Agonist Watch

Enough emails for now, but keep them coming to: AgonistWatch@yahoo.com

Mail #7:

I don't know who you are, and the remark about the PGP key blew my best
guess theory, but your site is a hoot.

Well, except for the name. Could you have come up with a worse site
name? I mean, really. wcnbdhusicf? What, agonistwatch.blogspot.com was
taken?

By the way, the skins are causing a huge slowdown in load time. The
more
scripts you have, the slower the load is going to be. Then again, it
loads about as slowly as Kelley's site, so perhaps it's fitting.

Best,


Well, we could have used defhuwre9fwehvu8whfvrehwu8v, now couldn't we? So we could have come up with a worse name.

Mail #6: From Juan:


posted at
http://agonist.got.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=News;action=display;num=1049819628;start=200#238


http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/n_8566/index.html


"... a must-read Weblog that constantly links to and
culls from a range of the most informed, relevant
Websites—and that makes for a pretty good first draft
of history."

in agonist thread:
'...in any case, the agonist has been a phenomenon
that will be emulated by similar ad hoc & topical
websites because it works so well.

this thread alone has attracted readership from
outside the blogosphere, while the blogosphere seems
to have become obsessively solipsistic...
so the net effect has been to boost circulation for
the agonist while marginalising the envious
mediocrities.
evolution in action - but in hours instead of
millenia...that's how it works on the net! ...'

agonist watch is just such an ad hoc topical site
would you post your stats?


Yes...6'4" 220lb muscular, good looking, intelligent....and that's just the editor. Wait until you hear about the staff.

Mail #5: From an anonymous reader:

I know you have been following the Agonist ballyhoo.

Here's more:

Jay (Sean Paul's techie) and I had a slight dispute on the message
board
today. Nothing nasty whatsoever. Just calm talk about the plagiarism.
Immediately following, my firewall access history showed this:
4/16/03 5:19:12 PM Deny unknown (697) petes.got.net
4/16/03 5:19:12 PM Deny unknown (883) petes.got.net


...snip about 100 lines...

4/16/03 5:19:10 PM Deny unknown (152) petes.got.net
4/16/03 5:19:10 PM Deny unknown (3333) petes.got.net

nearly 200 access attempts on my machine from Jay's got.net domain.

amazing, right? where will they stop!

anyway, take care. great site.


Where, indeed.

Mail #4: From a reader in France:

Hey,

I don't know if this is a permanent situation, but I have been going
back daily to check boy-wonder's stats on Site Meter. Yesterday they
were on the floor and today so-far they will not come up at all. It
seems at this moment as if he has killed the public tracking of his
site.

http://www.sitemeter.com/
default.asp?action=stats&site=s12agonist&report=5

Obviously, I can't swear to it, perhaps later in the day things will
change. Although I did just look at someone else's Site Meter stats and
theirs were working.

Mail #3: James writes:

Do you want to make extra income??
You get emails every day, offering to show you how to make money.
Most of these emails are from people who are NOT making any money.
And they expect you to listen to them?

Enough.


We agree totally, James...we just want to get paid!

Mail #2:

Subject: More Kelley schenanigans?
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 17:34:53 -0000

Have you seen this: http://www.blogsofwar.com/archives/001069.html

Yes, thanks to you.

Ok, now that we've caught reasonably up on recent events and discussed some of the things we're pissed about, on to some samples from the voluminous mailbag (Mail #1):

Hi,

This is Andre Botelho. I'm surfing right now at
"AOL Netfind", and I saw your contact at this web site:
http://wcnbdhusicf.blogspot.com/
I want to tell you that you're doing a great job!

I know my customers would be well-suited
prospects and vice-versa. What should I do
if I want to send a few of them your way?

Looking forward to your reply.
Reply to my personal email address:
andrebotelho@aweber.com

Best Regards,

Andre

Well, Andre, thanks for the compliments. Just tell your customers to read Agonist Watch regularly!

New synonym? "He's not a Raving Atheist. He's a Raving Agonist." Steve H. in the comments of The Raving Plagiarist

Byzantium has a suggestion for Agonist shunners.

Agonist Plagiarism Scandal update: Is the Agonist being shunned?

Instapundit notes:

Time to catch The Agonist: a couple of weeks. Time to catch Jayson Blair -- over a year after the Metro editor wrote a memo saying that he needed to be stopped "right now."

Tim Swanson writes:

If I were to do anything like The Agonist did back in college, I would have been summarily flunked, and justly so. And ignoring for a moment his failure to attribute sources appropriately, the Agonist simply copied the material adding little original commentary to the messages. Note: this is where sites like BlogPulse could come in handy, to see who is just copying posts – there is a term for that: Parroting.

Why we are pissed Reason #13: Byte Back writes in WCNBDHUSICF?

There's an Agonist Watch. Don't blink because it won't be around for long. There is not much to watch.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! We are still here! Ha! We'll be here forever, or at least until our mysterious owner pays us. Is this thing getting bigger than J-Lo's butt or what?

So far the A-Watch site is just a collection of other people's comments on Sean-Paul Kelly, who I'm sure was partially targeted because he sounds French.

Comment avez-vous su?

Oh and those initials are the blog address. We Can Not Blog Decisively Having Understood Something Is Completely Fucked.

But that's just a guess.

Wrong! Thanks for playing! It actually stands for Wonderfully Conundrumic Neat Blog Defining Hard Urban Shameless Igneous Carbon Facts.

Why we are pissed Reason #12: And then we happen upon this little gem. The People's Republic of Seabrook writes:

I had a nice telephone conversation with Sean-Paul Kelley on Saturday morning, as I was trying to figure out how to kill a copperhead in my backyard. I wanted to get a feel for where he was after the plagiarism issue hit the street. I left the conversation convinced that he realizes he did something stupid, but not criminally so. Frankly, I would have to agree. While a lot of us, Sean-Paul included, would love to be taken seriously as "real journalists", the reality is that these are weblogs we're talking about here. I'm not making money (yet), nor is Sean-Paul; it's a labor of love. While we all need to be certain that we properly credit sources, it does seem as if Sean-Paul's mistake has been blown out of proportion. He did something stupid, he admitted it; the man deserves a second chance. End of story; let's all move on, shall we?

No! (Editor's note: We sure hope Sean-Paul Kelly told you to treat that copperhead humanely!) Also, we're making money for our mysterious owner, but *we* are not getting paid either, pal (yet).

I suppose it should be taken as a measure of Sean-Paul's success that someone with too much time on their hands has set up a weblog called Agonist Watch. It just goes to show that the farther up the food chain you go, the more people will be looking to pick you off.

We look at our hands and see no time! So there!

Is this much ado about nothing? Or is it worth "Watching the effect of the plagiarism scandal on the blogosphere"? Frankly, I have better things to do with my time.

Yes, like writing about Agonist Watch.

We have been dubbed Wiggly Worm #2867 by Truth Laid Bear, which has lifted the staff's spirits a bit.

Why we are pissed Reason #11: The right leaning lesbian writes:

I just found out, thanks to this that "Mac Diva" has multiple blogs! Talk about pathetic!

...

She also runs this one
Agonist Watch

Ok, show us the evidence, we'll give you the money! We'd rather give it to a right-leaning lesbian than anyone else, really. The Agonist Watch staff are fans of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" just like everyone else.

Why we are pissed Reason #10: Ok, this takes the cake! Alas, a Blog writes:

Natasha Watch, created by Mac Diva, is a terrible idea for a blog; its creation cannot help but spread malice and mud.

Ok, this Mac Diva thing has gotten out of hand. If she is the owner of Agonist Watch (there is still a $500 reward if anyone can prove it) then she is starting new "watch" blogs without paying any of the current staff! If she doesn't own Agonist Watch, then the *real* owner of Agonist Watch will be very interested in talking to the owner of "Natasha Watch" for franchise infringement! Unless, of course ....nevermind.

Then, in the comments to the article, PG writes:

Many bloggers consider their role to be that of a watchdog on traditional media, and some go on to watchdog more well-known bloggers, as with the SullyWatch on Andrew Sullivan, or the (essentially defunct) Agonist Watch.

First of all, we are not "essentially defunct!" Second of all, what is Sully Watch? Could this be our mysterious owner? (pssst...$500 to anyone who can prove it)

What is this about Russia and WWIII? The issue got blown way out of hand when some people opened up a whole new blog following Agonist - the kinda Agonist-Hate Blog: Agonist Watch! Which, obviously, shows how Agonist is humangously popular!

Patton was right. Patton was definately right.

Why we are pissed Reason #9: You leave for a few months and bloggers like Gene Expression start lascivious rumors about us, claiming we are "run" and "owned" by "hysterical" and "paranoid" Mac Diva! Witness:

"At least one of them is definitely run by her (Agonist Watch), but for her to run *all* the others would take a lot of time. I find it implausible, but maybe she really is a huge internet nerd who has nothing better to do than game NZ's Ecosystem. Seems unlikely, but perhaps someone has evidence. "

Well, the unpaid staff of Agonist Watch has contacted Mac Diva in hopes of getting our back pay with no success. Talk about heartbreak! Our Fiji vacation bills have already arrived. Seems our mysterious owner has deemed us to be unworthy of email response! We took up a collection, and are offering a genuine $500 reward (no joke) for anyone who has evidence that Mac Diva or any other blogger is our owner! If you can prove we are owned by another blogger, we'll finally get our pay, and so will you!

Why we are pissed Reason #8: Shock and Awe had the audacity to suggest we are biased in the list of reasons they still like the Agonist! Oh well, we can't be too pissed, they suggested reading us.

Why we are pissed Reason #7: Mark Glaser put our name in quotes!

Why we are pissed Reason #6: We didn't think of this!

Why we are pissed Reason #5: No quality hatemail like this to respond to!

Why we are pissed Reason #4: We leave for a few months, get back and find we have a recommended reading list and ecosystem stats! We don't have time to read! Half our staff can't even read! Lastly, what does all this mean?

Why we are pissed Reason #3: The economy is improving and traffic is horrible! Why can't we have a depression and get all these people off the road? They'd have a hard time driving all over if they couldn't afford to buy gas. Is a maximum of 70 years between depressions too much to ask? Maybe instead of this global warming crap, we need a good old-fashioned ice age. Turn the clock back 100,000 years and Michigan is buried under 500 feet of ice. Ha! No more freakin cars on the road then, eh?

Why we are pissed Reason #2: A simple vacation and the war is over and warblogging is dead! Why can't we have wars like WWII again that last several years? Is that too much to ask?

Why we are pissed Reason #1: Ok, first of all, it's hot! In fact, it's damn hot! No, we aren't talking about the Agonist site stats, we are talking about the weather! Our picture of our favorite gris-gris woman has practically melted, which really sucks, since we can't remember how to get another one at the moment.

Speaking of site stats, the Agonists' have been mysteriously been taken down. Hmmmm.

Ok, we, the staff of Agonist Watch are back from a lengthy vacation in Fiji and boy are we pissed! Details soon.