Sunday, August 22, 2010

A Note on Comments

As of this morning, there were 9,303 comments on this blog.

I am guessing that, over time, I have probably deleted around 100 comments. About a third of the comments I have deleted are from those who attempt to use the EPJ comment section as a forum to explain their theory on why Jews are the problem with the world, sometimes they even cite former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and current Treasury Secretary Geithner in their theses, even though it would mostly assuredly be a real surprise to Paulson's mother and Geithner's mother that they are Jews. Paulson is a devout Christian Scientist. Geithner was brought up Christian (It is not clear if he is a currently practicing Christian)

Another third I have deleted are links to ads that are selling viagra, combs for bald men and the like.

The rest have been comments that have been way off topic or seriously misleading.

A new anonymous commenter, 9,303 in, is forcing me to develop a more refined approach to my rather loose comment policy.

First, I have turned the registration feature for comments on. This way instead of the numerous anonymous comments, at least we will be able to get the trend in thinking of different commenters.

Second, moderation is on and I will be be more aggressively deleting posts, especially if they are the type that are coming from my new found anonymous friend commenter. Here is the latest from my new friend and a bit of explanation as to why he/she gets deleted. My new friend comments:
If you have the guts, let the debate begin. It will certainly lead to a much better and interesting blog.
First of all, I don't have to debate anyone, especially if I find the topic of the debate uninteresting or where it would take me a long time to correct a view that most people see clearly. The ability to see clearly is one problem my new friend has. I can see it would take voluminous hours to correct his/her erroneous thinking. Quite frankly, I just don't have the time to spend on topics that most others seem to get almost instinctively. I try not to mix editorial with my business ventures but it appears that my new friend needs my economic consulting services. So big guy or gal (or trans), I am not running, send over a check and let's get it on.

Notice the style of debate I am using here, a broad based attack on my new friend using generalizations that would take hours to refute (If they could be refuted). My new friend would have to go back to his/her comments show them, explain why they are not out of the mainstream etc.

This is the style of comment that my new friend likes to use.

I don't have time to respond in detail to such broad blasts. I am running a business here and I really don't need new vistors, before they get a sense of the site, to be running into my new found friend at every other comment with one of his broadbased attacks.

Who has time for this nonsense, unless you are collecting an Obama unemployment check?

Thus, these broadbased kung fu moves will not see the light of day as EPJ comments.

As for my new friend's view that he/she can make EPJ more interesting, LOL, unless he/she has pics of himself/herself in a menage a trois with Eliot Spitzer and one of his hookers, I think I'll stick to my plan.

My new friend continues:
Personally, I don't think you have the guts to duke it out after being embarrassed last time around (oh yeah, that thread is missing!!!). -- Van Hoisington
Actually the thread was deleted because Mr./Ms/Dr Van Hosington included about a half dozen links to irrelevant outside material. Again, I am trying to build a business here for people who appreciate my views on the economy. If a new visitor comes to my site for the first time, I want that person to spend some time and look around and not be redirected around the internet by a "Van Hoisington"

In short, if you are civil, make pertinent points, keep the outside links to a minimum, ask pertinent questions and even if you make an occasional outrageous comment, it's all fine and you are in no danger of having your comments deleted here. I really look forward to them.

If on the other hand, you are obsessed with me, don't think I even know how to drink water, then keep on sending your comments to remind me of my sad state. I'll still see all of them and have a little chuckle when I hit the delete button.

9 comments:

  1. I have one comment/request. Can you please enable the full post content in your feed?

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Got that? The Fed may have to sell off a trillion in Treasury securities..."

    "He also knows that no one will buy the junk MBS instruments he has on his books and that he will have to sell off huge amounts Treasury securities quickly, to prevent those excess reserves to suddenly flood the markets with huge new money..."
    **********************************************

    I'm afraid I don't understand this. I'm not a sophisticated reader (no brain-stunting degree in Econ or Finance, no MBA, no PhD) and could use a little more explanation about these important concepts.

    I understand the FED has a large balance sheet of crap.

    I understand the FED is paying banks an incentive to park their excess reserves at the FED by paying them .25% which is a little more than the fed funds rate.

    I'm mixed up on why the FED would need to sell a bunch of treasuries to keep the trillion in reserve from suddenly flooding the system (causing inflationary effects). How does selling treasuries keep reserves in reserve?

    Thanks in advance to anyone who weighs in to help. A lot of us readers are in the learning process...and can't spread these crucial facts (repost on our facebook pages, etc) unless we understand the concepts thoroughly. Be gentle.

    Sean O'Donnell

    ReplyDelete
  3. Why censor any comments unless they are spam? You don't have to reply to any of them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Scooter

    People email all the time and ask me to post the full blog feed. It won't happen.

    I am trying to run a business. Page views count. Indivdual blog feeds do not count in my traffic tabulations. Further, more people click through on ads once they are on the site then if they just seed an ad on the feed.

    Again, I am running a business consider it the price of admission.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Sean O'Donnell

    If banks start loaning out the excess reserves this money enters the system and given there's a trillion in excess reserves, the potential inflationary ramifications are huge.

    If you give a check to the Federal Reserve and they don't pump it back into the system it retires that money and shrinks reserves. So if the Fed sells Treasury securities and money markets buy it from the Fed, the Fed would retire the money from the system that the Fed pays it. Viola the reserves shrink

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  6. @disinter

    The idea is that I am trying to keep this blog a place where intelligent conversation takes place based around my ideas.

    Not some place where the comments are dominated by people on Obama unemployment checks that have nothing to do but dilute the quality of the comments.

    I don't even mind an occasional comment along the lines of "Wenzel, I hope you polished your tin foil hat today." The problem is more about someone constantly making comments that will give a new visitor the wrong impression about what this site is about.

    No store keeper would allow such a person in his store all day long. No medical doctor would allow such a character to sit in his waiting room all day. Such a character could say, "Well the doctor can debate these issues with me and it will be better for all the patients." But again, this is a big world where there are plenty of different views that can be discovered on any topic. Why should a medical doctor spend all day every day in his patients room debating with someone who believes in voodoo. It makes no sense to turn my site into a worldwide debating society for every nut job that comes along. Anyone looking at the site would get the wrong impression as to what the site is about, and it would be a disservice for those making intelligent comments at EPJ.

    I'm sure there are plenty of fruitcake webs sites out there, if someone wants to read that stuff they should go to those sites. That's not what EPJ is about.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I agree with your thought process on this. These trolls who go around and spout off without any logically thought get annoying. I came to your site and found it great to get up to the minute posts on parts of the economy many will not talk about. I go to Drudge and then yours every morning.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wenzel putting the comment-control beatdown on internet psychos: owned.

    Well done, Wenzel, about damn time. The quality, civility and gentlemanly-ness of this blog just went up a few notches. Can you get it to "11"?!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Personally, I'm going to miss Summers. Hope he comes back under his gmail moniker, kEynesPluS1

    ReplyDelete