Are there psychological studies on people who troll? They can't all be pre- or early-teens going through a trash-talking phase.

There are! I was listening to a podcast that talked about one a couple of weeks ago. Lemme try to remember where I heard it and dig up the link.

And I'm closest!

Not so fast, missy.

Nor so fast, missy.

Damn it.

no. it's like beetlejuice.

Damn, it takes me SO LONG to do anything. Weeks, months, even. What is wrong with me?

Furthering on my own post, there, my sister offered to come spend three days with me and we'll go through my whole house and get everything done, and that'd be great and she'd probably even enjoy it, but I swear, I think I'd have a shame meltdown. Several of them. I could really use someone to keep me focused and encouraged, but lord, anyone but my sister.

Yeah, I have no sense of humor about this

Me either. And I'm pretty sure I'm rational. Who knows, though.

I can't remember the story with beetlejuiceGal. Except for her being real irritating.

I drank Too Much white wine last night and did this dragon boat thing practice yesterday which had me waking up sore all over and my folks came down for brunch with my cousin and now all I want to do is nap but that way lies not being able to sleep tonight. What a conundrum!

Gawker banned like crazy too. For some reason, the new incarnation is pretending that they didn't have the electronic equivalent of electronic stocks in the electronic town square. You could earn a star if you tattled on someone and got them banned. And every week, they'd list who got banned, and for what, and who tattled on them and had gotten a star. And they'd also make posts saying "Respond to this post with [xyz] and you will be banned." And for reasons completely escaping my understanding, people would [xyz] their asses off, and get banned.

And then, the new incarnation, Denton said there was a clique of starred commenters, and getting banned had been made into a circus, so it had to stop.

But...you made it a circus, Nick--you and your sheriff, AJ Daulerio. You, quite precisely, developed an analogue of volunteer gladiatorial games where people volunteered for the Hunger Games and pit themselves at each other with bannings and starring at stake.

It was (is) completely ludicrous.

There's no reason not to dispose of your non-working electronics at Goodwill, by the way. They're an e-waste recycling centre: [link] and they take care of digital shredding of hard drives, etc. I just have a weird hangup where I feel like I'm giving them work, not goods.

Musician-targeting charter planes? You're really joking you'd rather they'd died an Aaliyahesque death instead of recorded that song? That's cold, man, cold.

I was listening to a podcast that talked about one a couple of weeks ago.

OMG you have no idea how helpful that would be. I keep going back to my essay, "Don't Read the Comments Section" which focuses on the inanity of comments on any given article about space exploration, and it required me to...oh god...read so many comments. Just so many. So much trolling. So much stupid. And I keep thinking, "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?"

I want to make a short film in which a small group of vigilantes tracks these people down and kicks them in the crotch. The vigilantes would show up at people's homes, bust down the door, and grab the offender by the collar:

"ARE YOU MILES P. SHODDENFLEFFER?"

"yes...um, oh god, why do you have a baseball bat?"

"ON NOVEMBER 18, 2011 DID YOU POST, "Feminazi libtards NOBAMA!!" in response to an article on the discovery of new galaxy by Hubble?"

"yeah, well, I did say that but..."

"WHOOMP. That was your crotch kick. Don't make us come back."

Ima start a kickstarter for this project.

Ima start a kickstarter for this project.

For $50, you can kick a troll in the junk!

I AM SO IN.

I feel like it would be cathartic for so many people.