The USS Quad Damage

Alastair Girtby was recently dissing Jeff Atwood. Despite everything I’ve said about him I don’t actually mind his blog.

Hmmm... It seems only about half of my prior articles are anti-Jeff. Note to self: change this.

However, this isn’t about Jeff, It’s about me. Specifically about sass. Read the comments from this article:

Princess Skittles

Dan is the best Street Fighter character.

Suiname

if by best you mean worst, then yes Dan is the best street fighter character. I hope he has at least 3 different taunts.

Ty

Why put in a joke character? At least Dan is decent character!

Batzarro(A.K.A Rap-Rock Cameo)

Oooh: I see what you did there!

ZING! It’s especially awesome when you get icons of bald mario, etc. Contrast with the girtby article:

Thanks again. Particularly Chris, well put.

Now if you ask me – there never was such a thing as a pro blogger. It’s a contradiction in terms. It’s like calling someone a professional amateur.

Dave Winer says blogger == amateur because, well, it just is. I don’t buy it. OK, so this a difference of opinion and doesn’t really matter much.

Are you familiar with the “Smackdown� Learning Model? I find it extremely effective for exactly the reasons Kathy Sierra outlines.

Wow, I’ve been ... for me unsubscribing was a change in my attitude towards it.

Sorry. My cut-and-paste tool fell asleep and didn’t finish transcribing that quote. Here’s my problem: talking like people do in the latter article makes you more reasonable, and expedites solutions. When you read the trollish comments in Alastair’s blogs, they distract you, and you want to get back to the reasonable comments, so you can think through the issues. Contrast with the prior article, where everyone is poised, ready for the next punch-line. It’s entertaining, but there’s no attempt to address any issues.

I’ve always thought I’ve walked a fine line between clever dialogue and useful content. However, that fine line is very... er... fine. I don’t know whether I’ve missed the mark, and just become a troll. So what do I do? Do I err on the side of boringness or risk not being taken seriously?

Alternately, I could build a sass filter.