Looking for trouble: finding advice on goats

At the online edition of the United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper, the readers have been making waves. Last week, 19-year-old, Max Gogarty began to blog about his planned travels in the year before attending college. The reaction to his first entry was instant: The readers hated it, posted 500 comments in one day—at a quick glance, 95 percent critical—the board was closed, and Max decided to blog no more. The Guardian made some defensive and vague statements (attracting many more cross comments from the readers), and the story simmers on in the British Web community. (You can read more about it in the Guardian here, and elsewhere here.) Inspired by this, your Fray editor decided to look at poster power at Slate. Are you pestering, are you aiming to shut anyone down?

What about the wine column on the "greatest wine ever made," the Cheval '47 Blanc? No, you loved that: The nearest thing to a criticism was this from Savory Goodness: "Mike Steinberger should be reassigned to making wine pairings for truck-stop meals along the entire length of I-95," but it turned out that was "so that we Frayers can feel a little better about our jobs." His actual opinion included "Beautiful article… passion… obvious delight." There was also a nice post called "I thought it was Zinfandel"—the title says it all, really.

Moving on to the "Undercover Economist" on paying too much for a house: Well, there was lots of helpful detail about how the ticket system at Duke University actually works, and many argued with the conclusions of the research mentioned in the article, but very politely. Zarniwoop pointed out that writer Tim Harford is "not buying a house in the London market, he's buying a house from the collection of houses his wife wants in the current time frame," and offered divorce as an alternative, but only, we feel, in a spirit of a fair laying out of the options. Meanwhile, Dismal offered this short but perfect comment: "Value in use > value in exchange."

Of course, everyone loves Flann O'Brien, no use looking for arguments there, just nice, enthusiastic comments. Karl Rove, in his new career as a TV analyst, reviewed by Troy Patterson, attracted a lot of bile (our favorite: "How does he manage to hold a felt pen in those cloven hooves?"), but we don't suppose Mr. Rove'll be giving up his job as a result.

"Goats: the teenagers of the animal world," saysdingoangst, while letmebefell compares them with his 11-month old baby. Criticism at last! But no, readers were mistily charmed by Jon Katz' article about his "Rural Life," and everyone sighed indulgently about those goats, although Topazz has a concern: "Sounds as though someone needs to get off the farm for a few days, maybe go into town, have a beer, take in a movie. Whatever, just don't let those scheming goats lure you into anything you can't handle. You're fragile right now." And Pennywhistler has some advice: "[I]t sounds like his goats are asking for more of Katz's participation in their lives; more visits to the pen; (for all I know) a game of fetch or headbutt." Helpful, that's what Slate readers are.

Our last hope was Christopher Hitchens' "Fighting Words" on the Danish cartoon row: Always room for trouble there, you would think, among the readers as well as about the content. There were strong feelings, and the arguments on both sides were fully explored—but introduced, for example, with the words, "I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you." One particularly firm argument was over whether a poster should "tell my corpulent neighbor that he's a fat slob." Answer: Yes, you should, according to ryanlindly, "humiliation may be more appropriate than respect"—harsh words, harsh words.

Over at the Best of the Fray, Fielding Bandolier began a long thread in which posters tried to define the Fray. Fifty-nine tries and counting—no one seems to have mentioned fat-person etiquette tips yet, but there's still time … MR 4:00 p.m. GMT

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008

The lesson to be learned from reaction to the various "Slate 60" articles on philanthropy is clear: Whatever you do with your money, someone will criticize you. "How does one make a decision to give to an art museum when there are homeless in every community?" wondersjenb5336, while americafirst has this to say about Google's plans:

To invest in third world countries is a lofty goal, but the reality is that little tin dictators will steal all the money or nationalize the business and then steal all the profits … If you really want to do good, find and help the truly deserving in your own country. You will never run out of work.