The Cracked Diaspora

[Matt the Czar]

I think that some people are packing their digital bags and leaving Cracked. McKinny's article ang the ThatIndianGuy unpleasantness was the point for me. I will be posting on cracked, but less so since very little interests me anymore. Any opinions?

P.s. I was going to ask CIA agent about the plugs on the Cracked comments, but one look at the userlist and I understood.

[Ericthebearjew]

Just out of curiosity, is there any real particular bustling in one of the articles, or is this sort of just of "in light of recent events" sort of thing with many people just remember us talking about the site? Because if it's the former, we can get more people over here.

[Matt the Czar]

I believe quite a few people were upset, and Ghirda15 was going to leave Cracked forever if Thatindianguy really was banned.

[Bert]

I'd say that is the case with most people, Matt. Very few of those who were regular commenters over on Cracked still do so since coming here. This has kind of replaced Cracked as our regular go-to. Its nice to be in a place where we are actually respected. Tess only calls us human filth when we deserve it, like when double-posting (kidding, but seriously don't be that guy).

I believe quite a few people were upset, and Ghirda15 was going to leave Cracked forever if Thatindianguy really was banned.

He was, Wong mentioned it in the PWOT thread on the comment section (theirs, not us).

[Tesseracts]

I agree that this is the greatest website.

[Tesseracts]

Tesseracts, you are human filth for double posting.

[saikoro]

I'm going to keep posting on the site for now, but I'm far from pleased with their recent practices. If David continues to swing his Wong around in the comment section, censoring posts and banning people without justification, I might not be staying over there long. Shame, I've visited cracked practically every day without fail for years. Articles I disagree with I can stand, this sort of bullshit I can't. Glad I found this place.

[NathanLoiselle]

I know that I'll keep posting lame jokes and non-sequiters until they shut down the comments for good. But that's only because I'm like a roach. You'll never get rid of me.

[Masonator]

Just out of curiosity, is there any real particular bustling in one of the articles, or is this sort of just of "in light of recent events" sort of thing with many people just remember us talking about the site? Because if it's the former, we can get more people over here.

For me, I came here because I think I saw a comment of yours plugging this site a bit back, but I didn't decide to completely leave Cracked until I learned from lurking the PWOT forums that the comment section is almost certainly going to be closed. I don't think enough commenters know that it's more a matter of when, and not if, the comment section will be closed, and if they knew that, they might make the pilgrimage. That's just a guess though.

[Dr. Ambiguous]

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,"

TCS is like America, with those from the old world coming here. Except instead of the statue of liberty we have a sexy hooker, and we also have more orgies and blow. So we're basically even better.

[sunglasses]

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,"

TCS is like America, with those from the old world coming here. Except instead of the statue of liberty we have a sexy hooker, and we also have more orgies and blow. So we're basically even better.

Actually she's 70 and from a port in France. Still, talent.

[KevinPlymale]

Wait, thatindianguy unpleasantness? Either I suck at navigating forums or they already deleted whatever post mentioned it on PWoT, because I couldn't find anything there.

[Edgar Cabrera]

Wait, thatindianguy unpleasantness? Either I suck at navigating forums or they already deleted whatever post mentioned it on PWoT, because I couldn't find anything there.

http://www.cracked.com/forums/index.php ... msg3345443

[KevinPlymale]

Wait, thatindianguy unpleasantness? Either I suck at navigating forums or they already deleted whatever post mentioned it on PWoT, because I couldn't find anything there.

http://www.cracked.com/forums/index.php ... msg3345443

Ah, okay, I didn't remember thatindianguy was the one who did that comment. I get deleting the comment itself, but I imagine that on MOST sites the poster would just get a warning. Then again I have no idea if Cracked has temporary bans, so if they do, they might well consider that a warning.

Then again, if my crackpot theory holds any water, this is all according to the admins' plans.

[Matt the Czar]

(REPOSTER'S NOTE: All emphasis is of my own.)

Comment Sections are terrible. To be clear, I mean that Comment Sections are terrible and, sometimes, they're also terrible but in a few, very rare cases, they're terrible.

As a point of order, stop saying "comment sections CAN be toxic." There's no "can." They are. All of them, everywhere, always. It is literally a problem on every single site that has ever allowed unmoderated comments in the history of the internet. Don't think that this problem is specific to Cracked just because we're a site that trades in dick jokes. You can take sites that have historically been known for having slightly more intelligent comments (AV Club and Roger Ebert's website both spring to mind) and you will STILL find racism, misogyny and threats of violence and rape. Everywhere. EVERYWHERE. If you don't believe me, go around and read movie reviews for the Annie remake when it comes out in a week. That is a feel-good musical that was made exclusively to make young children and families happy. If you can find one review on a popular website for that movie that DOESN'T include comments from people who are just furious that Annie is black, I will pay you $400,000. (REPOSTER'S NOTE: I sort of want to go on the long arduous journey to find that.)

I've seen people make long, passionate speeches about how we should send all of the black people back to Africa beneath a Wall Street Journal article about the Affordable Care Act, and I've seen specific and explicit sexual assault intentions in the comment section of a YouTube video featuring a fourteen-year-old Disney show star singing a song. It's everywhere, it is a problem that every single website in existence is aware of. It's something we wouldn't allow for any other job, but we put up with it here because "Hey, it's the internet."

We still have comments on Cracked because no one gave me the authority to turn them off completely, which I would do in a heartbeat. Because they're terrible and nothing good comes of them and you're wrong if you think otherwise. You can talk in broad, theoretical strokes about how there's potential for smart commenters to post a piece of feedback that really reaches a writer and impacts their work, but in the almost-decade that I've spent writing publicly on the internet, my mood and my writing have never improved based on what I read in the comments. Never. Look at me, I'm telling you: Never.


I'm sick of having to even hear anyone saying "Weeeeell, they're not all bad, some people are mostly making funny jokes or offering constructive criticism or writing a fan letter." Oh, cool! Then I guess it doesn't matter that other people are threatening violence and sexual assault against my friends, coworkers and fellow writers. One person years ago posted Michael Swaim's actual address and said he was going to rape and murder his wife, but I guess that's okay because some OTHER guy who comments is really good at making funny puns in a comment section, and God forfuckingbid we take away his outlet for that.


Dismissing comments "widens the divide between content creator and content consumer"? What the fuck does that even mean? Who cares? WHO CARES? Is watching After Hours a better experience for you because comments give you the ability to tell Katie how much you want to have sex with her? Do you think you have a stronger connection with me as a content creator than you do with Christopher Nolan because we gave you the ability to call me a cunt in a place where it's likely that I'll read it? Forgive me if this all sounds like an overreaction, or like I'm blaming you, personally, for all of this. But here are MY concerns: At the very least I'm worried that some asshole will say something negative in the comments that scares off writers from ever writing for us again and at the WORST I'm worried that some sociopath will post the home address of one of my friends and coworkers and that some other sociopath will take that information and do something dangerous. And YOU'RE worried about some fucking divide widening? Like that's even a thing?

What the fuck could you even be talking about?

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/forums/topic/190 ... z3SLKZ9xx1

Holy shit. Dan, that was fantastic. Next time someone argues any variant of "well, not all comments are horrible", I'm linking them to your post.

I'm starting to think that people who insist on defending comment sections are doing it at least partially because of an accidental conflation between experiencing a comment section as a commenter and experiencing it as a creator. Not to pick on tornadoshanks, but to use him* as an example, I bet he doesn't write horrible comments, and the commenters he interacts with on a regular basis don't write horrible comments either. I'm sure he's aware of the horrible comments, but he probably just downvotes them and focuses on the more enjoyable ones.

From that perspective, it's easy to argue that comment sections aren't all bad; you focus on the comments you enjoy, and ignore the ones you don't. But as Dan eloquently explained, things look very different from the creator's perspective (i.e., the person that the hateful comments are directed at). While a commenter may be able to shrug off the horrible comments, that's not so easy when they're being directed at you. And more importantly, no one should have to do that.

It doesn't matter if not literally every comment is terrible; enough of them are to ruin all comment sections, everywhere. Or to put it differently, none of you have been blindsided by the horrible shit in a comment section you've seen in the last couple years. If you've been on the internet for any amount of time, you just expect it. We wouldn't think that way if comment sections weren't consistently toxic.

On top of all that, that "widening the gap" thing is complete horseshit. The only thing that's being affected by creators like Wong and Dan dismissing comment sections outright is how much the commenters think their voices are being heard. And as should be obvious by now, commenters have lost any right to have their voices heard. If a person wants to have a real conversation with a creator, it's easy, and requires no comment sections. I've had wonderful conversations with multiple creators I look up to; it wasn't difficult. All I did was send them an email/personal message commenting on their work without saying anything terrible. It's amazing how well creators respond to people wanting to have an actual discussion about their work, not the one-sided clusterfuck that is the comment section.

Comment sections aren't worth defending. They were a decent idea when the internet began, but it's now clear that they don't (and can't) work. Stop fucking defending them.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/forums/index.php ... msg3283662#ixzz3SLPSrEdx

This are two men's opinion but still.

Then again, if my crackpot theory holds any water, this is all according to the admins' plans.