Portland, Tennessee Blog

Is the URL link for the signatures broke?

Wasn't it Spanky the had the "He man Woman haters" club?

He sounds like a woman hater.

I think digman needs to be neutered.

i am with digman, if you don't like it, get out of the kitchen. unless you are a woman, then by all means, stay in kitchen, and COOK. Women with rights are liberals, and liberals hate America. Like Rosie. She don't agree with me. That makes her a God-hating liberal who hates America.

the blog is what it is. dont try to silence anybody. if your fellings get sooo hurt when you read the blogs, then simply stop reading. blogging is all about controversy. if you cant stand the heat, git outta the dam kitchen.

Made any decisions yet Charlie?

I did not mean "if" as if I would never post; but more as "when" I do, I would not delete them.

I hope Mr. Callis starts posting again....I always enjoyed his comments very much.

DALE HENSARLING

I lost your number again and I NEED to talk to you ASAP, please e-mail me at dsprogressive@bellsouth.net or call me at 325-3001. I won't be in early Wed. Morning but if you call leave your number and I'll get back to you.

Charlie,

Dale has hit the nail on the head! And if you can't go in and make those things "automatic" with the current software, just post it as "policy" so that EVERYONE knows going into it what is expected.

Like you have posted elsewhere on the site, authors are trusted members of the community so I don't see any reason to go to the trouble of changing software because I have no doubt that they can be trusted to abide by whatever you ask.

This has just been a mild misunderstanding that can be remedied fairly easily.

And Councilman Callis, I look forward to your next post.

Charlie,

If you proofread articles posted ahead of time, then what will happen is that it will be construed as accepting liability for whatever is on here. I would NOT do that.

Policies maybe need to be revamped. I would not allow deletions at all. This is because so much said is lost and has to be reposted or discussed all over again.

In the programming of the application, simply block all deletions unless you are the site administrator. That is what I would do. Or, if deletions are necessary, then make them automatic. For example, make threads disappear if they have seen no posting activity for 6-12 months.

Councilman Callis - The short time I've been here on this blog I've enjoyed your posts and more so thrilled to have a member of our City Council adding their point of views on topics and discussions. I've seen how much heat can be thrown at you for doing so and at times ask myself how much you will take before you say enough is enough, I understand why not too many on the council participate here, but you have, and I for one hope you will continue to do so.

dontmakemelaugh - I've moved past being upset, sorry if you think I still am. My concern was for the interest of this blog and nothing more. Maybe I didn't go about it in the right way, but I'm still wet behind the ears too! My goal when I requested to be a blog author was to help maintain a site that over time maybe more and more people would have an interest in visiting, to give them opportunities to speak, somewhere that perhaps we could learn more about our community or if nothing else know what others think, those that do speak here by far do not represent the majority but it's still nice to know we have a place to come and speak or hear what others have to say.

My suggestion, and it's simply a suggestion:
Topics that are 6 months old are open for deletion at the Author's/Administrators discretion. This should take care of just about anything that is aged beyond it's means. I disagree with deleting them just because they've fallen off the front page because; A new topic could be started that is very lengthy in the main body text, this new topic when published would push many current topics off the bottom leaving just a few on the front page.

If I do post again, I will not delete the post.
Sorry for the problem.

Judy....you seem to be the only one really getting upset over the deletion thing.
Which topic was deleted? Was it all that important? Was the topic already dead and everyone had moved on to the next discussion?

I think if a topic is still on the main page, leave it alone until it disappears, then delete at will. Most people that come to this blog are just going to read what is in their face, which will be the main page.

If Charlie will set some guidelines I'm sure all the authors will follow them.

Judy,
I do understand your point. And of course the author can have the authority (with this software) to delete his/her entry, it's just a shame that all the responses go with it! Guess best just to think of it as a dry erase board! But it does say much re character when someone so 'involved' adds so much, then go back and deletes all his entries.....

Deanna,
If you're referring to Charlie, he's the administrator of this blog. That's what he has to do with it! And goodness, you're opinions are awesome, they just seem to go with the direction of the wind. It's ok to disagree and have your own opinion, but don't feel it necessary to be so wishy washy and change your mind on each and every thing you post, RELAX!!!!! However, you might look into going into Politics, lol! Enjoy!!

Since I am the one that started this whole issue, and now seeing how several of you feel, I see that I am the only one that felt it was wrong to have over 300 current comments and many intensly debated current topics deleted from this blog.

The way I looked at it is there are very few people that do come to this blog and post their thoughts, if we (authors) were going thru and deleting posts or comments that others had left that this type of action would send the signal to those that do take the time to come to this blog of... why take the time to leave a comment as it may very well be here today and gone tomorrow. The idea of freedom of speach or open debate on this blog has gone out the window.

I've participated on many blogs on the internet and I have never encountered such activity. With that being said, several have spoken, it's a community blog, leave it as it is with the ability of a topics Author to edit and or delete your comments and delete the whole post if they feel fit, like someone posted below "If someone deletes their topic then maybe that’s a sign of their character, or some such as that"

Jessica....that's so true.
Honestly...I don't know why he thinks he has to do anything with the blog....it's just fine.
I hope he keeps it the way it is now.

I am afraid that the idea of the blog being a stress-free zone for everyone is near to impossible..I love a good debate..a debate to me means no one is right or wrong, its just hearing two sides (or 3,or 4) of a story. Some people feel overwhelmed by someone who disagrees with them or points out something they don't like about something they favor...luckily,we have some good,tough hearted, great debaters on this blog who aren't afraid to stick up for what they believe in. This reflects on the deleting issue..if someone wants to delete their own entry, who am I or anyone else to say no,you can't do that? They wrote it, if they want to delete it, what right do we have to stop them?

“TGP- I don't think your question about where to find a good steak raises any eyebrows as to why you are posting anonymously. Welcome to the blog and I hope to hear more from you as your comfort level increases.”

“Thank you everyone for the replies on where to get great steak (they do have a great steak sandwich @ B's). I really wish that Portland could have more nice restaurants open at night.
Sorry, not giving my name. It took me many months of reading before I could even post anonymously. Love the blog.”

I talked with someone the other day who said they have read the blog just about since it started but were afraid to post. Maybe we could make this the friendlier, gentler blog. What do you think?
lets make this a stree-free zone....;)

leave it be.

Oooops....another one of my typos....LOL

I meant to say...."this ISN'T the Congressional Record.....

Let the Blog stay the way it is.

Leave it like it is......if someone wants to delete their postings....so what???
This is the Congressional Record....LOL

Here is what I use on my website. It works well, is open source, and is totally customizable.

http://www.phpbb.com/

You can go to my site (Listed in my URL) and take a look at it under the forum link or just click on one of the scrolling topics in the main page. If you have any questions on it, or would like help setting it up, please feel free to E-Mail me.

Personally, I think this can be resolved rather quickly with a few simple guidelines so that there is an understanding of what is expected. It doesn't have to be complicated.

Whatever everyone hashes out is fine with me, but I would be interested to know the outcome.

DebraP - I also have no problem with topics that are a year or more old being deleted, and they probably should be unless they still get comments which most do not and are truly outdated posts, however the topics I am referring to that were deleted were from Jan/Feb/Mar 2007 and back, several of them had comments posted within the prior week or so of their deletion and one had over 140 comments, which was a milestone for this blog.

I like to think that peoples thoughts/comments are important because they took the time to do so, interesting, and yes they can be informative.

I don't have a problem with the deletion process. There have been a couple of times I have posted a topic and when I went back and re-read it I didn't like how it sounded so I just deleted it and started over.
I don't think there is anything that important posted to this blog. Interesting yes...important no.
How often do people go and read topics from a year ago? Not me. I feel that topics should be deleted after a period of time.

I agree 110% with Michelle Hanners!

I believe the software was written the way it is for a reason. Judy did her homework and noticed something amiss. Good for her! She’s digging! She’s being active..

Charlie has surely got enough to do without having to go threw every request to start a new thread, because as he stated it will get posted anyway.

Leave the blog as is. If someone deletes their topic then maybe that’s a sign of their character, or some such as that. As Judy did, someone will eventually call them on it.

Just My Two Cents…

LM

Judy asked if the blog administrator has the ability to see if an entry has been deleted. The answer is no. Movable Type keeps an activity log where it shows when entries and authors are created. However, I checked back to the beginning of the blog in 2005, and there are no records of deletions. :-(

I'm in agreement with Michelle, but I have to ask Charlie if he has the ability on his end as administrator to know that an author has deleted topics or comments and not rely on someone's word, I did my own so called investigating when I thought this had happened, and if it wasn't for a link/url to a topic I had placed on one of my other postings I wouldn't of been able to really confirm what I thought.

I also don't have a problem with all topics going thru Charlie for administrating, taking it out of the Author's hands completely.

I apologize for bringing this out on the blog and not going directly to Charlie first, that would of been the right thing to do as this type of activity once openly exposed does degrade the integrity of this blog. With that I give Charlie my total support if he believes it to be appropriate to delete my original posting on this issue. What ever your decision Charlie, I thank you for your time and for this blog.

Judy

It doesn't really bother me that people delete their topics, I just wish more people would use their names, but I know that's impossible. The blog is like everthing else in Portland, people complain a lot about it but don't really have a way of making it better. I think you do a great job with it Charlie and at least this is a place of free debate.

Here's a thought- Simply ask authors to NOT delete and if they do it anyway- take away their author privileges. Seems simple enough to me.
I don't think anyone should have a problem with that if they understood what was expected.

I think ALL the authors are doing a great job!!!