The ability for any and all to upvote and downvote without honest sincerity in the name of vanity, vengeance and mean-spiritedness has rendered the value this once-venerable aspect of the website distressingly and shamefully moot and irrelevant.  :-\\

Case in point:
http://www.amiright.com/parody/90s/barneyandthebackyardgang299.shtml

That is all I have to say.

I vote against removing voting. Just gotta take certain people's vote results with a shaker of salt.

I vote against removing voting. Just gotta take certain people's vote results with a shaker of salt.


Look at anything written by Rob Arndt Jr. to understand further these issues.

I see

Problems with voting fraud lead to the removal of the charts, and I think the removal of the charts led to a sharp decrease in author participation.

who cares what people vote?  I've gotten parody ideas to mock one voters and other voter crud.

Problems with voting fraud lead to the removal of the charts, and I think the removal of the charts led to a sharp decrease in author participation.

Hey Ethan welcome back!  I think in general I agree -- I know the charts were a big deal to me when I started, and the fraud was a big part of the reason I started the SOTM contest.  I don't think the decrease was sharp and immediate, but I do think the gradual decline started then, and it makes sense. 

Don't know if it's plausible, but I'd love to see a registration system in place.  I know Chucky never wanted to place obstacles to people participating, but I think the current state of the community shows there's such a thing as making it too easy to participate. 

I don't know about requiring registration. Feedback is hard enough to come by as it is, and I think the relative lack of feedback, especially from those who weren't forced to comment as part of a contest, was a big part of why I'd stopped submitting even as I continued writing.

I remember lots of times in the past when I would submit things and I wouldn't get hardly any comments if any.  Well now I'm doing other things and don't have the time to write parodys to see if I'll get comments or not.

I see Claude and Agri each got four sets of straight ones today.

Very suspicious, I say. Not sure what anyone is trying to accomplish this way.

I see Claude and Agri each got four sets of straight ones today.

Very suspicious, I say. Not sure what anyone is trying to accomplish this way.

That's very standard now.  My belief is Rob attacks anyone he feels threatened by, or doesn't conform to his delusions.  You'll get used to it.

And this has been going on for years?

Haha yeah.  Hard to believe, right?  If I had any sense I'd leave but I'm pretty attached to this place.  I don't think Chucky likes it but I see him basically as an overwhelmed parent who doesn't have the time or energy to do much more than keep the lights on

I definitely get the overwhelmed parent vibe, especially since this has always been a passion project rather than a profitable enterprise, so effort that might otherwise be spent on dealing with trolls has to be spent on the day job.

I agree with what Agri says.  I just came back to the AIR site after being gone a long time.  I am appalled as to what I see on the AIR site.  I have returned to join the AIR invasion and assist my fellow authors in taking out the trash on this site.  I am here to shake AIR great once more.  This is a regime change.  Our mission is to rid this site of trash slingers with shock and awe.  So, to you who have trashed this site, get the hell off the rez and get the hell out of Dodge.  Marshal Dillon and his posse will enforce the rules by "dillon" with you trash mongers.  You know who you are and so do we.  Enough with the crappy parodies and ugly comments.  Take your trash to the land fill; do not dump it here.  If you want to be on the AIR site turn your trash and uglyness in to the Marshal.  There is no trash and uglyness allowed on the site.  You can collect your trash and uglyness from the Marshal when you leave the site.

We will literally write you clean off the AIR site if you do not clean up your act.  Do not test our resolve.  We made this site a pleasant and fun place.  This is not a threat, it is a promise.  Now you have a choice.  There are plenty of good writers back on the site who can mentor you to write better parodies and show you by example how to have fun with the comments.  You do not need to be ugly and we will not put up with it.

Realize, we made this site great and we are going to take it back.  You can either remain being the problem or you can resolve to join us in the solution.  When the great writers were here, we mentored one another with parody writing and for the most part used constructive criticism in the comments when needed.  We kept it light and funny in the comments.  We have great respect for the Webmaster ChuckyG who has worked tirelessly as he has constantly improved this site.  I noticed the great work and enhancements that Chucky made to the site, AIR and the message board during my hiatus. You don't deserve, nor do you respect what he has done for this site.  Respect Chucky.

So it is your choice.  Take this advice that is given or hit the bricks.  You can be welcome here if you clean up your act and stop pigging up a great place, or not.  So beware, we are not playing.  What you think is fun will end.  I am not holding my breath that you will take the hint.  Test us and you will know the hurt locker.  Your choice pallies.  We will not tolerate any cyber bullying.  We have effectively dealt in the past with people on the site doing the same thing you are doing. This is not our first rodeo. This stops now.  Resistance is futile.  You will lose if you challenge us. 

I honestly believe at this point that R.A Jr. has toned down his behavior significantly, and is not the troll automatically uno-bombing anything that criticizes the right and Trump. R.A. points out that he has written stuff on both sides of the political spectrum (but he certainly leans to the right). But, I will not be the one to jump on the quality or content of his work anytime soon. Praise him when it's good, but disregard when it's not. It's taken a lot of time over the past two decades for me to realize that you should only engage the trolls at an absolute minimum.