The Big Stone Lake Area Forums, making a difference

As I sit here on the eve of the second year of the Big Stone Lake Area Community Forums I am awed. Two years ago my daughter wanted to build a website for the community and she put it together, up and running, in a week. She then spent several months honing and perfecting it. Computerwhiz put many thousands of hours into this site. My attitude was one of a loving mother patting her daughter on the head and saying good job. There was no interest on my part to participate. I was sort of dragged into this. Her vision has now become my vision. It was many months before I could see what she created. Now after two years the fruit of this site is there.

So far we have seen rumors exposed as false. We have watched as the Ortonville City Council attempted to railroad projects through and exposed them. The attempt to eliminate the Police Department failed. The McCloud Street project failed. When the City Council hauled the Police Chief in on charges this site exposed their actions and told the truth about them. This site made public the extravagant spending by the EDA and how they operated a business illegally with taxpayers money. No where else had the public heard about how the Golf Course had cost the city over $125,000 over five years. We watched as the public removed the City Council and replaced it with a more fiscally conservative one. But that work is not yet done because while the city council of Ortonville was removed there still remains the support boards and staff who still need to be supervised.

When people have faced injustice they came to this site to tell their side of the story. I think of giggles and the others who were ignored by the School Board and the local media who misrepresented their story and this site was the only option they had to be heard.

The issues of the local Farming community regarding the CAFO setbacks and the local produce movement are also of concern to the community and can be discussed here. The freedom of the press has no greater friend than this website. Here you can responsibly discuss and talk about the issues that are close to you.

This site it still on a learning curve. I am still on a learning curve. Computerwhiz believed that her site was for everyone to have a voice. Everyone can have a voice but we all need to remember that this isn't about convincing the other side to agree with me. It isn't about shouting down your opponents or ridiculing them. It is about telling you side of the story and letting the readers decide what they want to do. I look forward to seeing what the new year holds. I want to thank all of you who have supported The Forums and hope to hear more from you.



The Big Stone Lake Area Forums. 69,359 views and counting.

Thank you for all your work to keep this forum going.

When I deleted a bunch of my old posts they put them back up!!!!

So in the forum rules statement "We reserve the right to edit/update/change any
part of this website at any time. (With the exception of posts submitted by users/members)." The forum staff does and will alter posts and identities if they feel they have a good excuse. It is their free speech that counts, not yours or mine.

I am starting to wonder how many people have tried to make comments on this forum and then had the staff of the forum change their posts and their identities, etc.
I think it's a case of "madonna syndrome" where the forum managers think their saving us from ourselves when they cut into free speech here and there. Seems that the free speech of the forum managers is what counts, not mine. If I want to delete some of my old posts why can't I? Other people can. Why should the forum be able to count me as a current member when I wanted out? I wanted to let everyone know that I had not intended to be reading and writing on this forum and the staff wanted to keep my old posts so they they refused to eliminate my membership. It's the posts they wanted and the appearance of more members.

Shortly the forum staff might lock me out of this topic even as they comment about me. They did that before.

My thoughts:
1. You never seem to know what's going on -- do you not speak directly with the forum administrators so that you can give a definitive explanation instead of wondering what's being done to you?
2. It would never occur to me that something I posted online and released to the WWW should be recalled on my demand. I am responsible for my PUBLIC statements.

You aren't a victim and you don't need to rewrite the way the world works to suit you. The only place you can have things your way is Burger King.

My thoughts, you make it sound like we have mistreated you.

If you write a letter to the editor in a newspaper do you have the right to say, Oops, I didn't meant to say that can I unpublish this?

Of course not!

Why should this forum be any different?

My Thoughts;
I am not an administrator, but I believe that a thread gets locked when things get off the original topic and perhaps a little mean or personal. But although that particular thread is locked, you can always start a new thread. It is the equivalent of counting to ten, taking a breath and starting over.
My posts are under my own name. Although most people make nice comments about my posts even if they disagree w/my opinion, I did get one phone call that was borderline nasty, with a little threat in it.
I think this forum is an excellent venue for opinions and information. A good thing when integrated w/the local papers and radio. The newspapers in the area are published weekly and limit the number of words in a letter to the editor. But they offer the photos and stories that are keepers. The radio stations offer only a limited period of time for listener input, but we can hear peoples voices and sometimes that gives us a little more depth in reading into exactly what the speaker is trying to say.
This forum is pretty open as long as the writer does not use bad language or makes personal remarks as opposed to addressing issues. The writer is not limited to number of words or number of posts.
If someone is not interested they can move on to a topic that they find more to their liking.

Thank you Big Stone Lake Area Community Forums. I Was the only way we the parents of the O H S Girls BB to get the truth out about what was happing in the program, THANK YOU



Bulldog