I want to begin by thanking everyone who has read, posted, and told their friends about NewsOverCoffee.
In December over 5,500 unique visits were made and during that month over half the people returned to the site more than seven times.
In January, especially following Bill White's nice column and comments, I noticed the daily readership increased from about 150 that was averaged in December to about 200. Now this week the numbers keep climbing with over 300 visiting yesterday.
There has also been a lot of conversation this week by way of posted comments. The post on the Calandras Land as of this morning had 68 comments. In the first four months of the site there were a total of 57 and not once previously can I recall more than 30 for a single post even with the potential teachers strike and the proposed building at Hall Park.
Clearly the audience has grown. I also believe that the nature of the site has made individuals more comfortable in posting and clearly the topic noted above hit a nerve with many people.
For those who have not been visiting the site regularly or who have visited for the first time recently, I want to take a moment to reiterate why this site is here.
The concept is to connect community residents to share information with one another to encourage an even better community.
The internet is a great tool that can connect us with individuals around the world, but for people in most communities you can't find out what happened at the most local meetings. The very ones that most impact your life.
The information is out there. It simply isn't shared efficiently. NewsOverCoffee is here to help people share that information with one another.
To that end, I want people to feel comfortable visiting and making comments. They won't feel comfortable if they see people making personal attacks on individuals because of their opinion. They also won't want to read if the posts are filled with condescending remarks and broad generalizations about the ignorance of the readers.
None of this is wanted, nor is it of any value.
I also want to point out that the very reason I started the site was because I knew very few people attend regular Council or Board meetings and even fewer the committee meetings of these bodies. No one person can be everywhere and keep in touch with every government body, meeting, group, and association. Sharing that information is the key.
We each make personal decisions in regard to what we do with our "free" time. This doesn't mean we don't care about the meetings we don't go to, it only means we've had to make a choice.
Having this site as a way to tell one another about the meetings, events, and activities informs other members of the community. It may make people aware of things they wouldn't have known and it may connect people with the right skills or background with the group that needs their help in solving a problem or meeting a need.
There is no reason to be critical of people for not attending meetings on a regular basis. What we need is to have enough people attend each meeting and share what they learn so that we will all be aware of what is happening and won't find out after the fact.
Anyone who has read my posts like this one over the past nine months knows this is nothing new. Forums that do nothing but stereotype, generalize, and flame simply don't work. I don't want this site to go in that direction and I don't believe most people would either.
There are a lot of good people in this community, whose opinions you may agree or disagree with and whom you may personally like or dislike. Argue their opinions with facts or supporting information and leave your dislike out of the comments. Of course you are always welcome to pat someone on the back and commend them for their efforts.
It is fundamentally harder to build something up than it is to tear it down. If you are going to post comments, please keep these thoughts in mind. You don't have to lay off issues or be afraid to disagree, just do it the right way - constructively.
Thanks. Have a great rest of the week and a wonderful New Year!
9 comments:
To the two individuals who posted earlier, I decided to change a personal policy of not deleting comments.
If you want to mock, make jokes, knock-people, insult them, etc. go somewhere else, because if you do it here I'm going to delete it.
Thanks, they were a bit too much in reply for the article.
I hate going this route, but 99.9% of the people visiting this site get it and I don't want that ruined for the handful who don't or who want to get a rise from others.
It's rather pathetic when you think about it.
jdpdqsaRoss, I have no idea what was posted in the comments you deleted. I popped on this morning and thought I saw one mildly offensive remark, but it didn't bother me. There is a fine line between deleting truly offensive material and inhibiting the free flow of ideas. I'm probably too relaxed about it myself, but I'd err on the side of permitting an offensive comment to stand. Maybe you should reconsider telling people that they shouldn't "make jokes." I don't think you mean it quite that way, but that's what you said. Sometimes, when we criticize what a public official does, it is misinterpreted as a personal attack. Also, there is a difference between what you and others write. Will people hold you responsible for an offensive comment made by someone else? I don't think those comments interfere w/ your readership. But if you start heavily censoring comments, you might find you have no comments at all. Most blogs that have comment moderation have no comments at all.
Having said this, it's your blog and you make the rules. Take care, and keep up the great work.
I did see the two comments that were deleted. The second post contained gutteral language and I totally agree with Ross's decision to delete it. It served absolutely no purpose. I do agree that a fine line has to be drawn between what is posted and what is inappropriate. I think Ross has a done a fine job to this point by tactfully informing bloggers what his expectations are for this blog and asking bloggers to cooperate. In my opinion, in this case, he made the right call.
To Bernie's point, early on I did find something highly offensive and turned on site moderation for about 8 hours. It effectively shut down the site.
Having learned that lesson, I've encouraged people to post what is relevant. We all have different ways of expressing those thoughts. I appreciate that and don't have a problem until we get away from the thought and are simply bashing people or ideas for the sake of doing it.
Now, the posts I deleted here were made, in my opinion, as an attempt to get a laugh by mocking my request. I could have responded with comments, which would have provoked more of the same and people would visit, read drivel and possibly not want to return.
There was nothing in these posts that had anything to do with ideas except that they mocked the 'groundrules' for the site. If that is the case, this is the wrong place for them and they aren't right for it.
Most people would probably read the comments (I do have them all, even the deleted ones, as Bernie knows all comments can be forwarded to one's email) and say what's the big deal? So what?, but I look at it from the standpoint that I want to protect what I believe is a good, healthy environment.
To that end many visitors have made comments asking others to 'respect the rules' and I appreciate that and I'm sure the others do too.
It's not a case of my being concerned that people will mistake someone's offensive comment for my own, but that if the attacks and drivel outnumber or interrupt the legitimate flow of ideas and conversation it is going to lessen the value of the site.
Will it snowball? I don't know, but I don't want it to and I'll do what I think I need to in order to keep it from happening.
As always the comments and readership are much appreciated.
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