What am I getting into?

I've been posting my opinion in comments and blogs on various Gannet Online Sites, for a couple years now. Since I happen to live in Brevard County in Florida I've done most of my posting on Florida Today, conveniently located in Brevard County.. I've also posted on the other Gannet Sites here in Florida, and on rare occasions the Leaf Chronicle in Clarksburg Tennessee as well as the Ithaca Journal in Upstate New York. I've made friends, learned a great deal had interesting debates and conversations (public and private) on all the Gannet sites where I've posted. One of my favorite Florida Sites was the Tallahassee Democrat.


Two weeks ago the Tallahassee Democrat Online became a paid Internet site. It's clear that if it works out, they're going to take the concept nationwide. TDO had at least a dozen, if not more, members who besides making intelligent and insightful comments on TDO news stories, editorials and blogs are also damned good blog writers themselves. Some still post on TDO, some have started posting on other Gannet Sites, some have probably started their own sites and a few may have just gotten totally disgusted and quit writing for the moment.



Florida Today has their own set of issues. They have some readers with abusebuttonites.. their finger get itchy and they start filing abuse button reports. In theory Florida Today, or their "Moderators" (I'll get to the moderators)review the offending, comment, blog or profile page and make a determination. Florida Today like most Gannet Sites has been the victim of both newspaper decline as well as the recession.. Abuse Button Reports were not getting properly reviewed and good posts were "Poofed". The abusebuttonites infected critters also figured out how to make legitimate posts vanish by making multiple anonymous reports. To solve the problem FT hired professional "Moderators". I don't know how they managed but the moderators managed to muck up a already mucked up situation ( I think I mis-spelled muck) Some of FT's best and brightest commenter's and reader-writers are completely disgusted


That brings me to this site, according to the set-up procedure I can have dozens of co-authors and unlimited commenter's. I'm planning on inviting some opinionated blog writers I know from different sites to publish their views here on a more or less regular basis. I'm also leaving plenty of space open for regular readers to start conversations about current events as well as space for once in a while bloggers. Beyond that I'm going to try to provide active links to other current and former Gannet bloggers who have their own sites. As of now the blog isn't member exclusive, it's open to anyone who registers... I'll keep it that way as long as everyone behaves.

I'm a conservative opinionated old Grump, but that doesn't mean I don't welcome other opinions and view points. If we can't debate, then this isn't any fun... We can all visit sites were every agrees.. that gets boring. I don't welcome all caps ranters or weird conspiracy theorists