Bless me, Thomas, for I have sinned.

Rob St. Amant

Birthday: December 31

Bio: My roots are in San Francisco and later Baltimore, where I went to high school and college. I stayed on the move, living for a while in Texas, several years in a small town in Germany, and then several more in Massachusetts, working on a Ph.D. in computer science. I'm now a professor at North Carolina State University, in Raleigh. My book, Computing for Ordinary Mortals, will appear this fall. www.amazon.com/author/robertstamant

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MY RECENT COMMENTS

Rob St. Amant's Links

Posts on various topics: On writing a book; On animal intelligence; On the supernatural; On computer jargon; On plagiarism; On alternative medicine; On children's books; On streets; On sidewalks; On fashion; On mobility; On dry stone walls; On travel in the UK; On torture; On science and medicine; On income equality
Others' posts I really like: odette on mean girls; Verbal's childhood memories; Lainey on The Secret; Greg on his life; Barry on beauty; Rick on dignity; Cherie on China; Gary on toys; Lisa on socialism

« Back to Posts

MAY 17, 2010 8:19PM

Rate: 24 Flag

Collegiale-Thann-p1010106

It has been... actually, I have never posted a confession on Open Salon before. But I know the drill.

I have violated the terms of service. It was out of curiosity about... numbers. I could see which of my posts were most read, but I wanted to know by how many people. So I created another account that had just me as a friend. And then I looked at it. I don't think anyone knows I do it, but that doesn't make it right.

In my heart, I have lusted after another member of Open Salon. It's too embarrassing to tell you about in any detail. I'll just say that it involved... cake. And cake activities.

I have posted too many meta-posts. If Open Salon is about "discover[ing] a wider audience", this is goes against the spirit of the site, looking inward rather than outward. I'm doing it now. The temptation is hard to resist.

...

Ten Hail Zerrys? Thank you, Thomas. I'll see you next time.

(image credit)

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Comments

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did it work?

dianaani

May 17, 2010 08:24 PM

My OSins have been washed away.

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 08:27 PM

I'm so confused.

Kathy Riordan

May 17, 2010 08:28 PM

Me, too.

vanessa seijo

May 17, 2010 08:32 PM

I think I get it. By being someone else and having only Rob as a favorite, then you could go on the front page and click on popularity and change the timing to a month and limit it to favorites and voila, there are all Rob's posts laid out for you, avec stats.

The problem for someone like me is that I hardly post, so a month wouldn't do it. And "month" is the longest time period they allow.

Rob, do you do that statcounter thing on your posts? If so, why would you need to do this? And if not, why not?

Lainey

May 17, 2010 08:34 PM

Oh, I just post frivolous stuff once in a while. This one was partly a thought that if you wanted more details about whether your posts were being read, there's a workaround, though it violates the terms of service. It was also a reaction to all the churn in OS lately about OS. And I do think Freaky Troll is a work of art.

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 08:36 PM

You can do the same thing by tagging your posts something very specific, like your initials, then clicking on the 'Topics' link at the top of this page. Then, in the URL area, replace the words "open+call" with your initials and hit ENTER. You'll see much the same thing...

Damion Chaplin

May 17, 2010 08:36 PM

Lainey, you've got it. I don't due the statcounter thing, out of laziness. So this is a cheap workaround.

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 08:37 PM

Good one, Damion. That didn't occur to me, though now that I come to think of it, Saturn does it.

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 08:39 PM

I figured that out when my Unobtainium post actually made the Most Viewed feed one weekend, getting over 10,000 views in a 36-hour period. (currently at 14,000+ and counting...) (don't ask me why)

Damion Chaplin

May 17, 2010 08:39 PM

Holy crap! That's a lot of page views. Way to go.

Oh, also, I forgot to mention, I have a weakness for imposing metaphors onto situations, whether they're a good fit or not.

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 08:41 PM

Wait, people dual character around here??? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! WHO CAN I TRUST NOW!!!!???? *Real tears begin to fall*

:D

I've already admitted to having multiple profiles on here. I won't say which. I did mine just as an experiment, and discovered ED I TOR liked my other personalities better and picked them and covered them even.

Stupid ED!! **kicks em** **Wanders off muttering swear words under his breath**

Tinkerertink69

May 17, 2010 08:50 PM

I did figure one trick out, put a picture of cute kittens into your post, doesn't have to fit the article, then Google images makes that the 1st or 2nd pic in their search when you search for cute kittens.

My most viewed article almost hit 30k hits before Google changed their searches around!! ~L~ Pauly Shore loves Paris Hilton got almost 30k hits as well!! EEK!! :D

Tinkerertink69

May 17, 2010 08:53 PM

So, Tink, does this mean you are going to replace your avatar photo with a "cute" kitten? :-P

Matt Paust

May 17, 2010 09:00 PM

I do like the kitten strategy, though it's quite underhanded. But kittens can be devious, too...

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 09:05 PM

You had me at Hail Zerrys.

emma peel

May 17, 2010 09:15 PM

puppet is poorly,
all jaundiced yet still happy
the patterns subsumed

bbd

May 17, 2010 09:26 PM

Thanks for the comments--and the haiku! My first!

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 09:47 PM

I'm stupid and still don't "get" it. I hate alternate accounts. It's destructive to the site. I'm sure this is fun in the same way a word prblem is fun. Not.

aim

May 17, 2010 09:55 PM

On a lighter note, i just purchased an Ipod touch and feel like i could go away for a long time = goodbye!

aim

May 17, 2010 09:57 PM

Um, you're scaring me. xox

Robin Sneed

May 17, 2010 10:04 PM

Ah, I'm just fooling around. Think of it this way:

Do some posters treat OS as a confessional? Sometimes. If I were to treat OS as a confessional, what would I say? I'd think about what might be considered "sins" against various stated and unstated "commandments" of the place, and I'd ask forgiveness for them. And of course I'm influenced by a Catholic upbringing.

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 10:17 PM

I still don't get it. I'm going to find my spam archive for xanax so i can at least laugh about it.

aim

May 17, 2010 10:28 PM

Oh, well. I haven't quit my day job, fortunately.

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 10:35 PM

Oh, just various in-jokes. Thomas Rogers is interim editor of Open Salon, so he holds the nominal position of the leader of our flock, and "Zerry" was a nickname bestowed upon the first editor of Open Salon, Kerry Lauerman, back in the early days of the site.

Rob St. Amant

May 17, 2010 10:57 PM

Fear not Robert Saint
this spate of literalness
will quickly depart

Didymus of old
proclaimed the troll as sacred
and doubts this is sin

bbd

May 17, 2010 11:37 PM

Do you feel better now? That's a good idea for tracking your own posts! Certainly a harmless little TOS violation, and you're confessed so all is well!

Hail Zerry's indeed!