Recently, I have been throughly amused by a couple of hilarious bicker-fests that have taken place in the post comments on a pair of prominent local blogs.
First we have Matt Baumgartner's discussion of his ejection from the bar at 74 State on Fridaypuppy.com. This is a classic flame war. You have actual employees that were mentioned in the post responding, impassioned regulars, and the most importantly -- a back and fourth from the author. So much butt-hurtedness! I love it.
The second one is a post over on Steve Barnes' (Times Union) Tablehopping blog regarding a meal he had at the Cambridge Hotel (you know, the one that Gordon Ramsay is going to save). This argument is spiced up by apparent sock-puppeting (possibly the owners of the hotel), outright insults directed at the post author, people insulting each other's hometowns (I think I remember a Washington County vs. Clifton Park spat). All very funny.
I can't help having an adolescent sense of delight at seeing our local online community being all up in snits. I love seeing anonymous people indulging in self-righteous indignation on regional internet forums as if the safety of the free world depended on the victory of their opinions and points of view. Ol' Mr. Dave appreciates people getting their dander up.
I feel left out. I can't remember one decent Argument/Flame battle in the comments of any of my over 500 posts over the course of the past 3 or 4 years. I guess I try to keep things mostly positive, and frankly, I attribute the relative placidity of my commentators to the fact that I have a sort of niche readership. I think that my small, merry band of readers and I agree on a lot of general opinions/points of view (i.e. I don't have the sort of widespread traffic that either of the two mentioned blogs do).
So readers, I demand a flame war! Not sure how to start one though...
Steve Barnes- I don't like your hairdo!
Matt Baumgartner- I hear the sausages at Wolff's are MADE OF PEOPLE!
Cambridge Hotel- You Washington County woodchucks can never match the sophistication of Clifton Park (which is pretty much the Paris of the Capital Region)!
Oh yeah, if you are reading this then you suck, your opinions are wrong, and I am much smarter than you and more informed about many important things.
How did I do? Let me have it anonymous internet hordes. Do your worst.
(I prob. shouldn't have to include this disclaimer, but I am being entirely facetious with most of this post, no libel suits pleas.)
While I think this is hilarious :D. I'm just too mature to engage in an internet flame war. Plus I just don't care that much.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy reading people's overreactions though. Awesome. :P
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. I suck?!?! No, you suck. You stupid, bacon chomping, slider eating ass wipe.
ReplyDeleteHow's that?
@jon in albany
ReplyDeleteHaha. No, you are!
What about the 25 comment deep reaction to the fact that you hate Trader Joe and wishes he would go back to California where he belongs? You know, either that, or open up immediately next door to you or otherwise deliver his tasty treats right into your hot little purdy mouth.
ReplyDeleteYou get controversy. You get notoriety. Or have you forgotten that mention by the New York Times?
Maybe you are just getting old and losing your touch? Or maybe being the father of two is making you soft? Although I'm putting my money on that all your power stemmed from a well-spring in Guilderland, and now that you have moved to another suburb, you are slowly withering away to a shadow of your once great self.
A blogger who can't rile up the anonymous internet hordes isn't a blogger at all. They might as just well be a Times Union beat reporter.
Huzzah.
Yeah, we were rpetty close with Trader Joe's, but you were too fair, Dave. Next time just unapologetically bash something that loudmouths like, like Chipotle, Ala Shanghai, Schenectady, or the word "nom".
ReplyDeleteOh, calling out obvious bigots works well too, in my experience.
You are such a poorly-taxidermied Gelata.
ReplyDeleteCan't we all just get along?
ReplyDeleteHere, I will help. I live in Washington County, I take a shower every day and floss my teeth, problem, Clifton Park? You guys can't even navigate any of your intersections correctly and you're nothing more than an ugly commercial/shopping area. :P
ReplyDeleteMY region of upstate new york is better than YOUR region of upstate new york! WE HAVE CREEPY GHOST WHITE HOT DOGS, that totally trumps your baby-sized hots! and we have ABBOTTS and the monstrous perinton wegmans which is approximately 987065.76 times larger than any grocery store ever needs to be! WIN.
ReplyDelete