Just a reminder…

If you generally post here under a name not your own, and you send me an LOL or something, please include your nom de CIDU. Because counting on me to remember is never a good idea.

Hopefully this isn’t as ominous as it sounds…

WordPress tells us that “new and exciting changes” are coming to the user’s dashboard on June 1.

There’s no indication what this means.

Worst case scenario: Comicgeddon 2.0.

Best case scenario: a dashboard that already imposes more limits than it did two years ago will become even more difficult to use.

And yes, it is possible they’re rolling out improvements that will enhance everybody’s lives — but how often is that what “new and exciting changes” really means?

And let’s be honest, this is 2020.

I will be mostly offline through Friday

My wife’s work laptop blew up, so she’ll have to commandeer mine until it’s replaced. Everything’s queued through Saturday morning, but I might not have any Admin functions.

Re: Corrections

Since this has come up several times recently…

If you want me to make some spelling correction in a comment you made (or if you spot a typo of mine that bothers you), the best (and only efficient) way to let me know is by emailing me at .

For the record, when I scan through recent comments (I see them all in one place) and spot an obvious error, I’ll usually just go in and fix it.

 

Moderation

For the record, the Moderation Beast is insatiable today, and I’ve been rescuing at least a few comments every hour.

Well… it’s not as if I have anyplace to go.

Revisiting the FAQ

• We mostly discuss individual daily comics here. Comments such as “I hate this comic strip and its artist should never be allowed to work in this business again” are not productive. The CIDU page is a place for people who love comics, and the artists deserve respect.
• I think of this place as my virtual living room, and you all my guests. My guests are welcome to disagree with one another, and with me, but I expect civility.
• Thread drift is fine, but we steer clear of politics: this is a safe zone.
• Everybody’s first comment gets sent to Moderation. Once your comment is approved, which should happen fairly quickly, your subsequent comments will sail right through. Except when they don’t, since sometimes the Moderation program flags comments for no apparent reason. In fact, it sometimes randomly picks on a particular person, flagging every one of his or her messages until… it randomly stops doing so.
• We have a number of categories here other than CIDUs, including the Ewww Files, LOL, and the Arlo Page, for comics you don’t want to explain to your kids. By the way, the Arlo Page is named after Arlo Guthrie. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
• The Arlo Award, on the other hand, goes to the writer of a syndicated newspaper comic strip who manages to sneak something totally unacceptable past the syndicate’s censors. Obviously this doesn’t apply to Internet-only or self-published comics.
• The site is updated with a new CIDU every weekday at 12:02am Eastern Time — except for an indefinite period following both “spring forward” and “fall back,” when WordPress is still trying to figure out the time change. Then the comic could go live either an hour earlier or an hour later, pretty much randomly. Don’t ask.
• Saturday morning is reserved for the Ewww Files or other special categories, and Sunday is the aforementioned LOL collection. Other posts might be scattered throughout the day, but the 12:02am update is a constant.
• I also run the website for Crime, Justice & America magazine, and I link to any articles I think might appeal to the people visiting CIDU. These always include “CJA” and/or “Crimeweek” in the subject line (except when I forget). Likewise there are the occasional off-topic posts, cleverly labeled “[OT]”
• We don’t encourage artists to explain their own comics, because they’ve already had their chance to make us understand. Also, it’s more fun this way.
• Finally, if you have anything to send me, please e-mail it to me at cidubill at gmx.com. Even if you know my personal address, please use this address for submissions: it’s less likely to get lost in the shuffle. When you’re submitting a comic, please (if possible) give me a link to it, and attach it — because sometimes attachments don’t survive the trip, and sometimes links don’t work. I don’t ignore anything, but I’m not as good at keeping current with my e-mail as I might be. This site is my “fourth job,” after all. If you send me something and you don’t want your full name used, sign the e-mail with your first name, or the nickname you commonly use here. Or if you want to be absolutely sure, just add “Call me Bob.” Please don’t expect me to remember from a previous time, because I’m lucky if I remember my own kids’ names.
• I’m almost certain I’ve left something out here.

I should probably mention…

If, when I’m looking through the comments, I spot an obvious typo, I will often fix it.

First, because as an editor it would drive me crazy not to.

Second, because as you know I’m a very careless typist (as many editors are), and it doesn’t seem fair that I can correct by own errors while other people can’t.

Random Comments, 2020 Edition

Same as the Late-2019 list (which is being closed because it’s gotten too long) and the previous versions, this will be accessible indirectly from the Your Random Comments link in the left sidebar. I wish WordPress made this simpler, but then I wish a lot of things.

Please remember that this is intended for public comics-related (or comics semi-related) comments only: if you want to send me a CIDU, or a comic for some specific folder (Ewww, Oy, etc), or you want to inform me of a typo, please e-mail me at .

Also: A list of the site’s most recent comments can be found in the left sidebar. A database of all the comments, compiled by larK, is here.

And the site’s FAQ is here.

Barney and Cidu

Six people have sent this to me so far, which I’m pretty sure is a record. So…

1. The consensus seems to be it’s a reference to CIDU. Is it?
2. If so, is it pro or con?
3. If pro, thanks.
4. If con, I think the Weingartens are missing the point, since collectively this is one of the least-clueless groups I’ve seen online.
5. (If con, did somebody here say something unkind about this strip three weeks ago?)
6. Even if con, it’s cool.
7. No #7 really: it’s just that six bullet points might give the impression these were responses to the six people who sent me the comic.

Moderation

The past week or so, a lot of people have made comments, both here and in private e-mail, about what puts a comment into Moderation. A lot of “every time I do this I end up there,” or “I always do this so I never end up there.”

I understand the human desire to bring order to chaos, so it pains me to say — as the person who rescues comments from Moderation — that apparently all the theories are wrong: there are a few words that trigger Moderation, and always have, but other than that it really is random. Where you post from doesn’t matter. Links don’t matter. Having a Samoan e-mail address doesn’t matter.

What triggers Moderation one day might not the next day.

One of my comments ended up in Moderation last week, and that’s supposed to be impossible.

Y’all feel free to continue speculating if you want, but you’d have better luck trying to ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.