local online newspapers; removing ability to comment in your area too?

howdy.
so the local paper in my area has an online version as well. I like to comment on topics that matter to me, and there are times I like to pitch curveballs. curveballs; things that make one go 'hmmm?'.

nonetheless, I like to read my own comments because I like what I have to say and like to find people who agree for the most part with what I say. I even like it when someone teaches me something.

most recently my local online paper decided to eliminate that option for it's readers. No place for reader's comments anymore. I'd have to write to the editor with my own opinion piece to address a topic I wanted to comment on...like disabling comments. how many people are writing your local online papers airing grievances about comments being disabled? So now I won't be heard calling bs on a local level unless I put my face out there and look like the idiot the fiddler plays me for...

"dudes got roid-rage watch out!" i'd hear as I enter the theater and approach the podium?

if you've encountered some of my more off the wall- coming from outer space perspective-I tend to throw curveballs while making my point much of the time. I know I make an ass of myself- i kinda do it on purpose-

I do that because it's for one thing, fun. But what I really want to do is be myself in my own skin. I want my neighbors to wave hello to me. I want alot of things, but I'd give all my wants in place to have a voice.

should I go and make myself into a walking signage along the roadway so that people can throw their cans of spinach at me? I do prefer Brussel-sprouts if you happen to see me...

a reply to: loveguy

Remember, as a whole we are treated like breakable ceramic dolls (snow flakes) and a offended by words.

I find more and more sites not allowing comments too. If it doesn't fit the narrative we shouldn't see it.

a reply to: loveguy
I hear you. But one way to look at it is that now that paper is requiring a person to at least compose their thoughts enough to write it down in an organized and coherent manner if they want to contribute to the discourse. This is how it worked in the olden days, pre-Internet, when newspapers were an actual semi-trustworthy source of news.

Nowadays, anyone can mosy up to a site, drop a few words in the comment section, and bounce. Most folks don't even type complete words.

Maybe they figure that if someone takes the time to actually compose their thoughts on an issue and send them in, they might get more quality discourse?

We can always hope, anyway....

Thank god for this! Online comments are mostly ridiculous. Give me the days of letters to the editor.

Use what you have to voice your opinion, you live in the internet age!

Find their social media accounts, and hashtag them and use @ to talk directly to them, speak you mind and others will see.

You can even create a website and add links to your social media posts that way.

You cannot be silenced short of homicide, exercise your 1st Amendment or if not in America your article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

originally posted by: KansasGirl
a reply to: loveguy
I hear you. But one way to look at it is that now that paper is requiring a person to at least compose their thoughts enough to write it down in an organized and coherent manner if they want to contribute to the discourse. This is how it worked in the olden days, pre-Internet, when newspapers were an actual semi-trustworthy source of news.

Nowadays, anyone can mosy up to a site, drop a few words in the comment section, and bounce. Most folks don't even type complete words.

Maybe they figure that if someone takes the time to actually compose their thoughts on an issue and send them in, they might get more quality discourse?

We can always hope, anyway....

yeah, i get you.
it took me like an hour to figure what I'd try to say in my op. ntbrba
i'm one slow typist.

shucks, i do feel on the other hand that my voice was heard locally here on a really important issue- I was against and gave reasons why- then my neighbors kinda stood up for themselves...too many people locating the smell of feces in stories

most humbly admit my internet time is ending tonight.

i'll be back when it rains here, i got a tablet in my barn.

Yes, a few have. I don't blame them. Anonymous posters create havoc and make civilized discussion all but impossible. Newspapers are privately owned (just like ATS.) Your "First Amendment Rights" are NOT being violated because the first amendment enjoins Congress, and only Congress, from infringing on you rights of speech in a public forum, and ONLY in a public forum. So if you want to yell and scream and shout, go to a public park and do so. The fact that places like newspaper comment sections and places like ATS are called "forums" is really irrelevant to the issue.

a reply to: loveguy

Even an idiot should be given the time of day. For an idiot too has plans, we all have plans.

Honestly, it is a shame you've lost a platform to vent, articulate and influence on topics that are local to you, if only another medium existed. I'm lost for words on what that medium would be, I really am.

how many people are writing your local online papers airing grievances about comments being disabled?

This stuck out to me, and actually none. What I do notice though with my local newspaper is this, we have it in print. We have ink placed on paper, in a method that is understood. This paper is usually made out of dead trees but it's amazing, you can read what was written on it. Anyway, this paper has a spot that allows people to write in and have their very own letter published in a paper. Honestly it's pretty awesome. What isn't awesome though is the same person writing multiple letters about an issue sometimes under different aliases. I swear, sometimes people make issues out of nothing and then debate said issues with themselves. though I digress.

Even on pieces of paper people seem to have freedom of speech, I mourn the loss of yours.

Have a Beer , before they take that too.

My local paper has their own facebook page.Check there,your paper might have one too.

originally posted by: loveguy
howdy.
so the local paper in my area has an online version as well. I like to comment on topics that matter to me, and there are times I like to pitch curveballs. curveballs; things that make one go 'hmmm?'.

nonetheless, I like to read my own comments because I like what I have to say and like to find people who agree for the most part with what I say. I even like it when someone teaches me something.

most recently my local online paper decided to eliminate that option for it's readers. No place for reader's comments anymore. I'd have to write to the editor with my own opinion piece to address a topic I wanted to comment on...like disabling comments. how many people are writing your local online papers airing grievances about comments being disabled? So now I won't be heard calling bs on a local level unless I put my face out there and look like the idiot the fiddler plays me for...

"dudes got roid-rage watch out!" i'd hear as I enter the theater and approach the podium?

if you've encountered some of my more off the wall- coming from outer space perspective-I tend to throw curveballs while making my point much of the time. I know I make an ass of myself- i kinda do it on purpose-

I do that because it's for one thing, fun. But what I really want to do is be myself in my own skin. I want my neighbors to wave hello to me. I want alot of things, but I'd give all my wants in place to have a voice.

should I go and make myself into a walking signage along the roadway so that people can throw their cans of spinach at me? I do prefer Brussel-sprouts if you happen to see me...

I've noticed that more and more articles (on websites) and more and more websites/media outlets themselves don't allow comments. Cnn got rid of that for most articles. Guardian only allows comments on some.

Why is that? I think it's because I've seen that a lot of people post serious rebuttals and critiques of propaganda-esque articles and media coverage. Can't have that now can we?

originally posted by: schuyler
Yes, a few have. I don't blame them. Anonymous posters create havoc and make civilized discussion all but impossible. Newspapers are privately owned (just like ATS.) Your "First Amendment Rights" are NOT being violated because the first amendment enjoins Congress, and only Congress, from infringing on you rights of speech in a public forum, and ONLY in a public forum. So if you want to yell and scream and shout, go to a public park and do so. The fact that places like newspaper comment sections and places like ATS are called "forums" is really irrelevant to the issue.

Eh, no. Fail.

There is a LOT of "journalism" by the media that is straight out either ignorant or propaganda. Comment sections, while containing obviously some idiots, also provide a serious outlet of critique, and in a relevant place. If people read an article but can't see comments, it may be too difficult to FIND actual rebuttals in a different location, directly related to that article. I've seen that many of the most bullsh$t issuances by the mainstream media are often torn a new one in the comments section, and the comments demonstrate that a good portion of the community knows there are problems with the media.

a reply to: loveguy

I used to go on the Guardians website and wind the sycophant lefties up with facts and watch a barrage of loons go on all out attack and then troll the lot of them.

The journalists have self opinionated hit pieces masquerading as fact,I challenged one article and all my comments were deleted even though I had abided by the rules and then after they pre moderated every comment so that half my posts would not even show up so now I don't even bother going to the Guardian unless I want to read a football article,it's a sad conclusion that the paper that brought you the Snowden leaks has it's own SJW political ideology it tries to espouse on the populace.

it's kinda like being played like a fiddle if I have to look for all these different avenues to voice what I got to say? i'll be the dog and chase my tail all day for the fiddler playing me for a fool? no, my time belongs to me and i will invest it where i expect it to benefit me the most.

in the f gump movie when he got up to say things about how he felt about the vietnam war; his mic was conveniently disabled.
sure it was a movie and he said pretty much things I would normally have an option to agree with had i heard what he had to say. life imitates art?

i was hoping someone would catch what I meant earlier by trading all my wants in place for a voice to be heard...
my voice lets others around me know that i might be in need, i might be suffering in some way...or i think taxes are a racket from the get-go for instance.

if my voice is silenced so is my suffering, but i still pay that note to stay free from the eagle's talons?

it's insane how every aspect of our life is met with government meddling, and when we are first given a local avenue to air our grievances, our grievances are hushed, and not resolved.

talk about a dog chasing it's tail.

...innocent people who've never been in jail all of a sudden get trumped-up charges for lashing out for the first time...?

oh, i guess none of those stories get much airtime...and when they do they'll be talking about building more prisons because nobody wants to abide by the rules anymore.

so yeah, i let my local commissioners know when they are stepping on a squishy. i suppose they don't know it's covering their faces if a guy like me can't point it out to them?