I Thought Waldo Liked Dogs…
Having been quite busy with work and the holidays, I kinda came in late to the whole Waldo/GGD “debate”. So, being such an insightful guy and knowing the limits of my own ability to phrase things, I’ll turn to Shaun’s post which does a great job of defending Waldo. And the blogger formerly known as Jaded JD follows up with a great defnese of Shaun here. Even Chad Dotson poked his head up to take a stand. So all the bases are covered.
I’ll also follow up with this. It is my understanding that it is very hard if not impossible to remove individual posts from some aggregator set-ups. Waldo would have been unable to simply remove the single offending post without removing the entire RSS feed from his aggregator. Which he did. And had every right to do because it was his own aggregator, created by him in his own time with his own money. If Republican’s can’t respect a man doing what he will with his own private property well, hell, what kind of Republican are you?
So let me put it graphically:
December 29th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
J:
What is the life of a post on the aggregator? It depends on really when the post was sumitted, but typically the front page turns over every three hours.
The facts of this case, which many ignore is that no warning went to the blogger? Waldo had other reasons for silencing GGD.
I am no expert at aggregators, but they operate like blogs, and the feed creates a post… now we are to believe you can not remove a post?
My evidence just happened when Maxfield posted the Mark Johnson photo again, and Waldo pulled it after what 15 minutes? & booted Maxfield
Oh, but it can’t be done!
I am sorry to see you are not sticking up for your fellow Republican’s J…
Every time our Republicans leave their principles and buddy up the Libs. we lose…..
Ever complain about that on your blog?
How about rooting for our side for once!!
December 29th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
I didn’t pull the post, Chris, I pulled his blog. But you know that.
It’s not feasible to remove individual posts. But there’s no need to take my word on it: try out Planet, the aggregator software that I use. It parses the XML and statelessly generates flat HTML files. It uses no database, and uses its own internal binary cache, presumably based on BerkeleyDB, but I’m just guessing. To delete a post would require manually editing the flat HTML immediately after every feed update until such time as that blog entry scrolled off the page.
Please download Planet and stop pretending that this is an unanswerable question.
December 29th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
STD - Waldo already covered the aggregator side of things.
As for rooting for our side, I’m sorry, but is Shaun not a Republican? Have I not spent the last year blogging on behalf of the Allen run for Senator? Have I not spent years “rooting” for Republican candidates, hitting the streets for them, doing grassroots work? Gosh, I must have missed something.
This isn’t an abandonment of principles, it’s standing up for them. It’s allowing Waldo to do what he will with his private property, his rights as an individual. To deny him that is to abandon one of the tenants of Republican thought.
And then to turn around and try and say that this is a split in the party, that those defending Waldo and his decisions have no idea what the true heart of the party is, well, that’s to ignore the resumes of the very people you’re trying to undermine.
Is this where you want to draw the line? Over this non-issue in the scheme of things when there are bigger fish and issues to fry?
December 29th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Man, it really is a non-issue, Jason. I’m glad to hear you say that. That people care so bloody much about who I have on my blogroll is totally insane. Am I really so important and powerful in these people’s lives that this is the only thing going on in their world?
It’s as if I decided to have oatmeal instead of a bagel for breakfast and found a bunch of bakers holding a protest outside of my house for the next week, despite my offer to build them their very own bakery retail outlet.
December 29th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Eh, no worries. There will always be some supposed BINO’s there to help ya out.
December 29th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Jason says:
“And then to turn around and try and say that this is a split in the party, that those defending Waldo and his decisions have no idea what the true heart of the party is, well, that’s to ignore the resumes of the very people you’re trying to undermine.”
Undermine? Waldo using the MSM tactic of selecting what images are good for the public, and that is not a principle (censorship to benefit the left)
You guys threw us under the bus! and you have the temerity to say we are undermining Shaun? You don’t mind us ‘airing’ our stupid little views do you? Do we need to ask ‘by your leave’ or something?
December 29th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Actually, STD, you are the one saying we need to toe the line and root for our team when we obviously take issue with what “our team” (team being, what, three or four people?) is supposedly doing. And it seems that as time goes on, more and more GOP bloggers are saying the same thing Shaun has.
If you find yourself under the bus perhaps it is because you chose to lay there. It’s not an issue of whether or not you informed the driver of your intent. You chose to take the stand you did and that is fine. I don’t agree with it but I’m not saying you need be put in your place. I’m just expressing my counterview.
December 29th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
I see, the MSM should edit at will real life photos, such as 9-11, since they deem it un fit for public consumption.
Haven’t researched your blog to see if you have any statements on that….
They own their newspapers, property rights… but you agree with that bias?
As for continuing this feud, I have left word on Shaun’s site this needs to go ‘indoors’. Steps are being taken ‘to pull in the horns’…
I think everyone has had their views put out there, and the resolution requires a better forum.
December 29th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Waldo:
You are saying that the feeds come in and become html, that must be manually edited.
Only cutting off the blog itself does that? Cutting off the blog means to stop it’s feeds onto your site…
It seems logical, that once it comes in it’s there although you made Maxfield disappear after his feed was into your site…
So what is it, can you go in and edit a feed from a blog after the fact or not? Maxfield’s went in as html, was on the page…
and then it was not… but it can’t be done…
December 30th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
It seems this Boycott Waldo movement is centered in the Staunton area. I don’t know how many people it really involves, but I’m left to wonder if Republicans in that part of the commonwealth are really so different than others?
Or, maybe there’s a hidden reason for a pack of conservative bloggers to have first turned on Waldo, and since on their fellow Republican bloggers in the ODBA — those who won’t follow their lead in jumping off a cliff.
There’s a Werner Herzog film called “Heart of Glass” (1976) that is supposedly drawn from a true story in which a whole village in Eastern Europe, somewhere, that wigged out because there was a natural hallucinogen contaminating the water supply. It put the entire population in a zombie-like trance, or something like that. Sounds a little like some parties I almost remember in the 1970s, but I digress…
The film itself is as weird as it gets, and I don’t recommend it as light viewing. It’s said that director Herzog actually hypnotized the actors in order to get them to act as strangely as they do in this movie.
Maybe somebody ought to be wondering what’s gotten into the water out there in Staunton.
December 30th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
So what is it, can you go in and edit a feed from a blog after the fact or not? Maxfield’s went in as html, was on the page…and then it was not… but it can’t be done…
Again, Chris, if you would simply look at the software or read what I write, you would understand.
One more time.
Planet is stateless. It has no “memory.” Every time that it runs it polls every included site and builds, from scratch, an HTML page listing the most recent X entries from every site. If I remove a website and update the aggregator, then the aggregator re-polls every website and includes the last X entries which now no longer includes the removed blog. The HTML file is created anew.
I cannot make this any more clear to you. If you choose to ignore me and to not actually use the program in question, for the purpose of maintaining your own pretend reality, I cannot help you. But these are the facts, like them or not.
February 9th, 2007 at 3:03 am
Hey! Its good that u know ur abilities n ur limitations