The world of anonymous internet discussion is an odd one. It’s also a pain in the media’s side. Finding balance between censoring comments and moderating for personal attacks and trolling is a difficult and relatively new conundrum. But when done right, it can also be an enriching and helpful exercise. Put simply, online discourse ranges on a spectrum from society’s worst that can include racist, hateful, or even violent threats to a modern-day “marketplace of ideas” that promotes and encourages mutual understanding and amplifies, rather than detracts from, the reporting itself.
At Poets&Quants, we see it all. We read comments thoroughly throughout the year and also take stock of them at year’s end. Again this year, we decided to compile our favorites. Some are rebukes to trolling and mean comments. Others are witty rejoinders that made us laugh out loud and share with fellow staffers in the P&Q office. And some are so simply outlandish that we had to give them a second airing.
Below, see our ten favorite reader comments from this past year. Above all else, thanks for reading and commenting.
“Yo my dude it’s ‘guerrilla’ not ‘gorilla'”
Flickr Creative Commons photo
One of the more prominent commenters on P&Q is C. Taylor. And in an article about the Wisconsin MBA debacle towards the end of 2017, C. Taylor got caught up in an odd exchange with a commenter named “Guerilla.” C. Taylor kicks off the comments by posting:
“Solid piece, John. Wisconsin’s MBA is too great to shut down. Shares the lead for best in its tier.
“I don’t see anyone going into a deanship planning on announcing the closure of the MBA program within two months of starting.
“Someone was playing hardball in the no-dean-zone between Ortalo-Magné and Massey. Only blame that can be laid at Massey’s feet here is the failure to knock a few heads and put the plan on ice pending more serious examination.
“Who? The PhD program and centers would be the first place I’d look for an ossified goat or five. This power play / act of guerrilla warfare should be laid directly at their feet and used as kindling where appropriate.”
Except at the time, C. Taylor wrote “gorilla” instead of “guerilla.” For which “Guerrilla” had some input.
“Yo my dude it’s ‘guerrilla’ not ‘gorilla.’ Please get it right,” Guerrilla responded.
C. Taylor took the feedback well.
“Haha! Thanks for catching that, Guerilla. I hereby award you two bananas,” C. Taylor wrote. “You can’t beat free human spellcheckers.”
That is nice of C. Taylor, but if the commenter is Guerrilla and not Gorilla, we’re confused as to if she/he would actually want bananas.
“Whatever you are smoking, it’s potent… you should bottle it up and sell it to Yale SOM.”
Some things can be counted on to rile our commenters. Rankings. Rising GMAT scores. And, apparently, Yale’s School of Management. One particular comment thread contained all three necessary ingredients for nuclear comment mode. The article, published in September, was a rundown of the average GMAT scores being reported by schools for the incoming Class of 2017. Nearly all top schools reported year-over-year gains, many of which had record averages. Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Northwestern’s Kellogg, Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and Chicago Booth posted the top four scores.
“It’s pretty clear that the top 4 schools are Stanford, Kellogg, Booth, and Wharton. If you go to those elite schools, you’re likely pretty smart,” a commenter named “trey” said.
That of course got a smattering of responses from all sorts of commenters, including our Editor-in-Chief, John Byrne. But our favorite?
“Whatever you are smoking, it’s potent… you should bottle it up and sell it to Yale SOM,” Anon wrote.
Chicago Booth MBA students
Is There A Rivalry Or Not Between Kellogg And Booth?
Speaking of Kellogg and Booth, their rivalry or pseudo-rivalry popped up in multiple comment threads throughout the year. In a November article that dissected Booth’s Class of 2017 employment report, things got heated. And then not heated. It started — as it so often did last year — with avivalasvegas, who riled other commenters throughout the year.
“Truly a sad day for Boothies. I’m forecasting a rankings slide, as this deviation from their focus is exactly what happened at Kellogg, their rival program,” avivalasvegas wrote.
Of course in the world of anonymous internet posting, it’s unclear who exactly avivalasvegas is, whether she or he holds an MBA, and if so, where they went to school. Regardless, the pot was stirred, and M7hopeful took the bait.
“Leave it to aviva to leave a comment about Kellogg on an article that has nothing to do with Kellogg,” M7hopeful wrote, making a fair point.
“Ah M7Hopeful, our resident, perpetually naive, Kellogg fanboy resurfaces,” avivalasvegas responded. “Booth has so much to do with Kellogg. It’s the b-school rivalry to end all rivalries.”
To which M7hopeful responds, “You’re either hopelessly disconnected from reality or purposely making things up. I’m still not sure which.”
“You don’t really know where I went to B school M7 – I could have been sitting next to you in the Jake for two years for all you know ;),” avivalasvegas responded, earning a spot in this article and quite possibly the creepiest comment we saw this year.
“Actually they are just the unicorns which got away.”
Once again, C. Taylor provides a witty, albeit sarcasm-drenched, comment. In early March, we covered a study that ranked business schools by the number of unicorns — privately held companies valued at at least $1 billion — their alumni had founded. A commenter named “smartie” posited that “valuations are meaningless” until the company sold or went public. C. Taylor engaged. An argument ensued over the relevance of the unicorn valuation for business schools.
“Well many are no longer unicorns,” smartie wrote, “that’s exactly my point and many others might not continue to be unicorns next year unless the company is sold or IPOed, the value is here-say and cloud money so ranking schools on cloud money is futile.”
Thankfully, C. Taylor set smartie (and the rest of us) straight on what exactly a unicorn is.
“Actually they are just the unicorns which got away. From Britannica:
‘Unicorns are good and pure creatures with magical powers. They are strong, often white in color, and difficult to catch.'”
“Not your darling…”
In addition to rankings, rivalries, and GMAT scores, President Donald Trump — and his graduating from Pennsylvania’s Wharton School — provided another source of heated bickering between commenters. One of the early instances happened in February, when we reported on an article published by The Daily Pennsylvanian. The article unearthed the Dean’s List for the 1968 Wharton class of undergrads. Despite Trump’s claims of finishing at the top of his class, his name is absent from the list of 56 names officially on the Dean’s List, which represented the top 15% of that year’s graduating class.
Commenter Charles Martel was quick to defend the president’s claims.
“Not so fast. First, it’s hard to know whether transfers at Penn in the ’60s were eligible for Latin honors or to be ranked as class valedictorian. Second, the actual text of the article in Daily Pennsylvania is pretty favorable to Trump’s academic seriousness,” Charles Martel wrote.
Our Editor-in-Chief John Byrne responded: “It wouldn’t be important at all if Trump hadn’t claimed he graduated first in his class. Who really cares, after all? It’s just another example of a falsehood.”
Said Charles Martel: “I don’t know whether it’s important, but you’ve failed to refute his claim. It does occur to me, however, that he might have received a departmental award from the real estate dept.”
And then Karen Russell, another commenter, stepped in.
“How is his claim not refuted? He’s not on the Dean’s List; he’s not listed as having received any awards. How does one graduate at the top of his class and not have it noted in the program at the very least. I’m sorry, but you’re simply grasping at straws and making excuses for the sorriest excuse of a president this country’s ever elected,” Karen Russell wrote.
Then Charles Martel: “Read the article, darlin’. It’s obvious from the quotes that Trump was a committed and serious student. And as I explained, it’s very possible that Penn in the ’60s — and possibly now — didn’t consider transfers eligible for Latin honors, etc. This is a fairly common practice.”
Karen Russell’s response?
“Not your darling and what article did you read?”
As showcased at last night’s Golden Globes Awards, gender is an incredibly heated topic at the moment. Elite business schools do not (totally) exist in a silo, and thus they are often impacted by national events and discourse. Last March, students at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business found themselves in the crosshairs. Soon after posting to YouTube a video promoting an upcoming “follies” show, criticism of the video started pouring in. One writer called the video “misogynistic,” and a mostly constructive gender politics debate ensued.
But our favorite comment of the 17 at the bottom of the article was a simple and important one. It came from an anonymous poster named “Errrrm.”
“Gender politics aside, can talk about how objectively unfunny, un-clever and deeply uncool this is?”
Well put.
Maybe it’s time to look into architecture…
To celebrate the building’s lakefront location, Kellogg’s new 415,000 square foot Global Hub pays pays homage to the environment in two ways – the curved exterior walls reflect the wave movement on the lake, while the glass reflects the blues of the water as well as the sky.
Also back in March, we covered the opening of Northwestern Kellogg’s new $250 million lakefront building. The 415,000-square-foot structure appears to be a massive upgrade from the previous — and relatively boring — home of the elite B-school. Commenters deluged the article with 26 comments ranging from more Yale trolling to calling out our reporting. But our favorite comment thread came from a poster named “Mies” who took deep umbrage with the new digs.
We’re not sure if Mies is being serious or sarcastic, but either way, one particular response to the comment made us laugh.
“The new building is one of the reasons I reject Kellogg’s offer this year. Looking at this building from an architectural stand point, it hardly has real innovation. It is totally understandable that Kellogg administration wants this new facility to be collaborative, transparent and exciting, which however ironically leads to a learning facility that very much looks like a shopping mall,” Mies wrote.
Mies’ comment continued in great detail about how a business school building should accurately reflect a school’s overall brand and mission. It also compared (in great detail) other schools that were at an architectural advantage. And then a commenter named Current Student weighed in with not only a retort, but with some sage life advice.
“I understand the points you are making but it sounds like you need to forgo the business school experience in exchange for a masters in architecture,” Current Student wrote. “We have a new building, it’s gorgeous, and it better suits our needs as a growing institution. I enrolled in Kellogg when it was in an old concrete box. But that was certainly not my measure for success when choosing the right business school for me. Turning down a business school for its building is like turning down a job offer because of the office cafeteria. Maybe it’s time to look into architecture …”
Maybe so.
“Washington’s Foster Is Great School”
Sometimes before publishing, we have an idea if a particular article is going to really rile people up. To be clear, we do not publish articles only for this purpose. But it’s a simple fact: some topics we cover are going to set people off more than others. Other times, a firestorm of comments erupts when we least expect it. The most prominent example this last year: our Meet the Class feature for the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.
By all accounts, this is a highly regarded land grant university in the relatively calm Pacific Northwest. Like the state, it’s just kinda there.
And then a commenter named Jonathan made a troll-move. “Why does P&Q keep featuring schools like this that nobody realistically wants to go to?” Jonathan asked the rest of the P&Q community.
It set off a totally warranted — and heated — argument. “Avivalasvegas” stepped in again and made an incredibly bold and general claim with no data or evidence to back it up.
“I have classmates from my graduating class who are now Senior Managers/Directors at Amazon. As a general rule of thumb, Foster MBAs are hired into L5 roles. M7 school grads are typically hired into L6 roles at Amazon. Feel free to cross check this yourself,” avivalasvegas wrote.
The argument soon dwindled to avivalasvegas and a commenter named “Josh,” then a commenter named “Jeremey,” and finally “warren.” All three took turns at feeding the avivalasvegas trolling. It’s all too much to fully rehash in this article, but finally, out of nowhere, warren weighs in with a final proposal:
“Happy that we finally have reached a common ground: Washington’s Foster is great school.”
We agree.
Yosemite National Park in California, the state described by one commenter as a “hellhole.” Photo by Nathan Allen
“A Far Left Morally Bankrupt Hellhole”
In November, we reported that for the first time ever more Kellogg MBAs went to a region other than the Midwest for work. That region? The West Coast. We’re not totally sure why (other than classic internet trolling), but this set off one commenter.
“Why anybody would want to live in California is beyond me. It’s a far left morally bankrupt hellhole (you can pretty much say the same thing about Seattle, WA, too),” wrote Nidjd Nufh.
Full disclosure: Poets&Quants is headquartered in California. The majority of our staff live in California. That being said, let’s visit some stats. In 2016, California’s GDP was $2.5 trillion. That’s more than $1 trillion higher than the next highest state and larger than every other country in the world besides the U.S., China, Japan, Germany, and the U.K. The state’s highest exports in 2015? Computers and electronics, vehicles and machinery, and agriculture, food, and beverages. Not to mention, the state has some of the most beautiful outdoor spaces and enjoys some of the best weather in the world.
Far left? Perhaps? Morally bankrupt? Hardly. Hellhole? That’s laughable. Now, if the commenter wants to talk about traffic and the cost of living, we might be able to find some common ground …
“But First — Change Your GMAT Score.”
It wouldn’t be a top comment list without our resident wise guy, Sandy Kreisberg, the founder of HBSGuru.com. Kreisberg’s commenter name is hbsguru and he is probably our most frequent commenter — especially when it comes to admissions-related news. Last June, we first reported that Stanford Graduate School of Business’s incoming Class of 2017 had an average GMAT score of 740 — higher than any other full-time MBA class that we know of.
Kreisberg was the first commenter on the article and offered a lengthy breakdown. But we appreciate his summarizing statement most.
“… the Stanford motto is ‘Change lives. Change organizations. But first — Change your GMAT score.'”
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