Mandatory Fun Day



  • Oh, wow, I thought these strips were some crazed reruns of strips somebody close to the site had made in college in 1997, not actual current comics. Microsoft and Death Star jokes? Really? I didn't think you could get lamer geek humour than UserFriendly or the Great Quux, but here we are.

     Alex: You seem to think that because you find things funny, this is enough of a sense of humour to make you a suitable editor. It appears not. The push-back on this strip is immense -- do you think it's just because other people have a "different sense of humour"? I mean, do you find xkcd funny? Or Penny Arcade? They get near-universal acclaim. This doesn't. Could it perhaps be your hand in creating it that is blinding you to the deep failings and frustrations felt by almost everybody else that reads them?

    At least give us it on a separate RSS feed. Filtering is all very well, but not when you're using syncable online feed aggregators. Or do we have your permission to publish an edited feed?

    (I tried to keep this civil, honestly, but OH GOD the strip is SO BAD. WOEFUL. MS jokes? In 2008? REALLY?)



  •  Ah, bliss:

    http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=7KHK_svf3BGG7OShjknRlg



  • @bonaldi said:

    Redundant whining

     

    So you joined here just to complain bitch and whine about something that seems to be a 50/50 split in terms of popularity? And your first two (and only two so far) posts are just bitching about the comic? It really cannot bother anyone THAT much...

    I may or may not like the comic, but I am certainly not going to make redundant posts and think I will sway Alex's opinion. There is nothing you have said that is worth the time for the rest of us to read your post.

    Let the strip run, don't read it if you don't like it. When it has run for long enough, Alex can ask again and we can give him our honest opinions. Might even be worthy of a poll.



  • (this is bonaldi)

    MasterPlan, I do love the irony of you taking time out to tell me I'm wasting your time complaining about comics that waste my time.

    As it happens, I very much did join just to complain about the strip; it did bother me that much. My posts here are not really attempts to sway Alex's opinion -- I think it's clear that "it's funny for me; ergo it's chortlesome comedy excess" is a valid syllogism for him.

    Instead, I'm trying to add my data point: MFD is not merely so unpopular that 50% of the readers are ready to whine; it's not just so unpopular that some are prepared to go to the extent of drawing attack strips against it; it's not only so unpopular that people will craft special RSS feeds to excise it ... it's so unpopular that people will seek out and join a forum they've never used to rail against it.

    That's a bit more than mildly unpopular. I'm one new voice -- how many are just silently deserting?

    All the same, my point has been added, and my last account has been banned, so I'll bow out at this point. I don't intend to troll or disrupt your forum.



  • @MichaelST said:

    All the same, my point has been added, and my last account has been banned, so I'll bow out at this point. I don't intend to troll or disrupt your forum.
     

    Your previous account was banned?  For what, those two posts above?  Because if so, that's the real WTF.  I don't entirely agree with your opinion, but I don't think you said anything particularly incendiary there. 


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @MichaelST said:

    ... and my last account has been banned ...

    Just to clarify... no one banned that ("bonaldi") account. You just forgot the password you used when you created the account. And since you used a fake email address, there's no way for you to retreive it. That's not called being banned. There's another word for it.

    And since I'm out feeding the trolls ...

     

    @bonaldi/MichaelST said:

    Alex: You seem to think that because you find things funny, this is enough of a sense of humour to make you a suitable editor. It appears not.

    Crap, I never really thought of it that way. That sure explains a lot. I mean, for the past few years, I've been running this site based on the "if I find it funny/like it, readers may find it funny/like it" rule... but clearly that doesn't work. I mean, really... no one seems to be reading TDWTF.

    @bonaldi/MichaelST said:

    MFD is not merely so unpopular that ... blah blah blah ... how many are just silently deserting?

    Well by the very nature of "silently", I guess we'll never know.

    But what I do know is that the comics articles get just as many views as the others (not unpopular by definition) and that traffic/readership has grown since the launch of MFD (no way of knowing who left as a result). Of course, that doesn't tell us whether a significant number actually like comic, nor does the handful of complaints tell us whether a significant number dislike it, so that's a pretty baseless opinion. That said, I'm very curious as to what the upcoming reader poll will say.

    Okay, done feeding the troll - but, to everyone else - I certainly do appreciate the constructive critisism/feedback. It's certainly helped improve the strip and has made the comments (image only - brilliant!) truly entertaining to follow.



  •  @bstorer said:

    Your previous account was banned?  For what, those two posts above?

    I had assumed so, as I was given the "your account is locked out" message multiple times when trying to log in -- even after requesting a new password. That said, in the last ten minutes I did manage to sign on again, so in all fairness this may well be my own fat-fingered idiocy!



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    no one banned that ("bonaldi") account. You just forgot the password you used when you created the account. And since you used a fake email address, there's no way for you to retreive it. That's not called being banned. There's another word for it.

    Yep, user error, which I'll own to -- used a real address, but the login form is unspecific enough that I suspect I tried to sign in with my email, perversely. n00b mistake.

    @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    And since I'm out feeding the trolls ...

    That would suggest that I either don't believe what I'm saying and am doing it to get a rise out of you -- which isn't true -- or that I'm doing it to start trouble. Neither are true (though my word is difficult to take, of course). My point is a difficult one to make without those things seeming true, I guess: I'm trying to say I hate something a portion of you guys love.

     @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    Crap, I never really thought of it that way. That sure explains a lot. I mean, for the past few years, I've been running this site based on the "if I find it funny/like it, readers may find it funny/like it" rule... but clearly that doesn't work. I mean, really... no one seems to be reading TDWTF.

    I think you're confusing the two things. Of course, you're a good editor in that sense -- and the views go to show for it and back you up. But that's not what you're doing here. In comments above you're defending your sense of humour *despite* people telling you the cartoon blows. Your claim to humour judgement is with rather less foundation, there. In fact, if there wasn't any doubt about it, and genuinely only a "handful" of complaints ... why hold a poll at all?

    Still, enough unconstructive bile from me.



  •  he does reader polls all the time, so this isn't really anything out of the ordinary and caused by massive hatred of MFD.



  • I don't really care for MFD, but the image-only replies thing was a stroke of genius, making each thread well worth reading :D 


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