Cornucopia

Favorite commenters

by  •  • 106 Comments

Here’s a fun party question: Who are your favorite commenters? Now, let’s limit this in scope a little. I’m defining “commenters” as people who comment only, and do not operate a blog themselves. So no matter how much you like comments from Clark Goble or Jim Faulconer or Heather Oman or AmyB or any other blog poster, they’re not part of this contest. We’ll talk about them in other threads. This thread is for the commenters who contribute so much to bloggernacle discussions, and do so in the most unobtrusive and un-self-aggrandizing way: By commenting only.

So this thread is for the random Johns and MikeInWeHos and greenfrogs of the bloggernacle. It’s for Matt Thurston and Naomi Frandsen and Brian Gibson. It’s for folks of all political persuasions, from obi-wan to bbell. Heaven knows, it’s definitely for D. Fletcher. And it’s for the many, many other commenters who contribute so much to our blog conversations yet spend little time in the limelight, whose names I’m probably forgetting as I type this post. (Annegb is, alas, not eligible for this thread, since she now operates her own blog).

The bloggernacle has a lot of great commenters, and we don’t express our appreciation often enough; our community couldn’t be what it is without you, our many commenters.

Who are some of your favorite (non-blogging) commenters, and why?

106 comments for “Favorite commenters”

  1. There are so many, I would have to stop and think about it. But you mentioned MikeInWeHo, and I have enjoyed his comments because, although he is gay and in a committed relationship and living in West Hollywood, he still comes across as very Mormon to me, and I think that’s cool. Indeed, I am glad that our fora are able to provide a safe place for all of our gay brothers and sisters to retain some communion with their Mormon sides.

  2. I know he operates a blog/ journal. However, I’ve always enjoyed Bookslinger’s perspective. His opinions tend to mirror mine on issues of faith and he’s a great example of service and humility.

  3. That’s tough. I’m afraid to name anyone, because what if they have a blog and I just don’t know about it and hurt their feelings? There’s no way to gracefully recover from that.

  4. Which reminds me, Starfoxy, that you’re my absolute favorite blogless commenter.

    Err, wait a minute . . . :P

  6. I nominate Blake Ostler. When he’s not saying something really smart, he’s starting some sort of brawl. Never a dull moment.

    Also, unless there was a change to the post after the comments started coming in, I’ll nominate queuno as my favorite commenter who didn’t read the post before commenting.

  7. Well, I would nominate Jacob for always having something insightful (and well suppported) to say, except he just starting permablogging at the Thang. I very much appreciate what Blake has to say as well, and many others who I do not know well enough to properly identify.

  11. “It’s an honor just to be nominated,” he said, smiling for the ET cameras. “I don’t care if I win… we’re all winners here!” he beamed, before discreetly tucking what appeared to be rather thick acceptance speech into his coat pocket.

    But alas, I must withdraw my nomination as I am a free agent no longer. I’ve ended my holdout and signed a 3 year $60 million contract with the Borderlanders at Sunstone Blog. It was a toss up between The Iron Rod and Sunstone Blog, and although I consider John Redelfs a dear, dear friend, I felt our politics were just too similar and our Blog Posts would end up echoing each other. I’d lose my identity and probably end up wondering where John ends and Matt begins.

    Like Starfoxy, I don’t know who is a Blogger and who is a Poster, but from the list above, I’ll throw my vote behind MikeInWeHo because, as my wife would say, I’m “really down with the Gays.” Really though, Mike’s comments are always “must read” for me.

  14. Dang it. I knew I was going to slip up and put a blogger on my list. I shoulda quit while I was ahead.

    (And I just _linked_ your blog post, too, a few days ago! Dang.)

    I suppose this is the part where I blame my error on sleep deprivation and posting quickly when I should have been doing class prep. And on Starfoxy for cursing me retroactively (blast that blog-less Starfoxy!) And on Christian Cardall, because I think that I was recalling a series of Matt comments at Spinozist when I composed the post, so he got added to the list.

    And on DKL, because everything is more or less DKL’s fault — it’s just a matter of determining how much.

  15. I love Starfoxy but I though she was blogging with Naiah or something. Am I out if the loop?
    DKL, MikeinWeHo, BrianG., gst. I liked PrincessLeahMom but haven’t seen her around for a long time. So many many other.

    Off topic, but Kaimi, you and Steve E were in my dream last night stealing a large can of German beer from my cupboard. Why I had a large can of German beer in my cupboard, I don’t know, but when people I’ve never met show up in my dreams taking my illicit items… well, that’s just too much. It may be time to stop reading this stuff all together.

  16. Meems, you had large can of German beer in your cupboard for two reasons: half for washing your hair, half to make a mean pot of chili.

  17. It’s hard for me to pick an absolute favorite. From the likes of D. Fletcher to the likes of DKL there are great commenters. But if I were forced to choose only one at gun point, it would have to be Kingsley.

  18. mullingandmusing is my favorite. I’m always pleased to read her eloquent defenses of the faith.

  20. Naomi Frandsen, of course. Anita never says anything unless it’s highly relevant and smart. Gina, too. And I live to win Kingsley’s approval (come back, Kingsley!).

    And Kristine, now blogless (waa!).

  24. Personally, I feel like I get something from just about everybody who posts comments here. For some reason I haven’t quite figured out, I pay a little more attention to Kevin Barney’s comments, and, like someone else above, I appreciate mullingandmusing’s zealous defenses of the faith. However, I also like to read comments of those who are no longer connected to the Church (sorry for the vague and perhaps offensive characterization)–I think there’s great value in being exposed to that particular perspective.

  25. Meems, Thanks! You aren’t out of the loop, though. I am blogging with Naiah, and so is M&M. Also, M&M and I both have individual blogs too. So neither of us qualify for this prestige twice over.
    I did think of one commenter that I like that I’m pretty sure doesn’t have their own blog: Manaen. Her (?) comments always seem very well thought out.

  26. Yes, meems, I’m just bugging Starfoxy. Of course I know that she blogs at Naiah’s group of Roxcettes. However, her comment # 3 was just too good of an invitation to leave alone. (I hope the non-serious nature of #4 was clear.)

    Good catch, Starfoxy (25). Manaen is a solid, blogless commenter. And I met him, in real life, several months back.

  27. The really tough part is requiring that they don’t have a blog. I nominate Naomi, Brian Gibson, random john, and Jonathon Green.

  30. Kaimi, I missed that one. I left my laptop at home during the trip to Idaho, so the only access I had was my wife’s laptop, which was mostly in use by her (she hates it when I use it, because I always forget to switch her key layout back from Dvorak to QWERTY.)

  32. Matt Thurston is one I wish I had made an early offer to to blog with me before he was picked up by Sunstone. Naomi Frandsen and Brian Gibson blog/edit at Popcorn Popping, and both also blogged at Banner of Heaven.

    Nevertheless, I’d vote for all three of them, early and often.

  35. A few more good ones: janet, who comments mostly at FMH. I always like what meems has to say (you don’t have a blog, do you meems?). DKL knows I adore him. BrianG, well, true love is never having to say you like his comments. D. Fletcher lives at the top of my personal pantheon. I always click on Ana’s name (I know you have a personal blog, Ana, but not really a bloggernacle blog.) I’ve really come to care about sue. I like Jack very much. Tatiana always has very thoughtful things to say. Rob Briggs is super smart and I wish he commented a lot more. I’ve been noticing that Robrt C. has made some very very intelligent observations of late. Beijing often has a good (sharp!) point to make. Mark IV. Costanza. Anna. ChadToo. Tom. Mike Parker. Mark B.

  38. I hope it goes without saying that I’m a big DKL fan too.

    And while I must acknowledge with gratitude that Mark Butler is single-handedly responsible for many visits and well more than half the commentary at my site of late (which draws appreciated attention to it in the aggregator comment lists), I think I must nominate Mark as the Commenter Who Most Needs His Own Blog.

  40. Kaimi,

    Its funny to me that you used me as the conservative counterweight to Obi-wan (am I Darth Vader?)

    My impression of my own politics in relationship to other church members here in my current ward here in TX is that I am firmly in the middle by comparison to other LDS in comparison. For example I started bashing Bush publicly once at a party at a members house and people started getting uncomfortable. In other words there are lots of people in my ward who are more conservative then myself. Before you think thats just a quirk of TX politics we are all transplants from CA, UT AZ etc. Lots of CA recently my current street is 50% CA “refugees”

  41. I think that is a little bit of an exaggeration, Christian. I made 11 out of 62 comments on your recent Proclamation thread, and all but two them were very short. M&M probably contributed three or four times as many words to that thread as I did (no complaint on my part). I really like your web log though, and confess I do need to get one of my own.

  42. I’d say Blake Ostler as well. He’s one of the few commenters I always read even though I often disagree with him. I’d say Mark as well, but we just snagged him as a permablogger for M*. But since that just happened, I vote he stay nominated.

  43. I don’t think that Mark Butler is actually real; nominating him is a bit like nominating Bart Simpson.

  44. Mark is real — he’s been to my house. I’m not so sure about DKL, though — perhaps invented by Steve Evans?

    ;)

  45. D. Fletcher, I think you are speaking of the other Mark Butler, aka “Mark B.”, who I imagine does not completely appreciate the association.

  47. The thing about being a religious conservative, especially an LDS conservative, is that one is required to believe and interpolate between the poles of a large collection of paradoxes until one gets a clue as to the proper resolution, and even then no one else will take the suggestion seriously, so you sound foolish no matter what you say.

    There is a reason why much religious discourse is pure nonsense to secularists (David Stove, for example) – in my opinion it is because the gospel was dumbed down so that everyone could understand the doctrine, but that the theology remains a mystery except to the unusually diligent followers of righteousness who care enough to search out the answers, however tentative they may be in mortality (cf. 2 Pet 1:1-8).

    So yes, as someone recently said on another thread, conservatives are generally not bothered by paradoxes, they are not about to discard one pole or another for a thing of naught, and believe in interpolating between two good but apparently contradictory things until a more satisfactory solution presents itself. If my collection of beliefs makes me sound unreal, I apologize, but they seem necessary to me just the same.

  48. Yes, D. We are not the same.

    And, “Mark Butler” is right. I do not always see eye to eye with him, when I can see him at all.

  49. It’s comments like that last one by Mark Butler (not Mark B, who I enjoy reading and fully believe to be real) that make me think he’s not real. Did he mispost that comment to this thread, intending to post it to another? Or is it just a random outburst about the perils of religious intellectualism?

  54. Gee, DKL, you’ve made my day.

    No offense taken, D. I try to follow Brother Brigham’s dictum: “Whoever takes offense when offense is intended is a fool. And whoever takes offense when no offense is intended is a damned fool.”

  55. No, DKL. It is addressed directly at the proposition that no rational person could believe as I do, which is what you are implying is it not? If I had adequate time and space, I am sure I could persuade you that I am as rational as any. My point was that discussing the gospel in the level of detail necessary to make it rational to the standards of a typical physical scientist would take volumes – and we hardly know the half of it.

    The higher level symbols however paradoxical are a much more useful guide in practice. The true irrationalists of the world are not the ones who believe in paradoxes – they are the ones who believe they have no solution. I think that sort of irrational mysticism is contrary to the gospel and a first class moral hazard to boot.

  56. Come now, DKL. Surely you can reciprocate just a little, no? You know–make a little room for commenters who have their own wiley way of expressing themselves? Hmm?

  57. Thanks, Rosalynde. That’s a mighty big compliment coming from you, the bell of literature. You know, I’ve actually considered using the name “Joe” instead of “Jack” because I’m so dang sloppy with the language. But alas, “Jack” rhymes with too many fun words–words like “hack,” “slack,” & “quack.”

  58. Well, Jack, now that you mention it, you’re a pretty good commenter. I like your comments and wish that you’d comment more. You invariably have clever things to say, and novel things to introduce into a conversation.

    Meems is great, too. She’s one of my favorites. I love her positive outlook.

    Cyril, I don’t recall seeing many comments from you, but that last one was pretty funny. Perhaps you should start commenting under the moniker “ex-commenter.”

  59. I also vote for Languatron. Maybe he would comment more if the PTB’s would stop deleting his comments.

  60. Thanks for the compliment, DKL–though I feel a little sheepish. Just to clear up any possible misunderstanding, my comment(#56) was a reaction to your thumping Mark Butler for being the one and only (awesome) Mark Butler, not an attempt to draw a compliment out of you–though I will always feel three feet taller for getting a compliment from you however sorded means might be. ;>)

  61. Mark, you have something that I can only describe as doctrinal turrets syndrome; you blurt out the strangest doctrinal dissertations and the most inopportune moments. Best of luck at M*.

  62. Mark, that last comment was meant purely in jest–not serious at all. It just struck me as something funny to say. If the people at M* believe that you’re real, that’s good enough for me. I do appreciate the way that you’re never shy about starting a fight. Several people that I have a lot of respect for think very highly of your comments, and I’m certain that you’ll add a lot to the M* lineup.

  65. Rosalynde:

    [channel Sally Field]

    You like me, you really like me! [Sally Field mode off]

    Thank you for thinking of me. I regret that I am not able to comment as much as I used to (darn new companywide Internet policy) but I do at least try to keep up with the reading around here (I sound like an underachieveing graduate student).

    Rather than specifying any posters, let me cop out and say that for me, it’s the mix of voices around the ‘Nacle that keep me coming back. Even among the opinions I disagree with, I find reasons to rethink my position and consider new angles to the questions at hand.

    It is also fair to say that my favorite posters are those who look at how our collective culture affects the everyday lives of people; I applaud cases wher clever leaders and friends figure out how to help make “bad men good and good men better” (to use a prophetic but gender-specific phrase) and cringe when I hear of people so rigid in their interpretations that those around them find themselves beaten down by the very iron rod they long to cling to.

    A toast to all of you.

  67. Chad too,

    I don’t know if you even remember, but you once made a suggestion that helped me settle on a bloggernacle handle. The number of Marks in the ‘nacle was proliferating, including several whose surnames start with B. You described how you came up with Chad too and suggested the same process might work for me. Thanks, man!

  68. Seth R. is great. So are y’all. DKL is overachieving with his doctrinal tourett’s syndrome comment.

  69. It would be easier for me to figure out who I don’t like.

    Seth, I love your comment, I think we all love our own guts.

    I like Meems, M & M, JKS, Darlene at FMH, Sheri Lynn, Rusty, oh, I’m getting mixed up, Rusty has a blog.

    Sometimes I’m reading along and not really sure how I feel about something and someone will come in and blow me away. I love when that happens.

    I’m a slut for laughter, though. Anybody who can make me laugh has me for life.

  70. I know Rusty has a blog, but Rusty. And MikeInWeHo. I hope Mike doesn’t have a blog, because if he did I should have been checking it daily.

  74. I guess this means you all don’t like me (sniffle). It’s alright though — really it is — I still have my non-cyber friends (muffled sob). :(

  75. I don’t know how appropriate it is to comment here, but I am grateful to be noticed at all.

  76. When it comes to my all-time favorite commenters, I think D. Fletcher and John Fowles make a formidable tag team. It is safe to say their contributions will not be surpassed any time soom.

  77. If comment #74 is from Carolyn, the artist, then I’d love to hear more from you–epsecially on the art threads!

  79. Well, geez. Now that everyone has ditched the “nobody with their own blog rule,” my list of favorites looks downright miserly.

    So here goes: Look, I know that they already have blogs, but I just have to say how much I appreciate annegb, Allison Bair, John Fowles, D. Fletcher, Christian Cardall, Steve Evans, Ronan Head, Geoff and Kristen Johnston, Eric Russell, and John Mansfield. Kevin Barney is, I think, the unsung genius of the bloggernacle, insofar as I think that he is far-and-away the most original thinker/investigator of theological matters. And where, oh where would I be without Bob Caswell’s regular reminders of me how out of my league I am trying to comment here in the bloggernacle (he’s related to Joseph Smith, you know). And Jim F seems to live be the motto, “If you can’t find anything interesting to say, don’t say anything at all,” and (thankfully) he still has a lot to say.

    I also, by some strange oversight (but certainly not a Freudian slip) neglected to mention that I invariably find Mark IV’s comments to be genuinely clever. He’s made me laugh on many occasions, and I’m grateful for it.

    Also, there was a time that Jed Woodworth used to comment regularly, and I really enjoyed what he had to say. I invariably find Seth Rogers’ comments to be incisive, even when I vehemently disagree with him.

    Plus, my wife (who posts variably as SKL and DKL’s wife) is a terribly smart, if scant, commenter. If she posted online half of the things that she says about my comments from across the living room, everyone here would be (a) rooting her on continually, and (b) convinced that I’m kind of dull-witted. (I urge her to, to be honest, but she demurs.)

    And finally, Russ Frandsen’s comment #28 above is unusually canny.

  81. DKL writes:

    “Plus, my wife (who posts variably as SKL and DKL’s wife) is a terribly smart, if scant, commenter. . .”

    I have a vague sense that there’s something missing from this sentence, although I can’t quite put my finger on it . . .

  82. Yes, Kaimi. You caught me. The passage you cite should read as follows:

    Plus, my wife (one hot babe), who posts variably as SKL and DKL’s wife, is a terribly smart, if scant, commenter. . .

    Thanks for pointing out the need for emendation.

  83. And Jim F seems to live be the motto, “If you can’t find anything interesting to say, don’t say anything at all,� and (thankfully) he still has a lot to say.

    Well, with the notable exception of a recent post of his…

  84. Is Brian G the same as Brian Gibson? Cuz Brian Gibson blogs in a couple of places.

    Seth R. was my favorite commenter without a blog but now he’s part of Nine Moons.

    Danithew is awesome. He sorta has a blog though.

    So I guess that leaves DKL.

  86. a random John: Too funny, and well put. That’s one reason you were one of my knee-jerk, first picks for favorite commenter.

  87. Thanks for the compliment DKL. It is kind of a weakness I suppose, but I have a hard time talking about any LDS related topic without trying to drill down to what doctrinal principles govern or should govern a subject.

  88. I think at some point or another, just about all the nacle regulars I’m aware of have made a few slam dunks that impressed me quite a bit.

    Even some that I didn’t like at first, have really grown on me since then.

    For example, georgeD kinda turned me off at first, but I’ve come to find his posts to be very concise and they always seem to go straight to the heart of the dilemma in question.

    Likewise, Mark Butler just tended to overload my brain with his off-the-wall treatises. But as I’ve grown accustomed to his style, and actually bothered to slog through his comments, I’ve found them to actually be pretty interesting.

    DKL seems to be a magnet for controversial subject matter. Therefore, he often tends to appeal to me even if he is a twerp.

  91. I’m confused. Is Seth R. Seth Roberts or Seth Rogers? I thought I just had the last name wrong, but now I think there’s two Seths and one has a good diet about olive oil.

  93. I’m not quite sure what is the appropriate response to finding my name a few times here (especially since I do have my own blog and participate at Roxcy), but considering that I had a bit of an e-dentity crisis a week or two ago, I wanted to say thanks. :)

  94. Wow, I actually got a vote? I must be the only commenter around here without a blog!

    Thanks, Barb. You should comment more. Your comments are never passe, but always thoughtful–drawn from a deep well.

  95. Or as my grandpa would say when someone said “Well,….” That’s a deep subject. That is so nice for you to say Jack. I do comment all the time at some of the individual blogs such as by study and by faith and piebolar and sometimes at ethesis. And at annegb’s blog. I would have added a vote for her, but I knew she had a blog as I frequent it so much. In fact, I even have a guest post there right now. My first ever. :)

  96. I’ll throw my hat in the ring even though I rarely comment. I read a lot, but my medical training has better prepared me to write illegibley scrawled notes than well formed, typed soliliquey’s. However, many of your threads have been inspiring, disturbing and/or powerful for me.

    I most enjoy comments from DKL, Mark Butler, m&m and annegb.

    The commenter who most often gives me pause to think (for the better I think), but with whom I often disagree is Kaimi.

    Since most of you don’t know me it doesn’t matter, but there it is.

  98. Paul,

    Rosalynde and Naomi are everyone’s favorite commenters, so they don’t really count.

    And I do owe you a response on a thread somewhere, I think — I lose track of where I’m having thread conversations, sometimes — let me try to catch up on that one tomorrow after class.

  101. Now I know I\’m in big trouble – I\’ve been reading this thread and I recognize most of the names and why people love them (or at least find them thought-provoking). I\’ve tried to stay away from the blogernacle (only reading an occasional entry when pointed to it by a friend or my husband), but now I\’ve used (I first typed \’wasted\’, but decided that wasn\’t really true) a whole day exploring threads of all types and flavors and I am afraid that I\’m hooked. So, I have to nominate you all (since I have no idea who blogs) as contributing to the delinquency of a (non) minor.

  102. DKL, I don’t think I am quite that hidebound. In fact I believe I am an outspoken advocate of one of the most liberal doctrines of divinity in the theological universe, quite rather at the opposite end of the spectrum from Mr. Jeffs, assuming he preaches the Adam-God theory as I imagine him to.

    I was off line for a few days, but I believe I have posted at more than enough sites in the last few days to give prima facie evidence that I am alive, well, and annoying my detractors everywhere (not that I wish to).

  104. And, it’s good to see you back. (If you ever need anyone to post your bail, don’t hesitate to give me a call.)

  105. Well thanks, DKL. My fourth great grand father, William Butler could have used a favor when he was in jail for polygamy some one hundred and twenty odd years ago. You can see him in the middle center, bottom row of the picture here:

    http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jleatham/Sylvester_Frazer_Jones_polygamy_prison.html

    And what a character – he actually met and married his first wife (my nth great grandmother Emma Harvey) while he was on his mission to England, when she was the tender young age of twenty-two and he thirty!

    He went on to help harass Johnston’s army the year after they returned. And of course he pursued and wound up killing a railroad worker who had killed one of his small children and injured his third wife and another child. No charges were filed. You can read all about it here:

    Craig L. Foster, “The Butler Murder of April 1869: A Look at Extralegal Punishment in Utah”, Mormon Historical Studies, Fall 2001
    http://www.mormonhistoricsitesfoundation.org/publications/studies_fall2001/Mhs2.2FosterFall2001.pdf

    And how can I forget my dear tenth great grand mother Susanna North Martin, who was executed as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 on the spurious testimony and wild imaginations of some young girls?

    And I hardly need mention my fifth great grandfather Parley P. Pratt who was hunted down and killed in cold blood for the crime of purportedly stealing another man’s wife while he was a mission president in San Francisco.

    And who knows what other nefarious deeds my other dear and departed ancestors may have committed!

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