comment #1

anonymous2 says ...

Take care DZ.

comment #2

Wrecktem says ...

Too bad. I like the D. Godspeed, bitches.

comment #3

DukeSavoy says ...

The mob speaks and Jeff asks for a basin. With freshly washed hands, he gives the order. DZ's tongue is hacked off. It is snatched by a pack of yapping dogs who tear it as they run into the shadows.

But, hey, it's Jeff's site. He can silence whomever he pleases.

comment #4

Josh Massey says ...

God, that's surprisingly a little sad.

comment #5

coxcable says ...

Wait a sec, Wells...

You have no problem with the guy but since everybody else does, you're going to shoot him?

So in Paths of Glory, were you rooting AGAINST Kirk Douglas?

comment #6

George Prager says ...

How many times have I clicked on a Wells thread about an old black and white movie or an upcoming French flick and saw that DeeZee has hijacked the thread with links?

Or this:

"Abbey: Eternal Sunshine was a bad hipster remake of a Truffaut film."

Of course, DeeZee later admitted that he has never seen a Truffaut film.

No respect.

comment #7

Monument says ...

Shame, I always found DZ's posts to be harmless. Certainly less offensive than the people responding with "fuck you" and "kill yourself" to anything he posted.

comment #8

JackBurton2 says ...

Way to go. Silence the annoying instead of the truly offensive. I even got sucked into a DZ debate the other day on the Black Swan trailer post, but at a certain point, just pulled back and said, "Nevermind." He's easy to walk away from. But the guy who sprays invective all around like a machine gun, the guy who claims Fred Durst and Dice Clay as heroes, the guy who proudly presents himself as a sexual predator, the guy who bases quality of movie on aspect ratio and amount of guns/drugs the plot revolves around, the guy who throws out pejorative homosexual references based on what movies a person makes/likes - he gets to stay. Way to show some balls there, Jeff. For a movie Catholic, you've allowed one guy to take your site to the gutter. It's ironic that there was better discourse when you worked for a site called Movie Poop Shoot.

comment #9

DiscoNap says ...

This is a little bit like when they had to whack Elliot Gould in Bugsy. I feel bad now, but I know it's necessary.

comment #10

Rich S. says ...

This isn't the first time D.Z. n/k/a DeeZee has been shown the door, and I'm sure it won't be the last. The incessant links got to be a bit much, but I'm sure he'll be back in good time under a new name, and hopefully a tad wiser.

Something occurred to me after posting on the LexG thread, which I've seen on other blogs. You can delete a post and give a warning, without banishing the poster outright. Something to think about.

comment #11

York "Budd" Durden says ...

I concur, Burton. GOOD CALL.

comment #12

COCO says ...

That is a tough call Jeff. You did what you have to do. Good bye DZ.

comment #13

Homie Cat says ...

That sucks; he was harmless(hello internet!) and the reaction he provokes was priceless. This is my feeling about the mob of whiners. Gordn27, Lazarus, et al, the constant high pitch whines and hysterical shrieks about DZ, like he's literally raping your eye sockets is far more annoying then anything he post. If you can't scroll past his post without having a hissy fit, you need to get off the interwebz.

In the end, it seems, Jeff felt he had to take a stand to protect the little ladies from having anymore attacks of the vapors by those horrible, truly horrible DZ links.

comment #14

Kerry Frey says ...

I've read this site for years, but have only recently chosen to periodically (when I have something important to say) post my comments. I come here because Jeff DOES do a good job of providing insight to film - both visually and with his written word. But I must admit - I do tire of his use of the site to force politrical opinions on us. However - it is HIS site and something called freedom of speech applies in this case. Which is why I am disappointed in the banning of DZ. More than likely you will ignore what I say here - which is what you could have chosen with DZ.

comment #15

mroswald says ...

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Boards like this should serve as a meeting place for engaging back-and-forth exchanges or insights. D.Z. was your classic internet troll just trying to mainline the most attention he could get with his asinine posts.

comment #16

bluefugue says ...

Odd, I've seen people clamoring for DZ's banning since time immemorial. Suddenly everyone's rushing to his defense.

Weird how these things play out.

Color me indifferent. DZ is useless, but my scrollwheel functions.

comment #17

bluefugue says ...

>In the end, it seems, Jeff felt he had to take a stand to protect the little ladies from having anymore attacks of the vapors by those horrible, truly horrible DZ links.

I don't think it's a case of anyone fainting. It's more a case of the "washing off graffiti" principle applied to a site. I understand the concept, don't know how much it matters tho.

comment #18

Tsuyoi says ...

Thank you, Jeff. The links have always been annoying.

comment #19

JapAdapters says ...

Now you should ban the people who argued with him, because talkbakers who can't get over themselves and think they're the show are the real problem here. IMO, of course.

comment #20

Bukowski20 says ...

That's a bummer. I admit to wanting his links banned. But DZ is harmless and kind of funny. He's as much of an act as LexG and anybody that didn't see that was...enjoying the act of bullying him a bit too much.

comment #21

Telemachos says ...

Yeah, I don't agree with this. It's not that hard to scroll past a post of a bunch of move-related links, honestly, and as for his opinion: being stupid on the internet is not a crime.

Jeff, if you don't mind DZ and his links -- as you've said in previous threads -- then don't ban him. You run the site, not us hoi polloi.

comment #22

JackBurton2 says ...

The problem with DZ, beyond the link dumps, is that he did seem to be pretty well-versed in the world of anime, which is a vital and ongoing genre of filmmaking. He very easily could have chosen to use his knowledge to educate since I gather that most here, like me, don't know much about it. It was the pompous nature of his "on topic" posts that bothered me the most, since everything came down to accusations of theft. That was the only way he seemed to know how to express his expertise. A missed opportunity for him and us. Maybe he could have convinced me to watch something if he had argued a little more effectively. And I'll also say that it'll be hard for someone to convince me that he doesn't have some kind of Aspergers or other social disorder. But anyway, like Rich S said, I'm sure he'll be back under a new name soon.

comment #23

Markj74 says ...

Finally! Hopefully conversations can now flow a little more easily.

comment #24

Homie Cat says ...

bluefugue: "I don't think it's a case of anyone fainting. It's more a case of the "washing off graffiti" principle applied to a site. I understand the concept, don't know how much it matters tho."

Except that the host of this site said he himself used DZ's links since he wasn't able to cruise the net that much. No, he caved in to the whiners, and their inability to use a scroll function or ignore his post.

I never understood how that works. How can someone get so worked up over links and nonsensical blather on a screen that they feel the need to hoot and holler in outrage about it every time you see it?

comment #25

lazarus says ...

Holy shit, it's like Christmas morning!

comment #26

Circumvrent says ...

However - it is HIS site and something called freedom of speech applies in this case.

Hollywood Elsewhere is not a democracy. Depending on the day, it's either a dictatorship, or, in this instance, a Republic. And there's nothing wrong with that.

comment #27

EdHavens says ...

Completely ignoring the useless links, DZ was a waste. Unable to make a cognizant point, unable to admit when he was going off on tangents unrelated to anything that was being discussed, unable to admit when he was wrong about a point until the evidence against him was bearing on overload... this site is better off without him.

That being said, I give him until 6PM Pacific Time tonight before he starts posting under a new name. The guy just can't take a hint, subtle or otherwise.

comment #28

Travis Crabtree says ...

Seems there could've been a middle ground. A tighter leash, perhaps?

For example, a two post limit per thread?

I guess I don't mind DeeZee 'cause he's been around for so long. I have a soft spot for the lifers.

comment #29

CMed1 says ...

It is kind of sad to see DZ go by the wayside. Didn't think he would get banned.

comment #30

lazarus says ...

I think Ed is on the money. When you have someone who continuously makes inane straw man arguments, it derails any kind of real discussion because people get too wound up trying to hammer home the most obvious points.

Good riddance.

comment #31

gustav13 says ...

Yeah, posts about posters. That's what I come to this site for...

comment #32

bluefugue says ...

>I never understood how that works. How can someone get so worked up over links and nonsensical blather on a screen that they feel the need to hoot and holler in outrage about it every time you see it?

It's a question of signal to noise ratio. If there's too much noise -- whether the noise be made up of spam, or rudeness, hijackings, comments that are irrelevant to the site's theme, etc., it impacts the overall "feel" of a forum.

What is the right way to moderate a forum depends on the feel you are going for, your own personal principles, the makeup and temperament of your core community, etc. Forums can absolutely get shitted into oblivion if enough crap gets onto them, though. It happens all the time.

As for "caving in to the whiners," I think that's a simplistic assessment of the situation. Jeff knows that cultivating a welcoming environment for film enthusiasts is part of what will keep his blog healthy, so it's not merely a question of whether *he* objects to DZ's links.

Again, specifically with regard to DZ, I don't care either way. I just never read him. But if a sufficient amount of a forum's comments consist of stuff that most readers might want to scroll past, I can see that being a concern for the moderator.

comment #33

MickTravisMcGee says ...

Oh, good lord, now that he's banned everybody's changing their tune? "Oh, I kind of liked him...."

Man the fuck up. D.Z. alternated between delusional contrarianism and endless off-topic links, both of which generated constant complaints from others.

He was annoying, I'm sure he'll be back and this is all just a means to generate talkback -- in which, I realize, I'm contributing. But, c'mon, show a little backbone.

comment #34

Barnes78 says ...

Mob Mentality - 1

Dee Zee - 0

Game over.

comment #35

a1 says ...

So it's come to this: people missing D.Z.

The Stockholm Syndrome's more true than gravity.

comment #36

JapAdapters says ...

To quote a great poet: "A wise man once told me, don't argue with fools 'cause people from a distant can't tell who is who." That goes about ten times for people who argue with those of diminished capacity.

You know who should be banned? Anyone who asks another poster who they are, because they haven't seen them "here" a lot. That's a good rule of thumb.

comment #37

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Call this a win - lose - lose on D.Z.

When it came to on-topic comments, I could never tell if he was truly that clueless or the most brilliant troll working this sector of the blogosphere. Either way, good riddance. WIN

But his links became easier and easier to ignore, like the rest of the spam - you just scroll past it. And some folks apparently hadn't seen them already on MCN, Dark Horizons and half a dozen better link sites so I guess it served a function. Which Jeff should have simply put into a links section that D.Z. ran. LOSE.

For someone who is always berating others to "man-up" and touting their own iconoclasm, this is not very Nicholson/Hopper/Mitchum. LOSE.

comment #38

plastiqueelephant says ...

Good call, DZ regularly flouting strident opinions about films he hadn't even seen was unforgivable in my book.

comment #39

lazarus says ...

We all find ourselves in the minority opinion from time to time, but was D.Z. ever right about anything? Even when he seemed to be on the correct "side", his reasoning was completely illogical and hyperbolic.

And as a fellow hard lefty, his political arguments made me ashamed to share similar beliefs.

The suggestion that Jeff should give him a links section is pointless. This isn't a news site, it's for commentary, and all his stories are cribbed from other sources. Let people do the work themselves to read that kind of thing; ain't too hard to find.

comment #40

pantingkitty says ...

I don't think you can tell people to go and expect they will really go. DZ will be back, no?

comment #41

DavidF says ...

DZ was wrong about everything and frequently annoying but count me in with the people who will miss him a bit nonetheless.

He should have been offered a last chance or a compromise or something before being outright banned.

I may to have find a rental copy of Battle Angel and/or a Tarantino filmmest in his memory....

comment #42

DavidF says ...

Sorry - DARK Angel. I get my James Cameron angel-based projects mixed up.

Walter needed Donny, so he could say "Shut the fuck up, Donny," and I feel we kind of needed DZ in the same messed-up way....DZ, who loved posting stupid shit.
He was banned, like so many young men of his generation, he was banned before his time. Goodnight, sweet prince.

comment #43

lazarus says ...

"He was a man who hated movies, but loved trolling, and as a troll he gutter the websites of Hollywood, from IndieWIre, to Deadline Hollywood, and up to...Movie City News. He died, like so many annoying trolls of his generation, not soon enough. In your wisdom, Jeff, you took him..."

comment #44

ZayTonday says ...

Good riddance.

comment #45

plainview says ...

Quit trying to regulate the comments section.

Get rid of spammers, but everything else should go. You are never going to be able to completely ban people, and even if you could, it wouldn't do anything very positive for the website.

Let the people bitch, and stop being so offended by it. That's what the comment section is for.

Delete spam and what not, but a real person posting links is going to BRING people to your website, not push them away.

I thought you understood the dynamics of linking different websites for the sake of generating popularity. I figured that's why you let DeeZee stick around in the first place.

comment #46

messiahcomplexio says ...

why couldn't D.Z. be allowed to post provided there were NO LINKS? Give the man a chance to play nice before sending him on the last train to Siberia.

comment #47

longrunner says ...

Like Monument, I always found the foulmouthed overreactions to DeeZee's posts a lot more offensive than his own harmless (and easily ignored) link-drenched posts.

comment #48

Terry McCarty says ...

Guessing that DeeZee 3.0 will return. And, even if he merely posted links, it shouldn't be overreacted to.

comment #49

Snoop Marlo says ...

Sure. DZ's posts were annoying, but he hardly got into a pissing contest with any of his wrath bearers, so I give him credit for his cool head.

Regardless, I'm sure he'll come back under the moniker 'DZ Top'.

See you soon ...

comment #50

iamjoe says ...

DavidF, you are COMPLETELY correct in the "Shut the fuck up, Donnie" to DZ comparison. I can't tell you how many times it's given me pleasure to tell him to go die. I do hate him with all that can be considered my soul, but I guess I'll miss him. Every community has it's moron; it's equilibrium.

But hey, Jeff does need to do these things; I've been reading his work for a decade now and that's due to his adapting to change. Maybe he's not slitting DZ's throat; maybe his ban is just his spam like links.

All is all, it's not that bad here. If the worst people can say about here is LexG's entertaining character and DZ's ignorance, we're still miles away from AICN's Danny Glover's Dick Blood meme's.

comment #51

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Uh, Snoop, you must be very new. When he's not posting links, that's ALL he does when actually commenting - one endless pissing contest for the last word.

Ironically, you summed up exactly why he will drive anyone who actually tries to engage and debate him batshit.

comment #52

MDOC says ...

I know I called for his head, but I do feel a tang of remorse. I never thought he would get whacked. I'll miss the way he'd write a post responding to 4 or 5 comments at a time.
He was dense though, he's the man that taught me what a straw man argument was and he had no concept of box office figures.
Good luck dude, I didn't hate you personally, only your warped notions of logic and taste.

comment #53

Gussie Fink-Nottle says ...

You may have already tried this Jeff, but wouldn't it have been fairer (and more in line with your treatment of Lex ,which does seem very fair), if you had told DeeZee to quit the endless linking under threat of expelling him entirely?

comment #54

Thunderballs says ...

The end of an era...

comment #55

Dan V. says ...

I enjoy most all of HE's comment regulars and their subsequent on-topic discussions but boiled down, I read HE for Jeff's opinion and writing. This cliquish cult of celebrity HE commenter jockeying is at best incidental, head-scratching and mildly annoying background noise.

Deezee may not have been the most entertaining or insightful read, but as a relative newbie who quietly frequents HE multiple times daily, I really don't understand how Deezee gets drop-kicked at the behest of a few outspoken, easily irritated Prima Donnas who know today's ban is tomorrow's new screen name. The DeeZee pile-on and Lex shoulder-propping feels like it belongs in a farmyard hen-house or a grade-school popularity contest. I realize the Lex feedback was invited by our host, but if visitors truly stop reading HE because of DeeZee or any other commenter, they're far too caught up in their personal importance. To them I'd simply say, "Farewell, Snoots."

comment #56

nbxzero says ...

Thank you, Jeff. I will definitely not miss DeeZee attempting to convince people his opinions/predictions were correct when he hadn't, and didn't intend to, see the movies he was posting about. And no amount of evidence to the contrary could convince him he was wrong. All the Avatar nonsense should have been enough to ban him.

comment #57

Gordn27 says ...

"Gordn27, Lazarus, et al, the constant high pitch whines and hysterical shrieks about DZ, like he's literally raping your eye sockets is far more annoying then anything he post."

That's just ridiculous. about 200 people in that thread chimed in begging Jeff to ban DZ. You're literally the only person who mentioned me or lazarus as a problem. *You* need to get over yourself. You're trying to start up against me and laz *exactly* what you're claiming we started against DZ, and ignoring the fact that (1) people agreed with us, (2) DZ derailed threads whether people responded to him or not, and (3) keeping DZ focused in one thread allowed other threads to thrive.

These are all simple facts. And now there's a (4) - DZ is gone. He's been officially given his walking papers.

comment #58

Gordn27 says ...

And yes, thank you Jeff. I know you weren't feeling this, which is why I thank you. It's easy to get you to do something you already want to do, but getting you to do something you're against doing solely to please the vast majority of your readers is a nice thing to do. This is a good first step towards making it "more engaging".

And, for the DZ fans, you'll still have Poland's site. (And surely others as well.)

comment #59

Sam Cleveland says ...

LETTER to DeeZee II

buddy, this is a bad break. I feel genuinely sorry for you. I'm guessing you'll read this - i know if there was a thread in my honour I'd keep coming back until the comments stopped ticking over.

Anyway... this is dead wrong, Jeff is dead wrong.

To be honest, your take on stuff was quite nutty, but in a cute way...

you'd cross your wires and I could sooort of see the points you were tryyying to make. and frankly, it was fun for me to decipher your peculiar perspective, which as I said... was quite nutty.

the people being rude to you?? faceless scum, each and every one. I always winced at that fuckwit Gordon27. Always.

Anyway, just reaching out to let you know I feel for you today.

LETTER to Lex I
You've clearly grown up an outsider. You're very sharp and very entertaining. I've never spotted you being rude to deez.
Watching him get banned must touch you in some way.

why don't you threaten a posting BOYCOTT until deez is welcomed back into the fold? Seriously.
You know he's doing his best. You know he's not a spiteful guy like these other little snipes.

LETTER to Jeff I

Give deez a link column... nothing more, nothing less... just batches and batches of links to movie news that you can't get around to chasing.
He's a very good aggregator of genre stuff. That way we can just come here and not have to fuck around on aicn or wherever. we get the news (from him) and the opinion (from you). I'm sure traffic would rise. Everybody wins.

Anyway, this is all really unfair. It's revolting to watch people pick on this deez guy. If he annoys you, ignore him. skip his fucking posts. So what if the connections he makes are a bit silly? Is posting strictly merit-based?

LETTER to Glenn Kenny I

You seem like a very slick guy. I'd rate you and JW neck-and-neck for insight / language / the doing of the job.
Your scenes in TGfE were top-notch; I've said so before.
My fiance and I always quote your 'white slavery... but it's not' line. With your delivery.

Getting quoted by my fiance is a big badge of honour... she's a cool customer!

comment #60

naza says ...

About fucking time !

comment #61

Homie Cat says ...

"That's just ridiculous. about 200 people in that thread chimed in begging Jeff to ban DZ. You're literally the only person who mentioned me or lazarus as a problem. *You* need to get over yourself. You're trying to start up against me and laz *exactly* what you're claiming we started against DZ, and ignoring the fact that (1) people agreed with us, (2) DZ derailed threads whether people responded to him or not, and (3) keeping DZ focused in one thread allowed other threads to thrive."

That's a load of bollocks. I mentioned you and Lazarus specifically, since you two where the ones wheezing on the coals the most, posting multiple whine and anger filled complaints for every DZ post. And the nastiness towards him was really uncalled for. Frankly, it was more disrupting to whatever particular thread it would occur in then DZ linky post was.

And for what? All that because your OCD wouldn't let you scroll down an extra two inches in a thread on a movie blog? So after months of shrieking and crying, you finally got an annoymous doofus banned from a movie site. For now. Wow. What an accomplishment.

End of, he's gone, and hopefully the braying will stop. I doubt it though. Between Lex and a probable DZ part 3...

comment #62

Rob Ross says ...

This site has jumped the shark with all the bs about bullying, trolling, thread links, he said she said. Time for me to move on and find a movie site that doesn't have douche bag visitors.

comment #63

mizerock says ...

Sorry to tell you, Rob Ross, that place doesn't exist. HE is, in fact, better than most, because it doesn't tolerate the utterly worthless posts like "FIRST!" and trolls that just want to yammer on about porn or why certain groups need to be exterminated from the earth.

I always found it perplexing that DZ's completely off-topic posts were tolerated for so long. By now he could have easily gotten a following on his own site / blog, for those dozen or so who found his links at all useful. I'm a little surprised he had to be blocked, I'm going to guess that polite suggestions to be relevant were tried first.