I’ve had my websites for a little over ten years now. I added a message board to this one five or six years back, because it amused me and because I thought some of my visitors might enjoy it. I also added a much nicer one at another site, which actually gets traffic.

Over the years, I’ve only pulled a few messages and I’ve banned very few users. Ninety per cent of these pulls and bans were for spam. A few more were obvious trolls (people who simply wander in to any message board they find and start posting statements designed to piss people off and get a reaction whether on topic or not). Only in two cases have I pulled posts and/or banned regular posters for specific content violations. Both of these cases have been recent and both revolved around posts which I perceived as racist and inflammatory.

I mention this now because some people (including the recently-purged poster) may have gotten the idea that I remove posts from my message boards because I don’t like the grammar they use. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m a language snob, I know I’m a language snob, and I usually manage to grit my teeth and cope with other people’s more casual approach to grammar and punctuation. Maybe the confusion with the recent post occurred because it just happened to occur at almost the same time as a language rant I’d posted just a bit before. This was a coincidence.

Just for the record, here is the post I pulled from the Otherstream message board:

Hey big guy, don’t forget to mention NC’s newest Idol star “Rhonetta Johnson”, she’s making all the crack head/ghetto mama’s proud thru out the Charlotte area! A fine product of our welfare system, as I heard she know’s her ABC’s to G, and can count to eleventeen. LOL

As should be apparent, the problems with this post are definitely not limited to the bad grammar and punctuation. However, it IS a bit ironic that the poster has the audacity to criticize someone else’s educational attainment when he can’t even seem to compose a sentence himself, isn’t it?

This individual has posted on my message board many times before, and sometimes even has expressed some valid and relevant opinions. Other times, I’ve generally just ignored him and laughed off whatever he was trying to say. On one occasion, he made some pretty blatantly unfounded comments about me. I didn’t “censor” that, but this last bilge was just a little too much.

Maybe I should’ve just left it there and let him dig his own grave. Maybe I should have just pulled it down and let the incident pass. Or maybe I should’ve made it more clear what had happened when I commented on it earlier. Either way, I just wanted to clarify for the record.

2 ejections from House denounced: Capitol police chief apologizes to G.I.’s mom, lawmaker’s wife:

A 1946 law prohibits demonstrations within any of the Capitol buildings. But a subsequent U.S. Capitol Police Board regulation clarified “demonstration activity” to include “parading, picketing, speechmaking, holding vigils, sit-ins, or other expressive conduct … but does not include merely wearing Tee-shirts, buttons or other similar articles of apparel that convey a message.”

I was right. Apparently there’s not a law against merely being annoying. Which is a good thing, all in all.

Just got back from visiting my parents. My mom has broadband now. What is the world coming to?

It’s kind of funny, though, that I’m thinking of giving her my old G4 when Mark gets a new desktop. Nowadays, you’re just as likely to see kids giving their parents hand-me-down electronics as you are to see parents giving their kids hand-me-down cars.

I love that I have a mother who wants my hand-me-down electronics…

After a very sketchy first few months, where she often looked a little like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, the plant above suddenly seems to be thriving. Apparently, she’s found her preferred solar angle. I haven’t named her — nor any of the other new kids yet — partly out of respect for the ones I left behind, and partly because, you know, once you name them and start feeding them, it’s extra hard when you lose them.

I think this one’s going to make it, though. Ultimately she’ll be one of my favorites since she had to work so hard and all. She might get a name very soon.