Ask Me Anything. Vol. 3

Photo by Hugh Clarke

Ed. Note: Thanks again to everyone who has donated to the St. Baldrick’s Fundraiser in the fight against Childhood Cancers. We are 3/4 of the way there! If there are others who’d like to make a donation, any amount helps, please do so and get a free PoPville shirt at the head shaving event!

1. Why is the last post of the night always (usually?) at 10:22? I’ve had fun wondering about it. Is someone’s birthday October 22? Is it your lucky number?

When I schedule posts the default is military time so, 10:22pm is 22:22 and I just like the way that looks. When my older daughter was born, years after I’ve been doing the blog, she was born at 22:22 which was insane and I’ve taken it as a sign to keep it going.

2. Will you ever use the frog again? I was — and am — totally charmed by the Frog Prince.

Nope. The frog prince is permanently retired. Maybe I’ll bring him back briefly for special occasions like the 15th or 20th anniversaries.

3. I’ve also wondered how you go about screening the comments — and what criteria you use. (Yes, I’ve been scrubbed more than once, and would like to do better….)

There’s a couple ways to answer this. And this screening has evolved over time. Basically, all the overt racist hateful shit gets deleted immediately. If I catch the subtle racist stuff I’ll delete that too. If commenters are assh*oles to me, to you, to anyone and they make it personal – it’ll be deleted. If someone has been an assh*le, racist, crossed the line in the past I’ll remember that. They are held on a very very short leash. If they don’t like it, I don’t give a frog’s fat ass. I came to this conclusion a few years ago and it has made my life much more enjoyable. Hopefully for you too.

Here’s another example of someone’s comment who will also get deleted. If every time there is a crime post (no matter the location) they say “you see this is why we need concealed carry laws”. Every single time. The same exact commenter, saying the same exact thing. They are not looking for a discussion. It’s just online screaming basically. Or if every single time there is a crime in a particular neighborhood they say “you see X neighborhood is stabby, dicey, shady” or whatever. It’s not useful and you’re (not OP here obviously) just being an assh*le. This applies to any comment that is parroted after any particular post. I’m not saying there can’t be genuine discussion about gun laws, or crime/safety in particular neighborhoods but my goal is to keep those discussions genuine. Also if you say “Make America Great Again” or MAGA after every comment you write? Yeah, I’m deleting that too.

Finally, it’s arbitrary. I can’t read every single comment, every single day so sometimes comments that shouldn’t have been deleted get deleted and vice versa. It’s just the nature of a one man show. At the end of the day, I try to keep this a respectful place where folks can have conversations without being harassed or insulted like many other places on this world wide web of ours. It is a flawed process, no doubt, but I err on the side of trying to keep things civil.

4: If you have any secrets about shoes and/or aching feet that you’d care to share.

Wearing running shoes is key. I always get new ones every two or three months max. I once wore snow boots on a 14 mile walkabout (after it snowed obviously) and I was hobbling for days afterwards. If we ever get snow again, I’m like a six year old and I tie plastic bags around my feet.

5. Has Dingo ever been featured on Animal Fix? I enjoyed the Dingo video moments!

Yup, here’s Dingo looking at my fish tank in the last photo of this fix.

-Dan Silverman: Citizen of the District of Columbia

If you have a personal question you’ve been dying to ask me – fire away! You can ask in the comments (which I’ll go back to and pull from) or just send an email with your question to [email protected] with “Ask me Anything” in the title.