Aw, man!

That's probably for the best, even though there were parts of the thread I hadn't gotten to yet.

Perhaps we can argue about which director Ogged should release the archives to for the movie version.

Eh, we'll all remember what we were doing on the day of That Thread.

Because it's pretty much what we do most days anyway.

Oh no question it would have to be Kubrick.

I'm fine with it. It's not like we'll forget.

4: That should help with the confidentiality thing.

I hate redacting stuff, but in this case, it seemed like the thing to do.

The person will have to update about what happens with the thing and the people, though.

URL still loads and reloads; I could probably leave a comment.

Phew, I managed to read it just in time!

I could probably leave a comment

I doubt it. It's just in your cache.

I could probably leave a comment.

You could not, because I could not leave a witty riposte to Chopper. You're viewing a cached copy, I suspect.

I hope SEK is blissfully drunk by now. On bourbon.

I also hope that somehow, we're going to hear how this all turns out. But it was probably the right thing to do.

And speaking of right things to do, I'm never going to be able to consider someone else's ethical dilemma without thinking of this. I don't generally struggle with those kind of calls, but I changed my mind a few times before coming around to what was, in retrospect, unambiguously the right answer.

It's just in your cache

I can be looking at the thread, press "F5" and have my browser reload it. I don't think it would do this from it just being in my cache.

I cannot leave a comment. Thank heaven for small mercies.

But the comments still load. Hmmm. Fucking Movable Type. I'll see what I can do.

Ah, you're already on it. [comment about loading the page omitted]

Trying a rebuild...we'll know if it worked in a few minutes. Thanks for the heads up, eb.

I'll reiterate my one comment on that thread, because it might be useful to someone or other:

To securely erase files or free space under Windows, I recommend Eraser. It's freeware.

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Whew! That was a close one...

(The putatively redacted thread still loads if I ask the internets for it.)

I second 10.
And thanks heebie geebie for the tip, I wouldn't have been able to get through it in time otherwise.
I wish there were something I could do to help the person. Now that s/he's unwittingly been my night's reading material.

13 - Unfortunately, I have it on good word that he's sobering up.* I also hear tell that the situation is still terrible; that people are emailing things found in that folder to other people, both out of pain (the cuckolded) and spite (the settling of petty grudges by petty people). The sympathetic principle had some problems with hyperventilation, but a nebulizer has helped her out; the unsympathetic party is still leaving threatening messages on someone's answering machine -- the same someone who had to spend an hour and a half explaining what had happened while someone else was at a library on a major university campus.

This sobering-up-type person is glad to see the thread redacted, but believes it may only be a matter of time before this hits the news, as some people tangentially involved have flagging political careers and believe this may be their path back to the limelight. The whole thing may be quashed, however, as some involved have the connections/money necessary to stop the story from spreading.

Oh, and not only can you not go home again now, you may never be able to, depending on how things shake out. However, the right thing was done, and the consequences will be shouldered, whatever they may be. Also, many thanks to all who helped give this guy the guts required to do the right thing.

* "sobering up" ≠ "sober"

If LBJ stops by, please tell him that he should get his friend a copy of "The Gift of Fear", and tell her that he's always there for her and will be there anytime she decides to leave.

He can also call his local abuse hotline and ask for advice and safety planning.

Thanks.

I am in awe of you people. Your advice was thoughtful and when it all fell out right then your support was solid. I read that thread after work. I was in tears. I wanted (and want) to carry him around shoulder-high like a hero. He did the hard thing, the right thing—and boy I'm not sure I would have. I'll buy him a drink anywhere.

Let's not go nuts with the self-congratulations. We did spend an afternoon entertaining ourselves with what might be the worst day of someone's life.

You were entertained! Don't lie!

Could someone tell the mullah to STFU?

26 gets it right.

I'm proud to claim exactly zero moral high ground for myself. Pretty much all I did was crack jokes.

And, 29, use stupid fake names.

what might be the worst day of someone's life

Probably not. Somebody is (or should be) almost certainly divorcing with small children. The worst day hasn't arrived yet, says a guy who's experienced it. Most shocking, probably, but there are still worse days ahead.

Apo and Emerson need to team teach a class on relationships and how to avoid them. Maybe ogged could be a guest speaker.

Yeah, I thought about the prohibition on blog self-congratulation. But I selfishly decided that expressing my feelings came first. (Selfishly, I always come first.) Next, analogies. Then maybe some emoticons. Bwahaha!

It was riveting. (Not sure I'd use entertaining.) Maybe it was even more fascinating since I could read it all in one go. Heck, people were talking about how cinematic it was as it happened. Amazing.

So far we've got the Apo vegetarian filter and Ogged's make up filter.

It was entertaining all right.

I was thinking Apo would speak more along the lines of why we should avoid them: sort of a spoken word version of the "Don't Drive Drunk" movies you saw in Drivers Ed.

He must include the story of being attacked by the ex while in the shower with another woman.

why we should avoid them

Vegetarians or relationships?

I wonder how disappointed people coming along later to read this thread will be about what they missed. I guess it depends on how well we relate the utter and unrelenting awesomeness that was the redacted thread. Seriously, if you missed it, you might as well go kill yourself now.

Sooner or later, the vegetarians will whip out their lifestyle as an excuse to not go down on you.

Not unlike the orgiriffic UnfoggeDCon.

41->39.

The redaction looks complete now.

Heck, people were talking about how cinematic it was as it happened.

It's a pity Baudrilliard is dead.

Emerson will explain the theoretical underpinnings, Apo the risks, and I'll explain how to put their wisdom to practice.

33: it was incredibly compelling in real time (or near real time, I picked up on the thread before 92) - click reload, see what further developments might have developed.

It's a pity that David Mamet is de...heeeeeeey!!

Yeah, work totally ground to a halt this afternoon.

E-pistolary.

Not unlike the orgiriffic UnfoggeDCon.

Don't be evil.

23: Henceforth commenting while Becks-style, headless, and in the midst of major drama shall be known as "Pictish".

Glad you're OK.

for the late ariving lurker this is evening seems awfully disconcerting. while fulflilling obligatotry sexyphone duties, i've become lost in a day. cliff notes? anyone?

Short version: sucks to be you. Sucks worse to be some other people.

Also, careful what Photobucket folder you go into, cause thar be threesomes.

I lost an entire afternoon of work to that thread (and I had such plans to accomplish something). My wife (who stopped reading around 300--she's not prone to F5) is not unconvinced that the whole thing was not some elaborate hoax, in part because I kept sending her snippets. I'm more prone just to send my sympathies--19th-century sort of sympathies, the sort intended to inspire one to abolition--to the aggrieved principles. It was all very astonishing, the moreso for its being in realtime.

I saw bits of the original post and skimmed a bit of a response, but then I had to go. I'm sorry to have missed it. I hope that someone will fill me in a bit in real life.

I don't want to summarize because the point of redacting was to keep people from following up on the story, though I hate for people to feel left out. Gah, sorry matty, and other latecomers.

In other news, David Hicks gets sentenced to 9 months in prison for being such a danger that regularly constituted corts could not try him. Nine months. Oh, and a gag order too.

ah, ART! DAMN YOU! guilted into saxbonery, i missed what seems to be teh platonic ideal of scandalous day 'round here. i miss meet ups for rehearsals, threads so charged the've gone abducted 'fore i make it home. the loss . . . weeps

Honestly, I'm glad I wasn't around to see it in real-time - I went out when it was at 92 - but that doesn't mean I wasn't riveted anyway when I read later. It was strange to read backwards from about 550, think, "did what I think happened happen?" and then read forwards quickly, focusing only on one commenter's comments. I never did read the whole thing.

I hope for the best possible outcomes for the mysterious guy and his friends.

You're all principals in aggrieving my principles. Damned homophonophiles.

OK, I'm taking bets on what The Headless One will do NEXT in order to not finish his thesis. I'm guessing join the Army.

Y'all will never believe what happened to me at dinner tonight.

I don't believe anything that hasn't been liveblogged and subsequently redacted.

For every real action there is an equal and opposite redaction.

63: Tease.

Y'all will never believe what happened to me at dinner tonight.

I told you not to order the abalone.

What's green, hangs on a wall, and tastes like my dead shipmate?

But your shipmate never sang!

Ahhhh!

*shoots self*

ogged, your apology is taken well. i would be pulling sax duty while the MS caught fiiiiire!

off topic (apropos from one who missed the central & original topic altogether) - any and all are hereby invited tp join me tomorrow at el dia de mustache: http://eldiadelmustache.com/mainpage.html (fun for all) at 19th st b/ park south & broadway. also, later, for a piece of adequate musical theatre (YT on sax, washerdreyer potentially there), legal beagle oriented. at nyu law school, 8pm.

'

Some people can't tell a joke.

realizing final comment would be the only proper comment - i reading unfogged seems anormally odd, mayhap the unfogged is somehow off. mayhap the commentator needs some shut-eye,

slol!

What's dehydrated, named Pierre and pees air?

Howya doin'?

I still think that joke is funny.

I seem to remember from somewhere that Ben doesn't drink coffee. Which leaves me wondering: just what is the stricture-stickler's upper?

I should have saved that one for a more auspicious moment. Barnacles, I say.

Non coffee drinkers are obviously undateable.

Strickland is a stickler for the strictures of scripture.

80: it was a case of premature verbal creation.

verbalization?

3 hits.

Sad.

Sad.

energy strips: http://energystrips.com/

wtf

I read that as "With Tangerine!" Whoa! The unbridled power of citrus!

caffeine in a breath strip? the world's gone mad. what's next?

Sad.

No kidding. I missed my chance to world-historically farb you.

I was just surprised to see the non-unfogged result.

I'm holding out for the man himself. I suppose I should start my own blog and write about current events and science fiction?

I should have saved that one for a more auspicious moment. Barnacles, I say.

Made my day.

Thank god the only reporters who hang round here are unenterprising.

Oh dear. . .I had to run out the door and didn't get past the part when everyone's advice started changing in tone slightly. . .I hope everyone is okay, at least. . ..I was getting a little worried about violent retributions. ..please say that didn't happen/has been accounted for?

is just the sort of thing that a reporter might get wind of.

Geez, Ogged, you really don't think very highly of us, do you?

Ile, it was horrific, I imagine, for the people involved, and will remain so for quite some time, but from this angle it was Faulknerian melodrama of the highest order.

Reporters would have smelled this story and clambered, feral, over our still-twitching bodies to capture it. It was delicious.

It's not that ogged doesn't think highly of us, or even that he doesn't think highly of reporters. The whole thing was simply too compelling for it to stay quiet and anonymous for long.

Oh! The pacing. Thelma Shoonmaker would weep to produce so tautly delivered a narrative.

I really do miss it.

Ile, it was horrific, I imagine, for the people involved, and will remain so for quite some time, but from this angle it was Faulknerian melodrama of the highest order.

Reporters would have smelled this story and clambered, feral, over our still-twitching bodies to capture it. It was delicious.

It's not that ogged doesn't think highly of us, or even that he doesn't think highly of reporters. The whole thing was simply too compelling for it to stay quiet and anonymous for long.

Oh! The pacing. Thelma Shoonmaker would weep to produce so tautly delivered a narrative.

I really do miss it.

James Herriott, my evil twin!

I stopped reading after about 90, assuming the immense comment number was just the infinite-fractal-recursive frippery that all the sex threads seem to come to.

But I thought that RDJ had more or less accepted B's initial argument. Did that change, or did RL circumstances develop in some other wise?

Perhaps we should summarize the story for people. A frequent Unfogged commentator who goes by the initials FTL had moved from Chattanooga to New York for school. One day she got an email which contained hidden within it a shocking revelation......

Circumstances made it reasonable that RDJ should tell. He did so; Faulknerian drama ensued.

I think I'm more interested in what unusual situation of other people's sex our mysterious protagonist will next encounter, as he seems to be a magnet for other people's sexual misadventures.

Will he be taking innocent pictures with his digital camera only to realize hours later that he accidentally snapped a photo of Dick Cheney getting blown by a transsexual prostitute, and as a consequence is now being stalked by a sinister black-ops assassin?

Will he attend an MLA meeting and accidentally walk in on Walter Benn Michaels in a gimp suit?

Will he accept an invitation to give a talk on blogging and realize only after he arrives that he is addressing a nudist camp?

I think that, rather than finish her accursed PhD thesis, our heroine will involve herself in an escalating series of vicarious sexual misadventures until finally, a 60-year-old ABD, she's living in hiding while teams of agents working for ex-President Hitlery and President Jenna vie to be the ones to capture her first.

Only one person can save her..... the hott young lesbian Gandhi chick who has just assumed power in India.

Thus far, it's been sexual misadventures in his office, and in his hometown. Next I really think has got to be Miss Scarlet, with the dildo, in the kitchen.

Faithful longtime lurker(s) who had to go teach at around comment 150 are feeling left out.

They know the meta and self-referential nature of Unfogged will not let this slide, instead incorporating it half the water-cooler jokes for the next few weeks.

he is addressing a nudist camp

Well if you call that a-dressing... It isn't my notion of the thing at all."

I stopped reading after about 90, just two short of the discovery of the WMDs and the re-alignment of the Coalition of the Unwilling.

(TBH, reading the whole thing after the fact isn't at all the same. It was the real-time aspect that made it gripping. All I did at work was drink coffee and reload the browser)

I dreamed about Unfogged last night--entirely innocently, alas, and all parties stayed clothed--although the clothes were pretty spectacular. In my dream, I had moved to New York. I was going to lunch with LizardBreath, Jackmormon, a guy from the lab where I work in waking life, noted author James Baldwin and a soul singer whose career we were all working together to launch. I was amazed to note that both LizardBreath and Jackmormon were wearing retro, forties-style silk cocktail suits in jewel tones, embroidered with forties "oriental" motifs. Both also wore a lot of gold jewelry with colored stones. "Goddamn!" I thought. "The Unfoggers were right--everyone really doesdress up in New York!" Jackmormon also had a really lovely lemon-colored art deco handbag with jade trim. We all ordered drinks, and then James Baldwin made the funniest pun--which I cannot for the life of me remember now--on Go Tell It On The Mountain, and I woke up laughing.

re: 104

I'd buy that novel.

That thread's going to make an incredibly annoying ad for Ketel One someday.

Faulknerian melodrama

You people are so not reassuring me about the violent retribution. Screw the narrative---has everyone who could be beaten up been properly secured against it?

Last we know, yes. The principal's relatives are cops, she was with a friend, and while it's a stretch to say everything's all right, no one's in danger of physical harm.

As far as I can tell, everyone's five-by-five. (Except for my head, which is feels like it's been hit by a two-by-four.)

103 - I should be an operative of some sort: "Want a scandal? Call the good folks at SEK Industries. We guarantee that within three months of the arrival of one of our certified Sexual Disaster Technicians -- that's SDTs people, don't get confused -- blah blah blah."

Oh good. Whew. Maybe people/staff around the friend-of-the-blog can be shown a picture of the creep so they'll be vigilant in case he comes knocking? Local cops notified to make for quick future access in case of need? I dunno, just everyone take care. This is giving me the shudders.

shown a picture of the creep
Since the friend-of-the-blog has a number of pictures of the creep directly to hand on his hard drive, this seems like a perfect idea.

Yeah, the wart between his cheeks is a dead giveaway.

Methinks 'tis more likely than an enraged spouse of one of the Photo-Loving Philanderer's female partners will perform the beatings-up than said PLP. Perhaps a herd of them, distressed that their putative scions look a tad too much like the PLP...

Cala: Nooo, it's got to be Professor Plum, in the Faculty Lounge, with the Anal Invader...

To our resident sufferer of other people's sexual activity: There's gotta be an airport novel in this. "XYZ, mild-mannered scholar by night, observer of unimaginable depravity by day... what will happen next to our intrepid teaching assistant? Will his orals really *be* orals? Will he have to defend his thesis against ravening hoards of over-sexed English professors? Does his "PhD" stand for Doctor of Phallusophy?"

The post is still available on your RSS feed, at least on bloglines. I don't know if you can delete it from there, but you might want to if you can.

I guess the identifying material is in the comments, I guess? The post didn't bring anyone to mind.

"Probably not. Somebody is (or should be) almost certainly divorcing with small children. The worst day hasn't arrived yet, says a guy who's experienced it. Most shocking, probably, but there are still worse days ahead."

Divorce only hurts for a couple of years.

Thanks to Liz for 24.

ogged,

If you use the comments w/ posts feed, Google Reader delivers everything up to comment 244, and Bloglines goes up to 629. Intrepid reporters will still be able to find all of this in your feed archives. Not sure what you can do about that other than to remove the comment rss feed, and I'm not sure that would work either.

I thought she meant me!

Divorce only hurts for a couple of years.

Depends on the settlement.

108: I'm glad I wasn't the only one.

Thanks for the heads up, folks, but there's nothing we can do (as far as I know) about what the online feedreaders have already cached.

You might be able to clear it out by posting something blank at the same url as the post (kind of like updating the post to be blank); if it's part of the current feed, I think bloglines will pick it up. I don't know about the other readers.

I'll try it, thanks.

totally OT: I'm getting super antsy about how Edwards being behind Clinton and even Obama. I'm particularly not happy with Clinton, but I'm increasingly less thrilled with Obama. . . his energy policy is comparatively so anemic. And I really like the Edwards campaign idea of doing good along the campaign trail. And then when I think about it more, I'm upset that things like that don't matter to anybone, and we always end up talking about style and parrying instead. Just babbling. . . .but wouldn't mind a first fiscal quarter primary open thread. . .if that'll help get people's mind off sex.

if that'll help get people's mind off sex. Won't work, I'm a single-issue voter.

Won't work, I'm a single-issue voter.

That must be frustrating for your partner.

Exhausting, for sure.

I'm getting super antsy about how Edwards being behind Clinton and even Obama.

The first quarter fundraising deadline is today, and Edwards keeps sending me e-mail implying that the media will see their totals as a referendum on the campaign's viability. If you're inclined to believe he's right, you might want to throw a little love ($$) his way right now.

(I'm not real clear on whether the deadline really is significant, but I've been meaning to send him money anyway, so I did.)

if you missed it, you might as well go kill yourself now.

Shit. Life always gets in the way of the really fun stuff.

134: Indeed. And I am inclined to believe he's right, b/c the media is stupid that way. I kind of hate the fact that HRC gets points for the kind of fundraising which is exactly why I decreasingly trust her. I've given what I can, hence the nail biting---not sure what else I can do.

Well, I can verify that the feedreaders have cleared it out, because I was curious to read it, having missed all the really dramatic stuff (everything from about an hour after I left a comment). It's clear from all this what decision was made and sounds as if the consequences were explosive. Glad to hear the advice-asker and friend are as well as can be expected. Still dying with curiousity - if anyone has a record of the thread they could e-mail me it would be much appreciated.

So I'll bury the update here, as it's a good a place as any. My friend is doing alright, all things considered. Her soon-to-be ex-husband has resigned himself to fate and moved in with one of his mistresses. (Who, yes, he must of been cheating on too, but let's not go there.)

I wasn't the only one to download the photos, and now they're making the rounds; however, people aren't as upset as you'd suppose. Men seeing their wives with other men? Not pissed at all, as they'd already seen those pictures. Here's the kicker:

The pictures were proof. It was how they kept score. Yep, that's right: it's like that fraternity a couple of years back, only it had been going on since a group of them -- all old money, surprise, surprise -- were freshmen in high school. Which means, yes, that there are other photobuckets out there. (This also explains why they scanned in old photos.) There are also rumors of a website on which the players (no pun intended) tallied their points, but no one's ponied up the address, and everyone seems to have learned how to delete their history and cache. (Also, no one knows exactly who was "playing," although everyone has a pretty damn good idea.)

Oh, and the odds of this hitting the media? Zilch. That's the thing about old money: it's old, and there's a lot of it. The right people have been alerted, and no one's going to talk. (You know, for the families children.) Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more hard drinking to do.

Oh. My. God. The only way that this gets sicker and more twisted is if you tell us that this is some Masonic ritual dating back to the Founding Fathers.

Wow. Like, wow. Were they sacrificing colored people before they had sex? Wow.

ummm. holy crap. that's the most twisted thing i've ever heard about, i think.

I missed this entire dustup, and didn't really care at all until I saw 138. Now I'm *really* curious.

No, Brock. Preserve your faith in your fellow man and leave this thread!

138: So the good news is that if you can't go home again, there's plenty of reason not to want to?

If they're that wealthy, then maybe they should look into hiring a tech guy.

So, like, they only got a point if they had pictures to back it up? Great Muppety Odin, these people don't need websites, they need a country estate where they can go and just get the orgy over with.

"country estate where they can go and just get the orgy over with" s/b "pitchfork-wielding mob of enraged peasants"

that's the most twisted thing i've ever heard about

You haven't spent much time on these here internets, have you?

I've heard that there's this guy who enjoys putting maggots on his penis...

Wow. If it weren't for the innocent parties caught up in this, now I would want the whole story splashed all over the media.

Also, shacking up with the mistress seems like yet another not-so-bright step for the divorce process, even in a no-fault state.

Now we find out that maggots have penises, too.

147: I accept your amendment with a gleeful heart.

I don't think maggots have penises, because they are larvae and they go through a serious metamorphosis before becoming sexually mature animals. I wonder if Dr. Tatiana knows.

138: Dear sweet lord. Where did you go to high school, Hell?

Holy shit. This is the best argument for redistribution of capital, ever.

In my defense, at least I'm a proud feminist.

Depends on your definition.

Hey, I linked that back in the original thread.

Prove it!

At comment 288, LB wrote,

281: So we know he's not a feminist.

Sorry, Becks, but now that LB is having hot sex with me, I have certain obligations.

"hot" s/b "not"

For the rest, nothing is more ridiculous than the virtuous indignation of our bourgeois at the community of women which, they pretend, is to be openly and officially established by the Communists. The Communists have no need to introduce community of women; it has existed almost from time immemorial.

Our bourgeois, not content with having wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other's wives.

I wasn't going to say it, but let me add my name to the pile of those pissed to have missed the thread (fwiw, I caught the original post). From the descriptions, it sounds like the thread has the possibility to be inspiration for the first piece of great internet performance art. Ogged as the Orson Wells of the internet age, staging "War of the Photobuckets" on Myspace as a Halloween prank.

And Emir, habibi, if you come across that thread, I'll take that in lieu of the frankincense you still owe me.