Saturday, June 27, 2009

Vandals Shut Down Rep Comments

As you undoubtedly know, Friday night Repository executive editor Jeff Gauger pulled all Rep comments until Monday. Jeff posted on his blog at 6:21 PM:

I’m out of other options for dealing with digital vandals during our more lightly staffed periods, especially on weekends, until we are given an appropriately robust user registration and comment moderation tool.

We are in total agreement, though we think "vandalism" might be an insult to vandals.

Before they were pulled and later shut down, the following ugly comments were posted on Preschool Program Faces Ax from Possible State Budget Cuts. Numerous readers have forwarded them to us, and we are not sure in what order they appeared.

DRichard Les Weiner
I really wonder if we the citizens did the right thing in passing this levy for the handicapped. What will come of it? None of these people are ever going to be productive taxpayers to any real degree. Couldn't we cut costs and just have them babysat in large groups or something? They wouldn't know any different and they would still have something to do and it would cost a ton less dough. It is just throwing away good money.

In these tough times I really HATE to see CANTON taxpayers put on the SPOT as we waste there hard earned dollars on people with absolutely no future or potential. Just have them stay at home and we could eliminate mrdd alltogether. I know some people will post now about how awful this sounds but these are the same people who are always on here crying and wailing about everything and are begging for attention. So I would discount them entirely.

Dick Les & Marie Weiner

Richard Les Weiner
why dont we pass a levy for these kids like we did for the mrdd kids. at least maybe one of these kids will grow up and amount to something. the mrdd kids are just money wasted with no hope of ever amounting to anything. the govenor is DARRYLic in his duties to cut spending on real kids who might become somebody

and the indescribably despicable:

Richard Les Weiner
with that new levy passing . i think the mrdd kids could at least help out and pick up the horse poop during the parade. it could be used for fertilizer on a local grave of our favorite sympathy seekers kin

I Hate Canton is not surprised that comments have been suspended, only that it took so long. We realize that Editor Gauger has much better things to do with his time than monitor crackpots, trolls, and vendettaists,. We also believe he has no desire to shut down the paper's most popular feature. There is plenty of room for dissent, disagreement and argument within wide and normal boundaries of discourse. As Don Cirelli wrote on Jeff Gauger's blog today:

Joe Blow” has the right to call Don Cirelli a “damned liberal” if he wants to. He does not, however, have the right to falsely accuse other commentators of criminal activity or to use the forum to perform a virtual dance on someone’s grave. There are limits to everything, and since your paper is a private entity you have the right, yea, the duty to enforce them.

Newspapers have a duty to themselves, their readers and their advertisers to maintain the integrity of all. Newspapers have no duty to let their online pages be the cat box for the mean, the crazy, and the evil.

We look forward to the Rep's "appropriately robust" registration and comments section on Monday. Everyone needs a safe place to post without fear of being libeled or their families dragged through the muck by somebody's sick mind and spastic fingers. Although we don't know what the amended regulations are, it seems to us that the only people who would be upset by the Repository's new standards will those one or two or three people who write with shit on a stick.

Until Monday, we suggest you go over to read the comments on Jeff's announcement. Make make your own conclusions.

9 comments:

Jim Hardy said...

It's pretty clear from Jeff's blog that he is in need of either a different method for registration or help patrolling user comments. I already emailed him to support either.

I'd be happy to be vetted by the Rep so I could keep posting and/or help patrol some of the comments.

BD, it looks like your campaign may win soon. Congrats.

Don Cirelli said...

What's really ironic is the fact that Jen Podis gets banned for SAYING NICE THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE! Can you believe this crap?

Octopuppet can be the nastiest bitch in the world and her crap gets right through. Jen gets banned. This just confirms my long-standing belief that there is one or two cantorep editors with a screw loose, or a mean streak of their own that is a mile long. I have seen this kind of thing going on since the Bill Marzich days.

Unknown said...

Ah, the Bill Marzich days... For some reason I am banned as well. And I was a victim of SC's libelous statements.

mary said...

Why in the hell do the ban, or put on delay, the victims????????????

In the meantime, the Shitleys are still running free.

I find myself now letting people think they've duped me, so I can get some info. That shouldn't be necessary.

The posters with the most to offer, who want a lively yet civil discussion, and who helped make comments as popular as they are, are the first ones to get axed.

I always enjoyed KDougherty's comments, even when they were in conflict I remember discussing them with Mike Hanke. He thought highly of you.

I too long for the Bill Marzich days.

Anonymous said...

I see that Rachael, Shirl's daughter, made a comment in Gauger's blog that I took as implying that her momma is innocent and that someone is trying to frame her? I am confused. It seemed to me that both of them were the dynamic duo of whack posters! I thought Gauger was on to both of 'em!

Unknown said...

I am confused as to why we never let Bill Marzich - or twinkie - or whatever names he used bother us. If a comment was offensive, was it not just not reported, removed and that was the end of it? I think if certain posters just had their comments reported and those comments were promptly removed that maybe that would be the end of it. Of course I could be wrong, but ANY attention is acceptable to some, be it negative or positive. I think a certain type of personality is actually feeding off of this!!

Marley Greiner said...

I HC is not very familiar with Bill Marzich and his entitites but we don't remember him getting real down and dirty--not like we have seen lately with OP. He certainly didn't disparage mothers and dead children.

Don Cirelli said...

Marzich got REAL nasty and abusive, actually. But his abuse was aimed at liberals as a group, for the most part. He still crossed the line, though, several times. I have a lot of tolerance for people bashing liberals as a group, believe it or not. But when you get scatological or sexual with your comments, the Rep has no moral imperative to print that. It isn't necessary to call Hillary Clinton an "oral sphincter". That is simply abuse for its own sake, irrelevent to an adult-level debate of issues.

Marzich virtually never was put on hold or censored, no matter how egregious and hateful his rhetoric became. But anyone who would challenge that giant bag of hot gas would have their own comments pulled in a heartbeat, even if their comments were totally diplomatic in tone. THAT'S what bothered me. Marzich most certainly had a friend or allie working on the cantonrep staff, for as much as he got away with.

mary said...

Gee Don, Doesn't that sound like what's going on now? Different person, different sex, different mentality, different motive.

I remember when Marzick attacked both of us at the same time about something. The three of us were in a shouting match, via e-mails, for a couple of hours. You finally wore him down, just in time too because I was running out of steam and words to put his fat ass, twinkie eating butt in check. However, at no time during that match did I feel as violated as I do with the Marzick clone. It's just not the same. Marzick had political motives. He hated Dems with a passion. The present one hates just to hate with a passion 100X's more toxic. Much worse to me.