Ginger Meggs by Jason Chatfield for July 16, 2010

GM, GM fans!

Sounds good to me, Ginger!

Howdy & G’Day, Joe, Jason, Usfellers, Dry, and ALL the Meggsie fans!

Hello, JFri. Nice avatar!

Yeah! A big fortune.

Hi everyone :-)

Jason, if ever you decide to do a book of your “collective nouns” please let us know. I’d love to get one of those books.

Jason, You didn’t have any graffiti on this one. ???

Dry

Joe said to give you his addy if you want it. Let me know.

A collective noun for a group of footballers: 1) Minnesota Vikings or 2) Minnesota Viking fans!

G’day to Jason, JFri, usfellers, ottod, and all Meggsie fans far and wide!

And a special shout out to you Joe!

Jason I know football in Australia is different than football here, but you aksed, well sort of! LOL!

Morning!

This is the hardest graffiti to see so far. I have to get a bigger monitor.

What would you call a collection of collective nouns? If you figure it out, I’m in too.

I know Joe probably won’t believe it, but I miss him too.

Joe, just to let you know, I miss you, too and a pox on the jerk that set you up! And we know who it was.

It’s always tough to see graffiti that doesn’t exist!

And I miss you, too, Joe.

Where are you usfellers? We need our resident Ginger expert!

Yes, usfellers, where the heck are you?

G’day Jason, Dry, Ottod, Barb, Bjorn and all Meggsie’s mates.

Looks like I should respond to your call Dry, many thanks. Had a bit of a sabbatical while a couple of issues were settled in my mind but have been watching Meggsie and all your comments.

Don’t know about the’expert’ bit. I think anyone who has got past the age of 12 would know a lot about Ginger simply by looking in a mirror. They may not have a house full of Meggsie items but they will certainly remember.

Going round the traps, it is obvious Joe’s many friends miss him. Of course, only his comments are masked so that he can see them but he has aked me to assure everyone that he is fine and has made particular note of the esteem in which so many Gocomics folk hold him. Who knows, maybe if enough of his friends ask about him that there will be a review of the situation.

Ginger today is very topical. The local football (Rugby) news is that some players had just a little more fortune than to which they were entitled undeer the rules.

Don’t know whether football followers in other parts of the world are called ‘barrackers’ or whether they are asked what team they barrack for. If it is universal then it may be of interest that the word comes from the very start of Australian football right here in Melbourne. It was first played in a paddock with a mile between goalposts; the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground now sits on that spot. The Victorian Army Barracks were about a mile away and the ‘Barrackers’ were allowed leave to go and see the game.

If you don’t believe me then you are in for a good argument. I would then hit you back with the news that Australian Rules Football is older than soccer. WOW! I can hear the keyboards chattering in indignation right now.

Very interesting story, usfellers. Football followers here aren’t called Barrackers, we’re just called nuts, fanatics, lunatics, etc! LOL!

Dry: Most impressed by how polite you US football followers are. You should hear (no, maybe you shouldn’t) what we call the umpires! They are not referees; referees are those who oversee fights. Come to think of it, maybe the umps should be called refs.

Overpaid babies. Johnny U was making $8000 when he retired.

usfellers, I would much rather watch rugby than soccer! I hope you are right about a review of what happened to Joe. The GoComic watchers need to look into jackassdroppings. Odd how that showed up for just one apparent reason.

JFri yes it is odd, isn’t it?

Yukoneric And don’t forget Bart Starr! My childhood hero,

usfellers the Philadlelphia Eagles fans get pretty nasty!

Dry: Here the footie fans get pretty ugly. If you ask them to explain the oxymoron they think you are talking about some irresponsible twit running amok with a gas torch.

So who is worse, England’s soccor fans, or Australia’s footie fans? Or parents in the US with little league baseball games?

Dry: You forgot the parents of those little lasses of under 10 years old who get paraded in beauty contests. The kids are grotesque, the parents are common and the fights after prizes are awarded would do any footie fan proud.

Fill us in on the parents of Little League Baseball players.

JFri: Yes, it is odd how villifying remarks disappear before evidence can be gathered; well, before the author thought it would be anyway. I dare say the culprit/s hiding behind false names now know/s that we know who they are and are not welcome any more. No place in Meggsie for that sort of thing.

Good to see you back here, Usfellers. We could all send an email to Gocomics with a request for a review on Joe’s situation.

Lonewolf: Agree, please do write to Gocomics and request that Joe be reinstated. I have expressed my opinion to them in that respect, along with my thoughts on allowing free rein on villifying and libelous comments . The meal of life is bland without the condiments of people like Joe who desire, and are able, to express themselves instead of hiding behind untraceable aliases. In that respect, Joe was prepared to show himself as a true person much more than many of us are prepared to do.

Yes, usfellers I see where you are coming from. Of course, I doubt the culprit recgonizes themselves but we do. Ever vigilant.

So, how many flags does it take to delete a comment? To block a commenter? Is there a penalty for overzealous placing of flags? I only flag spam & threats, especially against children. Are bleeps in the equation? Is there a time factor, so many per month or year? Is there a suspension period, after which he could come back, properly chastened? Is there an appeals process? Does he still get the other paid functions, or can he not log in at all? Those of us who enjoy creative spelling to get around the ninnyßoт need to know. (Spelled that way in case complaining about censºrship adds up, too.) I suppose I could just play nice, but what fun is that? It goes against my trollish nature. I like poking at things under bridges, & now & then, someone’s nice enough to talk to me or I get to eat a goat.

ChukLitl: There appears to be no restraint in the numerical placings of comments, or other features as you mention, on Gocomics. There remains, however, how each of us respects the feelings of others. In here we can agree or disagree with the comic; we can approve or disapprove of comments on it, we can greet each other. We can join the site and we can welcome those who do.

In amongst all of those it is hoped that Gocomics will review Joe’s status. Maybe they will apply the statement of Voltaire.

Usfellers to answer your question on Little League parents, or soccor, or football for that matter. Some of the parents act horribly, they yell at the coaches who are volunteer, if they don’t like it, maybe they should volunteer to coach, they yell at the refs, they yell at the other players, some even embarrass their own children by calling them dumb and stupid and pointing out all the mistakes they made. Oh it’s a real trip! Once the police had to be called to break up a fight between two fathers! At a little league game where the players were like 8 & 9 years old!

ChukLitl

From what Gocomics has stated, flags do not remove comments. By flagging a comment, it brings that comment to the attention of Gocomics personnel. It is up to them (their discretion) to remove the post and/or remove the account. Another problem is how one person can have more than one account. That is something that needs to be rectified. That is not fair to the rest of us posting with one account.

So, how many flags does it take to delete a comment? To block a commenter? Somewhere I read that three flags is enough to remove a comment.

I once got a nasty note from GoComics telling me that I would be deleted if I posted any more off-color comments. It came, however, at a time when I hadn’t posted anything for a few weeks, and they refused to tell me what the offending item supposedly was.

I flag spammers, racist, sexist, and homophobic comments, or things that would be considered hate speech. I flag comments including sexual content that I consider too graphic and thus inappropriate for young people. I also flag comments that are personally derogatory or that I consider to derogate someone’s religious beliefs. This means that in the past, I have flagged many of Joe’s comments and I have flagged a lot of comments directed at Joe. I miss many, but not all, of Joe’s comments.

I will write in support of his reinstatement.

I’ve been flagging spammers at EVERY comic I’ve read today! I don’t know if it will stop them, but I wish it would. I have never flagged a fellow reader except once, and he said something nasty about children. It WAS NOT Joe, and I would never flag anyone for having a different viewpoint than me. I have never flagged Joe—I enjoy reading almost all of his comments. I miss him very much. I, too will write in support of his reinstatement.

Usfellers - - We will have quite a few posters writing to Gocomics. I hope it works.

Jackassdroppings must be disappointed that his plan has backfired on him.