everybodies' got it in-for-me(K. Willaims).

Ok, its a fair cop. I'll fix the spelling later but out of respect for the sentiments in that comment on my current sig it will have to remain for a while. BTW, how does one switch on spell checker in /.?

Ok, now for the first entries. Again, feel free to reuse, change an contribute back to the project (not all contributions will be accepted).

Subject:LOTR, Specfically - Gollum's Oscar (lack thereof):
Fortunately this topic is good for another year or so.

The link to the comment is:Re:In his spare time..

You may want to fix the "Te Papa" link as the stupid morons that designed the site insist in www in the URL

The 1st part of the comment can be used in an H1-B discussion, sort of. The second one is basically a plug for my home town, Wellington.

Subject:Old bastard mouths off about technology...:
Recurring theme. I think the article was in the Washington Post but every now and then someone more self serving will submit their own articles (under a false name) to try an drum up traffic.

This is the correct response to that sort of article.

Frankly, I was astonished to find the comment rated "Interesting" as it was supposed to be biting satire. (I've mentioned the culture / homour thing before). Maybe the moderator found the attempt at humour "interesting", I know my girlfriend does.

This entry, will of necessity, be rather long winded...

Perceptive and intelligent moderators have recently awarded me with a "Score 5; Interesting" and a "Score 4; Interesting" on comments made to /. over the last two months (the latter *was* a 5 but see an earlier entry on that issue). Given the challenges of time zone changes and the cultural divide that seperates New Zealand from our ANZUS allies I find this extremely gratifying. (I should say here that I also have a smattering of "Score 2; Funny"'s. On the whole, these were in fact VFF (very fucking funny (note, the use of nested brackets - LOL)) but bow to the superior wit of our allies.)

Flushed with this recent success, and in the spirit of Alan Cox and the OSS movement in general I propose to make my more successful comments available for reuse in the /. forum. All I ask is that if the "re-user" plans to modify the comments and make those mods public then these are feed back to the "project" (I'll think up a snappy code name later).

"The project" is based on three observations:
1. I have, in the past, saved myself considerable effort by cut and pasting my lowly moderated comments into very new story threads and had them highly moderated as a results.

2. I've noticeed other /. members doing the same thing.

3. A poll of "sensible /.ters" (tm) showed that they all have their filters set to browse comments rated 4 or 5.

The trick is to find recurring topics and appropriate comments.

"The project" will catorise highly rated comments by subject for other /. readers to re-use. This will be a community project and I will accept proven (i.e. rated 4 or 5) submissions from other /. readers to the project *provided* they are the orginal authors. (Remember, /. members own their comments and it would be a crime to publish a book or something made up of those comments without those owners' permission - wouldn't it Taco?).

My technical skills are in very little demand these days and so like the Little Drummer Boy, I've been worrying for a long time "what can I give" back to the community. At last I have the answer and I look forward to providing this open service back to the community at large.

4 - not a bad rating for a comment that had a broken link - so much for preview.

What was particularly gratifying was the fact that the second para was a cut and paste of a previous post. The difference being that I posted early this time.

I blew my ratings later in the day by:

1 - posting to an older story
2 - replying to a reply

News flash - rating now at 5, count em five!

Diary note to self: copy old comments and whack them in (if appropriate) under recent stories.

For five heady minutes I had my first "5" rating on a /. comment. The a spoilsport took me down a peg.

Curses.