Welcome to my behind-the-scenes blog gossip for regular readers. If you're bored, go read Molly Ivin's column — a fabulous kick-in-the-ass for anyone to scream or steam over. I love her.
1. As some of you noticed, I turned on comment approval for the past couple days, which meant you couldn't see your comment published until I gave it my nod. Very annoying, I know, but I was being hit by a wave of trolls/spammers.
I will occasionally turn on the delay when we're getting flooded with troll-pies here, but I will turn it off when things die down. It's amazing how indifference drives them away.
1A. "Wow," you may ask, "What awful things did they say that I missed?"
They don't bear repeating. It would be like asking someone to fart one more time so they can clear the room.
Trolls tend to be mean, and specialize in personal insults.You couldn't imagine anyone saying this shit to your face unless they were plastered.
The spammers are either robots, or crazypeople hawking their jujubeads du jour.
2. I have posted on a comment policy on my right sidebar. Those of you who bother to read it are probably already the soul of courtesy, but I had to give it a go. If it inhibits one emerging bully or self-advertiser, it was worth it.
3. If you want to talk back to me about what I write here, I encourage you to comment on the blog. I get a lot of email from people who write me amazing things, and I wish you would post it right here in the comments! You're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggone it, the editor likes you! Besides, lurking is boring. And I won't let the trolls bite you.
For example, I got about 50 emails about JT Leroy, and every single one of them would have been great reading for everyone here.
Sure, maybe it's hard to admit you got down on your knees to give JT a pedicure and the last of your coke— or fucked Savannah Knoops last summer and never told her you had herpes— but who cares? Use a pseudonym! This is a understanding group! And everyone has herpes!
Your comments elicit a good conversation, and I enjoy jumping in and sharing my reaction with everyone too. As it is, I haven't caught up answering all the emails individually, and I don't know if I can!
I partly started the blog because I couldn't keep up with email. I'd have a hundred different people writing me about the exact same issue, ("My ben wa balls were screened in my vagina at the airport...") and it seemed crazy to have them all be apart from each other, or sending out a form letter each time: "Dear Ben Wa Terrorism Victim..."
4. Thank you so much for all your donations to this blog. I so appreciate it. Further more, I need them. Blog or Bust, baby. My dream this year is to cover my overhead and maybe earn one penny per hour for writing. It’s good to have goals!
4a. Also, you may not realize how darn cheap it is to advertise here. Your manifesto / product / life's-work deserves nothing less.
5. I'm closing down my old static site next month— the original susiebright.com I started in 1996! It will still be available to stare and giggle at in the Wayback Machine, but it will be gone from the live web. I will transfer my domain name here, so everyone will land in the right place when they look for me.
I'm going to salvage and rewrite some of my favorite stories that I posted at my old site over the past ten years. —Like the FAQ, for instance, which is hilariously out of date. If there is anything over there you are concerned about losing, please let me know and I'll bring a copy of it over here.
6. Yes, I will be wearing overalls to read my Dworkin memorial at the SF Library. But nothing else. And thank you for all your suggestions, I have some really great material and I just hope they don't drag me off with a cane.
