This Post represents our 8,038th Post since coming to Blogger. While Salisbury News continues to grow both in daily visitors, we also continue to grow with Contributors.
The future of Salisbury News is very bright and with the opening of our main Office on the Downtown Plaza, next year you'll see a whole new format.
The plan is to have everyone register to comment so I don't have to sit around 70% of the day and moderate comments. If someone gets out of line we'll simply remove them from putting up comments and that will be final. Let me warn you now though. We're not going to accept bogus e-mail addresses and they will ALL be confirmed.
This doesn't mean you'll have to use your name when commenting. It simply means I need to break away from spending so much time moderating everything. I look forward to a new look and getting much needed breaks away from the computer 16 hours a day. This will also allow me to get out there and cover many more stories.
So here's what I'd like to know. Will YOU have a problem registering? The information will be kept within Salisbury News and not released unless someone breaks the law by making threats and so forth. Let's see what the majority has to say about this and we'll go from there.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
31 comments:
i aint skeert
It's a good idea. It will cut down on people from posting lies about other people without some recourse. I've always seen this blog as an opportunity for people to make differences in the community via open communication but there will always be people who are haters. The more verifiable information you require in order to comment, the more you'll cut down on the haters.
Sign me up!
Define hate.
I think you should do it but not allow freem emails like hotmail, yahoo, or excite. It should be valid emails like @ comcast etc.
Doug,
Difference in opinion is not only healthy but necessary in order to have meaningful debate. When I spoke of hate, I was speaking of people who intentionally create and spread lies about people just to hurt them. An anonymous person can create an injurious lie about someone without recourse unless you have the financial resources to employ the services of forensic computer specialists. If it involves criminal activity the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction has resources available to remove anonymity.
Go for it Joe - I'm on board!
yes
yes
well you have about 2 to sign up.
me No.
Once you have people signing up it then becomes a private club, nothing wrong with it if thats what you want.
You wont get real opinions, you will just get as they say politiclly correct ones.
Now you get real opinions ,i dont know of anyone destroyed by this blog and the way you go after some people they should have been.
yes
Good definition, some things i hate, some people annoy me. But i can be annoying at times as well.
The Disharoons are on board. I always sign my post anyway.
One thing for sure , as i can see from the postings ,you sure have a lot of anonymous signing in. why didnt they post there names here?
Joe,
I think with the reputation that this blog has for perceived or actual retalitation to those who disagree with you or your opinions,I believe that requiring registering would decrease your blog submissions. I can see your point of not wanting to spend such a large block of time monitoring the site, but, I do think it may be detrimental in the long run.
The capability to be completely anonymous allows people to not only feel as if they have the ability to disagree without being retaliated against by you or others reading the blog, but to be able to speak their mind without censure from anyone.
so Salisbury News will know who posted? I mean i dont mind but some people may. But I am weird about giving out info over the computer, but if its just name and email to register i have no problem w that, maybe even zipcode...
Looking forward to the expansion,
-Adam
11:29 AM, some of us are stuck with dial-up and don't have comcast or even DSL available to us. We have to use the free email addresses.
Otherwise, go for it, Joe. People should be held accountable for the hateful remarks they make.
I'm with it...
hip.boots
Sounds ok to me, I rarelly make posts but I'm here daily.
You get people on here like JR who HATES Cops. They should be held accountable. Mind you though, many, if not all of those nasty comments are moderated and you never see them. The strange and menmtal part about them are, they're the same person over and over again and I have to delete a minimum of around 50 of them a day and sometimes up to around 100+ a day.
This has become very time consuming. I could see if they stopped doing it but they're so immature, they just keep doing it. Therefore, why not have people sign in. It hasn't happened, we haven't created the new Website yet and I mentioned it will happen some time into the new year. I would LOVE to be able to put up articles and simply walk away. Think about it for a minute, if you don't mind.
I go away, let's say for the weekend. I pre post articles ahead of time. I can now go spend the entire day camping and fishing with my Grandson, rather than coming back regularly and publishing comments, so you feel like it's interactive. If everyone is registered, your comment pops up instantly and in real time.
Look at Duvall's site. You have to way some times an entire day before your comment pops up. That's ok if you're only getting 25, 50 or 100 visitors a day, once a day.
On Salisbury News we're getting thousands upon thousands of people a day, several times a day. I'm not complaining but you have njo idea what it takes to keep the site interactive.
I'm siding with having people register. The only people I see having a hard time with it are those who are nasty negative people anyway. Most of them have their own anti Albero blog anyway, so I don't care about them.
We have plenty of time to discuss it but I like the idea. It's how it used to be before and I'd like a break once in a while. Unless you don't mind your comment popping up every 3 to 5 hours?
Registering does NOT mean you have to use your name. You can use a made up blog name, (any one you want) but your IP Address will be known by me only. If you threaten someones life, you'll be held accountable. If yopu're simply here to comment and be a part of healthy debate, it will be no different than Blogger, other than you won't have to create a Blog, so to speak.
I say go for it. If anyone's worried about anonymity, just make an email address just for this site only and don't use your name. Its one thing to use anonymity because you have to worry about repercussions (like expressing an opinion on our local politicians while you are employed by them), but some people use anonymity to simply be rude, accusing, or just ignorant. I think its a good idea to cut that out. Interactive and healthy debate is good, but only when it is respectful. I like that there will be accountability. When do you want to do this?
I'm not afraid to register. Already have, it would seem. The nice thing about this aspect of it is I get email copies of all posts in each thread I comment on.
I don't mind registering or even signing my name to my posts. I just don't want a bunch of idiots getting my work or home email and then sending me garbage. I don't want junk mail or someone using my email address and signing me up for something. See what i mean it can get out of hand if the personal information is not protected. -CAA
I think you will loose a lot of commenter's, because blogger is a free site and spam will be a problem. Since it is free how do you think they get their money? I have a blogger account, gmail account, yahoo account and my main account and my IP changes every time because of the broadban I use. So you won't get accurate IP at all times. Also you have site meter which logs IP's for you anyway. Plus Blogger provides Blog stats on anyone who comments whether it be anonymous or with a name. These stats include IP and incoming and out going page links.
I don't mind registering, because I already am. But I think your debates will go down.
no problems here...you have to register for just about everything else these days, so what's one more thing?
I disagree w/ the previous post about not allowing free email addresses to register though, as I think it might decrease the diversity. This blog may have readers who are only able to access free internet (library, etc), and therefore only utilize a free email address. Not fair to "punish" them by not allowing them to speak their opinion on topics just because they use a free email.
Anonymous 6:41,
I know you're trying to come off like you know what you're talking about but in all reality you're clueless. You worry about you and I'll worry about me. If the comments do in fact drop at that point, so be it. It will only make my life easier anyway.
I completely understand why you feel it is necessary to have people register. Simply put it makes your job and life much easier. However, comments may go down due to the fact that noone wants to have their info out there at all plus being anonymous makes people 1000000 times more honest than they would be knowing their blog name and email address are visible. For the most part it wouldnt be a big deal since the horrible posts never make it past you anyway. But, most of the more interesting posts we do get to see are in fact anonymous. So who knows?????? Looking forward to the new format anyway!!!!!
I agree with the registration, as you can see I already am. But do you know what my e-mail address is? Blogger may but people reading my posts dont.
I have always been againts the anonymous posts because it always brings in posters who do nothing but disrupt. Not saying al do, but it alows for it.
A while back I suggested here that at least you have to leave a name... didnt have to be real, but at least leave a name.
And btw... if you think posting by anonymous they cant find out who your ISP is... you are totally wrong.
Do the right thing Joe... get the a$$hole anons off the blog.
JIM
GO CAPS!!
10:52am ....oh U scurrred aight!
Toss up.
Don't you get a log of the e-mail addresses of folks that write in?
Didn't you show us that the FBI were reading your blog? on a sheet with other source information? If you have that by time, you essentially know who is writing now anyway right?
I think that if you want to be the "best and the most read" Blog, there are problems associated with that "BEST" thing. Perhaps you could have someone work for you, volunteer, or otherwise to help you.
There is no such thing as "secure" information on the internet. That is hogwash, anyone who is that uninformed should not be on a blog in the first place.
So, my solution is,let your viewers choose names, accounts and let your viewers report those people who violate any of the "rules" then you could block those persons, however, they will be back with a new name and address as soon as you block them, but hey, there are flaws in every system, at least you could go fishin....which is certainly one of my top priorities.
Joe, I am not trying to say I know it all, but I do have a blog and site meter and my husband is an IT Specialist so I do know a little bit about what I am talking about. You asked for what we thought and I gave my opinion so saying "worry about me" is just contradictory to what you asked. As it seems you have made up your mind already, so why ask?
I am sure the new format will be great, looking forward to seeing it. Are you still going with the free blogger format or are you guys considering a domain name with a great new site?
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