The message pictured above was posted as a reply to me on Twitter, in response to a picture I posted on this blog from I Has a Hotdog. It also represents the kind of internet user I can’t stand — the kind that makes comments on articles, blog posts and the like without taking it into proper context.

Anyone who knows me knows full well I hold no support for the McCain/Palin ticket in this election. I didn’t see the response until 2 days after it was posted, I went back to see what this guy was referring to (the aforementioned picture). I concluded he didn’t even look at the blog entry. Judging from the archive of responses this person left all over the Twittersphere, it seems like anyone who had “Obama” in their tweets got hit with a negative response, often mentioning Joe Vogler; I had to look this guy up as I’d not heard of him until today. Commenter status: TROLL and blocked.

So, to co-opt a line from one of my favorite teen movies, “Remove head from sphincter, then drive comment.”

A minor site update. Yesterday, I installed a couple of plugins that I hope make commenting on this blog a little more pleasant.

For months whenever I replied to a comment, I would hand-code a link to it like so:

@<a href="#comment-0000">commenter</a>:...

The result resembled a twitter reply:

@commenter:…

Now anyone who comments here can do that with far less effort. To reply to someone’s comment, simply employ an arroba (the “at” symbol, @) in front of the commenter’s name as it appears. For example, if you wanted to reply to a comment I made, enter @Fredo in the text field. When the comment is submitted, it will automatically generate the link as described above.

I thought about setting up a plugin for threaded comments, but I didn’t like how the only one I could find nested comments.

Second, if you’ve ever needed to edit a comment you made after you submitted it, you can do so for 5 minutes. This is similar to a feature in digg where you can edit a comment for two minutes after submitting it. No need to go to a special page on this blog to do it, just use the controls that appear under your comment.

If you’ve never left a comment here before, your first comment may still be put under moderation for me to approve, which I usually do within minutes.

The two plugins I used for these new features are @reply and WP Ajax Edit Comments.

This will be news to a few of you, but I recently started writing for DCist, the local arm of the Gothamist family; I signed on as their LGBT news blogger last month. In their 2007 Best of Gay DC survey, the Washington Blade recently named DCist as the Best Local Blog… with a plaque and everything!

Over the last few weeks, I have so far written about seven posts for DCist on local gay issues (2 are not listed on my author page) ranging from the fluffy to the serious. My most recent entry, about a gay couple who was recently kicked out of a local Rite Aid pharmacy for hugging, seems to be generating a good amount of buzz. As of right now, the post has 39 comments; 21 recommendations; and a couple other weblogs that picked up the story.

The New Gay is organizing a Hug-In at the Rite Aid on 13th and U — where the couple was kicked out — for tomorrow night before the annual 17th Street High Heel Race. It’s an open invite, but don’t tell Rite Aid.