I just published the last of the anonymous comments. From now on, you must use your real first and last name. No more initials. Real first and last name.
The trolls are out of control. It is so easy to attack me and anyone else while remaining anonymous. You know how I feel about every issue I write here. I have had enough of the abusive comments.
At one time, Kelly Fraasch said that my blog was toxic. What she didn't admit was that the toxicity comes from trolls. It was so civilized when my blog was private.
I am sure that I will be receiving more abusive comments as the State Supreme Court situation unfolds. I am funding that fight entirely myself. I believe it is the right thing to do. NO TAX DOLLARS ARE BEING USED!
6 comments:
Totally understandable move.
It is interesting that so many of these MTL neighborhood bullies need to do so under the cloak of anonymity. Actually, it's not that surprising. Most bullies who try to silence others with fear so do so out of fear. See January's Behind the Bubble.
Nothing will drive property values down more than this increasingly rampant intolerance.
I predict that while posted comments will obviously decrease dramatically, readership will likely stay the same. The people who liked to come here in order post invective won't be able to break their reading habit. It will gall some of those readers that they can't take their usual shots behind the wall of anonymity, but in any event we now may get some civilized public discourse on whatever subjects are posted.
The people who were up in arms over being criticized for not having the courage to identify themselves often bring up the Federalist Papers as their justification for staying undercover. I have no issue what that - although none of the articles in the Federalist Papers contained the kind of insults that were the "commentaire du jour" here. What some of those folks can't understand is that 1)this Blog is not funded by taxpayers and is therefore private; 2)the Blog owner may establish whatever ground rules she desires; and 3)posters certainly have free speech rights, but those rights do not imply the right to tell another individual how to run her "business." I should also point out that if the anonymous posters had stuck to being civilized this whole identification requirement probably wouldn't have been instituted. You anons may not like what is posted here - and I understand that - but you could have taken the high road in order to set a better example. I also found it amusing that I was called out for abandoning my libertarian views by stating that I would not participate in a public debate with an individual unless I knew who it was I was debating. But that was MY decision, not Elaine's (Elaine still took anonymous posts at the time). Asking for a debater to identify himself/herself was in MY self-interest, and self-interest is both libertarian and objectivist.
I sincerely hope those who are statists, support the current municipal and school district governments, and who believe in taxpayer funded benefits for our upper-middle class residents will make their cases on this Blog. I may not agree with you, but I always appreciate a well-reasoned argument.
Sorry to disappoint the "anonymous" staffer from the municipality. As I commented in "Pete the Cluster," it must so frustrating for you to not be able to defend Susan Morgans. Now, when I post spreadsheets and time cards that show the fun and games going on at 710 Washington Road, I won't get the usual derisive comments that seem to show up here on Lebo Citizens.
Maybe the productivity in our local governments will improve, since there will be less time spent submitting hurtful comments to the blog. Just logging in, can eat up a fifteen minute work day.
Elaine
Richard Gideon, did you ever spend any time on the other popular blog here, bloglebo.blogspot.com? Most of the time, people were required to submit their real first and last names. People were civil. Many of those commenters read this blog today. How many of them post their names here? Very few, and some of those few would post their nasty comments anonymously. I hope that by enforcing the real name policy, more readers will return to those days of civilized public discourse.
Elaine
Elaine:
Yes (see http://bloglebo.blogspot.com/2011/08/letter-re-thinking-mcneilly-property.html, for one example). I was sorry to see that Blog go, but it seemed to run afoul of the local machine. Most of the people on that venue were, indeed, civil, even though things could get heated. And if one looks at the list of those who posted it's a "who's who" of the civic-minded of our town. I particularly miss reading the comments of Bill Lewis, who demonstrated his superior knowledge of Mt. Lebanon many times, and was (and still is) the consummate gentleman.
I think BlogLebo could have weathered the legal storm threatened against it, especially if they sought help from IJ, but it's a moot point now.
For the record, Blog-Lebo is still around, but Joe and I stopped updating it as we got busy with other things. Running a blog takes a lot of work, as I'm sure Elaine will testify.
Speaking only for myself, my main interest was doing data-driven reporting like our investigation of the property reassessments. When I ran out of spare time to collect the data and do the statistical analyses necessary to support this kind of reporting, I didn't have a lot of reason to post to the blog, and my posting just tapered off.
To be clear, I was not influenced by legal threats or any "local machine."
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