Good Day,As of Sunday May, 25, 2008:I will no longer be providing message Board services for the City of Lake Worth. For the past three years I have tried to provide a free and open forum. The costs of providing this forum have exceeded what I'm willing to subsidized with my consulting income. I want to thank all of the sponsors and moderators, with out your help and support I would not have made it this long. I would also like to thank all of you who have supported the site and I wish all of you the best in the future.We will continue message board services for all other sites. UtalkNews is extremely popular and I will that service thanks to the folks at Ed Morse Honda.Any post relating to the city of Lake Worth on any other forum will be deleted! I guess the nay sayers got this one wrong!Again, thank you for three great years!Jim Stafford
This is a turning point in Lake Worth's cyber-world. You know, the Internet, message boards, blogs and the like are all "budding" applications of computer technology. We have not been here before as humans. This is a revolutionary experience, much like the publishing of the Gutenberg bible - and I don't think that is an exaggeration. The full ramifications of this new medium have really yet to be seen and experienced throughout the world, our nation and our city.
And being on the leading or sometimes "bleeding" edge of technology, there are bound to be growing pains and rough edges. Lake Worth Talk began as a place to vent about the sad state of our electric utility infrastructure, but then grew more into a way to discuss many Lake Worth topics that were meaningful to the people who posted comments there. Yes, there were the ugly moments brought on by the ability to remain anonymous in your comments. The ability to hide behind your keyboard and monitor tapped into some of the destructive tendencies of human nature. But, even through all that, it did tap into the need that people have to communicate about things that they find important - one of those is the civic life of the city we live in.
I was first introduced to the concept of Internet message boards through a site dedicated to Michigan State University sports. Called SpartanTailgate.com, it brought together people who follow the fortunes of Spartan sports teams. I still visit it to this day and it's an example of a nicely designed and moderated website that has a wide following. It was this board that started me scratching my head on how this medium could be applied to allow public discourse and community affairs. It was then that I bumped into Jim Stafford's site, which inspired me to start this blog.
This type of site and Internet discussion board takes a lot of time dealing the technical issues, monitoring what is said on the board for public decency and the costs related to software and hosting on servers. It is a big undertaking. While this blog is "free" to create, it does cost in time and effort - something that is not a burden since I enjoy doing it and hope you find the information you find here helpful.
So, for one person to take on the creation and maintenance of a local discussion board in a politically charged environment such as Lake Worth's really amounts to a monumental undertaking. For a while, sponsors were able to bear some of the financial burden that the site demanded. However, between "ad bot" attacks soliciting any number of items from Viagra and all varieties of pornography and negative attacks from those who did not agree with what ever political stance they thought the site represented, advertising support dropped off enough where continued operation of the site became too much of an individual burden on one person. That is completely understandable.
However, the need still exists for this type of discussion forum. Of course, you are free to use the comment tab at the bottom of each post and interact that way on this blog. I do moderate the comments here and I must say that only a few times have I received comments that were too objectionable to post. I also may edit them for clarity, but do not alter the intending message. I will also be looking into adding a widget that will provide a message board alternative as a part of this blog, but that will take some experimentation and research on my part.
There is another alternative in town and that is the Lake Worth Media site. There you do have to register with the administrator and he will know who you are when you post there. This bothers some people. I have posted there and entered into some intelligent dialog- right now I happen to be taking a little vacation from there for various reasons. I may resume in the future. Of course, it is your choice whether or not you visit any site. And I really do appreciate you stopping by here to get a sense of what I am thinking about.
Remember we are pioneers here and that is something of which we can be proud. My hat is off to Jim Stafford and all the people who contributed to the success of this brave new effort in providing a forum where we can discuss the important issues that face Lake Worth.
And being on the leading or sometimes "bleeding" edge of technology, there are bound to be growing pains and rough edges. Lake Worth Talk began as a place to vent about the sad state of our electric utility infrastructure, but then grew more into a way to discuss many Lake Worth topics that were meaningful to the people who posted comments there. Yes, there were the ugly moments brought on by the ability to remain anonymous in your comments. The ability to hide behind your keyboard and monitor tapped into some of the destructive tendencies of human nature. But, even through all that, it did tap into the need that people have to communicate about things that they find important - one of those is the civic life of the city we live in.
I was first introduced to the concept of Internet message boards through a site dedicated to Michigan State University sports. Called SpartanTailgate.com, it brought together people who follow the fortunes of Spartan sports teams. I still visit it to this day and it's an example of a nicely designed and moderated website that has a wide following. It was this board that started me scratching my head on how this medium could be applied to allow public discourse and community affairs. It was then that I bumped into Jim Stafford's site, which inspired me to start this blog.
This type of site and Internet discussion board takes a lot of time dealing the technical issues, monitoring what is said on the board for public decency and the costs related to software and hosting on servers. It is a big undertaking. While this blog is "free" to create, it does cost in time and effort - something that is not a burden since I enjoy doing it and hope you find the information you find here helpful.
So, for one person to take on the creation and maintenance of a local discussion board in a politically charged environment such as Lake Worth's really amounts to a monumental undertaking. For a while, sponsors were able to bear some of the financial burden that the site demanded. However, between "ad bot" attacks soliciting any number of items from Viagra and all varieties of pornography and negative attacks from those who did not agree with what ever political stance they thought the site represented, advertising support dropped off enough where continued operation of the site became too much of an individual burden on one person. That is completely understandable.
However, the need still exists for this type of discussion forum. Of course, you are free to use the comment tab at the bottom of each post and interact that way on this blog. I do moderate the comments here and I must say that only a few times have I received comments that were too objectionable to post. I also may edit them for clarity, but do not alter the intending message. I will also be looking into adding a widget that will provide a message board alternative as a part of this blog, but that will take some experimentation and research on my part.
There is another alternative in town and that is the Lake Worth Media site. There you do have to register with the administrator and he will know who you are when you post there. This bothers some people. I have posted there and entered into some intelligent dialog- right now I happen to be taking a little vacation from there for various reasons. I may resume in the future. Of course, it is your choice whether or not you visit any site. And I really do appreciate you stopping by here to get a sense of what I am thinking about.
Remember we are pioneers here and that is something of which we can be proud. My hat is off to Jim Stafford and all the people who contributed to the success of this brave new effort in providing a forum where we can discuss the important issues that face Lake Worth.
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yhHyCn84ZIQ/WezjlEL-0tI/AAAAAAAAPZ4/CzkhriK6zpEJJ3d9Je1495d49gIhnMlxACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
