WSJ says Harvey Miller returning to WGM. Why would the man do that at his age? He clearly does not need the money.

what a lame post. where's the insightful commentary we've come to expect from...oh wait...this is ATL and not the WSJ law blog.

my apologies. tyia

If you sign a post "xoxo regular," you shouldn't expect to be taken seriously.

Back to the cesspool with you. There are lives out there waiting to be fucked up.

One of the many side stories to this: http://xoxoreader.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-happened-between-board-and-david.html

because saying all xoxo regulars are awful human beings is WAY different than saying all jews are crafty or all blacks are dumb.

did you take logic classes in high school? because it seems the answer is no.

Did you just post a blank message L2L? What does that mean?

I AM A RACIST AND I RUIN LIVES AND HATE EVERYONE AND AM A SIGN OF THE RAPID DESCENT OF OUR SOCIETY INTO MORAL RUIN! O NOES!

When a top school student doesn't get a summer job it makes the cover of the Washington Post.

When a tier 2 student doesn't get a job, it's printed on a diner napkin, where the poor tier 2 soothes themself with comfort food as they ponder their student loans and plan their midnight getaway to Albania.

We are shocked -- SHOCKED -- to learn that teh interwebs are being used for evil. Something MUST be done lest we become no better than ANIMALS!

Can I blame xoxo for my inability to find a job?

i, for one, appreciate cheerful girls with big tits. but they have to STAY cheerful. they can't stop running around the yale gym in their skimpy booty shorts and strappy workout tops just because someone might take a picture of them and post it on xoxo.

unlike david lat, many of us have real jobs in the legal profession.

in addition, few of us have ever pretended to be members of the opposite sex.

so explain again why we're taken less seriously than david lat?

HARUMPH HARUMPH HARUMPH!

The googles must be stopped!

"because saying all xoxo regulars are awful human beings is WAY different than saying all jews are crafty or all blacks are dumb."

it is. the latter categories are not the result of choice.

ok then. ALL MORMONS ARE STUPID PEDOPHILES!

better? see my point yet?

Great article. I wonder if Anthony Ciolli has a job?

A. Ciolli has a BIGLAW job (so he says).

or a boat?

{sound of crickets chirping}

how about this? jews were exterminated en masse and blacks were enslaved. xoxo posters haven't suffered any of this, but probably deserve to.

Neither example is a violation of FORMAL logic. At worst, they are examples of an INFORMAL logical fallacy known as a Part-Hole.

In less technical language, it is possible that all xoxo regulars are awful human beings. This cannot be disproved through formal logic - only through empirical evidence. i.e., show us a xoxo regular who's not an a**-**** and you've won your argument (though I doubt that will be an easy task).

1237: What about black and jewish xoxo posters? They do exist. Does that mean they're cool in your book? Also, why have you called for the enslavement/extermination of xoxo's posters? How big of an asshole does that make you?

1254: How many xoxo regulars do you know and are they assholes in real life? If the answer is none or no, why are you running your festering gob, you tit?

EVEN THOUGH NO ONE OTHER THAN A HANDFUL OF ACADEMIC WONKS AND 9TH GRADE PRIVATE SCHOOL KIDS USE ME MY POWER IS GREAT!

LOOK ON MY WORKS YE MIGHTY AND DESPAIR!

explain "rowan."

1:07, it's pretty clear from the content and wording of your posting that you're not offering your own self as an example of an xoxo regular who's not an asshole.

I wonder if Ciolli's supposed BIGLAW employer will make him disassociate himself from xoxo. It seems hard to believe otherwise.

xoxo poster is a moron.

lat worked for the u.s. attorney's office in the district of NJ in newark. he also worked for wachtell.

it is indisputable that the aggregate level of intelligence and serious discussion on autoadmit ever climbs above cesspool levels.

allow me to rephrase:

it is indisputable that the aggregate level of intelligence and serious discussion on autoadmit RARELY climbs above cesspool level.

so you're saying you're a regular poster "anon?" because otherwise it seems you wouldn't be able to speak with any authority about the level of intelligence normally displayed in xoxo's conversation.

also, for the record Lat's fulltime job is ATL unless i'm mistaken. given the content of this blog, i have to assume watchell was a fluke.

The posts defending xoxo against accusations of cesspool-hood aren't really helping xoxo's cause.

The site's authors talk about "free speech" in the article, but I wonder how many people xoxo has caused to question the value of free speech or think about what its limits should be.

xoxo's conversation? the autoadmit site is like 50,000 Loyola 2Ls slightly lobotomized and on meth, using their keyboards as targeted diarrhea vehicles to spew ridiculously uninformed crap all day long.

i don't think the posts asserting xoxo's "cesspool-hood" are helping their cause either.

these posters, rather than conducting an serious inquiry into the board's content, are using a few bad apples to paint the entire place as a cesspool. racist/sexist posters are an insignificant portion of the posting population...just a disproportionately active part.

frankly, i don't see the difference b/w an employer looking up someone's myspace page and using info on it to ding them and an xoxo poster doing the same thing to bitch about them.

has the heide thing gone too far? sure. but both xoxo and heide have gone out of their way to agitate each other. some posters rant about her and put up personal info, she trolls for herself condemning them. those posters get pissed and take it further, then heide calls "reputation defender" and the WaPo and starts misconstruing the meaning of defamatory and libelous.

remember kids: mutually assured destruction is shitty policy because in the end everyone gets destroyed.

in addition, remember that self-righteousness isn't becoming. at least 99.9% of xoxo posters don't suffer from that vice.

I don't understand why some are so proud of being a xoxo poster. It's like a group of retards showing off their matching purple helmets.

Interesting point, 2:59. It also makes one ponder how anonymity affects the value and limits of free speech. It's hard to imagine the xoxo twits making the statements of the sort they make online in person, where they will have to face the full consequences of their free speech and expressions.

I also must give props to 3:05. These morons are the future of the legal profession?

Regarding 2:56's ridiculous assertion, leave Lat alone. I sincerely hope that you will never (and strongly doubt that you will ever) have the opportunity to practice at Wachtell or as an AUSA. The fact that Lat decided to pursue an alternative legal career in no way diminishes his accomplishments.

The distinction, 3:11, is that a MySpace page is one's own public statement, whereas chatter on xoxo or a similar forum is offer by other (anonymous) individuals. Frankly, a perspective employer looking at a MySpace page strikes me as very innocuous (but as previous posters have mentioned, what BIGLAW partner has the time - and who would want to work with a creepy partner who spend his or her time MySpace stalking early-twentysomething law students?).

The "few bad apples" excuse is a bit old, no? Every time I look at the site, the "bad apple" threads are either the majority or the most prominent.

There are a few informative threads, lots of inane but harmless threads, a few disgusting but mostly harmless threads, and then there are these personal attacks.

Of those four, the group of informative threads is probably the smallest. The rest of it justifies the "cesspool" accusation, and the personal attacks are probably enough of a reason to argue that the whole site should be shut down and that people who consider xoxo as part of their identity deserve no respect from the rest of us.

Before it got personal, I didn't mind the site. I didn't even mind it when it got personal w/r/t Leiter, because he could defend himself, and because he's enough of a bully that a small taste of his own medicine isn't such a bad thing.

But the recent stuff has dragged people into the spotlight who certainly don't deserve it. For those who disagree, I wonder how they'd feel if a list was published of all of the regular xoxo posters with their real names matched up with their handles. If I was a hiring partner and this happened, I'd use the list to screen out undesirables.

And what is wrong with the target of anonymous attacks trying to do something about it? Ill-advised, maybe, but certainly not blameworthy.

why is a guy whose very name admits that he uses work time to post on ATL because he hates his job making assumptions about the ability of others to get quality jobs based on the websites they frequent or their feelings on david lat?

also, how about the irony of people knocking xoxo posters for standing up for their web forum of choice while berating people who dislike ATL's content (presumably the forum of choice for those doing said berating).

this just serves to drive home 3:11's point: "self-righteousness isn't becoming. at least 99.9% of xoxo posters don't suffer from that vice."

350: I don't think most xoxo posters think the posts at issue in the WaPo article are acceptable. Tons of posters have complained, and the T14 contest was pulled as a result of it. Most don't like the pointless race-baiting. This is an argument for working to clean up the board, not to close it down.

Ultimately, I think the things people say they don't like about xoxo are true of the vast majority of the internet. It's an anonymous haven for hate-mongers, and has enable unprecedented invasions of personal privacy. Should we shut the internet down?

Why are Greedy Associates and Infirmation so much more civil than xoxo?

Birds of a feather...

It's a big internet, guys. Surely you can find somewhere else to post than a place rife with personal attacks and racist drivel? The fact that you chose to stick around there indicates that you deserve to be tarred with the same stick. You will be judged by the company you keep, deservedly so.

"a place rife with personal attacks and racist drivel"

you are talking about the internet, right?

because infirmation and GA are so poorly designed they are virtually unusable. less posters=less racist trolls.

3:58: my name does not imply that I "hate" my job; it implies that it's more "fun" to write comments on this site than to draft some of the things I have to draft during the more routine parts of my day. Notice the distinction between "my work" and "my boring work".

Furthermore, my conclusion (not assumption) regarding your employability is based on the content of your comments, not on the fact that you are a xoxo regular (though that doesn't score points). Your opinions on Lat really don't factor - aside from the fact that they are obnoxious and baseless.

please explain how you gleaned from my posts that i am unable to land a great job. if this is true, you have an incredible gift! HR departments can hire you, require incoming applicants to comment on ATL, and then you can tell them who makes the cut.

dazzle me.

tyia

The (friendly) pissing match between 4:34 and I actually got me thinking about one of the possible assumptions in the WaPo article.

Certain parties mentioned in the article claim that certain comments made about particular individuals can cause actual harm to those individuals. This is actually similar to 4:34's facetious admission that I am able to gain an incite into his/her potential as a job candidate. What underlies both claims is the premise that idle chatter (in these instances, online idle chatter), be it direct (as in the case of 4:34) or indirect statements (as in the case of xoxo chatter) can provide incite (either accurate or inaccurate) into the character of an individual.

In other words, say something stupid online - or have something stupid said about you online - and people think you're stupid.

very INSIGHTful post. it's obvious you are much more prestigious than the guy you're arguing with.

Prestigious in a Gallion & Spielvogel way? (I hope!) Cut me some slack: I'm not operating on much sleep. I also don't proof my posts as diligently as I proof my work product.

On an interesting note, I’m a tier 1 grad and an associate at a NYC BIG LAW – and I make lots of typos. Q: Why? A: Because I can. Food for thought, L2L?

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/03/07/wapo-calls-out-law-school-pervs/

The posters at AutoAdmit crossed the line from free speech to harassment when they started posting photos of the women without consent, along with names, contact information and details on their schedules.

Anthony Ciolli & Jarret Cohen had a chance to do something about it (remove the information) initially and they didn't. Many boards manage to have free speech, but will draw the line at posting that type of information about people. They are self policing where people will report those types of post & they'll be deleted.