Within the digital pages of our town's online "newspaper," called AnnArbor.com, comment threads are policed by "comment moderators," aka AnnArbor.com staff. If a comment is deemed off topic, antagonistic towards others, inappropriate, etc., it is removed. In the comment's former place, you see a post from the moderators saying, "A comment that violated AnnArbor.com's conversation guidelines was removed."
Yesterday my comment was removed because, you guessed it, I broke the first rule of Fight Club.
As you may (and should!) know, the first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club.
I thought I had a real zinger of a comment for a news story yesterday. The story was about finding places to park downtown for less money. The writer explained how to find cheaper parking by pointing out which meters are available at half price. My knee jerk reaction to such a story was similar to the final shot of Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Why would they DO THAT?! Why would they tell everyone where all the juicy parking meters are??!!?
The first rule of Parking in Downtown Ann Arbor is: you DO NOT tell people the good places to park in downtown Ann Arbor.
So, naturally, I decided to make my sentiment known by posting the first rule of Fight Club as my comment on the story.
My comment did not make it to the page, which got me to thinking...
Do the staff of AnnArbor.com have a secret Fight Club ring? Is sparring with one another their go-to activity on slow news days? Either the moderators DID get my joke, and removed my comment as a return zinger because I had, in fact, also just broken the first rule of Fight Club... OR, the moderators didn't get my joke and thought I was being off topic or argumentative with someone. I hope it wasn't the latter, because it was a VERY on topic comment: stop writing stories that will take my best parking spaces away.
Hats off to you, AnnArbor.com, if you actually meant to school me and/or if you operate a secret ring of fighting bandits.
If it's neither of those things, then...
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