Home Media Addressing Pettibonehead & “Troll” Policy

Addressing Pettibonehead & “Troll” Policy

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While Santa is away, the elves come out and play.

Wow.

Did not expect to wake up to all this anti-Petibonehead talk this morning. Anti-Angry talk I am used to, but not this.

So I thought about the complaints this morning, and the sentiment bothers me. People are saying, "I donated to this site, and I dislike Pettibonehead, so you should ban him."

This is one of the reasons I fear taking donations, advertising dollars, or linking blog rolls. It makes readers believe they have a say in how the site should be run. Almost like a board of directors or shareholders in a corporation. That is low to make threats like that. You donated to the site because you see it's hard work, good information, and you want to see it continue. Don't stoop to threats like that.

When the site opened in 2009, there was a pest named Humongous Organ who showed telling me he banged my mother behind a Flying J, but nobody came to my defense then. Nobody asked for him to be banned. I came back with some good quips, ignored his subsequent responses, and the troll eventually left. That's how you handle a troll. You make a comeback that cuts to the bone and makes him fear your next response will cut through the bone, and then you ignore all subsequent responses. Trolls feed off attention.

Now, if we had a troll who was a real issue…say…giving out JackBeav's personal information, address, etc, then he would be banned immediately. Pettibonehead shows up once every three or four days, and he makes funny quips and actually provides history and insight to people who didn't live through the Pettibone era. I'm not even sure I view him as a troll…I view him as a quirky, funny, historian. So, there is a snowball's chance in hell I ban him. I actually hope he posts more and shares more history. Hell, give me a Kragthorpe "troll", too.

If my not banning the troll causes you to stop reading the site, so be it. You'll lose out on unique insight and commentary. I view it as a you problem, not a site problem. Stop with the threats and just leave if that's how you feel. I manage this site fairly, and we basically have zero trolls because they respect the analytical, intellectual tone and management of the site. There are hundreds of Duck fans who read this site, and instead of trolling it, they respect it. Can you say that about any other (public) Oregon State website that doesn't have a single moderator? I doubt it.

If WordPress ever develops a plugin that allows readers to ban other readers, I'll install it and you can individually block anyone you want. In the meantime, no censorship unless it's harmful to a reader's personal well-being or privacy. The only exception is voluminous and pointless links/spam/blathering (e.g. Beaver Byte teeters that line…I actually wanted to ban him, yet you guys voted "no"). Anyway, that's the policy. If Pettibonehead starts posting every hour and really detracting then I'll ban him, but right now he doesn't do that.

I'd recommend learning to laugh or ignore. Both are wonderful skills.

-Angry

56 COMMENTS

  1. Funny Jack Beav specifically is mentioned. Who is that guy anyway? I like his posts for the most part, he knows his Beavers, but after he showed his ass, (at least in my humble opinion) on the Mike Parker incident, I’m not a fan. Still, he seems like an insider, and writes well.

    Pettibonehead doesn’t bother me, I’m one of the old farts you refer to occasionally and I remember, and laugh at his stuff.

    • JackBeav is mentioned because Pettibonehead keeps writing at him. Not sure who JackBeav is in real life, but on the internet he contributes a lot of good comments and has a great (Beaver basketball) blog of his own.

  2. Thomas Tyner last night had his first game post-concussion. He only had 8 carries……..which resulted in a paltry 228 yards and 5 touchdowns. To whoever says they don’t want this guy because football would be a waste of his talents, id say you’re just admitting defeat now that he wants to go to the other school.

    • Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the obsession with this guy is ridiculous. Beaver football will go on with or without him. If he comes to Corvallis, great! If not, I’m not going to slit my wrists. I suggest people quit following his every move (or non-move for that matter). Absolutely no reason to get our collective panties in a bunch because he’s flexing/posing with some UO cheerleaders or his Facebook page has some yellow and green splashed across it.

      I guess this is a function of OSU football being in the dumper this year. People are looking for other outlets, including some potentially mythical 17 year recruit who may or may not pan out in D-1 football.

      • I agree…it’s not that big a deal, especially if the Beavers can land Chris Brown (who imo looks better on film at least). Also, the Beavers are still right in the mix with Tyner.

        And if Oregon gets sanctioned he won’t enroll.

        Long way to go here.

        • Agree completely.

          Anyway, the timing looks okay for OSU. The Ducks are likely to get sanctioned before Tyner’s commit date. Severe sanctions against Oregon will change everything for Tyner (and for other recruits, too). Meanwhile — fingers crossed — OSU’s program will be on the way up at that point, and will look significantly more attractive than OSU football does today. Long way to go here, indeed….

    • Nope. I will cheer for him as a sprinter no matter where he goes. But I truly believe he will not reach his full potential as a sprinter if he continues to play football. And I think his full potential as a runner includes Olympic medals.

      My own personal opinion is that representing your country in the Olympics is the pinnacle of athletic endeavors. Winning while there is life-altering for some fans, let alone the athlete. Winning the most prestigious event in modern sport can’t even be described.

      But maybe he loves football THAT much. I don’t blame him. I just don’t understand that sentiment.

  3. Tyner is a program changing recruit we should have had. To rebuild a men’s track program with him out of the gate would have been a tremendous opportunity for both OSU and Tyner. He loved OSU until Riley and BDC let the program take a major dump. Everyone wants to win and recruits don’t expect or respect staleness as a desired trait like OSU seems to think it is. He will be exciting on both fronts. I thought we were going to get that speed for OSU yet our best chance now is for severe Oregon sanctions. We need to tell him we want to make him a star and he can play right away.

  4. I drew the stalker in because I wanted to see if he was going to be a menace like JP or jackmehoffer was. I figured as long as he was occupied with me, he wouldn’t be bothering others.

    Sorry if that was untrue. I guess I can start being mean to the kid and just drive him away, but he’s not bad. He really hasn’t done anything to warrant dislike or even irritation.

    He’s weak, and he runs away at the first hint of competition, but he’s not one of those nasty Blitz thuds or one of the self-righteous pollyannas who think everything Beav is sacred except for the fans they think deserve their extreme potty-mouths.

    And I’m sorry if I can’t subscribe to blaming the victim or enabling an alcoholic. Neither is in my nature.

  5. As to trolls. They are looking for a response. The thing that would hurt them the most is to be ignored. If you are here for football, ignore the other post and don’t respond. Sometimes it gets political and for myself, I try to stay out of it. Go Beavs.

      • Exactly! And though it can be annoying to have to read and deal with, it can be fun as well. It’s actually fun to play games with this troll. He doesn’t really respond to anything and he seems to only have a one track mind. He is acutually king of boring. I wish he would kick it up a notch. Maybe he entered counseling after yesterdays beating.

        • I dont follow what you guys are saying. First, Bonehead is not being ignored. There are replies to his stuff. Yes, I made a couple, but Jack Beav has made enough, that BH speaks of him. As to a “beating”, he hasnt taken any. Trolls know they arent going to be liked, and they dont care. Any response is feeding the troll–its what they want.

          As to BH not staying around to reply, seems to me he has — there were a couple posts where there were only a couple posts in between ones of his.

          My problem is, I had got into the habit of reading every post, as all seemed to have something to say (well, maybe not my own posts), and with a troll, you have to break out of that. Ok, not a huge problem, but suppose several trolls get going.

          Anyway, sorry I spoke up about it.

  6. As far as trolling, obsessions, and emotions go; I feel that this site is addicting in of itself. I’ve tried many of times to just “walk away” and not come back, but I keep getting drawn to it. There are many reasons why.

    1) I like the fact that I can give my opinion on a subject and not be ridiculed, yelled at, flamed at, or even told I’m an OSU homer. The reason why this is is because we’re all OSU homers. We all want the same thing and have different ideas of how OSU can achieve this goal. The site is made for fans to come and voice opinions and enjoy discussing OSU Athletics.

    2) I like the idea that the people on this site give rational opinions of thought, insight, and they are passionate about wanting OSU to succeed in all aspects of life.

    3) No matter how bad we are, we won’t be like the duck fans down south……BANDWAGON! Last week, there were 40,000 strong! Grant it about 1,000-2,000 of those fans were probably BYU fans. But still, those fans realize that there is a future for OSU football.

    On another note, has anyone noticed that Oregon State is the only football team this season to hold Wisconsin below 40 points this season?! Also, Wisconsin and ASU are the only teams to have beaten us by 15 or more pts. We lost to UCLA by 12 and BYU by 10. To me, this team is not actually all that bad. Our defense and special teams have kept us in games…our offense has killed us in games. Our defense is actually good enough for us to win games, but it’s the fumbles and INT’s that kill momentum. Our running game definitely needs to improve next year. We need a reliable RB to use in ball control situations.

    I have a good feeling about next year, but this season will depend on how the offense will respond to the numerous turnovers in the past 3-4 weeks.

  7. Tyner and his decision is so far off it doesn’t matter. No one on here can blame him for staying as close as he can to a couple of O cheerleaders- if I remember right pulling some ass was pretty important at 17-still is now but I think you get my drift. I would rather just worry about lineman commiting than Tyner and his teenage wishy washy ways. You need the horses up front to make a hole for the back or his speed means very little.

  8. I’ve have a really cool scroll wheel on the mouse–as soon as I see a post/repost between PBH and JB, I just going flying by…

    So I guess in a way I’m promoting personal censorship of PBH. Go Beavs!

  9. I re-read the “anti-bone” (not to be confused with the flexbone) comments and they seem pretty mild compared to the diatribe I read on other sites regarding trolls. I enjoy the polite but spirited back and forth of this site and PBH doesnt’ really engage anyone except JackBeav for the most part.

    It’s a passive-aggressive thing, he belittles the team in his clever way over and over, but doesn’t come out and debate. I get the joke, it was funny the first couple of times, now drop the character and defend your thesis. And yes Reggie Tongue could probably come out of retirement and help this secondary today.

    Not calling for a ban by any means (And I don’t think I did previously), I just don’t think he is as funny as he thinks he is. And Angry if you are Pettibonehead I apologize! Maybe I will work on a character called Joe Avezany, but I was so traumatized by that era it’s mostly a blur.

  10. Have any of you ever seen a kicker mess up and kick his placeholder in the hand? I have to think that it has happened at some point in the history of football, but I can’t find any videos of it.

  11. Oregon isn’t a historic program yet, but we’re watching them become one with each passing week. They’re 43rd all time in wins, and will likely move up to 40th by season’s end. Their winning percentage is also getting a huge boost under Chip. They’ll be mentioned in the same breath as ‘Bama and Notre Dame if this continues another 5 years. All it really takes to become a historic program is 7-10 years under a historic coach.

    Meanwhile, the Beavs are closing in on being the undisputed all-time worst P-12 team. WSU has surpassed them winning %, but Beavs still have 4 more wins.

    Good times.

  12. Dang…..did I start this whole thread devoted to feeding the Bonehead troll? Well, if he isnt encouraged to continue after a whole thread features him/her, …well, his heart aint really in it.

    I went to O-live and looked at a Beavers article yesterday, and was amused that even the Duck trolls, who used to be the first ones to post, just to ridicule, werent there….maybe kicking the weak dog gets so pitiful that even the bullies give it up.

    Anyway, like I said, this site has real appeal just because you can settle in and read every post.

    I suspect Bonehead himself will get bored of that shtick and get more creative, or just leave.

  13. Since its game day, I am going to predict a WSU win….I suspect they now have our number, from doing so well with us last year. I cant see that going away, esp with the mistake-prone Beaver team this year. Not as bad as last year, but like 31-24….

  14. I have no good reasons why I feel the way I do today, but the reasons don’t matter. I have a really good feeling about tonight’s game that will surprise a lot of people. Are we underdogs against Wazzu? YES! Absolutely! In the past, we as fans and the players themselves have felt Wazzu to be a weak opponent, but now…the tides have turned! We are a better team than people think because our society bases how good a team is by their record…not by the margin of loss….only the margin of victory! Our record only reflects how another teams “strength of schedule” is affected and so far that has NOT come up in any conversation because of our record, but I still go back to the fact that we are the only team so far to hold Wisconsin below 40 pts! That speaks volume!

    Anyways. I’m done talkin’, man, y’all aint listening Them ol’ dirt roads is what y’alls is missin’.

  15. As I said before, Pettiboner is sometimes rather amusing. Also, he’s certainly not mean-spirited like a lot of those assholes on the Oregonian site. I don’t really even consider him a troll. Oh well. back to my Jack Daniels of which I’ll need plenty of before I stroll into the stadium. PS learnig to laugh is great advice and I’ll keep it in mind starting at 7:41 this evening. What choice will I have?

  16. Just blasted by the UO-Colorado game. I can’t watch it. Happy to see Oregon continuing to spread the spirit of sportsmanship to its conference partners with a 45 to 0 score at the end of the 3rd quarter. My guess is all the starters are still in and Chip will be running 2 point conversions the rest of the game.

    • Well, if it were Oregon State, we would be in the same boat when we played Arizona…had we not “let up” on our mentality of clobbering ‘Zona. Oh well, we all can’t be jerks right?

    • I worry about this year’s Civil War game. UO indeed likes to run up a score and with us making so many dufus plays, that game might be one for them to bray about … forever. I think it is possible for them to hit triple digits.

      • I agree. It’s in their house and I think they may shoot for 100 points.
        Could be something like 100 to 3.
        The one satisfaction is they will have to vacate it. :)

        • Funny you should mention that 100 to 3 score! I was going to put that as one of the options for the new poll I put up in the forum, but went with Angry’s quote instead. lol Great minds think alike perhaps?

    • I had a feeling they would paste it on Colorado today. There was some talk that Hansen would have a good day against the Duck secondary and that the altitude would get to the team, so the game might not be a complete blowout. Kelly was looking to put those theories to rest.

    • Well, if you would have bothered to stop and watch it, you would have realized several things. 1. Oregon started a second string quarterback (Bryan Bennett) and second string running back (Kenjon Barner). 2. Chip Kelly has said that he doesn’t believe in labeling players starters because they play so many players and play many players at multiple positions. 3. I counted 4 walkon players that Oregon played yesterday & 2 were playing in the second quarter. 4. Oregon runs one offense—the spread offense—and it doesn’t matter if they are up 40 or down 40 because they run the same offense either way. 5. Oregon completed 11 passes on 21 attempts & had 48 rushing attempts so the second half was run, run, run, & run 1 more time. 6. Barner had 11 carries so Chip Kelly is not like Mike Reilly who seems to run every single good player he has had into the ground by force feeding them touches in meaningless second halves of blowout games. So, as you can see in this case that as usual the factless baseless claims of the typical OSU fan are completely wrong. But don’t take my word for it, Angry made some equally solid points below.

      • Are you arguing with an imaginary foe? Looking at the comments here, I think you were meaning to respond to some other comment section. Did you have your other tab set to the O-live comments, and you just messed up posting here… where you obviously have a secret crush on us?

  17. I disagree, Ducks don’t run up the score. I think Kelly just doesn’t want his team to let up, so he keeps the same mindset/tempo no matter the score, and it’s up to the opponent to stop them. That’s fine. He actually let up in the Civil War for the Roses…could have scored another TD on OSU but took a knee instead.

    Kelly is the best coach in football. Bottom line. I wish we had him (sans the cheating). Sad thing is he doesn’t even have to cheat. He could run that offense with scrubs.

    • Bobby Bowden said to Lou Holtz conversation long ago (after a pummeling)

      Holtz: Coach why did you keep scoring, why didn’t you let up?

      Bowden: Coach, its not my job to keep the score down, its yours.

    • I don’t know what the difference is between not letting up and driving up scores. The result is the same. I agree on the his letting up at the civil war game. I thought it was a stand up thing to do and respected him for it. But the bottom line is his scoring does not make any friends in the coaching community. It is among his many faults. I believe he will turn out to be a tragic figure. He is extraordinarily talented but he is testy, defensive, secretive, and probably a liar. A man with that much success could be loved by many if it were not for his personality flaws.

      • His personality is to never let up. That’s a good trait in a head coach. Whether or not it makes him friends…I doubt he cares. His friends are on his staff…he probably has a small circle of friends and doesn’t want more.

      • Agreed but the alternative is our coach who lets up way too damn early. I personally wouldn’t mind a coach who is willing to go for the jugular. The other qualities are Chip’s fatal flaws. Although, everyone will worship the ground he walks on provided he wins.

      • He’s 28-5 overall and 21-1 in conference play since becoming head coach. He’s also going to make three straight BCS games (including at least 1 national championship bid), and there is no end in sight to any of it. He’s does this in Oregon, a recruiting tundra. He’s the best coach in college ball.

        People who want to say it’s Phil Knight…nope. If it were due to Knight then Bellotti would have had equal success.

    • If your comment was directed at me, I was not talking about running up the score at all. I was talking about an overwhelming win. Not the same thing.

    • They mention Riley and Langsdorf in this weeks Sports Illustrated article about Moore and the lack of attention they paid to Moore. Whoops.

  18. Finally getting around to responding to this.

    I donate because of the hard work and content, but that was prior to the presence and tolerance by Angry of extreme troll Pettibonehead.
    To me, the troll’s posts are not worth reading, neither are anyone’s responses to them. You say just ignore them… hey guess what, my time is valuable. If I wanted to have to filter and scroll through worthless comments to try to get to the content I’m interested in, I’d subscribe to any other Beaver related football site.
    If you insist that the troll has a place on your forum then why not make a thread specifically for him? That way whoever wants to read his posts and the responses can go directly to that thread.
    I don’t have any special privileges just because I donate, but I do have an opinion.
    My opinion is that trolls should be ignored. Sadly, SOMEONE always responds to trolls so their attention-whoring posts continue. My opinion is that when trolls continue to distract from the content of the site that they should be banned. If trolls are allowed to distract from the site then I shall leave. This is not a threat Angry. It’s just a financial supporter voicing his opinion. It is indeed my problem, not yours or the site’s. I will just be sad that a great site, with great insight and information about my team no longer exists. You will all go on without me and I will not even be missed. But I think I owe it to you, Angry, to tell you my opinion on the matter.
    Regardless of your decision, I sincerely appreciate your efforts on maintaining this site.

  19. “This is one of the reasons I fear taking donations, advertising dollars, or linking blog rolls. It makes readers believe they have a say in how the site should be run. Almost like a board of directors or shareholders in a corporation. That is low to make threats like that. You donated to the site because you see it’s hard work, good information, and you want to see it continue. Don’t stoop to threats like that.”

    This is ironic. Angry – you must feel a bit like Bob DeCarolis here. Haven’t I seen somewhere threats targeted toward OSU athletics in terms of lost donor contributions as leverage for changes to be made?

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