Page admin Q&A Part 1

Time for our first fan Q&A session. If this is popular, we'll do it again.

Grace Lopez: How to best deal with trolls. Fight till the death or delete?

I just delete them. Most trolls want to cause a disruption and get attention. I don't feel like doing them any favors.

Non-Smokahontas Bizz: is it really the chick magnet ive been lead to believe it is?

I've had the same girlfriend for the last 2+ years, almost as long as I've had this page. I'm sure that with the semi-celebrity status you get with having a page, someone, where will naturally find you attractive but that's not what I'm looking for. Sometimes I'll get some fan who gushes over me and both my girlfriend and I realize that I'm sitting in my underwear on the couch, drinking a beer and farting. Then we both laugh.

Missie Bird: How hard is it for you not to argue with posters? How often do you actually delete a comment?

With my job and everything else I have going on, I don't have time to argue very often. I won't delete a comment under most circumstances unless it threatens someone, it's spam or it's obvious trolling.

William Friedman: How do you deal with the just...deluges of falsehoods, or bent truths people spew as fact in response to your articles?

You can't take anything too seriously on Facebook. You just have to realize that there's people who are willfully ignorant and want to dumb down everything, and that's all there is to it. Damn the trolls, full speed ahead.

Phoenix Conrad: Whats the point? is it just to get people to listen to your opinion or is there rewards/ money involved?

I work in a professional environment so I can't really blow off steam about politics and life in general. In my mind, it's cheaper than a therapist and it's nice to know there's other people who feel the same way I do. Unless you have tens of thousands of people read your articles a day, you're not going to make much money.

Greta G Bryant: Has there ever been a time when someone wrote a post that either hurt you personally or changed your thinking on an issue?

I've had people who knew me personally who made remarks on here back in the early days that were hurtful but I don't think I've ever dwelt on any of it. As far as changing my mind completely on something, no. I've altered an opinion on something a number of times though.

Jane Bartlett: How many people does it take to run a page?

Technically, just one. There's a bunch of admins here as backup if I ever need them but usually, it's just 4 of us who post on a regular basis. We all initial or sign our posts, except for me.

Randy Newlin: What was your reason for starting your page?

Originally, it was just to kvetch and just have something to do after work since I was broke. Then it kind of took off.

Kelly Erickson: What can you do to increase interest in your page?

Make good material, network with other page owners, and if all else fails, just post lots of pictures of kittens and material stolen from other people. *note* Don't actually do that last one. It just makes you an asshole.

Sherry Ilkanic: How many silkwood showers did you have to take during the election and after Sandy Hook? Do you believe in the "paid troll" theory? How do you sleep at night? Cuz I can venture to guess you've lost your faith in humanity several times over... Amirite??

I've lost my faith in humanity more times than I can count, and have had it restored almost as many times. I do believe in the paid troll theory, and I can sleep pretty well most nights, unless my sciatica is flaring up.

Rene Richard Tsompanas: Do u get paid? If so does it depend on how many are fans?

I get paid for traffic. On a good day, I might get 1,000 page views on the blog but most of the time it's maybe 300-400 if I'm lucky. During the election, I had as much as 4,000 views when my articles were posted by larger political pages. Don't think you'll get rich doing this, there's child laborers in Bangladesh who make more than I do.

Keith Blaine: After drinking 13 beers, how difficult is it to refrain from making inappropriate responses to some page posts?

I rarely drink more than a 6 pack. If it's more than that, I'm most likely out having fun and not on Facebook. My self control on FB is pretty decent, all things considered.

William Trimble: does it give you a god complex being able to ban people?

If you let it go to your head, yes. I ban maybe 10 people a week total. Unless you're a total douchecanoe or a spammer, I tend to let stuff slide especially since things cooled off a bit after the election. I was deleting 10 or more people a day back then.

Barbara D. Westbrook: How hard is it to get your posting's out to the people you want to contact?

Very hard. Facebook makes it so that only a small fraction of your fans get to see your posts and many people have the attention span of a gnat. Unless it involves a cute baby animal, or a tabloid style headline. or a silly meme, they tend to glance it over and head on to the next shiny object.