Today I deleted three comments which were nothing more than insults being hurled at people featured in an Eye post, or who had authored an Eye post.
For those inclined to spend time writing (poorly, I might add), comments which add nothing more to the community conversation than invective, don't waste your time here. This is not the Middletown Press. We review each comment submitted, and we do our best to reject any comments which do nothing more than name-call, make unsubstantiated claims, or harm through innuendo.
There's a difference between free-speech and hate speech. There's a difference between standards and censorship (for the information of all those who will write to challenge this post, only an official government body, or authority in power is capable of censorship; a publication, or a blog can edit whatever it pleases).
So, if you have something of substance to add, and especially if you have information that is real and verifiable, please post your comments. If you want to call someone stupid, corrupt, ugly, vain, or inept, you better offer proof. Or, start your own blog. It's a free country, and a free blogosphere, after all.
BTW, if you really want people to take you seriously, if you aren't afraid to make your opinions known, then use your real name on posts. Only cowards hide behind anonymity. Leave pseudonyms for those who might be seriously harmed by revealing important information.
Thanks for reading,
Ed, the ed.
19 comments:
The do gooders who will ruin Middletown and the business will now only print what they want to hear. Ok please print this we are all for spending millions on bike paths for the bike lady
The "do-gooders," so called, have so little influence in this town that your suggestion is laughable on its face.
The idea of "ruin" is also subjective. If you call "ruin" the prevention of building another concrete bunker pharmacy, then the "do-gooders" have tried, but as you might be able to observe from the confines of your dark intestinal warren, they (we?) have failed.
Finally, Mr. or Ms. Anonymous, it's cowards like you who would like to spread your venom without owning up to it who will never have your insults printed on this site.
I wish the 'do-gooders' had some influence! It would make Middletown a better place. Bike paths and walking paths would be a good addition to Middletown; trees, too! Middletown has so much potential. I don't want to see another gas station, donut shop or pharmacy come to town. We need some long-term vision.
I thought no name calling without proof isn't allowed? In your original post and in your response to Anon @5:29 you call anonymous posters cowards. This looks like a double standard to me. But then I'm sure you'll tell me how wrong I am.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ed, for insisting on civil discourse, and for your clear and coherent explanation of why you have the right to do so. Keep it up!!
In that vein, I hereby apologize if my fixation on apostrophes got on your nerves. We all have our quirks.
Let me also add my voice to those supporting safe and sane bicycle travel. After commuting by bicycle in three different states, I put the bike away when I moved to Middletown. It was by far the scariest place I had ever biked. Car drivers here have no sense of how to share the road.
As a business owner in Middletown who owns a gas station we pay the taxes. Trees , bike paths and walking paths are great but all they do is cost us more money. Gee I think our Donut Shops, gas stations and pharmacy's pay for your pet projects. Please get real .I wish you paid half the taxes I pay as a Business Owner that you pay on Ridge Rd. Get with the program tax dollars build all your pet projects
Maybe losing Atena in Middletown will let us buy more Tress. What do you think?
if you had actually bothered to read any of Ed's many posts about removing comments and what is or isn't considered postable then you would understand that there is a standard set of criteria that he applies to all comments. it has nothing to do with posting only "what they want to hear" and that is more than obvious if you read all the comments that do get published which cover a very wide range of opinions. Finally, calling the EYE a "business" is just completely strange and wrong. It is a loosely organized collection of volunteers with no agenda other than connecting with our community and doing what is best for it.
As an avid cyclist, I can attest as well that Middletown is an awful place to cycle and will be moving. It's also not a very friendly pedestrian town with most neighborhoods having no sidewalks. Shopping areas are also not connected by sidewalks. Buildings keep sprouting up (how many Dunkin Donuts and pharmacies can a town have?) and there's no architectural or smart planning. Ever drive across town on friday afternoon? it can take an hour to get from Westfield to South Farms. This blog allows us to express our views and I'm glad Ed is moderating and keeping the discourse sane. Thank you, Ed.
If the intention of this blog is to start a dialogue about affairs in Middletown, I'd suggest a level of civility is a necessity not an option.
I'll tell you for a fact I post here but not on the Press as an almost uniform rule--quite simply, I can't stand to even read some of the horrible things people say in the postings to their articles. It is disturbing to me that there are people out there who think that way. And please don't accuse me of being pollyanish on people; I'm a criminal defense attorney.
As an elected official I think we should be held accountable for our positions and our votes. But how do you respond, precisely, to a string of hatefilled, vitriolic, childish insults? I'd suggest that it really doesn't do anyone any good.
I've been criticized harshly in some of the comments here--but the commentary was always reasoned and reasonably polite.
I might add that from a liability standpoint, I'm quite surprised the Press doesn't police its blog better. I've seen a number of comments which could easily have generated libel suits. And please don't bother trying to hide behind some "not responsible for its content" disclaimer--any decent personal injury lawyer could drive a truck through that line.
In terms of bike paths v. parking lots: seriously folks, don't we need BOTH? RRR--we do listen. To some degree, its a question of funds.
But I'd suggest that Middletown could always use another good donut shop. I'd add that we have been at least considering the idea of extending the present bike path--and I'd be really interested in seeing some opinions on that.
Finally, last anon posting: I can't speak for cycling. Suspect the problem is lack of a bike lane on arterial roads, no?
I'm not so sure I agree with you about pedestrian--I have walked most of Middletown's neighborhoods while campaigning. Keep in mind that in many places where there are no sidewalks, the residents don't want them (you got a sidewalk, you gotta shovel the sidewalk). There isn't one in front of my house, and I wouldn't want one put in. We do have a number of places in town where one can take a really nice walk.
If we all agree that (1) walkable downtown neighborhoods are a public good and (2) sidewalks are a necessity for safely walking in areas -- like the downtown neighborhoods -- where there is heavy automobile traffic, then the home- and business-owners in these neighborhoods who have sidewalks and must, by law, shovel them are, by definition, performing a public service. In that case, such people should be given a tax break for the good work they do. (After all, we pay the snow-plough drivers.)
Perhaps this innovation would help to overcome the opposition of people (like James Streeto) to sidewalks in their neighborhoods. (By the way, I can't help but wonder whether James' surname predisposes him against sidewalks. But I'm hardly one to reflect out loud about surnames and the shaping of character.) I don't know where James Streeto lives, but there are many neighborhoods within easy walking distance of downtown that lack sidewalks. It is high time they got them.
Full disclosure: I live on a downtown street with a sidewalk and regularly see to it that the sidewalk is shoveled.
The intention of this blog has always been to monitor, inform, report and to create a dialogue.
I applaud your response, Jim, as someone who has been criticized here, and I welcome your thoughts, and affirmations about the role of this site to try, as best we can, to limit insults, baseless claims, innuendo and hate-speech.
In the end, we started this newsblog because we enjoy our community, and understand that the only way to make it better is to work at it. I suspect, though we may differ about how to work at it, that anyone who is engaged in the community, has the same goal in mind. If some other goal (personal profit or self- aggrandizement)interferes with that then retirement from the fray is advisable.
As for the Middletown Press, I don't understand their approach to their comments section, except that it draws readers to their site. That's a big price to pay for abandoning their editorial duties, and I too see a libel suit in their future.
And anonymous 8:49, you're still anonymous. Call me what you'd like with your name attached, and I'll welcome the debate. Hide behind a mask of anonymity with your ridiculous charges and you are, I'm afraid, a coward.
From anonymous 8:49,
I am not doing any name calling nor making ridiculous charges. I just said you said there should be no name calling yet you are calling people names. If someone speaks the truth, what difference does it make if it's anonymous or not? You only seem to take exception to anonymous comments if they disagree with you. Are all the anonymous posters here cowards? This is precisely why I choose to remain anonymous on a forum such as this where anyone in the world has access and can make charges such as you have made. In fairness, you may be lumping me in with some the other anon posters who have gotten really nasty and do engage in name calling and all manner of vitriolic comments. I have never called anyone a name nor stated something that wasn't true. In fact, all I've ever posted have been opinions or a simple statement of fact such as my post @8:49. And neither you nor anyone else can tell me I don't have the right to have an opinion. You do, however, have the ability to block my comments on this forum. Whatever you choose to do, it does not diminish me. I will continue to read the Eye for what's happening and comment when I feel the need. Anonymously.
I also have some questions about the qualifications of a person named "Streeto" to make recommendations about sidewalks, bike paths and parking lots.
That being said, the new Parking Czar's name appears satisfactory. An improved Melilli Lot would be good and a million dollars ought to bring out the best for all of us, users and contractors alike. Walking or biking on that little curvy road is hazardous and not as attractive as it could be. No one in their right mind would attempt to ride a bike on that block of Washington Street that borders the lot. As for the entrance to the infamous tunnel, it is a problem for which no adequate solution has yet been devised.
You may be right that I'm conflating all the "anonymous" contributors of comments. Another reason not to post as such.
You couldn't be more wrong on several counts. I post all comments except those which resort to name calling, and make claims about one thing or another without substantiation.
Otherwise, I've never deleted a comment because it displeased me, because it differed in opinion with me, or because it criticized me directly.
If you have had a comment deleted in which none of these was an issue, I'd be very, very surprised, and I'd offer you an immediate and direct apology (though I'm sure every anonymous author would think I was addressing them).
Of course you have a right to your opinion, but if you think someone is a jerk, and would like to convey that notion, you would need to have direct evidence to have me consider it here.
I'm glad you'll keep reading. I hope you'll keep commenting, even when you disagree, and I assure you that your comments will appear unless you violate the simple standards.
BTW, "the truth" is slippery. Three people in a room observing the same thing will often have completely different views. What's the truth?
Please re-read my last comment. That's all I have to say. You don't have to post this.
Ed, would you consider eliminating the "Anonymous" identity altogether? I don't know if blogger.com allows for that. But if the choice was gone, then people could still post with the "Name" choice, and if they wished, make up a screen name.
I found it almost impossible to read these comments, esp. how all the various Anonymous comments refer back to their previous comments, posted anonymously.
If posters were required to make up a name (or use a real identity), then we readers and you the Editor (Ed the Editor!) could better follow comments. We'd see posts from "Want sidewalks" or "No sidewalks", and be able to sort out who is who.
Cheers, and thanks again for the Eye!
cars are dinosaurs, growling belching
bellowing, "this too shall pass"
Anon. 3:49 is moving out of Middletown because the cycling here is bad?
Middletown is " the scariest place to bike?"
My head is about to explode.
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