Sunday, April 24, 2005

TAXPAYER, this one's for you -- please read

The following is a response to comments made below a previous posting. To read these comments, go here and find two almost identical entries by TAXPAYER.

Taxpayer, it is obvious that you are very angry, but try to understand that when you post in all capital letters, our readers judge you to be screaming ... and this is no way to have a civil discussion, is it?

Furthermore, you come to us wearing a mask. You make pointed accusations and freely assault the character of politicians, but you do so anonymously, and not only is this childish, it is quite frankly cowardly. Doesn't it seem only fair that since you know who I am, that I know who you are, too?

More to the point, are you in favor of progress, or regress in New Albany? I'd like to hear your answer, and you can e-mail me privately if you do not wish to post.

Readers, although all your comments are welcomed and appreciated, NA Confidential was not designed to be a forum for discussion in the same sense as Clean Up New Albany, which I recommend you visit and use.

5 comments:

The New Albanian said...

Speaking of off-topic posts, here's a fascinating fact:

With services like blogger.com, anyone can publish anytime!

Just go to blogger.com and follow the easy instructions -- you can set up your blog and be posting all your college term papers in minutes!

P.S. - If I post a question directed to TAXPAYER, and Dances with Wolves answers, does it mean that TAXAYER lacks social skills?

All4Word said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
All4Word said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
All4Word said...

P.P.S. - If a nationally published author commits plagiarism by lifting entire passages from another's work without attribution and without the protections of an accepted fair use custom, will that nationally published author be able to find gainful employment with any legitimate publishing operation? Just wondering.

For those of you seeking to become copyright violators, the accepted keystroke is "Ctrl-C" to copy, and "Ctrl-V" to paste.

Maybe we all should send an e-mail to bsherman@indiancountry.org and ask how he or she feels about this subject. Or just read the original at http://www.stoplewisandclark.org/legacy_waic.doc

All4Word said...

I'm sure he can speak for himself, and may well do so, but here goes.

The "purpose of this blog," as I understand it, has never been for "we" to express anything.

This is a log of NA Confidential's expressions. When he set up this log, Roger made a decision to allow comments by registered users. These users are registered with Blogger, not with Roger.

Nonetheless, as the creator of this log, Roger has a certain responsibility to police its content. Much of Internet law remains unsettled, but despite the overhang of New York Times v. Sullivan, bare assertions of, say, criminal activity, should be supported by more than mere declarations.

One of the alternatives Mr. Baylor has is throwing one switch on his settings and eliminating open responses to his postings. Then we could all e-mail him with our responses and he could pick and choose those which, in his opinion, have merit.

I'm not certain he's considering that, but he would be well within his rights to do so. After all, any one of us can quite simply create a blog of our own and see if anyone else is interested in what we have to say.

NA Confidential only asked that TAXPAYER follow a basic rule of Internet etiquette and to consider corresponding with him privately. Implicit in that offer is continued anonymity for TAXPAYER, with the hope that the one responsible for this log have a baseline understanding of who is contributing.

If TAXPAYER's goal is to be disruptive (and SHOUTING is clearly disruptive) and to diminish the impact of what has been an enlightening and enjoyable diversion for most of us, then of course none of Roger's tactful requests will be honored.

If they must create their own blogs and motivate their own cadre of readers, will that serve the goals that Hometown Girl and TAXPAYER seem to desire?