Jun 012011
I’ve noticed that commenting has dropped substantially (although blog views have remained approximately static). One message sent to me by email noted this and suggested that it was due to me making fun of the Harold Camping crowd. Seems unlikely, but I ‘m not exactly overloaded with alternate theories.
19 Responses to “Is this thing on?”
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I doubt that crowd does much reading outside of the bible, let alone aerospace. The toxic political posts may be turning people off. Just my guess.
> The toxic political posts …
“Toxic?” Is that anything like accusing Tea Partiers of being racists while at the same time they’re voting for Cain? Or accusing someone of being a racist for actually daring to prefer, say, rural areas to urban blight?
No his posts aren’t toxic…they are antiseptic.
I suspect that the US Holiday may have something to do with it. Also, recent posts haven’t really required much comment. What can realistically be added to a horse crapping a rainbow? We just sit in awe.
Scott,
while your posts re: the Doomsday crazies were spot on, people may have tired of the news, came here for refuge (in rockets, guns and cats) only to find no escape.
Or, everyone’s at the beach.
It’s your blog, run it as you deem appropriate.
You regularly offend me with your insulting and jejune opinions regarding the Christian religion. Nevertheless, I continue to read your blog because 1) it is informative and entertaining, 2) I buy your products and want to know when new products are offered, and 3) unlike most people, I do not require people to cater to my tender feeling on their own blogs.
I come here for aerospace content. When you occasionally post something offensive about my deeply-held beliefs (which, incidentally, form the basis of Western culture and civilization to a far greater degree than Baconian materialism and Cartesian doubt ever can), I simply ignore it and wait for you to post something about rockets or airplanes again.
Your blog, your rules. I have no right to demand that you respect my religion. Sure, it would be nice, but we Catholics have to have thick skins. After all, the world hates Christianity; why should I I expect things to be different here?
As for the failed prophet Mr. Camping: he is a fraud and a heretic, and will have to answer to the Almighty for his impious attempt to read the Mind of the Creator. His teachings, and indeed the entire “rapture” doctrine, are 19th century novelties and have never been part of orthodox Christian theology. The more ridicule heaped upon him the better.
> my deeply-held beliefs (which, incidentally, form the basis of Western culture and civilization to a far greater degree than Baconian materialism and Cartesian doubt ever can)
So… you’re an Asatruar or a Nova Roman or Helenistic Neopagan? People tend to forget that western civilization is based to a major degree on the culture and ideas and ideals of the Greek, Roman and Germanic pagans. As Thomas Jefferson himself pointed out, the American legal system is based on English common law, which was descended from Saxon common law which was in force centuries before the first Christian missionaries got there.
And of course it was the Greek pagans who gave the world the modern concepts of the scientific method, performing experiments to prove the existence of air (seems obvious today, but not so back then) the spherical nature of the Earth and even the dimensions of the Eath to a high degree of accuracy.
Pretty much all of modern western civilization can hearken back to pre/non-Christian cultures. What would the world be like if Europe had been wholly depopulated prior to the advent of Christianity? Or, let’s say, in the year 70AD, a plague had killed 100% of the European population, and in their death throes they went made, burned all their texts, destroyed all their artifacts and cities and structures? What would the world be like if classical wetern civilizations had had no part to play, and instead was derived from, say, the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and such, with Christianity on top? Would their eventual descendants living in what we call the Americas be anything like actual Americans?
> After all, the world hates Christianity
Meh. Christ seemed like an occasionally ok feller (had good advice on the importance of aquiring armaments for self-defense, frex). But his fan club can be kinda offputting. There are, however, fanboys from other fan clubs who are even *more* annoying.
This raises a point, though. A lot of the fanboys from various religious fanclubs cannot tell the difference between “disagreement” and “oppression.” Saying “your belief in/statement of X is factually inaccurate” is not the same as saying “I hate you and/or your fanclub.” Nevertheless, disagreement is forever touted as an example of hatred or oppression or as the begining of some prophesied extermination campaign by the Forces Of Darkness.
And mockery does not denote “hatred.” I get sick and damned tired when people start screeching about “hate speech” with respect to political ideologies or sexual/gender issues; I don’t feel any different about religious views.
The answer is simple: Most of your best commenters were Raptured away. Harold Camping thought he got the date wrong because he wasn’t raptured, but he should have known better. Few people can bear to admit that they weren’t among the Chosen. (Yes, I’m still here, too. Never claimed to be particularly virtuous.)
Honestly I don’t usually comment because I don’t usually feel like I have anything useful to add.
On top of that it’s pretty common for me to type up a reply to something, proofread it only to find it’s crap as is and in dire need of rework…and then just kind of stop caring and give up.
Hell, I almost didn’t even reply here.
I cannot believe that pointing out the problems with Camping’s approach would offend any thinking being. His own source document stated that his efforts were pointless. Anyone who takes national politics personally is either involved in it every day or they need to go somewhere away from the Internet, drink good beer, and think on the meaning of the term “fantasy life.”
Did comments dip last year at this time? For parents and school-connected folk, this is the end of the year and therefore there are graduations and other distractions.
Yeah, there’s no way it’s because you’ve pissed off the Camping people. I’m going with holiday weekend and such.
As for me, I’m here for the aerospace entries. The other photography is interesting, and so are the political rants (to a point, I am a Northerner after all). But there is no end to the nothing that the cat pics inspire me to say.
All that said, keep doing what you’re doing, it’s your blog and even if you feel disappointed that your numbers are low, just remember, it’s your writing, information and photography that brought us all here in the first place!
I’ve only commented a couple times as well, but I’m always reading the posts (via RSS, though). Just as an above commenter said, I don’t feel like I can contribute much to the conversation, so I normally don’t. I really do enjoy the blog though; a purely secular pearl of conservative sanity on the internet is so hard to come by. I may be a religious person, but it’s irritating to no end for idiot libs to treat just about any conservative argument as being “tainted” by religion and therefore automatically invalid. Keep on doing what you’re doing. After all, this blog is yours. The moment you try to cater to any one audience is the moment you loose all others. Keep the cats, the photography, the political commentary… it’s all good. I would like to hear your thoughts on the current state of government-sponsored space travel and what the private sector is doing to pick up the slack, though… (any Saturn V-beating ventures on the way?).
> I would like to hear your thoughts on the current state of government-sponsored space travel and what the private sector is doing to pick up the slack, though…
My thoughts? “Get the hell out of the way and let the private companies conquer the universe.” I believe 2011 and more likely 2012 could be some interesting years for private spaceflight, at least with suborbital space travel. While there are some good things the governmetn could do to promote this – they could run their own bigger-money “X-Prize” style competitions – the best thing the government could do would be to back off on the regulations. ITAR, for example.
“So, we’re going to be launching this experimenta-” “Nope.” “Why?” “Someone did that once in China. Failed.” “But there were sophisticated pieces of technology on that. This is a test with dumb weight.” “Still no.”
Our government in “action”. Again. Let’s apply this genius to our healthcare.
> I may be a religious person
I may be too. But I’ve no use for the patently absurd. Believe what you want… until it smacks up against the facts. Jehovah? Allah? Odin? Zeus? Shiva? Sure, whatever. “Earth created in six days 6,000 years ago?” Sorry, no, wrong.
> it’s irritating to no end for idiot libs to treat just about any conservative argument as being “tainted” by religion and therefore automatically invalid.
Thing is… just about every liberal arguement is equally “tainted” with religion. Just a different religion.
Well my comments stopped for a while because you banned me… So that explains one 🙂 I have to think that your anti-liberal posts, which are strong enough to offend half of all Americans (and most Europeans who speak english) are turning some people off. They are toxic not because you are totally making things up, you have valid points most of the time (and even when I don’t agree, I like to hear other ideas…) But the way in which you post things makes them feel like Rush is posting them. And that is not very enjoyable for people. Most blog readers have to enjoy the blog. It is insulting to lump all liberals (millions of people) into one group. For example, that crazy youtube video made by some fringe liberal group, is hardly the opinion of most liberals. I hope you know this, but maybe you can temper what you say a bit. Insulting a city you have never visited is pretty extreme. Few New Yorkers (check your stats to see how many NY readers you had?) will enjoy coming here after that, I suspect. I come for the rocketry, and do my best to ignore the political stuff. Neutral on the cats, would like to see more rabbits in the mix.
> Well my comments stopped for a while because you banned me
You were banned for making trollish/racist remarks. How exactly you got unbanned I’m unsure of. I’m guessing you’ve shifted computers or something.
> But the way in which you post things makes them feel like Rush is posting them.
Rush? Feh. I always preferred Pink Floyd. But even that was long ago. Way to make a *really* outdated reference.
> It is insulting to lump all liberals (millions of people) into one group.
“All liberals are liberals” is an insult? Hmmm. I’ll have to keep in mind that I now have confirmation from a liberal that being called a liberal is an insult. One of them there “self-hating” things, I guess.
> Insulting a city you have never visited is pretty extreme. Few New Yorkers … will enjoy coming here after that, I suspect.
I had thought that New Yorkers thought of themselves as “tough.” Getting their panties in a wad over a minor and rather obvious Star Wars reference? Not all that tough.
Scott, just keep on keepin’ on. I admit to stopping by only periodically, then trying to catch up (sort of like drinking from the fire hose, I know) — but I find your research intriguing, your model building skills amazing, and your commentary – political, religious, etc. – entertaining, if nothing else. I share many of the same opinions, but couldn’t express them with quite the same eloquence and, uh – “forthrightness” as you do. So nice to know there are others in the world who still believe in personal responsibility.
Besides, my cats enjoy looking at the pictures of your cats…and as the great feline goddess Bast decreed, the cats are in charge. 😉
I would say that I only comment whenever I feel that I can hopefully add something to the conversation.
That said I do tend to check out the blog a few times a day and enjoy reading what you put forth here.