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ymeskhout  1yr ago (text post)   4703 thread views

What is your favorite Motte post ever?

I'm curious about not just what your favorite post is, but also what you think is the GOAT, or perhaps what you think is most illustrative and representative of this space (e.g. what would you show someone to get them intrigued). Please limit your post to only ONE pick and briefly explain why you chose it. This can be from anywhere within the Motte's history thus far, and r/TheThread is a good place to check in case you're having trouble finding something. Asking for a friend.

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Any Julius Branson post. He’s the undisputed champ, caused more seething and inspired more terror than anyone else

He also really captures the spirit of this place and has a truly inimitable style and sense of humor

This seems like a pretty Johnny-come-lately response. Julius Branson was stale and sophomoric compared to, say, penpractice. And TrannyPornO was as far beyond penpractice as penpractice was beyond Julius Branson.

That said, I'm pretty sure HlynkaCG has ultimately caused more seething than all three of those posters combined.

Y'all forgetting Impassionata?

The frustrating part of the banned people listed is that they were interesting, but they weren't able to curb the worst parts of their behaviors enough for us to let them stick around. Or it turned out they were interesting in exactly one way and unable to understand "okay, post about that specific thing less, please".

If he ever does an AMA no one will have to ask him what his favorite type of porn is

TrannyPornO

Do we have his posts archived?

I can't say Hlynka ever made me seethe, or I saw him give others a reason to. We have grossly irreconcilable worldviews, and he wasn't always great at expressing his, but I never got the impression that he was intentionally yanking on chains to get a reaction.

I never got the impression that he was intentionally yanking on chains to get a reaction.

Nor I! At least, not habitually. But particularly when he was moderating, and even for a long while after, almost every comment he made, regardless of content, would draw vitriolic reports of one kind or another.

I wish i knew who any of these people are or what they posted.

Try searching r/TheThread for their usernames to find their Quality Contributions.

the old threads are available, and are full of interesting things.

endlesss scrolling through omnibus threads... no thanks. And without even knowing what year these best writers posted in?

No thanks. Keep your esoteric knowledge.

That's neither a surprising nor an unreasonable position, but I think people seriously underestimate the value of long-term perspective in the culture war. A lot of insights are inaccessible if you can't follow the conversation long-term. As for years, just pick a significant political event, and find the thread from the corresponding weeks. The Kavanaugh confirmation, Covington, the Smollett accusation, and Floyd are the ones that spring to mind for me, but for pretty much any significant political event of the past several years, the corresponding threads are going to have some of the best analysis you can find on the subject.

Good point but I think the moderators, god bless 'em, are attached to this roundup style that is horrible for archives and frankly a vestigial leftover from its former attachment with Starslatecodex.

Sometimes I think that the Motte is among other things, a living testament to Scott Alexander's (prudent) cowardice.

But you are right about time and perspective. But even if I wanted to look for Kavanaugh commentary that's somewhere between 8-10 possible threads I have to wade into until I find what im looking for.

Iirc, there was a Kav megathread or two.

Seriously, I feel like I am in one of those reddit "Post your favorite facts!" threads where no one posts any links or sources. But people here seem to know what other people here are talking about, so maybe I am still very noob.

IIRC, Penpractice posted a lot of HBD stuff, in a way that eventually started to come across as hiding his power level sort of way. TP0 was sufficiently researched and eloquent as to not be suppressing much, power level wise, but had this bad habit of losing his cool after backs-and-forths with opponents, and after that got him banned he just kinda never came back.

Like tears in rain.

Penpractice was great

I would pay a bounty to anyone who managed to get Trannyporn0 here. His effort posts were amazing, and I'm sad I missed when they were originally happening.

I remember a commenter on the Pumpkin Person blog once identified him as an American grad student who sometimes publishes with Emil Kirkegaard. I wonder if it was true. Didn't he say he was 7 feet tall and from Lichtenstein?

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