Rant

[turtle5]

I have had the great pleasure of spending time with someone from your community who has done a substantial amount of volunteering, supporting and educating in your community.

I live not too far from your community, and am well involved in your area myself, but want to stick to topic.

I recently discovered that this person has been publicly shamed and humiliated on this site by a forum poster, which the site owners allowed.

I have never been a fan of bullying, and am shocked to see that this community forum took cyber-bullying to this level and allowed such a disgrace of ones integrity.

I am not one to jump in, but this situation has caused great harm to this individual and has greatly impacted this persons livelihood.

That a community which has received so much good from an individual would allow this to become a stone throwing and ruin the livelihood of another is truly quite shameful.

Were each to look at their own imperfections, I think the harm stems from the dislike of ones own actions and each would benefit to come to know the self better and recognize the fact that lending a helping hand when public shaming surfaces is the right and human thing to do.

Being a sheep and following is easier than being a leader. Typically the leaders are well loved until they are also recognized as human, a mistake is made, and forgiveness is not given easily.

This site has a great and powerful influence in the community at large. You really should try to support human connectedness by not allowing public shaming on your site. Let YELP have that kind of feedback pages. Customer reviews speak for themselves. For the sake of community building, you should not allow humans to destroy each other on this site.

Our government and media do enough to keep us from uniting. We need media that helps to give people hope, and for a long time, that seemed to be your mission. Now you seem to have fallen victim to mainstream storytelling, drama and pettiness. You have turned your back on some of the truly courageous and valuable people who give hope and teach values.

For the sake of protecting identity, this is all I can say. But trust me when I say, this persons possesses more courage than 95% of the writers and readers on this site, one of your best people in you’re community has been ostracised and you’ve allowed it.

I’ve known many of your contributing writers over the years of reading your blog who wrote some amazing works for you, and they too have been cast aside. I’d like to reiterate, they wrote really great pieces and had some very important topics they brought out that really needed to be discussed. What I saw them doing was more like ‘Town hall’ worthwhile conversations and education. You’ve stooped to mainstream sensationalized coverage and allowed good wholesome work to be discarded.

Community building does not seem to be your focus anymore. I am sorry to say that WS blog has lost my readership. I hope more people can begin to see how your favoritism and lack of courage to better moderate when harm is being done to individuals and that Complacency is being modeled. But, if that’s what gives you readership, then that’s where you’ll go I suppose. Golden handcuffs. It’s like selling out. Too bad, very sad to see.

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[WSB]

Turtle, you e-mailed me for a password this morning but didn’t mention that you had a quibble with us. I have no idea of whom you are speaking and you are welcome to e-mail me back directly so I at least know what you are alleging.

Allegations of “favoritism” and “lack of courage” are completely unfounded – we suffer from neither. We produce this site transparently, with no investors, no co-owners, no grants, no VC, none sought, none wanted, working 18 hours a day (and on-call for all 24), 7 days a week. Our revenue comes entirely from small business advertisements that we have sold cheaply for six years without a price hike. We identify sponsors every time they are mentioned and we show no favoritism to them; we have lost a few because they demanded that something be taken down (usually a forum post that we had nothing to do with), and we did not. Some businesses have told us they won’t advertise with us because of something on this site, again usually something in this reader-to-reader area. We have pretty tough rules, and it has never become the ugly free-for-all seen elsewhere.

By the way, we have not “cast aside” any contributing writers. WSB has employed freelance journalists over the past six years and it’s on an assignment basis. Currently our assignments have been few and far between for two reasons: 1. The help we need is for experienced hard-news journalists; 2. we’ve had to devote a sizable amount of financial resources to the technical side of the site, which limped along for years and showed it when some readership spikes in the past couple months repeatedly crashed the site. Fixing it is expensive and we’re not done yet.

Don’t know what else to say except I’m sorry you feel that way. This is a reader-to-reader area of the site separate from our news coverage, which is the main reason for WSB’s existence and continues to be, but we believe it’s vital also to have a separate place where discussions can occur separate from news stories.

Tracy Record

editor/co-publisher

Added P.S. One more note to the point of “courage.” We have been harassed, threatened, and ridiculed for our work. (We have also won awards and received lots of thanks, but the painful and difficult stuff eclipses that sometimes.) We have filed police reports twice because of threats and harassment directly related to our work. We are parents and it would be easier to say “this isn’t worth people threatening us, why are we doing this again?”

We don’t always make perfect decisions but the one decision we make every day is to continue on with this because it seems to make a difference. I’m sorry, again, that you believe we have done something to the contrary.

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[wakeflood]

WHA???

That’s my immediate response to Turtle’s OP. But since that’s not very instructive, let me elaborate…

I have been a consistent reader of the WSB forum for several years now. I have seen a few fairly pointed personally-directed notes that appear to violate the posted code of ethics this board attempts to ascribe to (and enforce).

But I have seen nothing that I would imagine rises to the level you describe.

In short, I not only don’t know who you’re referring to but I can’t imagine anyone who’s livelihood has been damaged by anything I’ve read here.

And since you opened the door for this, I’ll take the opportunity to yet again thank the editors of this site for doing what they do and offering residents a place to share their thoughts and opinions. It’s a VERY difficult edge to walk and I think they do a fine job.

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[JanS]

hear, hear, wakeflood. I have been on here since probably it’s inception, and while things at times have gotten testy amongst us, I have never seen anything like what the OP describes. A few years back, I was a target by some individuals who are no longer on here. I dismissed them, life is too short.

Nope, don’t understand this rant at all.

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[RarelyEver]

I don’t post a lot, but I do read the WSB and Forum twice daily, for several years. I have no idea to whom turtle5 could be referring, which is testimony in itself.

Lame, lame post, sorry.

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[skeeter]

Well for perhaps the first time in WSB history I agree completely with wakeflood and JanS!

Tracy, thank you so much for all the work you do. You and the WSB are a significant part of why West Seattle is so darn awesome.

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[wakeflood]

HA! Well Skeets, if there had to be an issue to unite us, this one is better than most. :-)

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[skeeter]

Agreed wakeflood.

Now about that government shutdown. I really think the blame should fall on …

<just kidding!!!!>

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[miws]

WTF?

That’s all I can say about the OP’s comments right now, as I’m having a bit of trouble processing it.

I don’t even how to respond, other that to agree with the factual data that Tracy posted, and the comments made by posters so far.

I feel a BSOD of my brain coming on….

Mike

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[PLS]

Yeah, that’s pretty weak. If you want to come in and throw accusations around you at least have to back them up with a reference for context. I read the board daily and certainly in the forum – and I think that’s what is the contention here, not the main WSB work though that is attacked by the OP as well – there are some attitudes and it’s possible a participant may have felt maligned in some discussion if their point of view is not accepted. Which is not uncommon.

But to the level you’re alleging?

– publicly shamed and humiliated

– cyber bullying

– ruining of a livelihood?

That’s all a bit much and I can’t help but trust that anything approaching 1/2 of such a problem would have been dealt with promptly by the WSB team.

Not to say that someone may have felt that way, as we know one’s view of the world can only come from one’s own eyes. But that doesn’t mean perception is fact and it definitely doesn’t warrant the disparaging comments about the WSB team above.

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[Cait]

I have an inkling that I know who you are talking about which makes this all the more laughable.

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[biankat]

Agreed with everyone BUT the OP. Maybe the wrong neighborhood blog??

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[JanS]

what is interesting is that the OP only just registered on here today, so hasn’t been here lurking on these forums in the past, so what the OP is spouting off about seems to be hearsay, gotten from another person, and may or may not be true. There are no real facts here, and the OP is doing exactly what they are spouting off about..maligning people in the forum, and especially the editors of the West Seattle Blog.

Troll?

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[wakeflood]

I suspect a fresh moniker on an old participant, myself. Which, if true, suggests the OP assumes the known identity comes with some reputation attached. But that’s just my guess.

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[dyn99]

Warning: ***Rant in progress***

If you’re going to post a rant, at least post what it is actually about.

I have personally publicly shamed someone on this blog…but they deserved it. And everything I said was 100% true.

And was proven in court…where I won the case on summary judgment.

And the community needed to know…which is why I posted it in the first place.

So public shaming has its place. If it isn’t true, then they should dispute the facts directly instead of passively aggressively complaining about some theoretical rant.

/Close_Rant

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[Que]

I have no idea what the OP is talking about and I read the forums pretty regularly, even though I don’t speak up often.

That being said, there are rules about rants on here that WSB is graciously choosing not to enforce on here regarding this comment.

No rants are allowed if DIRECT COMMUNICATION with the subject of the rant is not done to allow them to address the issue. I have to assume that this is unfounded claptrap until actual communcation of a problem is cited and addressed IN REAL LIFE.

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[Genesee Hill]

Guilty as charged. Most folks know that I am half nuts.

Just place the golden handcuffs on my wrists, and I will leave quietly.

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[JanS]

golden handcuffs, huh…14K gold? Nice if you cash in on them :D.

How are things up on the hill these days?(my old digs are on 54th just south of Charlestown)

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[kgdlg]

Turtle5, how ironic that it is you who have stooped so low as to impugn the integrity of the WSB without any detail, and thus no merit. Shame on you.

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[dapuffin]

/looks for a bag of Purina Troll Chow.

Oh well. fresh out…

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[EdSane]

I’m not going to give an opinion one way or the other. But even I know to which people the OP refers to. As do others who’ve posted. Shrug.

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[JanS]

Edsane…seriously I do not know who the OP is referring to. destroyed their livlihood? That means they lost their job, or their business went out of business. Some who have left were not employed, so it can’t be them, no matter how much they might be missed by some. They were not banned, they chose to leave these forums. There is one who came on here, was banned , and showed up under another name…and TR siad, nope, bye bye. The OP is accusing either the editor or some of us of taking it away from the forums and making what sounds like a personal vendetta. If that is so, I’m sorry it happened. We are all adults here, and should know better. So…withut more facts, then I can only think that the OP really has no facts. Someone can’t just blow on here, make innuendos about you, me, the editors, etc. and then leave without explaining…that’s a troll, in my book…

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[kgdlg]

Actually kind of proud that TR responded and then let this thread live. It means she isn’t afraid of this stuff. If OP had a real beef s/he would talk honestly about it, and TR knows the WSB has got nothing to hide because they have more integrity than any other news service in Seattle!

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[elikapeka]

To Turtle5 – Huh????

I have no idea what or who you are talking about. Maybe others do, but I have no knowledge of anything that even approaches what you’re suggesting. But then again, I don’t pay a lot of attention to personal dramas that occur in these venues. This is a pretty mild forum compared to many out there and I think the owners do an admirable job of moderating it. So if you have facts to demonstrate otherwise, please expound on what they are and clarify what you’re talking about. Otherwise, I’m not too interested in what you have to say.

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[Talaki34]

If I could have figured out a different way to post this to everyone…

Each time you respond, you are giving the original post substance. What TR wrote was sufficient and should have ended the discussion.

Stop posting and the thread will drift to the bottom or continue to post and keep the subject matter alive.

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