Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Posted on June 30, 2003 in Blogging Flames

Update: Patrick has apologized for this at his own blog. I think if he is sincere, he should come here and to Writing in Orange to apologize at the other places where he did the damage. I now suspect that he saw a blog about Writers in Orange County and thought “Conservative meat!” I hate to inform him but I am probably well to the left and more libertarian than him. I am presenting my original comments, nonetheless, because I think there are points to be heard. Within this text, I conceded his main point at Writing in Orange. For the record, he found me through another website, not Google, so the assertions made to that effect are in error. But I am still pissed off about the tone of his attacks and stand by what is left here about his attitude and his handling of this. If Patrick deletes his attack from his blog, I will delete this, posthaste.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden (look twenty letters! Wow!) doesn’t like my spam filter message and he’s telling the whole world that he doesn’t.

Tough.

Patrick got bent out of shape because I styled him as a “pundit” log, one whose primary dedication was the news, at Writing in Orange. He then received, as many of you have, the spamarrest message:

Hello.

I’m using http://www.spamarrest.com to filter my incoming email.

Please read this message before going through the approval process:

• If your name is Hattie Yuan, I am not buying from you. You are not my friend. Remove my name from your mailing list.

• If this is an invitation to launder your money using my bank account, know that if you let the email through, I will send the message with its full headers to the Federal Communications Commission and to Interpol. You will not interest me in the least, but I am sure they will be interested. Stop while you are ahead.
  
• If you are trying to sell me something, I am not interested. I won’t read it. Don’t bother. Take my name off the mailing list.

• If you are sending me something in a foreign language that I cannot understand, I won’t read it because I can’t.

• If you’re asking me a question based on my web sites or sending me a compliment or you are a friend who is checking up to see how I am, by all means get yourself approved!

To those who fall under categories 1 through 3: you may get through ONCE. But I have the power to override your approval and I will. I will delete your message unread and report you to your ISP for violation of your terms of service. Take me off your mailing list.

To those under number 5: fear not. I do want to hear from you. Just follow the instructions.

Just this once, click the link below so I can receive your emails. You won’t have to do this again.

Patrick whined about how rude I was. And you know what? I don’t give a fuck. Until spam email disappears, I will continue to use Spamarrest to save me time downloading junk that I don’t want and having to put it through my local mail filters. Rather quickly some of Patrick’s pals pontificated about how I must be stupid because I didn’t know how to use Spam Assassin properly. Which is hilarious because I have used it and it’s not nearly as effective in keeping spam and self-important people like Patrick out of my email box as what I do use which is Spam Arrest. It has cut my spam email to less than 1/2 of 1 percent.

How did Patrick Nielsen Hayden (look! Twenty letters) find out about my Spam Arrest? He wrote a comment on Writing in Orange. I said, Lord help me, that he was a pundit and that his blog was “given over in the whole” to news. Nothing more. A relatively minor error, but overall, Patrick does love to yack on and on about the news and how his view is the most important one out there. For this reason, three weeks ago, I dropped him from my front page bloglists to the one on the back page. Read: he bored me. As far as I know he never linked back, which is true about half the blogs on my front page: this isn’t a reason for dropping someone in my book.

Now here’s the question: what was he doing there? First, understand that Patrick does not live in Orange County, California. He lives on the East Coast. I checked his pal Calpundit who does live in Orange County and couldn’t find a link in a quick check of the page. I haven’t mentioned Patrick on my page in weeks and weeks and, as I noted, I’m hardly a regular read of his.

The most plausible explanation that I can find is that Patrick Nielsen Hadyn (look twenty letters!) found me by searching for his site on Google. That’s right: Patrick Nielsen Haydn must live night and day worrying about what people are saying about him. Google picked up Writing in Orange within twenty four hours of its launch. Undoubtably, as he went a-trolling, he found the remark I made. And what was it?

The Pundit. Nearly every blogger spouts off about the news, but some make that the whole of their blogging life. Calpundit and Electrolite are two examples of this phenomenon.

I will concede that what I should have said was “nearly the whole”. Though perhaps in light of this experience, I should have written:

Some blogs are characterized by their self-important arrogance and condescension in matters of news and behavior.

We won’t go into Patrick’s violation of the taboo of printing a private email on his site. I just want to point out the gray area in my comments to his partisans and add that I am not going to be your shooting duck. I get very bored very fast with herd animals of all political persuasions.

For friends of mine who might be incited to go to his site and defend me, vociferously, don’t. I’ve spoken my piece and that’s enough.