. Problem is: we are deathly afraid of horror movies. Are we going to see a movie described as "featuring the most perverse and vile visuals ever recorded on film?" Or another movie......

And the layoffs begin -- a source tells us the first person to be let go from the Chronicle in their 25% reduction-in-staff campaign is managing editor Robert "Rosey" Rosenthal. We got the news confirmed by Friend of SFist and Chron Blogging/Interactive Editor Eve Batey, who says: It's no secret that we're losing at least 20 managers, but I was still shocked to hear that Rosey would be leaving. The instant rapport I had with......

It's mostly this guy's fault. Jackson West, who was the first editor here at SFist, got the ball rolling with this post, "The City that Knows How." He helped to grow the site with his wit, feel for the city, and a small group of contributors. As we zero in on SFist's third anniversary, we thought it would be a great time to see what Jackson's been doing since he last graced these pages,......

The SF Int'l Film Festival isn't just about great national and international movies -- they've got music events, gala events, talks about the state of cinema, an online presence through SF360.com, and -- what we stopped by to see this afternoon -- a series of panels about the state of cinema today. Today's panel was about the state of the film scene in San Francisco, and included basically every single movie-related constituency group in......

Tonight's the opening night for the San Francisco International Film Festival! It's two weeks of everything in the world you can think of that's related to film: new indie favorites, an old (remastered) Disney darling, foreign films, documentaries, film-related music concerts, and even panel discussions -- one of which is moderated by film fanatic and former SFist editor Eve Batey! We're totally there (with the big glitter sign that says "I Love You Sanjaya,"......

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. First, Dianne Feinstein came for the animal rights activists, and we said nothing. What are some of the election day losers doing now? Well, Krissy Keefer has been offered $100,000 to run against Gavin Newsom. Cover article: Chron blogs editor (and SFist editor emerita) Eve Batey must save the Chronicle!! (In a travesty of justice, Eve is not mentioned in the piece. Boooo!). It's actually a pretty decent article......

We've got a killer North American premiere and a Tony Award-winning play with its Tony Award-winning actresses--we've even got some sketch comedy from New York. ...

After a holiday break, we're back with more of our conversation with Nathaniel P Ford, Muni's Executive director. As a refresher, check out parts one, two, three, four, five, and six. Eve Batey: Something that we always wonder when we go fill out that form on the website, when we have a complaint or a comment or something, where does it go? What happens? So frequently, unless we really raise a stink and we......

We continue our conversation with Nathaniel Ford, Muni's executive director. If you need to catch up, here are parts one,two, three, and four and five. Eve Batey: While we're on all these initiatives, how about TransLink? What's going on there? Nathainel Ford: Okay. I guess Translink has had its challenges. It’s a new technology. I’m part of the TMG, which is the Transit Managers Group. We are working with the MTC to try and bring......

Here's the fifth part of our conversation with Nathaniel Ford, Muni's executive director. Previously: Parts one,two, three, and four. Eve Batey: What about Transit.511? Nathaniel Ford: Okay. Now I’ve heard about some challenges we’re having with Transit.511, and that in some cases it’s not giving as accurate information as we need to have. Again, this is another one of those programs where we’ll have to continue to continue to refine it. Now I mentioned......

Part the fourth in our multi-part conversation with Nathaniel Ford, the Executive director of Muni. See part one here, part two here, and part three here. Eve Batey: Well, this is going to kind of put you on the spot, and, frankly, I don't know how honest you can be, but I have to ask: Is the Central Subway really a good idea? I’ll bet two thirds of the people who voted for it......

Part three in our series detailing our conversation with Nathaniel P Ford, executive director of the MTA. See part one here, part two here. Eve Batey: While I’m asking what you’re going to do for money now, of course I also want to know – Nathaniel Ford: Increase patronage! EB: Well, yeah! NF: Increase our patronage, and part of that is, speeding the system up. And that was in the SPUR Report, you know,......

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the......

We recently sat down with Muni's executive director, Nathaniel P. Ford, to ask him some of the questions our readers and we have been dying to get the answers to. We spent enough time with him that we felt it made sense to publish our conversation in serial form, as opposed to one oppressively long interview. This is the first segment in the series. Nathaniel Ford: Thanks for coming in. Eve Batey: Oh, thank......

The more eagle eyed among you might have noticed some changes to our masthead today. SFist Jackson West, SFist's editor since our launch in July 2004, has taken on the role of SFist's Editor at Large. After a month-long and certainly well-deserved vacation, he promises all of us that he will be back writing the posts we all know and love and getting drunk with San Francisco's movers and shakers. Freed from the administrative......

EssEffist's own PR powerhouse shares her thoughts on fannypacks and SF wi fi names...