Coming In the Near Future - Blog Changes

Soon there will be some positive changes coming to this blog. One of the changes is that it is very likely this blog will be moving to the WordPress format in the next month or two.

This includes changes on the comments. I am hoping that being more restrictive on the comments will make some of the other writers on the blog feel more free to post articles. WordPress allows people the opportunity to comment without registering, but still making them little more accountable that simple anonymous comments that Blogger allows.

These changes have been in the works for a few months now. However an email prompted me to mention them now.

"I am writing to express my concerns with the direction of the community blog you have created. You created what was once a shining gem of a resource for our neighborhood. Unfortunately I am dismayed with the direction the blog has taken recently, and felt compelled to convey my concerns to you. I feel the blog has lost much of cohesiveness, and in the sea of anonymous postings, it has a more diminished character than it once had. Discussions are now easily derailed and individuals are personally attacked. The standard practice of ignoring trolls has led to a vacuum of substantial commentary. You have a sidebar full of contributors yet the very few that post do so quite infrequently." . . . . ."Your attempt to restore order with required registration did lead to a noticeable decline in discourse, but the two-week time frame may have not given the community a chance to adjust and may not have been adequately representative of the future of the blog. . . . I do not know your mind on this, but perhaps shifting away from Blogger to one of the other blog formats might allow for more flexibility. Wordpress requires an email(even though it might be bogus), and requires a person to enter something for a "handle" for each entry. I think a big part of the problem lies in the fact that Blogger defaults to anonymous."

I too have been concerned about the direction of this blog.

One of the things I miss about the blog is the "whats going on" factor. Since I am in faraway Lutz, I rely on news article and an occassional comment on the SESH email group to post something. One of the ways I would get stories would be to have a regular route of people I spoke to who gave me stories and tips. This lack of the what's going on what made obvious to me when someone was recently filling me in on some things that were happening. I had hoped the blog contributors might be able to add that. However, I feel the blog contributors may have felt shut down by some of the trolls. It is not easy to put something out in public and have it slammed, especially if the comments are nasty.

So, when I am in a position to tell you more about the significant changes, I will do so.