More evidence that the Commentator doesn’t own its distribution racks
It’s called Global Talk and it’s “the first UO multilingual publication.” The production quality is fairly low, but it’s not a bad magazine… the theme in this issue is love and relationships, and it exposes the reader to seasonal and relationship-based cultural happenings in different countries and phrases in different languages. You can find their website here.
Here’s the point, and I’m sick of making it. If you see a rack with a giant pile of one magazine on it, how about you find somewhere else to put your shit. I’m all for the diversification of campus media, but this isn’t the way to do it. If President and Founding Editor Nicolino Applauso doesn’t want to see a grievance filed, a scenario which would sadden me as much as it would him, he should see to it that his delightful little brainchild stays out of our racks.
If only the trolls had some sort of causative power…
Yeah, and from an administrator in charge of the department/entity (you can figure out which for yourself) that I was writing about. That one conversation was worth a thousand pissant trolls.
Sweet, it does happen sometimes, that’s always a nice feeling.
Tim: It’s a good point… although to be fair, I can think of one example in the last week of a criticism of one of our stories. It was fair, accurate, and it led to a great conversation. It was a clear exception to the typical drive-by, “you suck,” uneducated spew we typically get.
I loved the scare quote on “publication” myself.
These trolls can come along and criticize all they want anonymously on the blog, but when it comes down to it, they would never have the balls to come out and create a “publication” of their own, for people to openly criticize. It’s pretty easy to stay at home, jerk off to myspace, and go to the OC blog on your high-and-mighty horse spewing about appropriate responses to a situation you weren’t even involved in, or you can go out and create your own damn magazine.
And messing with Sudsy is no joke. You go believe in Buddha, Gaia, the Messiah, Allah, whatever, but don’t mess with my personal savior.
You’re supposing the OC’s critics can read, Ted. That might be giving them too much credit.
Yeah, Sho’s clumsy analogy was right on the mark. It had been a long week of getting some 200 issues dumped, getting our issues taken off a rack to be replaced by The Siren, and being told that I am a racist who writes a magazine for white people. Yes, Global Talk caught me at a bad moment, and yes, I was less than perfectly polite, but this was all patched over before you trolls showed up. For the record, I think Global Talk is great idea for a magazine, and pretty well executed… furthermore, Nicolino was prompt and polite in dealing with my complaint.
And Fred, people disrespect the magazine because they have preconceptions about it which rarely prove true. I have been called any number of names, and been accused of various forms of badness for my work on the Commentator, but never once have I had anyone point out where these supposed offenses are in an issue. Read, then criticize people… read first and then criticize.
Let me explain why we at the Commentator are filled with vitriol, spite and react to any perceived slight with fists swinging by using a clumsy and inaccurate analogy:
Imagine you have a baby. He is a fairly ugly baby, with one eye placed slightly lower than the other (and maybe he has a cleft palate), but you are very proud of him because he is your only child, so you want to show him off by putting him in a stroller and placing him outside your doorstep for all the world to admire and gawk at. Then you go back inside your house to drink some beer and watch the game.
Later, you step outside and find your baby has disappeared from its stroller. After some investigation, you find that your baby was picked up and thrown into the abandoned well in your front yard (you were going to get around and nail some boards over that thing, but you had other things to do, like go to Rennie’s).
You shake your fist at the unseen baby killer(s), scream at no one in particular and go back inside, hopefully to make another baby to replace that last one.
The next day, you step back outside to find another baby sitting in your stroller. What’s going on here? This is not your baby! This is someone else’s ugly child occupying the stroller of your dead beloved son.
You pick up the strange, alien child, figure out who the parents are, go over to their house, knock on the door and tell them nicely to please not place their child in your dead beloved son’s stroller. They only shrug and tell you that their child is kept in their own house, so they would never have put their baby in your stroller.
Slightly peeved, you head back home only to find another ugly baby in your dead son’s stroller. This aggression will not stand, man!
So yeah, I’m not sure what I was getting at, but it made a lot more sense when I started writing this comment. I guess we should put a sign on those racks, or something.
Dammit, Dreier, rule #1 of the intertron is “Don’t Feed The Trolls.” What the hell were you thinking.
And that anthropomorphic pint mug has a name, it’s Sudsy. You don’t want to hurt his feelings like that, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. No, seriously, he’ll piss all over your carpet, and that beer piss never comes out. I’m just warning you man, to be courteous.
Fred:
What do you expect? They were in the wrong, and they came and apologized. Niedermeyer acknowledged their apology, and is moving on. Then, Tommy Boy comes on and jeebs all over the thread because he has some sort of kidney stone about things. And you, sir, seem to be following suit.
Vandalism is vandalism is vandalism. Stop making excuses, jeeb.
This is a worthless waste of time. You wonder why people disrespect your publication? It is because of responses like this. These two people were kind enough to apologize, and not even take offense to the outright degradation of their names ~ and all you can do is say thanks for clearing this up?! I do feel for all the trouble you have had, but you are the only ones to blame. Do realize, all the vandalism is not just pointless, people obviously hold a grudge against your ‘publication’ for a reason.
Timothy and Niedermeyer, How about this for eloquence: fuck you, and fuck your publication.
Nice work Commentator, I will make sure I do everything I can to spread the word about this bullshit. I never understood how a publication as worthless as one of those $2 magazines at the front counter of a grocery store could steal students’ funding… I mean look at your mascot, a fucking pint glass? Classy, I am sure people take you very seriously.
Tom R.:
Sometimes the most eloquent thing you can say to a person is: Find someplace else to put your shit.
And I say this to you: Find someplace else to spew your shit.
Eloquence at it’s best.
If you’d had entire runs of your magazine stolen, thrown away, held hostage by hippies (true story, seriously) or otherwise destroyed you’d be pretty sick of dealing with it too. It’s not like this is the first time we’ve had a similar thing happen, it’s at least annual if not twice or thrice per academic year. Our boxes and racks are routinely vandalized, every now and again somebody puts glue in the lock of our office door. Fortunately, that’s Ted’s problem now and not mine, but you can imagine how the organization might react to such things given our long history.
So, you know, thanks Global Talk, for being so darn considerate and promising not to use our racks in the future, but I think “find someplace else to put your shit” is a perfectly acceptable way to address a bunch of unknown jackasses whose respect for property rights is obviously questionable.
As for you, Tom, you can go fuck yourself.
I am glad to read that your two publications have come to a resolution, but I must say the writer of this complaint “Niedermeyer” should focus on communicating his thoughts with more eloquence in the future. Displaying aptitude in one’s writings not only helps convey the intended message, it also evinces a degree of education and civility on the writer’s behalf. Statements, however, which end in “find somewhere else to put your shit”, serve only to degrade the writer and, more importantly, the publication for which one writes. Kudos to the Global Talk head Nicolino Applauso for responding to this troglodytic provocation with courtesy.
Thanks for clearing this up, guys. Good luck with the mag!
Global Talk is a great magazine, and one of the first at the UO to embrace our different cultures and languages. It is always interesting to see what’s going on around the world, and for some of us it’s an opportunity to let our fellow students know about our background and traditions. We promise to never mix with the Commentator again, we should have a rack of our own soon. Sorry! We’re always looking for help so stop by our website and take a look!!
Dear Commentator,
I am writing because one of my collaborator told me that there was a complaint about Global Talk being in the wrong rack. I assure you that I was not aware of this situation and if did happen it was not intentionally done.
I apologize for the inconvenience and we will put our magazine in our space at the EMU fishbowl.
Sincerel,
Nicolino Applauso
p.s. if you would like to futher discuss this issue or comment on it, please send me an email at [email protected]
International Racks? North side of EAST EMU.