This blog can only be described as a battle, these could be the front lines of the Internet, for all I know. I am not sure exactly what we've learnt during our time together. But, I want to leave knowing, for sure, that something good came out of this whole experience. So I did some math, I've received 9484 emails about my Newsblogger blog, over the past year. I took a trip down memory lane as I clicked randomly through my archive. I would say about 37% of the comments I received here, are comments that could be considered "angry towards the author." Using that percentage, I can then say, I've received about 3509 hate mails during me 10 months of posting here on AOL.
From the start I should have planned, a fund, where we pay a nickel for every insult I receive. This would mean my hate mails in monetary terms equal about: $175.45 ($180.33 CAD) - This amount has been donated to Betrida Stanley a Tanzanianshop keeper. We thank you all for participating.
I am positive I will be keeping in touch with many of you. This blog has been just another one of my stops on my bizarre internet adventure. If you wish to keep in touch, send me ideas, send me love. I welcome you to email me at. (Jeff dot Hoard at propeller dot com)
For those interested in learning what exactly an insulting email consists of here is a small offering that I found during my random clicking.
Fascist was one of the most favourite insults.
Example from January 19th 2008
Wow a B C Bud user and Pot Head. When you get interned in a home like
you are, is it good for you in the few rmmaining years you have left
on your aged feebel brain and body, to be a Pot Head and using BC
Bud. No wonder you are so wacked out, your a Pot Head, Pot Head. A
Liberal Fascist Pot Head, the first I have known.
What I also found interesting was the number of times people threw around the term "anti-American."
Example from June 24th 2007.
The anti-American extreme-leftists are at it again! The point O\'Reilly makes is a good one. The liberal news media are the ones who have made this an unpopular war. The war was overwhelmingly supported at the beginning.Most elementary children would agree, my last name can be easily turned into an insult. What I found interesting is that during my whole life growing up only close buddies in jest would use my name against me, until I came to AOL.
Example from November 28th 2007.
How rediculously amazing. Jeff Whored (to the Democratic Party)uses left-wing organizations (media matters started be Hillary) and left-wing activists such as Chomski to try to disprove media bias. You've got to be kidding? You sir have absolutly no credibility on this subject.I leave you now with one last Video. The late, great Bill Hicks.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 3)
1. Bill Hicks - an amazing man.
Sorry to see you go Jeff. I'm sure I'll see you around. I first found you at the "Throw away your TV" site and have keep loose tabs on you since. Good luck with the new job.
Ken at 1:00AM on Feb 18th 2008
2.
one of the few voices of reason on the internet's "front lines"... I am sure the fight will continue on other fronts, as you are a definite asset to the legion of reason and collective human values. Its been very cool reading your blog mate.
I most definitely send you my best wishes and many thanks for your sharing of information during the last couple years!
Godspeed
mani at 3:22AM on Feb 18th 2008
3. Oh No! You were on my Google page, Man! Now I have no hope left but Keith Olbermann, Al Gore and Ron Paul, strange bedfellows, to console me daily in my search for sane people. I'll follow your progress. You'll do well. The more crazy hate mail you get from otherwordly evil lunatics, the better you're doing for the planet. Thanks, Kid. Farewell for now.
Old Hippie and Soldier's Mom
nestingismybusiness at 4:03AM on Feb 18th 2008
4. You should just go back to taytv. I still don't know why you left it for this other stuff - selling out is never a good thing. Go back to building your own thing, not contributing to somebody elses. Leave this AOL/Netscape and all the other junk behind and go back to being the dude who had fun rather than the dude who got paid for blogging.
Controversyz at 4:09AM on Feb 18th 2008
5. shame
that it's so much easier
to find an audience,
if one does little more
than bitch,
or lie,
when addressing a mob.
you're a scholar, gentleman, and patriot, Jeff.
and i do not envy your replacement.
owen at 5:57AM on Feb 18th 2008
6. Dear Jeff,
Imagine how wealthy Dinesh would be.....
Sorry to see you go...!
Best Wishes in your new job!
I only gave you props once and now I feel guilty that I haven't done so more often.
ah,Clem at 9:15AM on Feb 18th 2008
7. After an hour of contemplating what to say about(a-boot) Jeffs decision to retire his AOL newsbloggers blog, I decided to break out the bottle of cheap white zinfandel I've been "aging" in the frige for almost two months.
Let's see- cap screws off clean- no cuts- sniff... MMMM- Piquant overtones of burnt almond, with a slight hint of urinal cake. "C'EST LE MERDE, MON AMIS !"
15 minutes later- Hey Jeff, how's it goin' my internet buddy ? I'd just like to say "THANK YOU" for having the moral testosterone to deal with subjects that are intentionally buried by the "LIBERAL"(LOL) "FREE"(MY ASS)
Press.
Half gone- Typing is NOT my forte- You must have known from the onset that you would recieve at least SOME criticism from the Fifth Column ASSHOLES that have duped America for over thirty years, with their agenda of fear and intolerance.
. Anything that interferes with their Hitlerian Utopia of a world dominated by Corporate America selling snowblowers to the Egyptians cannot, and WILL NOT be tolerated.
But I'm willing to bet that you underestimated the sheer SHITSTORM of vitrol to be flung your way by these "Thousand Points of Shining Light" wanker chimps that infest the AOL boards.
That's a good thing, that means you haven't given up on your sense of fairplay and justice YET. Leaving now should allow you to keep both your morals AND your morale intact.
Three Quarters gone- Smokesrun-ACCOMPLISHED !
And now for those lemmings that have "Sold their Soul for Schlock and Droll", I say "BITE MY SHINEY METAL ASS !"
Jeff ALLWAYS allowed you to give counterpoint to ANY posting he put up, but NOOOOOOOOOO,YOU just had to go negative, now didn't you ?
Personal attacks Uber Alles from those who couldn't find an original thought or belief with an army of their syphilitic cohorts, but are PROUD to show their ASS ad-nauseum, to the delight of only themselves.
One sip left- Here's to those who posted here with knowledge and integrity,cheers, frohsit, and nazdrovia(?)
BON CHANCE, JEFF !
BILL G at 9:24AM on Feb 18th 2008
8. Jeff, I knew this was coming. It is a sad day for many of us. I thank you for the many fascinating topics and videos that you have brought us. Especially for some of the Canadian TV programs you have featured.
To the flame throwers that have inhabited your site I say, you should be ashamed.
To you Jeff, I just want to say thanks and good luck.
Steve Seivers at 9:43AM on Feb 18th 2008
9. Dear Jeff,
I only wrote to you about one topic, since I just began looking at these blogs a few months ago. You were kind enough to respond personally to my questions about cyber-etiquette (dare I say "internetiquette?")-- (Total copyright!).
I have since come to believe there may be no such animal and that there are, in fact, no rules other than those self-imposed.
You were kind and civil in your discourse from the start, and though I did not totally agree with seemed to me a pretty rosy picture of how the internet has, is and may affect our world, we wrote back and forth a couple of times.
I did and still do think you were very cool to communicate openly like that, even as we disagreed on some things. I think you may have taken my questions about how these blogs are run as a personal challenge, and I did not intend that, but you very openly disclosed that you were a one-man show. Which, again, was cool of you.
In my short and inauspicious forays I have found that the cyber-mob often DOES rule, even when people have the best of intentions, and that even good people can easily be swept away and into rather nasty exchanges. I won't quote the cliche because I think good intentions are usually better than bad ones. But there's obviously some truth to the aphorism when it comes to human behavior. Maybe disappointments are all the more hellish when our intentions ARE good, because we tend to get more of our hearts and minds and even dreaded egos involved.
I hope people continue to challenge the machine and business as usual. Unlike a prior poster, I once used the term "flamethrower" to mean a good thing. Not a provocateur for the sake of profit or for lack of creativity, but rather for the sake of preserving individuality and openness in art and dialogue. Cyberspace can only get better through genuine examination and unbiased discourse. If there are such things. We can try...
Anyway, I'm waxing philosophical when it sounds like you need a hearty congratulations on a new job opportunity and a happy career as a blogger. How rare are those two things?
Congratulations and best of luck to you!
Sue D. at 10:31AM on Feb 18th 2008
10. good on ya, jeff. It was fun!
Clif Kuplen at 10:33AM on Feb 18th 2008
11. Hey Hoard,
Best of luck.
I'm probably wrong, but I always thought these AOL bloggs were an open forum. You know, blogger thows an idea out there and people respond.
Anyway, I adamantly opposed some of your stuff from time to time, but let by gones be by gones.
Take care and keep an eye over your shoulder.
Willet at 10:47AM on Feb 18th 2008
12. i wish you the best my friend.
over the years you have exposed me to a plethora of new ideologies and histories.
and for that i thank you.
i have always admired you for your ability to see through the rhetoric and post balancing information and opinions.
you have given many people the context that has been missing for years by the informative videos you post.
and allowed us a forum to discuss that newly found context here,on these threads.
be proud that by your curious ability to find obscure,yet entertaining material,you have helped people broaden their scope of understanding.filled in the missing puzzle pieces.
that is no small feat,but one to be proud of.
you are an amazing young man,and i hope your new horizon brings you great joy and satisfaction.
i am proud to call you a friend.
and if you happen to pop up again on another news site,
well..ill be there also.
guess ill actually have to promote my blog now,
and begin to actually post on videosift.
sighs..there goes my silent obscurity.
be well jeff,
and good luck.
till the next time...peace.
Enoch D.D.S
enoch at 10:55AM on Feb 18th 2008
13. I forgot to share with you that by coincidence I JUST this morning watched the "Saigon Suicide Show" episode by the fabulous "Upright Citizens' Brigade." I would say it's a slightly different take on the topic of the Hicks video.
Definitely worth watching, as UCB always are.
I recommend the DVD!
Sue D. at 10:55AM on Feb 18th 2008
14. To explain my flamethrowers comment.
Good manners in discourse is an asset. Experiences and ideas should be shared without ridicule or name calling.
I don't know about you but my image of Aristotle and Plato is that they would have never insulted each other or their works (If they would have lived at the same time). It seems that we live in periods of isolation such that if someone is offended in his car or on his computer then insults fly.
I guess what I'm am saying is, that if you want to write, you have a duty to your reader to say something interesting and inciteful. Leave the namecalling on the playground.
Steve Seivers at 7:30PM on Feb 18th 2008
15. Good luck Jeff, I will miss your blog. Hopefully in the future you may be back. Good luck in your new endeavor.
Take care, from Jeff
JefFlyingV at 1:11PM on Feb 18th 2008