[Click to view comic: 'A Politician I'd Vote For']

I recently made this political comic strip and it made it to the top of the Top Rated page for a couple of days, with a score of a perfect 10. Now it's a bit lower on the rankings, with a score of 9. That's still a quite respectable score, but it got me thinking.

This comic had a score of 10 with 9 votes, and now has a score of 9 with 10 votes, which means that - if I did my math right (and I'm pretty sure I did) - the last person to rate it rated it as "bad." (The total score would be 90 each way - avg. score of 10 x 9 votes = 90; avg. score of 9 x 10 votes = 90 - so the last vote must have counted as 0, or "bad").

I don't mind that someone didn't like my strip, but I really wish they had left a comment. A reasoned argument against its politics or constructive criticism about my writing style would have been best, but I even would have been happy with something like "U $uXx0rz"; at least that would have let me know that the rater was an immature jackass whose opinion I don't care about anyway. Or if it was someone just trying to knock me out of the top spot, they could have said something like "Ha, ha, now I'm #1" and I would have understood. I wouldn't have liked it, but I would have understood. (Note: I am NOT suggesting that whoever the current top-spot holder is did this. I'm pretty sure it was because the person disagreed with the politics of the strip; I'm just including some alternate reasons that someone could have for rating a comic as "bad.")

Rating a comic as "bad" without leaving a comment seems cowardly and disrespectful to me. You should give creators constructive criticism in order to help them improve their work and give them a chance to respond to that criticism. If you rate one of my comics as "bad," I'd really like to know your reasons for doing so. Most likely, in this case, the rater disagrees with the political statements that the strip is making. To that person I say this (warning: rant ahead): I truly, genuinely want to understand what you're thinking. Do you really disagree that the Bush Administration is eager to engage in war (Iraq, Afghanistan, talk of invading Iran), keep the citizens of the U.S. afraid (terror alert levels), and make their own religious beliefs law (proposed amendment banning gay marriage)? If so, I'd really like to hear what you have to say to defend your views and your support of an administration that seems to be doing all it can to harm this country by taking freedoms and rights away from citizens and non-citizens alike (Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, no right of habeas corpus for detainees), committing war crimes (illegal invasion of Iraq, torture of detainees, refusal to acknowledge provisions of the Geneva Conventions), and divide its citizens.

I'm not trying to start a fight (though I'm aware that this discussion could go in that direction, which is why I posted this in "Fights Go Here"); I just sincerely do not understand how anyone can support such an administration. Maybe they're doing some good that I'm just not seeing, but all I see is an administration that seems to have as little regard for human life, civil liberties, and international law as any terrorist group. And, unlike al-Qaeda, the Bush administration has the world's strongest army and biggest supply of nuclear weapons at its disposal to help achieve its goals. Frankly, that scares the shit out of me.

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"Laughter is the language of the soul." - Pablo Neruda, as quoted by Lisa Simpson

i get why it might be distressing to be rated bad, but get this : it's not the end of the world.

shrug it off and move on. your comics are funny, you've got plenty of potential. don't let this bug you too much.

in short; MOAR!!1

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Our liability coverage is zero. Our balls however are enormous.

I'm sorry, but this is basically a long winded rant about how you want to know who took you out of the coveted "top rated" spot so you can think mean thoughts about them or try to engage them in some pointless argument about politics that no one can win.

 SUCK IT UP.

So you got rated bad. Big deal. Someone doesn't agree with your views? NO WAY. Who let THEM on the internet? What astounds me is the fact that you tactfully changed a long winded rant about not being number 1 anymore to a long winded rant about how your views are OBVIOUSLY right and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong and should be known so you can argue with them. This isn't about "constructive critisism". It's about you being pissed that someone doesn't agree with you and you want to know who it was.

And for the record, I rated the comic good, I rated you good, and I agree with your political views. I just cant STAND little crybabies like you who feel the need to whine about people and that stupid "difference of opinion". 

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More lust than you can shake a stick at.

This is pre-emptive

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The following statement its true. The previous statement is false

I rated it bad because that's a standard joke I've been hearing for years and also because you're a cry baby.

You were also on 5 stars before I rated you bad so don't go crying about not knowing who did that. That was just because you're a cry baby.

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Batman created by Bob Kane

what seems to happen with political comics is that they'll get good initial ratings by people who agree with the sentiment even if the comic itself isn't that funny. then later people who don't agree with the sentiment will down-vote it the same way people who agreed with it up-voted it. i'd guess that's what happened to your comic since i knew the punchline by about the 8th word. if you were the benificiary of inflated up-voting, you probably shouldn't complain about the down-voting, though i know it can be annoying

plus toprated doesn't mean much anyway. don't take it too seriously

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what if nigger meant kite

If it's any consolation, I rated you Good -- using a proprietary closed beta rating system that exists only in my head.

It would have been better had the punchline been followed by a "Ba-DUMP-shah" sound effect and Ed McMahon shouting, "Hiyoooo!!"

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I was gonna send a robot back in time, but I got high.

If you make a partisan political statement in a comic and people vote it "bad", either they (1) disagreed with the sentiment or (2) didn't think it was funny. 

People who like your comics put them on the top list, and people who don't like them see them on the list and downvote them.  That's all.

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Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way.

Your comic had a 90% favorable rating. Dcom hates everybody.

Bush has an 11% favorable rating, so you are ahead of the game.

If it's any consolation, there was a vote in the house today to vote on whether to vote to impeach cheney - and nearly every republican voted yes.

I liked the comment for its dinosaurcomicsesque layout,  its politcs and that it had a punchline. Chill a bit.

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woof

I apoligize for the rant/whining. I'm not normally like this; it's just been a shitty week/semester/year for me due to things that have nothing to do with Stripcreator and the downvoting was a blow to my ego that I let get to me a lot more than it should have or normally would. I realized that I shouldn't have written my rant within about an hour or so or posting it, but by then I was at work and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I now realize that it was stupid and immature.

Thank you to everyone who showed more maturity than I did and offered constructive feedback. I'm a college student and I see now that I still have some growing up to do. Even those of you who were a bit less constructive helped me realize something: If I'm going to criticize politicians for being divisive, I shouldn't be contributing to that division. I'm going to lay off the political comics and statements for a while. I hope that anyone who read the above rant will judge my future comics on their own merits rather than on what I hope and intend to be a one-time lapse in judgment.

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"Laughter is the language of the soul." - Pablo Neruda, as quoted by Lisa Simpson

*apologize* - should have proofread before posting

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"Laughter is the language of the soul." - Pablo Neruda, as quoted by Lisa Simpson

And that should be "an hour or so OF posting" - for an English major, I'm sure not much of a proofreader. :-)

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"Laughter is the language of the soul." - Pablo Neruda, as quoted by Lisa Simpson

Anybody can write. Only the great know how to rewrite. (Just look at Hemingway's posthumous novel which didn't get the benefit of his astounding ability to rewrite. Pure drivel.)

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You can take the heart out of the hooker but you can't take the hooker out of the heart. -- Frankenhooker

I kind of wish there was an edit feature in the forums. (There's not, is there? If there is, I haven't found it yet.) Then I could not only correct my apology/retraction, but I could also get rid of my rant. I have a feeling that's going to haunt me, even with the follow-up post.

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"Laughter is the language of the soul." - Pablo Neruda, as quoted by Lisa Simpson

Zasteryeah, but what wouldn't? other than a eulogy and maybe Mein Kampf, i green light that jolly cherubic fuck every time

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what if nigger meant kite

kane2742

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way.

mandingo

That's not true ... money and looks and top-ratedness are everything. I use my top-ratedness to approach women. I repaint it every year instead of buying a new one, and nobody knows the difference. My family fights at Christmas dinner over whether I'm top-rated enough or not, and the ones who didn't really love me before I was even a little top-rated are the saddest ones of all .

Well, I guess my pre-emptive strike was uncalled for then.

Why'd everyone have to go get mature and spoil my fun?

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The following statement its true. The previous statement is false

Another way of looking at it is that your pre-emptive strike did what a pre-emptive strike should: averted a war before it could happen.

In all seriousness, though, I see now that the reason for my rant was not really comics, ratings, or politics. It had more to do with other frustrations: school, work, family, brain problems - seriously, I have brain damage that overwhelms me sometimes. Anyone who has read some of my recent comics can probably see that I've been using them as an outlet to some of my frustrations with school and life (see any of them about being an English major and you'll get what I mean). The political comic and the subsequent rant were just another outlet for my frustrations. I'm kind of glad that I got some negative responses to my rant; they helped stop me from continuing it. I had about five more ranting political comics planned (really just a list of political ravings broken into a few separate strips), but I see now that they were mean-spirited, not particularly original, and would probably have led to more name-calling and bad votes, so I'm not going to make them now. Thank you all for helping lead me back to the path of sanity.

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"Laughter is the language of the soul." - Pablo Neruda, as quoted by Lisa Simpson

You fuckers. It's "Fights Go Here" not "Everybody Be Friends". Someone call someone else a cunt and start flaming!

(And yes, that's an open invitation for gay jokes. Gay jokes are funny.)

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It was such a waste of everyone’s time and money that even the Tokyo stadium’s rape robots apologized– something they were programmed specifically never to do.

I believe I am the rater you're ranting about. I rated it bad for the same reason dcomposed did, it's a re-hash of a joke that's been told in every humor outlet. It was very funny the first time I heard it.

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-=- You eat one lousy foot and they call you a cannibal. What a world. -=-

please see "herpes laden mug" BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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obscenity filter is off

To FinnNYC: Sorry for the rant, and I understand the reasons for your rating. I was just feeling pretty crappy yesterday and overreacted. No hard feelings. (Actually, I checked out your comics and liked a lot of them. And I voted them "good": I'm not going to be petty and rate all your comics "bad" just because you rated one of mine bad.) I hope you won't hold my rant against me.

To matclarke: I liked "herpes laden mug." Kind of wish I'd read it before my rant.

To HCRoyall: Look under Zaster's name. He calls himself a cunt; does that count?

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"Laughter is the language of the soul." - Pablo Neruda, as quoted by Lisa Simpson

kane2742No. I'd call mandingo a cunt, but he likes it. It gets really weird when he puts on the sundress and the wig...

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It was such a waste of everyone’s time and money that even the Tokyo stadium’s rape robots apologized– something they were programmed specifically never to do.

[Click to view comic: 'Ranting']

Here's a comic I made after learning from this experience. It's not my funniest work, but I figure it's good to put it out there for people to see if they read my rant but not my later posts in this thread.

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"Laughter is the language of the soul." - Pablo Neruda, as quoted by Lisa Simpson