You've been banned!
Yesterday, underneath a bubble gum story on vulnerable adult learners, Some Guy posted an intriguing comment about hypocrisy and censorship within the surf media. Oh we all live in glass houses, of course, and rocks etc. but the trend to wildly and brutally strangle the conversation, from the World Surf League’s booth to the various surf-centric websites to surfing subreddits, has reached a level that would turn Joseph Goebbels’ face green with envy.
Comments disappeared, whole threads vanished, people banned, tossed into outer darkness for the most inoffensive remark with no recourse for reinstatement.
I know behind its exciting, innovative and forward-thinking exterior that surfing is cloistered, grumpy, resistant to change but when did communication become so…. scary? When did the men and woman who pull the levers become so… fearful?
I understand it can be embarrassing when supporting brands are criticized in various comment sections but do those on the media side think that by either evaporating negative remarks and/or closing the conversation they trick those on brand side into thinking all is rosy and perfect?
I understand it can be uncomfortable when opposing views are presented but we’re all adults here and can handle a little ire.
Can’t we?
I understand that being mocked for this or that decision might not feel the best but owning mistakes, celebrating them even, is a path toward greater fun.
Isn’t it?
Ruthless censorship eventually backfires. The people may be a lot of things but they ain’t blind and so this current epoch of the iron fist confuses me greatly.
Maybe you know something I don’t. Maybe you have answers.
What are they?
I am honestly confused. It’s just surfing after all. What could go so wrong if, outside purely dumb and cruel language, various opinions were allowed to float unchecked?
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Derek and Jed banned me for half of what Stab allows now.
Hippy..is that you from postsurf?
yup… those were funny times. Seen Nugable round this place a while back.
As a seppo, the number one thing I have learned from the comments section on BG is all of the different and creative ways to use the word “cunt.”
That’s funny. As if message board comments actually hold some journalistic value. The question is why would any media outlet even open a paid advertorial to comments?
And sinking?
Like a reverse De La Soul?
you guys censor more than the WSL website.
clown grit.com
Like what?
B-Mar deletes his own stuff.
Negs only goes after low-quality dreck.
BG LIKES contentious stuff.
No?
I’ve never taken a comment down in my entire life. And I noted “purely dumb and cruel” as exceptions.
Have you never written something dumb or cruel?
I feel I should just put my iron fist in my mouth on this subject and hope the storm passes quickly.
Oh, it’ll just be a blitzkrieg in a teacup.
I think this story should be nominated for the Surfer (RIP) Awards 2019 as Least Convincing Attempt To Start A Website Blood Feud
I agree. Weak. Bitch about the lack of transparency on advertorials, but if you buy a billboard idiots can’t come paint chem trail stories all over it legally.
You wanna tell the world someone’s asshole, maybe don’t do it while they are buying the drinks.
You can be punk as fuck, but for fuck’s sake, understand how the world works. At some point someone’s got to pay for all this idiocy. Warshaw has proven you won’t fucking pay for this shit.
This has nothing to do with advertorial or content. It has to do with wildly out of control policing of comments and, in the case of the WSL, commentary.
Fair enough, but the commenters were all over the Surfline Patagonia thing.
For the WSL? Yeah, wtf?
No! I’m serious! Does the strangulation of comments across surf media not surprise you?
Nah not really, I can see the editorial value in a semi free kick comments section like BG’s, it’s v clever, you get this flood of entertainment from a few handfuls of semi bored smart people, it drags in the traffic and you don’t even have to pay for it! But not even BG is really free, like Negatron is pretty disciplined in a good way. Other sites have other approaches, if they don’t wanna publish conspiracy theory style attacks on their advertisers it shouldn’t really be that big of a shock.
The WSL commentariat is a different matter, their perpetual Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind approach is cynical and disingenuous and doesn’t reflect the nature of surfing, professional or otherwise. They need someone with the savvy and personal force to criticise performance, not merely praise it.
I had a relatively great surf yesterday!
The universe is telling me to keep surfing.
If you didn’t post it on Instagram it didn’t happen.
Thank fuck.
Happy to be that falling tree in the lonesome forest.
STAB banned me. Where are they now?
Out there fucking up their big yearly event!
Still in therapy.
That broke my heart. I believe it was intended as a temporary ban though and unfortunately clever clogs who lifted it forgot to remove your email address as a parameter. I’ve corrected this, but can see you’ve moved on. God speed cunt. I take some comfort knowing Negatron is now the one you frequently make squirm on his throne. But I do miss when it was from wetting myself.
Thanks Michael. I will give it a go shortly. Is Morgan still around? I trust that he needs to be bullied again by now
Yeah he is. He models belts topless.
Fuck that’s horrendous
Can you post up a photo…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
So what length is the Brewer?
And please don’t show us his Dick ……
I thought you said you’d never return after Chas and I revealed Ashton’s IP address… have you been lurking?
He is probably becoming tired of his dumb fuck overlords Ashton and Morgan. Newman is way too good for those cunts. Need to get him here full time
He is very good, one of the best but I felt he picked a side. I picked just to be snide.
Miss me some newman, too.
Does STAB pay their moderators? If so, are there “no comment on BG” requirements?
I don’t think they really give a shit about the comments… hence the threads dying a slow drawn out dull death.
Not sure I ever said that. I’m old, underemployed and occasionally surf, of course I still visit BeachGrit.
I checked and I’m now 100% sure you didn’t say that. Sorry… got to stop listening to the voices in my head.
Yeah, back to the autofisting.
Keep your filthy, stubby little Stab-fingers off Wiggs.
He’s ours now!
Fuck off back to Ashton’s beard hole or I’ll be forced to awkwardly slap you in the neck.
Clever clogs? Either you’re the only independent source of this term I’ve ever encountered or your kids love Peppa Pig like mine.
Wigs is the Best commenter on 2 (now 1) sites. Been about 1 year now since the big cleanse. Still missing scorn and baldy.
You were banned for 2 weeks. I took you off the ban list nearly a year ago. But I unfortunately knew you found a new home.
You guys really fucked up over there… treated the punters terribly. You hiring Mods? Reckon I could turn the comments around in 8-12 months. Unfortunately, now it would be a full time job.
It’s a double edged sword. It’s great to see the back of cavvy, but there’s no denying that a few people went a bit heavy on the moderation and cooked everything. Look, at least it stopped people complaining about comments of the week – now there aren’t any.
Just finished watching both Fyre Fest docs, pretty crazy shit, and def thought about the current surf media/industry. Ya got censorship, online sales/viewership #s which can be dubious, billionaire investors, heavy social media (i.e. bullshit) reliance… Not saying the WSL is pulling a Fyre Fest at all, but I had constant flashbacks to #beachvibes and Facebook deals and Surfline advertorials/censorship while watching the films.
They were pushing that “do yoga on a sup” wellness festival pretty hard late last year…. did that crash and burn?
As scummy as that Billy dude was, and as slick, hip and caricatured those marketing people were, I just couldn’t get myself to feel much sympathy for those schlubs who ended up on “ the island Pablo Escobar once owned”
Watching all those schlubs discover the shitshow they got sold was the best part!
Ha yeah all that millennial social media influencer shit is so foreign to me being a child of the 80s. I sorely miss the old Wild West days. All the social media perfect life FOMO brand awareness woke oh the archaic horror of actually calling someone and God forbid leaving a voice mail message garbage of today is social entropy epitomized.
Exactly – Weep for the NYC banker denied his opportunity to post a selfie with whoever the fuck was that rapper [?DEFjam, couldn’t be fucked looking it up] because he was too stupid to due any due diligence before pushing ‘Confirm’, or for this guy;
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Was Ja Rule, who sucked as a rapper and comes off as an even bigger clown in both the docs. And yes exactly. I’ve been trying to be diligent in researching charities and how they allocate their funds (Charity Navigator seems to be a good starting point) so that I can donate and at least be reasonably sure my money is going where it is supposed to. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears
he looks like he has just had a moment of clarity and decided raising his middle finger is perhaps not such a great idea after all. subliminal messaging her chas.
I thought he was desperately trying to remember the single important thing that his wife sent him to to the supermarket for.
fair point.
I think BG should impose a strict ginger dick avatar policy. this will ensure that industry top dogs won’t mistake any of the comments as a serious threat the industries survival and no one will get sent to be water boarded (surely a form of surfing) in some surfboard HQ backroom as a suspected dissident. cheers (swigging from a beer opened by a North Korean made flip flop).
#bringbackthedick
#shareholdersmatter
I too strongly urge
The return of Dicks for Clicks
Better red than dead
Commenting on the troubling development concerning censorship in surf media, Surfline’s Marcus Sanders (is he alive?) replied, “I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even yet imagine?”
When asked followup questions about his statement in order to clarify what he truly meant by it, not to mention explain his views on plagiarism and fascism, he offered a stern one word statement: “braaahhh!”
Any relation to Ben?
Surf industry progressive? They’re too busy patting themselves on the back and telling each other how bitchen they are to move forward. They will always be stuck in the good old days of the 90s. Their idea of progressive is boosting bigger airs. Nobody cares.
I feel your rhyme could’ve scanned better. Please try harder next time.
yes sid corsica try this:
Bigger Airs.
Nobody cares.
Specially old farts who ain’t got no hair.
Uh.
One time.
Yo.
…
(OK Nick your turn again)
I’m empty mate. All yours.