It had to come to this
From the first day I created this blog, the intention was to allow free speech, with a cloak of anonymity to ensure good government.For nearly two years, this has worked. This blog has done some great things.
But lately, a small group of people with nothing better to do have decided to use my blog as the venue for their own little personal wars. This is apparently involving folks allegedly from within the Mayor's office and the animal activist community.
They are posting their crap - including "cut and paste" off topic material that is making participating in the blog not enjoyable for everyone else.
Thanks guys - you know who you are. I know you hate each other, but I didn't think you hated me enough to fuck up my blog. You are shameless and awful people.
They are dousing me with tons of threatening emails and contacting my contributors. We don't need this. We do this blog for fun and as a public service. We all have day jobs. We don't the time they do to sit on the blog all day long and delete inappropriate posts.
Therefore, as much as I hate it, I have to enact comment moderation. I don't have the time to delete posts, I barely have enough time to write for the blog given my other projects. It was that or require registration. Because I believe some good can come of anoymous posts, comment moderation is the only realistic option for now.
So what that means for all but the two of you who have something to contribute here - there will be a delay in getting it up. Many of you post breaking news in the comments section (which is much appreciated), it will be delayed. This also means I will have to spend more time moderating and less time writing. Maybe some of you in City Hall want that.
Hopefully, this can change in the future when things calm down.
Once again, I hope the people responsible for this feel really good about themselves. Trust me, all of us will remember what you have to done to decent, public discourse in Los Angeles.
Assholes.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 9/25/2006 07:54:00 PM
30 Comments:
I understand MS & thanks. That last thread gave me a headache.
Thanks, Mr. Mayor. You've done your legitimate bloggers a great favor and definitely deserve re-election.
Mayor Sam we all appreciate all you have done for us who have a place to voice our personal opinions on the clowncil, LA politics etc. But the idiots who kept posting that crap on the last thread got out of control. They are in serious need of therapy. Then they wonder why people think they are extremists and out of control. Thanks for your hard work and keeping the blog up for us although you will now have to waste time cause of these "ASSHOLES.
I hope this step is for the better.
I am a former Council staffer, and whenever I try to contribute anything to some discussion, an idiot always comes by chidding with either anti-illegal immigrant vitriol or anti-Villaraigosa yada yada. At least this way only constructive comments will be allowed.
Mayor Sam, besides you, which of your contributors will have the ability to moderate comments? Will you censor folks who criticize your blog, and if not, how will we hold you accountable? I'd appreciate a response.
Overall though, good move.
1016 - Right now only I have the ability to moderate comments. There has been some discussion that perhaps Zuma and Walter could also have that ability, but we need to discuss logistics. If there was more than one person with the ability to moderate, your comments will get up faster.
In regards to my moderation policy, it will essentially be the same as my deletion policy as I once explained on the air to Doug McIntyre. Very little is deleted, but if its libelous or people are posting phone numbers, addresses, etc., that will be rejected. I will also probably reject stuff that is ridiculously off topic, as I have deleted in the past (but I do give a lot of leeway there). I will reject, as I have deleted, the cut and paste crap, overly long posts (which usually are cut and paste jobs).
I won't reject something because I don't agree with it, I won't reject things that are insults because in some way that is part of the conversation or at least gives you insight into the various people posting. (For example people who call me fat or the guy who was pretending to be Don's therapist).
I will reject posts from the two people who caused this because obviously if its something criticizing one or the other, I will know who is posting it.
The only real difference between moderating and deleting is that now all comments will go through the same funnel. So it will be easier for me to reject the crap, as opposed to searching it out and deleting it on individual posts. The other difference is how it will inconvenience you guys. For that, I am sorry.
Perhaps Blogger will implement some new features so we can go back unmoderated, but I don't know. If the blog continues, for now this is how it is.
Keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer for our city. This is one of the only places the information gets out.
1016 - another point - I have never censored people for criticizing the blog. And there is no need nor right to "hold me accountable." I am not an elected official. Those are the people you need to hold accountable.
We are all private citizens experssing our own opinions. Lets hope we can still do that in this country.
Reasonable people can reasonably disagree about public policy.
I learned that a long, long time ago, in my high school debate class. We always had to be ready to argue either side of any given issue. When you do that, you realize that there are almost always two sides to every issue.
Perhaps those of you who post here can remember that. Just because a person disagrees with you doesn't necessarily make him an idiot. It doesn't mean you have to, or even should, call him names.
We all live in the same city. Let's try to elevate the level of debate and, ideally, the resulting public policies. Sometimes, we'll have to agree to disagree. But we can do so without making each other, and ourselves, angry.
Good job. Nice to see you are moderating this mess at last.
You still rock in my book. My all time favorite Los Angeles blog. I know exactly who you mean and who you are referring to. Losers. The ones who call other city council and/or mayoral staffers...loosers.
You are so right. Calling names is all part of anonymous blogging. Lying about people losing their jobs is just plain out wrong.
I've not read or seen the blog since I left town last Sunday night. Now I'm curious enough to go take a look. I hate that we have to get approval, but the two people must be stopped. Censored? No, stopped.
They are assholes. They can't even pull off a good picket. These people aren't animal lovers. I'm not sure why they pretend to be.... oh right, because they're asshole haters. They hate everyone.
And by the way, my neighborhood council was quoted wrong in here a week ago. "I" ought to know how many people voted. I have the proof. We get a little over 2%, not less than 1.
Thanks again for being my favorite blog owner.
Where's the thread for topic: Academia Semillas
Mayor Sam,
Is Ramon Flores, the man arrested for assault against Sandy Wells related to eastside cafe owner, Roberto Flores?
Mayor Sam, it would be wonderful if you could also edit your contributors. While they contribute useful information and provocative insight, it is too frequently masked, painfully so, in oodles of verbiage.
I recommend they each study a copy of William Zinsser’s guide to writing non-fiction: On Writing Well.
Captain Jack Sparrow where are you man?
Today you thanked us for being brave. And now you saw what being brave got us, as we warned you, as we knew it would. We tried to tell you what was going on with city hall and the postings here and instead we got kicked in the ass. So where are you Captain? Come back please and tell us who has to walk the plank. Mayor Sam is very WRONG about this. He allowed this space to become the space of beggars and theives who need to walk the plank. Come back and set the record straight. Because WE ARE DONE. We don't care how brave you say we are, no one can stand up to this. When all it took was a little Internet research, no one did it. Not even Mayor Sam.
No no no. You can't edit the contributors. They aren't professional journalists. How unfair. Don't read the ones with too much verbiage. Just go to the comments.
The point of a blog is to anonymously share information and state your own opinions.
It was supposed to be fun. And it was.... until the animal rights nuts came along and ruined it.
So my therapist geyts to post mayor sam?
Thats good.
It was fun when that happened.
Someone did the same on my blog and contacted the advetisers there. ONce it was established it wasn't defamtory and true- I know who it was- they put their advertisments back up on my blog.
Truth is your defense against those who would accuse you of libel.
The funny thing about this is that the two people who brought their personal little war here both think I favor their opponent, when I wanted neither one here. This is one reason why I avoided certain stories that I knew would attract them and their games. But that wasn't enough, even unrelated stories drew them out and got that lobbing their missiles at each other in the comments section. The problem is that what they were posting was completely inappropriate for the blog. Becase with blogger there is no way to block any given individual, the only recourse to keep them from posting their crap is to moderate all comments.
Its sad and I'm sorry to the rest of you who do play by the rules. I am sure justice will eventually prevail. We will not be intimidated.
TO Mayor Sam - 7:21am:
Please don't let those goof ball losers prevent you from posting certain stories. This is the only place I know of where one can dialogue about topics like Academia Semillas.
So WHY...why are those Animal activist ALWAYS NUTS??? I have a dog I love, but really... Is this some kind of neo/pseudo-bestiality thing with them? And what about AV’s staff? What amateurs are they to fall for the fur-freak’s bait??
7:47, when the mayor's staff is being attacked in juvenile ways by self-styled animal activists, it doesn't mean they're "falling for the bait." The attackers alleged that the mayor's office was responding, but nobody knows that for sure. They also alleged that mayor's staff were criminals, neanderthals, and what-have-you, but it doesn't make it true. The credibility of the posters is certainly in question.
That's why Mayor Sam was right to get a handle on the whole thing and try to get the blog back on track. There are plenty of real issues to talk about here.
The Mayor's office was not posting. That was the delusion of the animal activists that were posting here. You saw what they posted. It was hideous besides totally unbelievable. Please, don't insult the Mayor's staff.
Mayor, comment moderation is a simple fact of running a blog.
It may look like we don't face this issue much at Martini Republic, but the first thing I do every morning is scrape the barnacles off the boat so that people who are serious about commenting can do so without encountering too much flotsam in between.
Blogspot is great at deflecting spam. When you have a stand-alone site, spam is more of an issue. Our spam-catcher catches between 250-450 comments a day that are only there to tout medications or online casinos. Wherever you have a blog, at blogspot or in a community or standing alone, spam and trolling are both enormous headaches, but something we must attend to in order to stay vibrant.
I've much admired the free-reign policy here at MayorSam. But a few people abused it, so it's right to do something.
11:48
No, Ramon Flores is not related to Roberto Flores. You know, we only have two last names! However, he is the brother of Martin Flores, a longtime Youth Empowerment Foundation employee and loyal Villaraigosa supporter. How else would he get this cushy city funded job?
Ramon, or "Monchi" - which is his tagging moniker - has no children and thus no direct affiliation with Academia. He still lives with his parents. He is one of these loser thugs looking to belong and trying anything to impress.
A lot of anger in this young man just waiting to be vented. I guess that reporter was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ramon was probably stoned out of his head when he attacked him.
The connection to the mayor's office is that some of the terrorists who attacked Mayor Sam are supporters and friends of some of the Mayor's staff - the same one the other terrorists hate. Poor Mayor Sam.
Anticipating Los Angeles Basin population growth from 16.7 to 23 million by 2030, Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Antonio Villareigosa has been quietly working with city and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) experts on a 2007 plan to rezone hundreds of parcels within a half-mile of bus stops and train stations in several transit corridors for high-density, mixed-use ''urban villages,'' focusing first on the $640 million Expo Line rail project being launched this month.
''The goal is to produce urban villages with high-quality development that would encourage pedestrian and transit-oriented design,'' said the mayor's transportation deputy Jaime De La Vega, confident it would boost area transit, currently used on a regular basis by just 5 percent of Los Angeles County residents.
MTA has already slated some two dozen of its properties along rail and subway lines for construction of at least 2,800 apartments, 385 condos and 285,200 square feet of retail, with MTA real estate chief Roger Moilere saying, ''This creates an enormous economic engine.''
To facilitate transit-oriented development, city and MTA officials are looking at the possibility of relaxing requirements for parking space and building heights, reports Los Angeles Daily News writer Rachel Uranga, noting that according to a recent study, density along the Expo Line would almost have to double to secure developer profits. With some residents convinced that current regulations already favor developers, afraid of land speculation and substandard projects, and likely to oppose local rezoning, some experts are cautious about the mayoral plan.
''A lot of developers will just drop out. You have landowners that are holdouts and developers who say they can't wait,'' noted former Transportation and Land Use Collaborative of Southern California director, now Cleveland-based Forrest City Enterprises Vice President Katherine Perez.
''This sounds like a really ambitious agenda,'' observed National Center for Metropolitan Transportation Research Director Genevieve Giuliano. ''In some of these areas, there are going to be issues with existing neighbors that are not going to want high-rise development. This will really be challenging.''
Friends 4 Expo light-rail advocacy group co-chairman Darrell Clarke concurs. ''The devil is going to be in the details,'' he commented. ''We have a lot of developers that build boxes. The question is, will they (the projects) really be transit-oriented development or put more cars on the street? Will they have amenities and will they fit into the neighborhoods?'' -- Daily News 9/3/2006
Mayor Sam,
good move on your part to screen out the nonsence. there are many issues that need thoughtful dis cussion, The decline of the "LA ANTONIA TIMES", Prop R, Prop H, Skid Road, Neighborhood Councils, and the "CITY CLOWNCIL", to start with. Some like myself like to interject humor into our discourse of the L.A. political scene, remember POLLORAIGOSA? Yet, their are some who have to take discourse in a counterproductive direction (ie Vulger, Falsehoods).
To paraphraise Rodney King, "CAN WE BLOGGIN ALL GET ALONG?", with sane, witty, funny discourse.
Mayor Sam, would you be able to let the blogging community know who are these 2 people that have caused this headache of yours to exist? That in itself would make for some interesting conversation on here and off the blog.
I am super bummed that I missed the comments. I would also like to know who the two people are and what was said.
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen (removes hat and places over heart):
Good Mayor, if my comments have caused any of the trouble you have suffered, then my sincerest apologies to you. You and Mr. Dogg are both honorable men, as are all those poor souls on the 4th Floor.
The whole point of my comments is and shall continue to be a call to arms of the ordinary citizen against the abuse and waste of our local government. Politics does have a genteel side, and for too long there has been nothing but cavalier treatment of "the little guy", savvy?
Democracy was built upon three words "We The People". Not just one group in particular. Villabarbosa and the Clowncil have forgotten that it is We The People who put the monies into the City coffers that is spent in pursuit of a consolidation of power. Villabarbosa and the Clowncil also forget that it is We The People who make the ultimate decision with our vote.
Those who I have stated should walk the plank are named because they have neglected to follow the law that governs us all, the State Constitution, and instead sold their constituents down the river with AB1381. They inserted themselves into City politics with their actions...Romero and Nunez. Deleon, who is running for an office within the boundaries of the City was added for his role in supporting Romero and Nunez. He did so publically, and willingly. Padilla was added because of his role in the Clowncil antics and his quest to do the same in Sacramento. Cedillo was added at the request of an anonymous citizen, but he too supported Nunez and Romero and Villabarbosa in AB1381.
Those up for re-election this year on the Clowncil will have their turn before the voters in March. Hence, the rest walk in March.
Good people, it is not about race. It is about standing up and speaking out against unfairness, closed door politics and greed. This is YOUR city. I am but a pirate seeking to help you, the common man (and woman) retake it. Although it was rather amusing to watch a certain mid level manager in City Hall pull upon his hair with frustration. That part of the job I do enjoy.
As for the two that walked the plank. You were correct about one of them. Good form! The other finally gave up and jumped this morning. Pirates have a code of honor to follow. That and loose lips sink ships, savvy? Look for someone treading water and calling for help and you will find your second minor scoundrel.
In closing, the time has come, ladies and gentlemen, to either stand upon the deck and be counted or be left behind. We've already amassed a sizeable crew and will sail with as many as it will take to do what is right and for the good of the City. This is the last call, are YOU willing to sail with a pirate crew?
NUNEZ, DELEON, PADILLA, CEDILLO AND ROMERO WALK THE PLANK IN NOVEMBER. The rest walk in March.
Mr. Dogg, the soap box is once again yours.
Telephone line problems for two days; the doo doo hits the fan; and I missed it all. Please I can't stand it, what happened?
I'm going to strangle Verizon. Let's see, how am I going to do that?
I really love being anonymous, and
I always have fun here! Well, that was before I couldn't see my post posted!
Mayor:
I appreciate your blog, and understand your frustration - I never read the comments because they are such a mess.
However, I think you should work smarter, not harder, to resolve the issue.
To begin with, dump blogger commenting and instead use something like Haloscan that will allow aome auto moderation capabilities, plus the ability to see and ban IP addresses.
Even better, dump blogger altogether and go with Moveable Type or other blogging software that allows for even more thorough ways to moderate comments, ie comments could be flagged or put into moderation based on language, length, or other factors.
Re: "race"
He doth protest too much!
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