IS IT TRUE? August 9, 2011 Special Evening Edition

1. Well done on correcting the erroneous information concering the Democrats rent. I must say I have seen an inprovement in the manner in which the CCO corrects statements by its many well meaning but grossly misinformed posters.

2. Since I cannot find a way to “contact” you guys, I just wanted to compliment you on the continued progress of your site. I like the extra column. I also am glad you dumped the WP log in feature, although I doubt many people even used it.

   And, I also applaud you on what a good job you are doing covering what’s happening in the public interest in Evansville. Keep up the good work.

   You don’t have to publish this; maybe you can make it easier for folks to send you a message. You should also consider a “news tips” type of box so that people can send you things like that too. If you already have those functions, I guess I am too blind to see them.

   Finally, you may be interested to know that all your subscription related emails go straight into my GMail spam folder. You could probably fix this with a few DNS tricks including SPF, and a reverse IP look-up with your mail server. Just saying.

   Take care. I’m enjoying the SC beach this month, so it’s nice to follow what’s going on up there.

   • We’ve been considering things very similar to your “news tips” idea. Some sort of “message the mole” of sorts is what we’ve been talking about.

     As for the email spam filter – this is something we’ve tried to work around. We’re using a standard wordpress plugin for our emails. Hopefully you’ll only need to clear us as “not spam” once.

     Thanks again for your kind words.

3. I hope you do not mind, but since Rich brings up the timely issue of suggestions to your website, I hope you will allow this cross-post from another article

   You should consider two things on your website. First is a public policy on the guidelines for posting to the CCO. There are thousands of articles online about this topic for news agencies, and I would consider it an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to work on this issue with you. The other would be the suggestion of having a “Suggest Removal” next to posts. I have had this argument with numerous people in the local media, and ESPECIALLY with C&P. The C&P method of “Suggest Removal” is antiquated, out-dated, and not effective. Their method does not allow the user to tell WHY they are “Suggest(ing) Removal” of a post. Just because a post pisses you off does not mean it should be removed. There needs to be a valid reason for removal of a post, and users should have the ability to tell you WHY they “Suggest Removal”.

   One example (one of many I have) for posting on the website would be as follows:

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   By entering any opinion, posting or other user generated content you are agreeing to be bound by these conditions and terms. Please read carefully!

   Any individual posting a message, music file, recording of any kind, photo, video or opinion in a public guest book, forum, opinion posting area or any other area is the sole author of and is exclusively and entirely responsible for the opinions and statements in the posted message. We and our affiliates disclaim all responsibility for the content of such messages, postings, community generated content and are acting merely as an impartial conduit for constitutionally protected free speech and as a provider of an interactive computer service.

   While the administrators and moderators of this user generated content or postings will attempt to remove any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums, opinions posted and user generated content express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators, us or our affiliates and parent company or companies or webmaster and hence will not be held liable.

   You agree not to post, email, or otherwise make available Content:

   that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, pornographic, libelous, or invasive of another’s privacy, or harms minors in any way;
   that harasses, degrades, intimidates or is hateful toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability;
   that purports to be from any person or entity, including but not limited to a Provider employee, or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with a person or entity;
   that includes personal or identifying information about another person without that person’s explicit consent.
   that is false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, mis-informative, or constitutes “bait and switch”;
   that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party, or Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships.
   that advertises any illegal services or the sale of any items the sale of which is prohibited or restricted by applicable law, including without limitation items the sale of which is prohibited or regulated by law
   that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
   that disrupts the normal flow of dialogue with an excessive number of messages (flooding attack) to the Service, or that otherwise negatively affects other users’ ability to use the Service; or
   that employs misleading email addresses, or forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of Content transmitted through the Service.

   Additionally, you agree not to:

   contact anyone who has asked not to be contacted;
   “stalk” or otherwise harass anyone;
   collect personal data about other users for commercial or unlawful purposes; use automated means, including scripts, spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from or upload data to the Service;
   post irrelevant Content, repeatedly post the same or similar Content or otherwise impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
   attempt to gain unauthorized access to Provider’s computer systems or any other user’s computer systems, or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of, the Service

   Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

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   As indicated, it is a suggestion based on what other leaders in the news industry are doing for their online commentary. Think of it as a “tool” to allow your users to better interact with you.

   • Banning the word “teabagger” would be a good start in raising the civility of the discourse. It is a gross insult that should be confined to venues such as MSNBC and Democratic Party web sites. Nobody with a functioning brain accesses those communications media, anyway. Those morons are entitled to their right to free speech as long as they keep their crap to themselves.

     • Your opinion, not mine.

     • So they should ban the word “teabagger”, but not restrict the use of phrases such as “nobody with a functioning brain” and “moron”?

       Seems a little hypocritical to me… i understand you dont like bad things being said about your party, but in 1 short paragraph you condemned their personal attacks, and responded with personal attacks of your own.

       For what it’s worth, as a reader, I immediately discredit any posts that include such personal attacks, and rarely read the entire comment.

       • I think Teabagger is a wonderful thing, though depends on the context LOL

     • Reckon you gotta ban “libtard” then, too. 🙂

4. I’d also remove the empty avatar icon placeholders since the site is not set up to use them.

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