Bluff-calling exercise

AllanSorensen: still hoping just one guest on ‘Q' says ‘Jian, that introduction is the longest and most elaborate ass-kissing soliloquy I've ever endured

Another zinger from Allan, whom we miss.

Welcome to the two-month anniversary of nouvelle formulation Tea Makers. Please don’t act like things aren’t better here. They are.

  • The jagged edges of the comments section have been filed down. Personal attacks, among other things, aren’t permitted. This is an infringement of the God-given free-speech rights you think the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gave you, and we’re OK with that. The Tea Makers is not “a free-for-all.” Comment sections are not always nice and neighbourly; what they never are is needlessly abusive. (If you think that isn’t an improvement, you’re reading the wrong site. Were you looking for 4Chan?)
  • We run feature posts from multiple authors (not just me, but hold that thought). Perhaps to your surprise, sometimes they’re still critical and sometimes they’re the exact opposite. We write what we think.
  • Link Farm entries are much more tightly curated and written. It takes longer to write short; we put in that time.
  • A winning concept, the Tweetholeâ„¢, got spun off to a sibling site, if you want to call it that, though it makes guest-star appearances here from time to time.
  • For nerds, the codebase of this site is much improved. The template and some third-party includes (like Twitter and ads) keep us shy of perfection, but every individual post has valid HTML (and edited copy).

Now, in a free society you are entitled to disagree with the observation that Tea Makers is better now. That’s nonsense, but nothing says you can’t believe in Santa Claus or an international Zionist conspiracy or Tod Maffin if any of that makes you feel better.

Guest posts solicited

If you don’t like the fact that I write most of the posts here, well, that’s been true since July 2008, so you must be really good at clinging to old grudges. But this is a place where you can do something about it. You can write a guest post. Do that enough times and we’ll give you direct author rights. Try that on Inside the CBC.

If you do not want to write a guest post, you can still write a comment. If you don’t want to do either of those things, fine – but you don’t have much of a basis on which to complain. Given the option to do something, don’t be surprised if we look askance when you fail to exercise that option. In this respect Tea Makers is “a free-for-all”: Anyone can contribute.

But who are we missing? I’ve got a list of people I actively invite to write.

  1. Allan. Your guess is as good as mine what his problem is. He won’t engage. He seems to think that banning abusive comments, including comments abusive to him, somehow infringes his right to free expression. It doesn’t. (Then there was that Twit he published claiming we just ripped off Inside the CBC wholesale, which he thankfully deleted later.) Allan, this is not an unfettered writing environment. But whatever fetters there are do not affect your work. Come back.
  2. Denis McGrath. He seemed to think I wrote a Link Farm entry critical of him, which suggests he doesn’t even read the site (not even to fact-check his own ass). For the same reason, he probably hasn’t noticed the sole nickname used for him now is his correct set of initials, DMcG. I’m sure he feels he already has enough of a platform to mock and deride based on outdated or false information, but if he wants to step up his game a little, he can write here.
  3. Paul Mcgrath (no relation). He managed to take Inside the CBC down a few more notches, an amazing achievement considering the efforts of his predecessor. I don’t actually believe this, but I’m willing to speculate he has real opinions he feels he can’t express under the repressive régime of his own self-censorship. Well, kiddo, let ‘er rip. (But we have to treat him special about login credentials.)
  4. Justin Beach. I want one guest post a week for four weeks. You name the topic(s). Push it right to the wall, Justin; quit acting like you’re running for office.
  5. Kev. Nobody reaches greater heights of disingenuousness than Kev does when he claims this place hasn’t gotten better. (Something about “insight”?) He’s been an almost unremittingly destructive force on this site, which makes him the perfect candidate for guest posts. I assume Kev’s got more in him than drive-by commenting.
  6. Hubie. Yes.

So. You want less Fake Ouimet in your Tea Makers? It’s up to you to make that happen.

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