I have to admit I am a bit green behind the ears when it comes to blogging and the internet in general as a tool. I like this site but find it difficult to use. Sometimes its the needle in the haystack approach, but when I take the time to follow a posting and the responses I am less than satisfied.
The whole process is too time consuming. People tend to respond to "You" and its not always clear who they are talking about. The threads become too lengthy and I forget what is referenced further up the page. Conversations tend to become strings of many people having two people talks and bog down into character assassination.
I was reading the thread on "TPS hate crimes at Rogers". I don't mind when people respond directly to each other as if they are only talking to each other, but I wish the site branched these reponses like a tree where I can choose to follow or not (cmyers take note). Most of all I think in order for these bubbles to really float to the surface of the swamp and have contributing value they must focus on stating facts, opinions, or what needs to be done. We must refrain from personal attacks, vendettas, swearing, and rants which do not address the original statement. I see no value in this manner of blogging and won't waste the time on it.
Lets take the "Hate crime at Rogers" thread for example. When I read the thread I can only think of Ben Franklin's comment of a "Republic if you can keep it!". I do not condone the behavior describe as hate crimes because I am appalled by them. However, I have never supported the concept of "hate" crimes being different from any other crime.
Anyone's attempt to gain support or empathy that certain crimes are somehow more evil than regular crimes only serves to make me suspect of their compassion for crimes committed against others. A crime is a crime! A crime has victims who suffer life altering damages. Hence my Franklin reference to a republic. Hate crime laws are bad law and in opposition to the Constitution and the tenet that "all men are created equal". While one can have more empathy for the victims of the holocaust or slavery through sheer numbers alone than say the 911 victims, aren't they all appalling? If we begin to dissect crimes by how appalled we are, or how they affect ourselves, or those like us, aren't we on the slippery slope that prevents us from achieving "justice for all" Remember the lady justice has blind eyes not because see fails to see, but because she sees all the same!
Isn't the bigger question to the thread whether or not the event happened at all? If it did happen was it an actual crime or was it behaviors that a teacher should not be allowed to commit in a public school environment?
I for one believe that to have peace of mind for parents and the community as a whole, that all classrooms should be on camera and wired for sound. This protects everyone on both sides of the desk. It would also give finite answers to this allegation.
Instead of ranting the allegation, present the proof, request an outside investigation, or litigate. I have spent a great deal of time reading the comments; to no end. But I noticed the thread ended. Am I to infer that the allegations were false?
As for the advocacy comments, I thank god that this country was formed out of dissent and rebellion. The get along to get along advocacy route would have only served to make me more concerned about whether or not Prince Charles will ever be king of England and what's on the BBC tonight!
Maybe what we need to do is focus on the additional cameras, defining unacceptable teacher behaviors, and asking the ombudsman's office be staffed with a wide range of volunteer community members to address these type of allegations. I also suggest a mission statement be written to specifically address the roles of principals, teachers, administration, students, parents and community members in our educational processes. It should include what is expected of each and state their rights.
Now I have attempted to move the conversations forward, If you wish to call me names, mark me racist, ignorant or whatever...you will be wasting everyone's time. Only facts or enlightened opinions will change my positions. I wish that everyone would use this site to improve all conditions in the Black Swamp. Stop blowing hot gas and stick to the relevant point with facts and positions to improve the issue. And please how about some real names!
dmullen
PS Anyone ready to talk more on the TPS levy? TPS reform? Anyone?
local new items and discussion. True, the discussion can be redundant , or it can be good.
dmullen said "The threads become too lengthy and I forget what is referenced further up the page" - and yet you posted an extremely long, overly complicated dialogue, complaining this site is 'too complicated' to use. Personally, I think what you're suggesting sounds extremely more complicated & somewhat of a pain in the behind. I am far from the sharpest crayon in the box, but even I have no problem using this site. When swampbubbles first began, I swore I'd hate it because I was used to Toledotalk, and the early swampbubbles layout was not as good as it is now. But I think swampbubbles has far surpassed toledotalk as far as interesting topics. I think if you stick with this site for a while, give it time - you'll learn that most of the bickering & dart throwing is between old users who've been doing it since it's inception, and not take it so seriously. That said - this site often resembles (I think) just a friendly bantering - debate among friends & aquaintances - sometimes talk gets heated (like in real life). There's been a few trolls but I haven't seen them for a while. I think Chris has done an excellent job with this site - it's very user friendly, not complicated at all. I suggest you give it a fair try for a while - and if you still feel the same in a couple of weeks, then move onto a different site or create your own.
As for the bubbles - I'm not sure if it's just my computer or if they're gone. There's no swampbubbles for me to click to give bubbles anymore. That's about as confusing as it gets for me, but the bubbles are a fairly new concept here anyway - didn't have or use them the entire first year of swampbubbles.
you big meanie best not start prollems afore ....umm....afore.,....welllllllll damn.
I think one of the cool features this site has is the green highlight around new post windows. That's how I keep track.
A majority of the time the responses are to the origional thread poster, so irregardless of the pot shots you'll see, the focus has always been on the thread.
There is a pleathora of personalities to enjoy, each unique contributer possessing their own view of the sun.
I'd complain about the TPS debacle, but I can't in sound conscience comment on things I cannot contribute to, except to say Jack Ford allegedly jerked Richard Brown around to get his seat on the board, IN MY HUMBLE FUCKING OPINION. It's great to see this racist manipulate the system by sucking badly at Job Application 101 then allegedly thwart a viable candidate to snatch a seat on the school board rightfully belonging to someone else. I'm anxiously awaiting the ethical violations to bubble to the top in the lawsuit Richard hopefully files and really shitty work from the Prosecution is brought to light and these half-assed nitwits running that office are replaced with qualified people. This railroad shit via the powerbroker politicans make my stomache turn, which is no surprise in this town.
Other than that I have no opinion.
I don't respond to too many post because 1) I don't have much time and 2) I mostly just love to read. But Brian this was the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Now quit picking on the new guy.
Thanks for keeping your posts professional and making good points. I wish everyone was like that.
You can set the comments to a different setting. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see different options to display your comments. Maybe there is an option you like. I believe the branching you suggest is called Threaded List Collapsed.
Starling, the bubbles were removed because they caused problems editing. I am still trying to see if that can be resolved. But you can still rate the main posts (notice the little bubbles under the different icons under the original post).
I stopped reading your post half way through... it was too long. :)