Town Council meeting - The "All Opinions are Welcome, but Sorry no Instigators" Board

Date: Thu May 6 9:21 AM, 2004

RE: Town Council meeting

Date: Thu May 6 9:58 AM, 2004

Craig,

I like that saying, too. Many a truth in jest is said.

It is immaterial as to the identity of people posting on this forum. If the designer of this forum wanted they could have insisted on identity revelation, couldn't they?

So, spending time debating identity is counter productive to your intention and just makes you look like confused paranoids.

I remain,

Journalist

Date: Thu May 6 10:29 AM, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: journalist
"It is immaterial as to the identity of people posting on this forum. If the designer of this forum wanted they could have insisted on identity revelation, couldn't they?"

Not really. Short of making people go through a registration process that involves verifying credit cards or calling people by phone, anyone can pick up a free email account and make up a name. The forum moderators are not being paid for their efforts (note - if you go to nj.con, you'll see MANY Christ Church supporters claiming that Karen and a bunch of other people are on the VORT PR payroll - I'll leave the many nj.con lies and personal attacks from church supporters for a different thread). It would be a great burden to them to have to 'verify' every user.

JR

Date: Thu May 6 10:44 AM, 2004

In addition to our not having the time to administer a formal board that verifies identification, I have two comments to add:

1. We had no idea this board would take off the way it did, so we didn’t really do that much research into “which board” and “what features” to include. (As you know, there’s no search engine, and the setup is a little awkward, and you can’t cuss).

2. Having a verified board, even one that just requires a login, in our opinion, hampers the free speech aspect. Because of all the censorship that went on at nj.com, we didn’t want anyone to feel inhibited. We felt strongly that this should be a board that portrays every opinion, even unpopular ones, fairly and without repercussions (except for that pesky slander thing—everything has its limits).

We wanted this board to portray the truest picture possible of what people are thinking, (however far off on a tangent we may wind up). That’s why we made it a non-verified board. Unfortunately, for that very reason, anyone could come on under a hundred different names, posing as a hundred different people (again, see nj.com), thus making it appear that those hundred are of the same opinion.

Regardless, we felt this was the best way to go, rather than hear from the select few brave (and dedicated) enough to post their true opinions on a login board.

Are the opinions expressed here raw, impulsive, from the hip, sometimes rude or not well-thought-out? Sure, but at least they’re real.