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Sunday, February 6, 2011

Has it been 5 years?

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I need to find myself another hobby because I used to just watch a little TV or read a good book whenever I had a sleepless night. Last night when I found myself wide awake at 2:00 A.M., I switched on the iPad to see what was going on at the local forum. A poster who calls himself, rollingstone, cut and pasted the definition of progressive and liberalism. I wasn't that sleepy, the word “hijacked" and “socialism" stood out, so I went to the free Wikipedia and found his definition in the discussion area. It was a difficult two step process, but I copied the two correct references from Wikipedia and pasted them as comments to my blog. Then like our Persian cat after a full meal, I drifted back to sleep.

I can't really remember the exact date, when I first became interested in our one line forum, but I remember we only had about five bloggers back then. I remember enjoying the Grey-Beard loon and Pilot's blog, Toni Anne was the other blogger I remember. I do remember the first discussions, on was a topic on abortion and maryann was supplying references as fast as her opponents could make a comment. On another thread, Kenneth Schustrereit was holding court about the water issue, and the posters agreed with his point of view. I decided to make my first comment about Halliburton's favorable treatment where Suzy and a poster with many aliases. Roy Mark was already going at it. Just as soon as I mentioned that Halliburton was engaging in war profiteering, Roy Mark, use the rest of the afternoon trying to shoot down my argument. We became bitter online enemies and remained that way until his final banishment. We used to have a confidence booster added to our blog. It was a counter for all time hits but when a new system came in, that feature went away. I believe, I was up to 13,000 hits but Pilot had about 25,000 or more. I don't remember all the details all the details of those two numbers stuck with me.

Joe Patrick Bean was the editor back then. Mr. Bean ran a tight ship by not allowing complete cut and pastes for comments. A small cut and paste was allowed but posters had to credit the reference. Most of the comments were vetted for accuracy and deleted if it didn't meet the test. If that rule was in place today, a lot of comments would never see the light of day. I don't know what holly 1 would do. He continues to hide behind the actual truth when he says "JIM CROW, Slavery, if I remember my history correctly these were supported by southern DEMOCRATS not republicans so before you spout off about how evil conservative republicans are research the history of the democratic party and see how it compares to the "we're for the poor. We want social justice" front it hides behind today."..... Oh yes, the state laws known as "Jim Crow Laws" were enacted and enforced by the southern Christian conservative democrats from 1876-1965, but they later became republicans when the civil rights legislation was passed. That just goes to prove that party labels are interchangeable.

I used to write five blogs a week, consuming about 7 to 8 hours of research and answering my critics. On a scale of 1 to 10, I usually have about 9 in the negative and maybe 1 in the positive. Considering the environment of Victoria, I should be lucky I have that 1. About six months ago, I asked myself “is it really worth it?" I enjoyed writing the blogs for the on line forum, even with the daily confrontations, but it started to become an endless recycle of old arguments. After one of those days, I let out all my frustration in an old BlogSpot blog I started and abandoned a year ago, because I thought no one would notice. The next day, I joined Twitter and a poster reminded me that I was leaving an online trial. Pretty soon the hometown paper found me and became a follower on my Twitter account. Since then, I am proud to say that I have six followers on my blog. I will continue submitting a weekly blog on the Vic Ad, but I'm going to devote more time to this personal blog where we might extend our discussions and just be ourselves.

13 comments:

BIGJ said...

I am considering hitting the OP-ED page of the Victoria Adovcate.

Mike said...

There is a god in heaven,holly1, finally wrote a blog, now maybe he'll leave me alone...:-)

Mike said...

Go for it BigJ

Edith Ann said...

I've not read much of holly1's stuff in the past, but based on the comments I've read, I'm going to say he 'borrowed' the core of it. You know just add the introduction and a brief conclusion, and you have something that looks halfway literate.

Looks a whole lot like Kenny, but I know it's not.

Mike said...

holly1's Post may be literate but it lacks substance. It just the same message repeated over and over again. He is what I call a " one trick pony."

I think holly1 and Kenneth read the same material.

Mike said...

One thing is common with my detractors..They are all victims of my sarcasm....lol
rollingstone has name called since day 1,and has to gall to say "who me?"....I only respond to clear the record of something he distorts.

He doesn't have to agree and if you were to count his postings 90% are on my blog.

I certainly have my faults and I expect to be called for them but beat me on the facts.

Edith Ann said...

Gee, if it weren't for Holly1's continuous comments, he wouldn't have much.

Gosh, but he's a angry, ranting fool!

Mike said...

Edith Ann
I think holly1 is in a unreachable zone; he is locked into his beliefs.

I'm not a psychiatrist nor do I think he's a danger but the manifestos of the left and right extremist are pretty similar.... There all about playing the victim card and they never compromise.

Edith Ann said...

It is clear there is a vacuum on the Advocate forum right now. So few folks are really posting. It is rare for there to be a huge run of comments in a 24 hour period--most days--and we all know most of the old, good posters have apparently given up commeting for some other hobby.

I think that holly1--not previously a prolific poster--has seen a gap created with your move over to Blogspot and has taken advantage of the apparent job opening for a politial blogger! The only problem is his stuff is just noise, regurgitated talking points and no real facts to speak of.

But he--he gives Writein someone to duel with!

Rebecca said...

Maybe I should remove all my silly comments. I guess commenting on his blog only encourages him.

Mike said...

Edith Ann
I've noticed the slowdown of traffic on the forum in recent days. The only traffic at night is that one car(holly1) asking and answering his own questions. As you well know, writing blogs is time consuming and tiring; maybe holly1 will eventually fizzle out...NOT, he thinks he's winning.

I agree, he will keep BigJ busy.
The good posters have left but I still remember when I started just about every comment was a valid one. I wouldn't be surprised if they were regular posters on your blog.

Kyle said...

This was a great insight into the online world of the Vic Ad in days gone by, Mike! As a relative newcomer to the newspapers website it often helps to understand how people's online relationships have developed (some more acrimonious than others) over time and I'm glad you've stayed the course and remained consistent with your output and content.

Mike said...

Kyle

I agree ,consistency matters.

Thanks