Mixed Feelings
I have followed this web site from its beginnings, and believe that the general tone of the site actually has improved just a bit. However, I still have mixed feelings about it.
The site does provide valuable community information (for which our webmasters deserve applause), and a wonderful opportunity for those interested in this community and its governance to discuss our community's issues. This web site played a vital role in turning around the city's government and policies.
On the other hand, too often important public issues have gotten lost in ignorant and rancorous name-calling and personal insults. I suspect, indeed, that the recent explosion of hits to this site may be due, significantly, to voyeurism.
I guess that a candidate's ability to do what he or she proposes to do, and an incumbent's failure to keep campaign promises, are fair game. We also have had public officials in this community who violated the public's trust and, in fact, are in prison for it. There certainly is a need, some times, to blow the whistle on such stuff. But there has been far too little discussion of serious issues on this web site, and far too much candidate and officeholder character assassination.
Indeed, many members of this community refuse to post here, or even to read what is posted, because they have no appetite for such stuff. Now that profanity has been thrown into the mix, that is unlikely to change.
I do not suggest pulling the plug on this web site. Nor do I suggest censoring rancorous or profane postings. But a little common courtesy and decency, a little more focus on issues, and a lot less focus on personalities, would go a long way to making this site more useful, and more interesting, for everyone.
I have followed this web site from its beginnings, and believe that the general tone of the site actually has improved just a bit. However, I still have mixed feelings about it.
The site does provide valuable community information (for which our webmasters deserve applause), and a wonderful opportunity for those interested in this community and its governance to discuss our community's issues. This web site played a vital role in turning around the city's government and policies.
On the other hand, too often important public issues have gotten lost in ignorant and rancorous name-calling and personal insults. I suspect, indeed, that the recent explosion of hits to this site may be due, significantly, to voyeurism.
I guess that a candidate's ability to do what he or she proposes to do, and an incumbent's failure to keep campaign promises, are fair game. We also have had public officials in this community who violated the public's trust and, in fact, are in prison for it. There certainly is a need, some times, to blow the whistle on such stuff. But there has been far too little discussion of serious issues on this web site, and far too much candidate and officeholder character assassination.
Indeed, many members of this community refuse to post here, or even to read what is posted, because they have no appetite for such stuff. Now that profanity has been thrown into the mix, that is unlikely to change.
I do not suggest pulling the plug on this web site. Nor do I suggest censoring rancorous or profane postings. But a little common courtesy and decency, a little more focus on issues, and a lot less focus on personalities, would go a long way to making this site more useful, and more interesting, for everyone.
