Mamamontezz's Mental Rumpus Room

Can you copyright the word "And"?

Ah, it is amazing to me just how petty and difficult some people can be. They get vicious at the drop of a hat for the most insignificant things, and actually seem to go out looking for someone to bully.

Let me give you a prime example. The Spousal Unit had been a frequent commentor on several blogs for months when he took ill in November, 2002. It was not long after that, several months actually, in an attempt to give him a reason to get out of bed every day and join the human race that I built him his blog. I logged him into MBlog which offered free hosting supporting a Movable Type platform and signed him up.

He always been fiercely American yet still very proud of his Dutch birth and his status as a Naturalized Citizen. Because of this, I wanted to use the word "emigre" somewhere in the title. Also, as a Loyal Citizen of the Empire, he was entitled to the use of the Digital Cluebat™ when dealing with the stupid, the vain, the morally repugnant, and the evil items about which he would blog. So on that day, sometime in 2003, his blog became a reality. His first address was an approximaiton of this:

www.mblog.com/emigre_with_digital_cluebat.

Slowly, one person at a time, his readership began to grow. Good people, regular readers, began to frequent his comments and engage him in debate. Delftsman has always encouraged those who do not agree with him to come and enter the discourse. If they could make a valid point, they were welcome to do so. If he saw bullshit, he called bullshit. And if he was proven wrong, he admitted it. As far as this goes, he was a much more inclusive blogger than I have ever been.

Then MBlog got caught with their hands in the MT cookie jar or whatever it was that precipitated what they did to all of their bloggers. We awoke one morning, tried to access his site, and it simply no longer existed. All that appeared when he tried to sign in was a screen explaining that his blog was gone, that his archives would be available for 30 days, and that by paying a ransom he would be able to save them from obscurity. Needless to say, because of our financial state then and now, this was impossible, so months of writing was simply lost forever.

Delfts was devastated, so devastated in fact that he considered not blogging again. It took me a long time to convince him that he could always guest post on my blog until we could find another host with high quality and free blogging. He was not alone in this, as I had built many of my "blog children" on Mblog. One by one, I reconstructed their sites at Blog-City, or in the case of Slaglerock sucessfully nominated him for a Mu.nu blog. I also nominated Delftsman, as he was bridling under the constraints of blogging at my site.

Finally, the email came and Delfts had been accepted as a Munuvian and his address was established. He was delighted, and has worked hard to regain his readership and provide a small debating forum for his regular commentors. He still mourned his lost archives, but there just was nothing we could do to retrieve them.

Fast Forward to today...

I wake up after a very short "night" to find Delfts at the computer, upset and angry. Seems that only one person in the entire world is entitled to use the word "Emigre" as part of a blog title, and Delfts isn't that person. Yes, you read that right. Another, from the gulag which is Blogspot, has seen fit to post a pretty vicious little attack piece on Delftsman over his use of the word "Emigre" for the title of his blog. Citing blog longevity as his claim to entitlement, this other blogger has spent more time pissing on Delft's blog than any sane and well adjusted person would. With absolutely no provocation, this other blogger has resorted to name calling and the impuning of a person's character over the use of a single word.

Now, I could almost understand it if this word were one he had coined specifically for use on his small corner of the blogosphere, but it is not. The word Emigre has been a recognized part of euro-based vocabulary for much longer than either of these blogs has existed.

I will not link to this child who shows nothing but comtempt for a fellow blogger over a word. He doesn't deserve the traffic that would result from such a link. But take a moment to go see Delftsman and let him know what you think of this nonsense. After that, it's up to you what you do.

Update... Apparently, I'm not really a woman. So, not only is Delftsman a construct and not really an emigre in his own right, I'm not really a woman. Apparenlty I'm the Softer Side of Karl Rove. Perhaps Dick Cheny in lace and a red wig.

Anyway, this insect tried to up her traffic with a trackback to this post, which is now gone. If you want to see what all this is about, follow the trackback to Delfts and go from there. He doen't mind his blog being a conduit for sewage.

And I did leave a comment there. Not that it will do any good. The blood is in the water.

Update, the Sequel: Yet more trackback pings from the retrovirus of the TTLB Ecosystem. Again, deleted and sent to the oblivion of hell in the bloody clutches of leather-winged demons. In the meantime, does anyone know how to block trackbacks from this little snot?

Posted by Mamamontezz at June 8, 2005 05:49 PM