I'm sorry, but "audience for speculation" is a specious bit of bullshit.

Dude, Paul used to work in news. He worked in news for YEARS. It's really, really not. How do you think TV news *works*? The whole mindset is driven by what can get the eyes on them, what does the audience want. And it's only got worse over the last decade.

This is on both a local and national level.

And in its separate post

There is absolutely no negative impact to inquiring, and the implication that it's some kind of morbid impulse in baseless gossip is pretty far from my desire to get a handle on it.

I said in my follow up that I understand the impulse to try to wrap our heads around it. But wrapping our heads around it is not the same thing as saying, "hey, someone on ABS said it was Joe Schmoe in the basement with the lead pipe, and someone thinks they've found Joe's Facebook page."

Thanks for asking, Kat. I've been wondering about her, too.

I'm just...waving feebly, and not commenting on events of note.

Gunman's mother owned weapons used in Connecticut school massacre

Supposedly the gunman's brother hadn't spoken to him since 2010. Do you think they have the same mother?

But wrapping our heads around it is not the same thing as saying, "hey, someone on ABS said it was Joe Schmoe in the basement with the lead pipe, and someone thinks they've found Joe's Facebook page."

If people want to use Natter as a virtual newsroom, then I still don't see the problem. I got more and better information here, well ahead of the official reportage. I took advantage of the judgment, interest, discretion and superior newsfeeds of other Buffistae.

Aside from all that, it's really not a subject that needed a thread nanny. At all. Some people obviously were interested in talking about it, and we weren't talking about it in Beep Me.

If people want to use Natter as a virtual newsroom, then I still don't see the problem.

Aside from all that, it's really not a subject that needed a thread nanny. At all. Some people obviously were interested in talking about it, and we weren't talking about it in Beep Me.

And with that, I am out of Natter for a while. Y'all can talk about it if you want, but I really don't want to read about it. I'm already avoiding all other news sources & blogs because I've hit information overload, and right now, reading the information and speculation doesn't make what happened any easier for me to understand or cope with.

No one told you to zip it. no one thread nannied you.

No one told you to zip it. no one thread nannied you.

Clearing your throat and going "Tut tut tut" and outright saying speculation is bad is trying to divert or kill the conversation.

Whatever. I don't need to parse it or pursue it. It was irritating to me and no more than that.

I hate living with no other adults in the house. It's lonely and hard when I want to talk about something. It helps me process. When big stuff happens, good or bad, I always follow along here. To me, speculating or sharing thoughts or ideas helps me process. Maybe it's not wise, but it serves a purpose.