Well fall has come and passed, and the LUSJ discussion forum has continued its free fall into something other than what is once was. That is all I have to say about that ;)
Moving forward I look for a place to where a respectful Lockport based discussion can be resumed. Unfortunately it appears that moderation is necessary to keep things relevant. Does this already exist elsewhere? If so, let me know where and I'll hop on board.
If not, I would suggest this blog as a possibility. I'd consider myself to be a benevolent dictator. Diverse opposing views are welcomed. From time to time even I play Devil's advocate and place opposing views (that I don't necessarily believe in) to fully explore that subject at hand. I believe most answers lie somewhere in between the opposing views. I, myself, am an expert in nothing.
To start off there will be no anonymous comments allowed. Comments will also initially be pre-moderated to discourage people signing up just to troll/bait others. Commenters will need a Google account (G-mail, Blogger, Etc) to comment. Sorry if you are forced to have yet another account somewhere. If you would like to start a post/topic e-mail it to me and I'll post it for the time being attributing it to you. Longer term, I can add up to 100 "authors" so that you can post directly the topics of interest to you. I have no desire for this to be a one man show as it would get boring.
So to all you "former" LUSJ commenters that walked away (even those I disagreed with) and to anyone new, comment on this post and let me know if you are interested. With today's technology "town halls" have moved into "the cloud". We all deserve a voice be it out of love and optimism or jaded hearts and pessimism and a place to do it free of school yard behavior.
MJ
20 comments:
I'm interested in continuing our former LP discussions over here.
Thanks for the option, MJ!
Poof...and here we are on the new blog! This is wonderful, thanks so much for taking the time to start this.
Thank you!! This would be a great place to have civil conversation. It is similar to the Gasport blog that is on this blogger.com already but should suit the needs just fine! I look forward to checking back and seeing what is going on!
Tim
I think this is an excellent idea. I have yet to post on the US & J forum, but have followed it for a few months. It's sad to see how it's all gone downhill. I agree that you are a good choice to be in charge of this. I wish to commend you, MJ2, not only for doing this, but also because I have always enjoyed your posts. You are always sensible and civil in your posting, and I actually worried when you were gone, that you had "flown the coop" because of all the BS. I'm glad you're back.
It stinks that we have to leave because some juvenile minds have taken over, but what can ya do. Count me in.
Hello All.
Thank you for coming over.
I do agree, not much can be done. The LUSJ used to be a nice break during my day to discuss what's going on around the city/town. Unfortunately that no longer exists there. Maybe they will burn out after a while and we can return "home" ;)
Tim, drop me the link to the Gasport blog, I can link it on the main page here. What I do want to make sure is that this does not become to "bloggy", i.e. coming across as me being a know-it-all on a e-pulpit as some of them can. I put "Forum" in the title for a purpose. If any of you are interested in starting a topic based of an article, thought, etc let me know. I'll add you to the "author list".
This may start out slow but hopefully will grow if the LUSJ continues to go the way it is going. I'll just keep updating the one thread for this over there when ever a new topic appears here. Please feel free to do the same. Hopefully some of those that I used to disagree with on things such as the Walmart project etc will also find their way back into the discussion.
MJ
MJ2 - thanks for taking the initiative to do this. I had a lot of issues with the US&J going South - or should I more correctly say East - and losing sight of what we had debated in the past. Hopefully we will regain our focus and discussion on matters that matter to Lockport. Thank you!
MJ, I posted a comment last night but it hasn't shown up. I'm wondering if I should pick a different user name because someone else has a very similar name?
Thanks
mj....Thank you, sir! Something certainly needed to be done about the "other" forum. Let's all make an effort to keep this one civil. Keep a close watch, mj!
Sorry lkpt mom.....somehow I missed your first comment in the moderation line.
Hopefully I can soon drop the moderate all comments so it can just flow. Muck will be deleated if necessary. and if it does appear, please just ignore it until I can get around to deleteing it.
About to post on A buffalo news article from today...
MJ2,
The link to the Gasport Blog is http://gasportnewyork.blogspot.com/
It is done by op ed columnist Bob Confer!
Thanks,
Tim
e-mail is now in my profile for those looking to be able to create posts or send me pics etc.
I really like the pictures MJ. The US&J used to be worthwhile even when I disagreed with a topic. I enjoyed posting once in awhile as the spirit moved. I don't bother checking it anymore because of the direction in which it has degenerated. I feel bad for Tim because he works hard a publishing the paper. I know he worked hard at getting the paper on line and the blog up and running.
Do you remember the website dedicated to Lockport and all of Niagara County which had many beautiful pictures and lots of commentary? I know it wasn't appreciated by everyone but it had something for everybody. Unfortunately it was mostly a one man show and illness and lack of funds caused it's demise.
I would like to see something open up which once again would encompass the whole county with the control as it is now administered here. I have no idea what the profile selections mean, so I choose one strictly at random.
I think you are refering to the old "www.lockport.com". It was the first site I found after moving to Lockport and I agree, it was very informative. It was still up within the last several months (although not updated)but now the address even appears to be available again.
I share most of my pics through Flickr. If any others used the same service it would be easy enough to create a Lockport group to pool pictures, etc.
It would be nice to eventually create something similar to the old Lockport.com as an area resource. For now I think it will be nice to just be able to have a permanent archive of subjects etc that is free to use and moderated for rediculus behavior.
Most forums/sites I have been with over the years eventually grow in traffic and then come the issues of upgrades, donations to keep it running etc. See where things go. you never know.
As for profiles, it is just a few options of signing in if you had happened to belong to any already. In regards to interacting here, they all work the same. Know of anyone else who would be intested in Lockport conversation feel free to point them here.
If anyone wants to post on a topic, e-mail it to me and I'll post it. If you desire to do it regularlly e-mail me your address you log in with and I can invite you to be an author so you can create at will.
I did some looking around and found the link to the old Lockport website. If you wax nostalgic about where you were born and raised as I like to do about Lockport, there are lots of links to articles and pictures. They cover pictures and articles from very old to somewhat newer. I found a couple of dead links but most of them are still live.
http://www.lockport-ny.com/
Thank you for starting this blog. I'm an avid reader at BuffaloRising, but just bought a house in the city of Lockport a couple months and was really disappointed with the state of "discussion" at the LUSJ forums. This is exactly what I was looking for!
Thanks Liz.
I've enjoyed Buffalo Rising for the topics that come up that the Buffalo News and others have always seemed to bypass. Especially the exposure for the grass roots efforts around the city that succeed. The discussion there over the years has also moved from respectful discussion to being abused by overbearing kettle stirrers kind of like the LUSJ forums. I used to comment over at BR a lot more than I do today. I still religiously check it though.
Congrats on the house. I've been here in mine for 5 years now. I thought is was a neat city place with a lot of potential and cool history. Although DT showed the vast scars of un-planned urban "renewal" I thought it had potential. especially with so much nice old housing stock still in place (unlike the east side of Buffalo.) I never thought it would be this different in 5 years (Main St redo, Unrich City Center, Niagara Produce, Canal Concert Series, etc). I love it though and want to see it continue to move torward something special. With Buffalo 30 mins away and E. Amherst only 10 minutes away, there is a critical mass to work with, yet it is far enough away to be its own place.
I hope to see you comment more.
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