Sorry Painter. You didn't win after all.
For the immediate future, all comments on this blog will be moderated. Comments are still welcome, and there are enough readers out there to add some significant value to our work through intelligent and thoughtful comments - that's half the power of blogs like these. But the constant trolling - all done by one person, and we all know who that is - has to stop. We can't block individual IPs very effectively in Blogger, so we now have to read every comment before it's published.
More work for us, but there's enough mods here so we should be able to keep the time between submitting a comment to publication minimal. Don't get discouraged because you don't see your words immediately up on the blog. Again, we value your comments, and they are what makes this blog successful. And the same policies still apply - your comments are your comments, and are valuable no matter what the content. But if they refer to Painter, or about Painter, they will not be published, just as any other troll-related comments will also not be published. There are no limits on tone, style, length, subject matter - just no trolling. Use this blog as a place to feel free to air your concerns and discuss the posts in any manner you choose.
But we're in general agreement that moderation is wise at this point. One person has spoiled it for everyone, but his goal was to see this blog shut down and disappear. That's not happening. We're just taking the one surefire step to stop that one person from bothering us anymore.
We tried. I reached out to Painter personally. He made an agreement to stay away, which he broke. (Just like he broke it at ITLSS and every other blog he's been banned from, so I don't quite know what I was expecting to have changed.) Other writers here also personally contacted him to try to get him to stop - more broken promises. One made a heartfelt personal and public plea a couple of weeks ago to get him to stop. I've blocked his IP address as best I can, but that hasn't worked. Nothing has worked. So it's time to prevent him from posting in the only way we know how. He clearly has a destructive agenda, various issues in his life that need dealing with, and far too much time on his hands. And we put too much effort into this blog, all of us, from writers to mods to readers to commenters. One person should not be allowed to ruin our work.
So again, Painter, you didn't win. You've lost every friend you had here, those who tried to reach out and help you and give you a voice. You've wasted every opportunity presented to you. And now your comments will never again be published here, not even for those few precious moments between you posting them and the mods discovering them and deleting them.
I guess this is actually goodbye. Or good riddance.
For the immediate future, all comments on this blog will be moderated. Comments are still welcome, and there are enough readers out there to add some significant value to our work through intelligent and thoughtful comments - that's half the power of blogs like these. But the constant trolling - all done by one person, and we all know who that is - has to stop. We can't block individual IPs very effectively in Blogger, so we now have to read every comment before it's published.
More work for us, but there's enough mods here so we should be able to keep the time between submitting a comment to publication minimal. Don't get discouraged because you don't see your words immediately up on the blog. Again, we value your comments, and they are what makes this blog successful. And the same policies still apply - your comments are your comments, and are valuable no matter what the content. But if they refer to Painter, or about Painter, they will not be published, just as any other troll-related comments will also not be published. There are no limits on tone, style, length, subject matter - just no trolling. Use this blog as a place to feel free to air your concerns and discuss the posts in any manner you choose.
But we're in general agreement that moderation is wise at this point. One person has spoiled it for everyone, but his goal was to see this blog shut down and disappear. That's not happening. We're just taking the one surefire step to stop that one person from bothering us anymore.
We tried. I reached out to Painter personally. He made an agreement to stay away, which he broke. (Just like he broke it at ITLSS and every other blog he's been banned from, so I don't quite know what I was expecting to have changed.) Other writers here also personally contacted him to try to get him to stop - more broken promises. One made a heartfelt personal and public plea a couple of weeks ago to get him to stop. I've blocked his IP address as best I can, but that hasn't worked. Nothing has worked. So it's time to prevent him from posting in the only way we know how. He clearly has a destructive agenda, various issues in his life that need dealing with, and far too much time on his hands. And we put too much effort into this blog, all of us, from writers to mods to readers to commenters. One person should not be allowed to ruin our work.
So again, Painter, you didn't win. You've lost every friend you had here, those who tried to reach out and help you and give you a voice. You've wasted every opportunity presented to you. And now your comments will never again be published here, not even for those few precious moments between you posting them and the mods discovering them and deleting them.
I guess this is actually goodbye. Or good riddance.
I do have a question regarding these sites. I am a boomer solo and law has been pretty good to me over the years. But if so many recent graduates are unemployed these days, isn't that the type of thing that young people interested in law will hear about? You can't have a 50% unemployment rate in the law among newer graduates without a good portion of those thinking of going to law school hearing about it.
ReplyDeleteThat being the case, most reasoned people would be nuts to borrow heavily for a legal education if there is a good chance it is not going to pay off. I have read where young law students just assume they will be the winners. But law is known to attract pessimistic people. I would think therefore that applications at the lower 200 schools are going to fall off precipitously and that the collapse is near.
For those who still are thinking of law school, I would recommend what I did. Keep your day job and go to night law school. Takes a little longer, but the kids there are older and smarter and more mature, and having a day job, you pay off your tuition (hopefully at a public school like Temple where tuition is still somewhat reasonable) and just thoroughly enjoy the experience. Stay away from debt.
Kudos to your new policy. At one point I felt sorry for John Koch. I even contemplated offering him a job (handyman related). Many of us, including Paul Campos, felt terrible for him and worried about him when he would say he was going to commit suicide. However, these were cries for attention, not help. I am convinced Mr. Koch is a saboteur, probably paid for by Touro some other deplorable law school. He added nothing of substance to the cause and was a Cancer to the movement. Good riddance to him. I am looking forward to a painter free blog.
ReplyDeleteSociopaths often control others by threatening to kill themselves - but they almost never go through with it - or even intend to do so.
DeleteAmen to that! I've noticed that most "bans" simply send a "cookie" to the malefactor's IP that tells the server to reject future comments. People just clear their caches and go right on posting.
ReplyDeleteThis might actually work.
Maybe he will now use all his free time to look for a government job so that he can get his loans discharged through PSLF.
Nando will throw poop at you for this.
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, it really is only comments about Painter or by Painter that aren't published. Everything else still gets through, as shown by the example above.
Delete12:20 pm,
DeleteI will only flush you down the toilet, if you claim that law school is a wise investment. I won't throw you at anybody.
^ No, but you would lick him clean - just like those dirty diapers you're always saving up.
DeleteGood as new!
Nando, I have been reading your site. I agree that taking on too much debt to go to law school is crazy . . . but, some people WANT to be lawyers. And some people will be VERY GOOD at. There are people who just have a presence that will make them excellent trial lawyers and thus they have the potential of be highly successful. The point is that if a person WANTS to be a lawyer, has always WANTED to be a lawyer, then they should be a lawyer. They should do it smart though, and work their way through law school without incurring any debt, or they should make sure they have wealthy parents. I don't really care where a person goes to law school, but I recommend night school to avoid debt. The cream will always rise to the top. Those people who have the natural ability to be good lawyers will end up being successful lawyers, sooner or later. I don't care how much competition or how few legal jobs. Overseas Indian lawyers and software can never replace a good trial lawyer well versed in the rules of evidence and with the presence and credibility to sell their case. My gripe, as an older boomer, is not the competition per-se, but the fact that so many lawyers are such asses, which can make the profession very difficult for those who cannot develop a thick skin. Those entering this profession need to keep in mind that it is all about money and winning. Truth, Justice and the American way are completely irrelevant to the practice of law.
Delete@ 2:02 - Certainly. So shut down most of the schools, lower tuition, increase standards, and let the few, willing, and able students rise to the top. The fear that some have that URMs will be disinfranchised can be compensated for through scholarships and other channels.
DeleteAs it stands, law schools are out there like carnival barkers, trying to get anybody with a pulse to "step right up!" Not unlike the subprime housing debacle. This needs to change so the people who really want to be lawyers have a real opportunity, whether its Truth Justice and the American way or just money and winning.
Glad to see that you're putting a firmer hand on the tiller with regard to comments.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I wanted to pass this along to the readership:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/29/brooklyn-law-school-expands-adequate-causes-termination-include-demonstrated?goback=%2Egde_3276613_member_236493872
This article on inside higher ed discusses "demonstrated incompetence" as a reason for terminating law school faculty at Brooklyn School of Law. The article quotes language about demonstrated incompetence, defining it as defining it as “multiple unsatisfactory performance reviews or complaints from supervisors; multiple complaints from students or multiple unsatisfactory student evaluations; [or] sub-standard academic performance.”
I'm not a lawyer, but the language is weird when applied to tenured faculty in higher education. The terminology here feels more like corporate or business speak. I also see huge problems in using "multiple complaints from students" or "multiple unsatisfactory student evaluations" as the sole basis for dismissal, particularly for tenured faculty. With regard to untenured (or adjunct) faculty, I'm reasonably sure that student evaluations play a much bigger role in how long they stick around. I wonder if other law schools will adopt this language in an attempt to
a) push faculty to become better teachers
b) create a means to cull the faculty ranks and reduce costs
Yes, this article will be featured in our afternoon news feed along with two others tenure related. Thanks for forwarding it. There should be lots of telling signs in the coming month -- tenure reform being an early indicator of termoil to come.
DeleteR A B, I'm glad you're our newsman. Or newslady? Newsperson. Your work is greatly appreciated.
DeleteNewshound?
DeleteOh my god, I sooooo want to say how nice it is to not have to wade through Painter's laundry list of crazy YouTube links, Mr. Infinity references, and posting those nutty letters he's saved and "sent" to the "FBI" dozens of times, but that would be against the rules!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he's rattling the bars of his cage right now. "Let me out!"
Some other mod, feel free to delete this. But it's so nice to post something without fear of countless dumb posts from that destructive loser. Let me drink this in for a moment...
Or let's use this as a test. How many times will Painter be able to respond?
(Hint - none!)
Hard copies. He has HARD COPIES. He printed out enough HARD COPIES to fill up the ocean!
DeleteThe only hard copy he should have is what was written here:
Deletehttp://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2013/04/miss-otlss-advice-columnist.html
He should hang it on his wall and frame it. What The Adjunct Law Professor wrote is the only way out of his predicament. But the moral of the story is that you cannot help somebody who doesn't want to help themselves. I've sent him several suggestions over a few different message boards only to have him become hostile and call me an idiot.
Enough with the "how to we know who is posting if it's anon" comments!
ReplyDeleteWe know two things:
1 - You're Painter
2 - You're more interested in who we are than what we have to say.
GROUNDRULE:
Identities are not an issue here. If you have something to say, say it - facts and analyis matters. If you think that who you are determines the value of what you have to say, then this is the wrong blog.
Some kind of intervention was long overdue. I very much enjoy the blog, and especially the writing, but the comments were getting too far out of control and seriously undermining the quality of the effort. I suggest you still moderate the comment language considerably in order to maintain some level of civility to the dialogue.
ReplyDeleteyou do not need to publish this. Just my .02. Thanks for the decision; I hope it works
I guess it had to happen, although I do feel sorry for J.D. Painter. I think the source of his unhingement is the unmanageability of his fiscal life. Leading to his material life becoming shit and his wife leaving him. Leading to him becoming Mad.
ReplyDeleteMaybe with a good lawyer (i.e. not educated at Touro or similar tier schools) he could find a way to pass the Burner test and get his loans discharged in bankruptcy.
I don't feel sorry for him. He made his life. We all have to be held responsible for our own actions.
DeleteThanks I think this was long overdue. I was afraid this blog just was not going to be able to live up to the OTLSS standards. It was starting to turn into a bitch session between users. I say if you don't have something constructive to contribute just go away.
ReplyDelete