The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A Few Words About The FMJRA

Posted on | June 17, 2013 | 34 Comments

— by Wombat-socho


People get confused and angry about how the FMJRA works now and again, so I thought I’d take a couple minutes here and explain how I do this, for the benefit of people who haven’t figured it out on their own and/or want to know more so they can get whatever ego boost and additional traffic come from being the A-Number One Top Linker for the week here at The Other McCain.


I. Except on rare occasions when I’m too sick/distracted/deranged to handle it*, the FMJRA is my bailiwick. Whining to Stacy or Smitty will get you nowhere. Don’t whine to me either. I hate whining.


Secondly, the FMJRA is driven by a couple of reports that WordPress generates. Unfortunately, WordPress occasionally misses links from other WP and TypePad blogs, and completely ignores Blogger. So if you’re linking up a storm but not seeing your links in the FMJRA, you may want to keep track of your links in a text file and send them to me by midnight Friday so I can include you in the Great List of Links. I refer to this approach as “doing it the hard way”, because it requires some effort, as opposed to letting WordPress do all the work for you.


2A. No links to Tweets, Facebook posts, LJ entries or anything else that doesn’t have theothermccain.com in its URL. None of these will be counted. No exceptions.


2B. As a corollary to Rule 2, no links to posts before the previous Saturday will be counted. For example, if you send in your links this Friday with some links to posts from last week (ending June 14) those links will not be counted.


C. Please do not confuse Rule 5 links with the FMJRA. Sending your links to the wrong mailbox makes the wombat sad.


C(2). If you are going to submit FMJRA links via e-mail, for the love of Christ PLEASE do not mail-bomb me with a separate e-mail for each link or post; collect them into one big e-mail instead. Mailbombing makes the wombat angry and prone to deprive you of your linkagery, as EBL can attest.


IV. Click on the Amazon ads at the bottom of the FMJRA and buy stuff. Help keep the Gruel Fund stocked and the Diet Coke Keg well filled! Also, hit the freaking tip jar! Only with your help can we beat back the Godless Commie Hordes and preserve our purity of essence, only to ruin it again every week with Soylent Green‘s Rule 5 links.


I hope this clears up some of the confusion and makes your job of submitting links easier. Remember, more links = more traffic = happy bloggers.
DO IT.


*On those rare occasions, the FMJRA returns to the capable hands of the Admiral of the Afghan Seas, whose duty it once was to compile this mess before the arrival of the World’s Youngest Blogger.


Category: Blogging, FMJRA Award

Comments

34 Responses to “A Few Words About The FMJRA”

  1. Matthew W
    June 17th, 2013 @ 12:21 pm

    So bribes of unmarked bills won’t work?

  2. Mm
    June 17th, 2013 @ 12:23 pm

    Off topic, but it is related to blog admin: what happened to “the amazing gonzo feed”? I really liked being able to look at it and see the tweets.

  3. Quartermaster
    June 17th, 2013 @ 12:43 pm

    “On those rare occasions, the FMJRA returns to the capable hands of the Admiral of the Afghan Seas, whose duty it once was to compile this mess before the arrival of the World’s Youngest Blogger.”
    That sure sounds like whining to me, Wombat. 🙂

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    June 17th, 2013 @ 12:47 pm

    I have learned all these rules, “the hard way.” But it is nice to see them codified (someone need to make a cuniform clay cylinder of this Wombat Wisdom of it and bury it somewhere for future historians). And I can attest that past wining, when I thought things were missed in my favor, only earned me scorn and mockery.

  5. Doug Hgain
    June 17th, 2013 @ 12:54 pm

    You are doing a fine job

  6. jakee308
    June 17th, 2013 @ 1:14 pm

    And an appreciative thank you for the clarity provided by the bullet point labels.

    They truly made EVERYTHING clear.

  7. Dianna Deeley
    June 17th, 2013 @ 3:16 pm

    We really don’t want the Wombat to be sad. Or any wombat, come to think of it.

    Though how one would discern sorrow upon a wombat’s countenance is a bit of a mystery. Behold: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://zactopia.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/wombat.jpg&imgrefurl=http://zactopia.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/why-you-should-give-a-square-shit-about-wombats/&h=195&w=259&sz=1&tbnid=IMbw9NaeR1NA_M:&tbnh=150&tbnw=200&zoom=1&usg=__EAqQBXAGL91XEe65r4znnq_nuT4=&docid=lUlHvNqkNzw-bM&itg=1&sa=X&ei=rGC_UbW-OsWtigKtpID4AQ&ved=0CJUBEPwdMAo

  8. Dianna Deeley
    June 17th, 2013 @ 3:22 pm

    Cuneiform. I don’t know why I’m annoyed when it’s mis-spelled, nor why I cannot refrain from correcting it.

  9. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    June 17th, 2013 @ 4:35 pm

    Fair enough. I am a cow who takes no offense for being corrected on grammar or spelling.

  10. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    June 17th, 2013 @ 4:36 pm

    We want the wombat to be happy. Everyone is happier when the wombat is happy.

  11. Wombat_socho
    June 17th, 2013 @ 5:39 pm

    Nobody’s tried that yet, but you’re welcome to be the first. Make sure you include 20% extra for Stacy’s cut. 😉

  12. Wombat_socho
    June 17th, 2013 @ 5:40 pm

    Good question, and not one I can answer.

  13. Wombat_socho
    June 17th, 2013 @ 5:41 pm

    You need your eyeglass prescription and your English translation software checked, son.

  14. Wombat_socho
    June 17th, 2013 @ 5:41 pm

    Thanks, Doug.

  15. Wombat_socho
    June 17th, 2013 @ 5:42 pm

    I certainly hope so.

  16. Wombat_socho
    June 17th, 2013 @ 5:43 pm

    Well, semi-domesticated wombats express affection by nibbling on the ankles of their hosts…okay, I don’t know how much that helps either.

  17. Dianna Deeley
    June 17th, 2013 @ 5:45 pm

    Considering that I suspect non-domesticated wombats bite savagely…it helps.

  18. Mike G.
    June 17th, 2013 @ 5:54 pm

    Darn…somehow I think this is my fault.

  19. Becca Lower
    June 17th, 2013 @ 8:30 pm

    We’ve been there, Mike. 😉

  20. Quartermaster
    June 17th, 2013 @ 9:36 pm

    Now, now. I don’t need glasses to read the screen, and English is my mother tongue.

  21. Quartermaster
    June 17th, 2013 @ 9:37 pm

    Is Stacy feeding you better these days, with the new gig and all? Or is the gruel still watery?

  22. Wombat_socho
    June 17th, 2013 @ 10:04 pm

    Well, the ration was supposed to be increased, but the bowls are the same size, so I dunno…

  23. Wombat_socho
    June 17th, 2013 @ 10:05 pm

    Oh. So then you have no excuse for misapprehending my meaning, which was purely expository.

  24. Wombat_socho
    June 17th, 2013 @ 10:06 pm

    Nope. I’ve been thinking about doing this post for a while now.

  25. Bob Belvedere
    June 18th, 2013 @ 8:00 am

    Can’t we all just get along?!?

  26. Bob Belvedere
    June 18th, 2013 @ 8:02 am

    Thanks, pal. Now I have an image of you nibbling Stacy’s ankles – BRAIN BLEACH – STAT!.

  27. Rich Vail
    June 18th, 2013 @ 5:34 pm

    I’ve never gotten a link back from this blog, despite constant linkings for a couple of years. But it just doesn’t matter any more, as I’ve vastly reduced my blog posts.

    I’ve gotten far more love from the writers of this blog through Twitter, than through your FMJRA…and for those of us who are ignorant swine, you might point out what it means.

  28. Rich Vail
    June 18th, 2013 @ 5:44 pm

    Due to poverty, I could never afford to use anything other than Blogger…which from this post I now know they ignore…hence my whinning post above…big sigh….

  29. Wombat_socho
    June 22nd, 2013 @ 8:28 pm

    IT’S NOT THAT KIND OF RELATIONSHIP. >:(

  30. Wombat_socho
    June 22nd, 2013 @ 8:31 pm

    Well, it’s not really *my* FMJRA, I just post it for Stacy, because he has enough on his hands. That having been said, I’m glad you’re getting the attention on Twitter from Stacy & Smitty. I’d be happy to post whatever links you send in. Even if you have cut back on blogging.

  31. Wombat_socho
    June 22nd, 2013 @ 8:32 pm

    This is a good idea, just in case Smitty and I are both hors-de-combat some weekend and Stacy needs something to refer to. 😉

  32. Rich Vail
    June 22nd, 2013 @ 10:35 pm

    Not a problem, just momentary sour grapes is all. This blog is one of my daily reads…still haven’t a clue what FMJRA means though…lol

  33. Beeblebrocs
    June 23rd, 2013 @ 10:06 am

    @Rich,

    FMJRA is an acronym for the disgusting phrase “Full Metal Jacket Reach-around” (yes, to be grammatically correct, the last word is hyphenated so the acronym should actually be FMJR – but I digress.)

    Because this is such a vulgar phrase coming from one of the more loathsome movies about the Vietnam War, I specifically avoid any “FMJRA” links on principle alone.

    Furthermore, the linkage is useless to me without an associated date and summary of what’s behind the link. To me, it’s just one long list of likely outdated and context-less blog posts so between the repulsive name and the lack of summary info, I ignore the whole thing. YMMV

  34. Rich Vail
    June 23rd, 2013 @ 10:07 am

    as a former Marine (though in my 3rd decade since I served), I should have heard of this one…thanks for the clarification.