7/01/2009

First Kodachrome Now the LUSJ Forums?

Posted by Anonymous

It appears the LUSJ forums have been discontinued. The forums return an error and there are no "comment on this" links in the articles at the main LUSJ site.

A temporary"oops"? Or has Tim had enough of our "input"? ;)

16 comments:

Black Phillip said...

I'm sure he's just tired of us non income generating visitors (although last time I checked, they did sell advertising space on their website) posting messages from our parent's basements. :)

If you go to the Hey Martha main page, the Lockport NY board is gone. Also, if you check the other papers owned by the parent company of US&J, they have blanks where their forums were as well.

(On the plus side, commenting using my google account here doesn't seem to break anymore)

Rocketboy aka Silencedboy

Anonymous said...

Seeing it was across the board leaves me some hope that something was lost in a changeover etc. They still have "Community Discussion Forums" on the bottom of the main LUSJ site with nothign showing below it.

Time will tell. Were you actually banned?

Black Phillip said...

Yes. It was no joke as to why I re-registerd to SilencedBoy. My Hey Martha account still existed, but it was 'deactivated'. When Tim deleted the giant thread where he mocked some of the other forum members, and encouraged it from others, (meanwhile saying that he only will deal with Adults in a Professional way when they treat him Professionally), I was 'deactivated'. Of course, that was after I wrote him a very 'professional' response.

No wonder they only have what, 3 reporters? I would hate to work under that type of person.

Black Phillip said...

The discuss this page links are all gone as well. Looks like Tim had his last hissy fit. Well, his add revenue will be down now (based on views), so good luck with that.

Are you going to go back to updating this more frequently again, or is the offer to allow other editors still valid?

Lkpt Blogger said...

I emailed Tim the other night and politely asked what happened to the blog, have not gotten a response. Some people have no sense of humor!

Black Phillip said...

Good luck whith getting a response.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I'll pry start posting more again. I need to put my two cents in even if no one may be looking. The page gets about 200 hits a day. Jumps up to around 700 on a Canal Concert Night. I always felt weird post at the LUSJ forums and then again here.

Other's are welcome to post here too. Let me know and I'll figure it out. I welcome diverging views. All I ask is people don't make things "personal" which I know can be hard at times.

Lkpt Blogger said...

I got a response and here it is: "We removed it. Too many irresponsible people and it's gotten too ugly with the back and forth. I decided that it doesn't add anything to what we're trying to do here." Soooo, I will visit with you more often MJ.

Black Phillip said...

Wow... who was irresponsible, and who caused/added fuel to the back and forth? Egads. Is he really in that much denial? Again, the spam went unchecked. Calling police pedophiles went unchecked. People from other message boards invading to cause fights went unchecked. Calling the editors of the New York Post, and Frank James racists went unchecked (oh wait, that was Tim). Calling anyone on the message board who pointed out unfair enforcement of the law a loser who needed a life, that went unchecked (oh wait, that was Tim again).

Tim's just sounds angry he's stuck at a small newspaper.

So MJ, will Tim start crediting you when you find out things before they do? :)

Anonymous said...

So it goes, I guess. I look forward to continuing conversations here. I hope a few people follow.

I have no doubt a small paper is a difficult endeavor. But I always questioned his taking every suggestion personally. I have nothing personal against him though.

Should I keep comments for registered people only or open it up to anyone (annoymous comments)?

A little over an hour to OLP! ;)

Lkpt Blogger said...

It's probably going to be more work for you if you open it up but you might get more dialog. It's really too bad that the other blog went down without warning, now it will be hard to get people to switch over to this one. Too bad you couldn't print a newspaper because we could use a choice in town!

Anonymous said...

If I printed a paper it would be the size of a church bulletin ;)

I see they are putting more things as paper only, like the concert reviews. I'd pay for full on-line content if it were available and it's great for digging and seaching archived articles. They need to move beyond paper.

Unknown said...

Hello everyone.
i am saddend that the forum was shut down.I feel it was the voice of lockport speaking out.I would have to say most points of view were right on.The people wanted to have an interactive forum to speak there mind.Some topics did go to far ,but it was to find out the opinion of what others thought.I would have to say the people in power shut this site down.Not Tim Marren himself because they didnt want to see the negative side of the city and the politics that goes on. I am not a politics person,i just saw what i saw and didnt like it.I haved lived here all my life,and im in my 40s
I believe the friends and family issue is more involved than it was before.,the GLDC issue, the Ulrich issue, and the city sign issue.And everything else that is hidden behind those that be to hide the actuall going ons in the city.
That is why you read more issues of importance in other papers.because the mayor and the police have there hands all over Marrens face.He is told what he can print and he does what they say
We the people posted many events before the paper could post,because his hands were tied as far as what he could say

Black Phillip said...

No offense Don, but I don't buy that for a minute. If you look at the bigger picture at what's going on in newspapers, many are failing, and they don't know what to do about it. Everything they think to do ends up making things worse. For example...
_____________________
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090706/0149165451.shtml

Bad Assumptions Made By American Press Institute Will Stop It From Helping Newspapers

Last month, we wrote about the problems with the American Press Institute's "plan" to help save newspapers, which seemed really misguided. Steve Yelvington has now gone through the report and does a great job explaining why the report is so far off: it's basic assumptions are all wrong. He lists out each assumption and explains why it's wrong...
_________________

Tim just cannot handle it, and you can see it in the fact that the amount of online content was reduced soon after the forums closed. The newspaper industry needs to realize that they no longer have a monopoly on the news. Burying your head in the sand, and sticking to business models that started before the telephone is not the way to do it.

Anonymous said...

I'd have to disagree too. Not sure how the LUSJ profits from being part of the "family". Even that I don't think is bad as you claim. In any relationships, be it buisness, gov't, personal, who you know is important and the relationships can go a long way to getting things done. Obvisously at a point it becomes criminal (?) or immoral but I have yet to see evidence of any of that.

Old industries die hard and usually grasping at what once was. I hope the LUSJ moves forward sooner or later because I do find a local news source valuable and important and would hate to lose it.

Thanks for commenting Don. Feel free to leave you thoughts on the sign law in that post.

Unknown said...

I was shocked when I went onto LUSJ to comment and my account was suspended. I am/was LkptMom on there. And the reasons for me being suspended were??? I never felt I crossed the line and I really don't think my opinions/suggestions/comments were taken out of text by anyone but Tim. Yes, I had to laugh when he made the comment about our job/life status. Boy wouldn't he be shocked to know the truth about many of us?? Anyone want specifics on me, just ask, but I never felt someones social status should be a factor in how they act concerned about the community they live in, and I am going on 14 yrs here. It amazes me the forum lasted with all the attacks/comments that occured 6+ months ago, and has now come to end. But I digress. Time to move forward!

MJ, I always thought you added an straightforward view on your posts, and I appreciate it. So from me, thank you.

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