Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Gain Insight, Not Insults

 

A friend of mine said I was mentioned in a comment on a popular conservative site. Always hungry for anonymous flattery, I followed the link and scrolled down. Did the person call me brilliant? Handsome? Humble? The perfect combination of all three? Since the post had been up for a few hours, I’m sure tens of people had joined in to sing of my glories. Better read the comments from top to bottom to fully appreciate the moment.

Now, ostensibly, these commenters were all on our side politically. A mix of libertarian-leaning conservatives and conservative-learning libertarians who agree on at least 80 percent of today’s big issues. Sure, there were a smattering of liberals kvetching about Bu$Hitler and Faux New$, but the lion’s share pulled the same levers in November that the rest of us did.

No matter; the bile started from comment number one. They called the author dumb. Called her a RINO. Attacked her appearance and her education. Ridiculed her writing style, her subject matter and the website for publishing the piece. I apologized to her for the ill treatment despite not knowing who any of these people were and never delving into that site’s comments. I just needed to distance myself from the ugly digital mob that populates every comments section on the Internet.

Well, every comments section but one.

Ricochet is different by design. Commenting is open only to members who pay a minuscule amount of money and agree to follow our simple code of conduct. Don’t say words like [expletive], [expletive], or [expletive]. Avoid personal attacks. Don’t act like a jerk. In other words, the basic common decency you’d show at a cocktail party or at the coffeehouse down the street.

Here’s what I want you to do. See that box to the right for “The Daily Shot?” Type in your email address to receive the wittiest, most informative email available (it’s free). Then drop in on a few of our main-page posts and read the comments. You’ll often learn more there than you did in the original article. Lastly, consider joining Ricochet. Several of your current friends are already here, along with lots of future ones.

Click here and use the coupon code JOIN at checkout for 30 days of free membership. You’ll be able to comment, post your own stories… kick the tires for a month. We’re confident you’ll want to stick around.

There are 13 comments.

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  1. RushBabe49 Thatcher

    Last week, Jon, you were mentioned in James Taranto’s Best of the Web Today column on the Wall Street Journal Web site.

    Non-members, scroll down on this page and read the “February 16 Love” post I did. Join!!!

    • #1
    • February 18, 2015, at 5:16 PM PST
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  2. Nick Stuart Inactive

    To say nothing of the fact that people might actually read your comments on Ricochet.

    • #2
    • February 18, 2015, at 5:32 PM PST
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  3. Jon Gabriel, Ed. King
    Jon Gabriel, Ed.

    Nick Stuart:To say nothing of the fact that people might actually read your comments on Ricochet.

    TL; DR

    • #3
    • February 18, 2015, at 5:39 PM PST
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  4. RushBabe49 Thatcher

    Jon, you made today’s Best of the Web, too. Something about tattoos and baldness.

    • #4
    • February 18, 2015, at 6:37 PM PST
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  5. DocJay Inactive

    Brilliant and you’re a sexy man. That’s Rico.
    Even the crazies like me are generally polite here.

    • #5
    • February 18, 2015, at 6:47 PM PST
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  6. Hugh Member

    This is the only site where I read the comments. Well worth the price of admission.

    • #6
    • February 18, 2015, at 7:36 PM PST
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  7. Jon Gabriel, Ed. King
    Jon Gabriel, Ed.

    RushBabe49:Jon, you made today’s Best of the Web, too. Something about tattoos and baldness.

    Didn’t realize that. Thank you!

    • #7
    • February 18, 2015, at 8:39 PM PST
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  8. LunaticRex Inactive

    I don’t understand the bile. You’re one of the most adequate [expletive] writers on the [expletive] internet today. I agree that Ricochet is worth the money solely to have a calm, rational, and insightful [expletive] comments section. But there’s so much [expletive] more here.

    • #8
    • February 18, 2015, at 9:41 PM PST
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  9. iWe Reagan
    iWe Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    Life is so much more productive when we don’t spend time calling other people vile names like “progressive” and “liberal”.

    • #9
    • February 19, 2015, at 6:40 AM PST
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  10. Misthiocracy got drunk and Member
    Misthiocracy got drunk and Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: I apologized to her for the ill treatment despite not knowing who any of these people were and never delving into that site’s comments. I just needed to distance myself from the ugly digital mob that populates every comments section on the Internet.

    You apologized for acts which you were not guilty of committing?

    That makes little sense to me.

    Surely there’s a better way to express displeasure at the acts of other than apologizing for them.

    • #10
    • February 19, 2015, at 7:55 AM PST
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  11. Misthiocracy got drunk and Member
    Misthiocracy got drunk and Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    DocJay:Brilliant and you’re a sexy man. That’s Rico. Even the crazieslike me are generally polite here.

    This is precisely why we have the P.I.T.

    It’s serves the same function that hockey does in Canada.

    • #11
    • February 19, 2015, at 7:57 AM PST
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  12. Misthiocracy got drunk and Member
    Misthiocracy got drunk and Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    Hugh:This is the only site where I read the comments. Well worth the price of admission.

    I often skim the comments at Cracked.com. They can be rather amusing, but I couldn’t possibly follow an entire comment thread the way I do here.

    I used to inhabit the comments at Ain’t It Cool News, but then I made the switch to Talkbacker.com when that site was created as a protest against AICN’s increasingly blatant corruption and subservience to Hollywood power establishment.

    Sadly, Talkbacker made the mistake of doing an ill-advised redesign and the community pretty much fell apart. There are less than a dozen regular commenters now.

    • #12
    • February 19, 2015, at 8:01 AM PST
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  13. Jon Gabriel, Ed. King
    Jon Gabriel, Ed.

    Misthiocracy:

    You apologized for acts which you were not guilty of committing?

    That makes little sense to me.

    Surely there’s a better way to express displeasure at the acts of other than apologizing for them.

    My apology was more of an “I’m sorry you have to put up with that prattle every time you post an article.”

    • #13
    • February 19, 2015, at 1:22 PM PST
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