This is just a short post to say that I’ve noticed, with the help of another commenter, that those who’ve been previously banned here have figured out a way to circumvent my comment filter. That’s called gaming the system. Since they don’t believe in the system or following the rules, they break them. A few have even bragged about having done this multiple times. Banning for them means nothing since, like Dracula or zombies, they rise from the dead only to return.
Unlike other bloggers, I actively monitor and participate in the comment threads here. I do this in order to try to maintain a certain quality, tone & standards in the discussions. I not appreciate those who happily make a mockery of all the effort I put into this. It in effect devalues the comment threads, since no one can trust that people are who they say they are. Like the Russian campaign to elect Trump, this sort of sabotage is precisely what they have in mind. They hope it will devalue the entire blog when, in reality, most of us can suss out who the frauds are and separate their fraud from the value of the blog itself.
Unfortunately for them and for others who may legitimately use similar methods to visit the blog and post comments, I will be instituting changes in permissions for commenters in the near future. I will not spell out those procedures, since clearly there are those who would use that information to further game the system. If you have been previously blocked here and are still commenting, I hope you will find it harder (or impossible) to do what you’re doing.
If you are a legitimate commenter who has not been banned and find that these changes impede your ability to post comments, please contact me directly/privately.
One benefit of this new approach is that it may make commenters who dislike or disagree or flagrantly violate my comment rules, respect them for the sake of retaining the privilege of commenting here.
‘Like the Russian campaign to elect Trump”
nothing has been proved and Hillary is a thief etc.
So you idea of quality of blogging is quite tainted.
True address below. You can write me and I will answer.
@Richard: I totally support your efforts to moderate out abusive, anti-Semitic etc. comments.
One point to pick you up on in your debate with @DavidJ you say ‘Israelis are oppressing Palestinians. They are not oppressing them in the name of the Jewish people.’ I disagree with you. That is exactly what they are doing. What is called the Jewish State is actually the State of the Jewish People and the Jewish people are not just Israeli Jews. That is the whole point of the Jewish nation state bill. You and I have more rights, being part of the Jewish nation than a Palestinian who lives there.
This was established in George Tamarin v SOI 1972 and reaffirmed in Uzi Ornan v SOI 2013. Tamarin wanted his nationality to be changed from ‘Jewish’ to ‘Israeli.’ Justice Agranat ruled that ‘the desire to create an Israeli nation separate from the Jewish nation is not a legitimate aspiration. A division of the population into Israeli and Jewish nations would … negate the foundation on which the State of Israel was established.’ The court ruled that ‘There is no Israeli nation separate from the Jewish People. The Jewish People is composed not only of those residing in Israel but also of Diaspora Jewry.’
That is the key problem of Zionism, the ruling ideology that guies the Israeli state
@ Tony: What I meant to say in reply to DavidJ was that though some Israelis may believe that they speak & act on behalf of the Jewish people as a whole, they don’t. Most Diaspora Jews would reject the notion that Israel’s oppression of Palestinians is done in their name or has their approval.
I do agree that this is a key contradiction of Zionist ideology: the so-called bond between Israel and the Diaspora. The bond is so often dishonored or abandoned entirely by Israelis when it’s convenient that it’s really an empty concept only dragged out when it’s to Israel’s advantage.
Heh…..”Anya” is in France, unless “she” is hiding behind a proxy.
@ Strelnikov: Anya’s IP address resolves to France. But as I said her fake name is the same as a well known drag queen so she’s likely as fake as a $3 bill. And “she” certainly uses a proxy server as I’ve IDed all those commenters as being the same person (including “her”).
I fed some of the IP addresses to a tracker website and found that they geolocate to a couple of Western European countries, and I found the drag queen…..this is some next-level hasbara trolling, certainly. This person needs a better hobby, like attempting broadcast signal intrusion on their local TV station, or stamp collecting.
This is just more
Attempts at trying to silence anybody who doesn’t agree with what you say.
It’s your blog, you can do what you want. Maybe your not looking for anyhing other then people to cheerlead your views
And just for your verifciation. My name is Moshe. I live in Canada, and I’m not part of some elaborate “hasbara” scheme to go after Richard Silverstein
@ Moshe:
Well mazel tov, your comment claiming to be a poor, simple , hardworking prosteh Yid reminds me of the guy who says he keeps kosher because he eats borsht. What he leaves out is that he also eats pork.
There are plenty of comments here blaring hasbara regularly. Yours is a complaint heard routinely & repetitively. Perhaps you could learn a few new complaints to liven things up for the rest of us? Those few who may now be restricted will have to learn to follow the comment rules or lose their privileges.