Looking to start a board for my town

[Morgain]

Do you UK folks have the same kind of hardball politics?

Yes we do but it's much more heavily concealed behind masks of politeness. We have a political tradition of secrecy which would make most Americans choke on their coffee!
For example there is little freedom of the press. A D Notice can suppress printing anything the Govt likes "in the national interest."

Plus we are manipulated by big USA interests. If you are critical of American activities expect your political career to flop before it gets started. You just won't get selected by the parties for anything more than very menial roles.

Our Civil Service is staffed at the top by our top "noble" families. Many quietly reach back for 600 years even 1000 years of using power. They know this area very well. Their children are trained to be detached, unemotional via boarding schools, and loyal only to their class. Various popular media puffs, soaps, spread the image of our upper classes as fools or amiable and slightly inefficient. They are neither.
There are some pretty dirty tricks but much better concealed than in other societies. Britain is centrally about keeping up appearances and very good at it.

There is some recent law Freedom of Information that gives the right to ask questions out of public interest but you need the power of a big newspaper to do it effectively. The regulations allow for endless foot dragging so in practice not much is extracted.

We are not a democracy even in the diluted form of democracy America has. We are not citizens, but subjects of a monarch. Who has a lot more power than people think, including veto on new laws!
We have very few rights indeed, to vote every 4 years; habeas corpus and trial by jury - both the last two are being reduced a good deal. Our unions were broken. We have a collapsing health service, and other public services similarly being plundered for big companies.
We have beggars everywhere, ditto homeless; useless and feral police, aggressive social services spies, spin spin spin. Starving children so aid agencies now stepping in to help us!
One hopeful sign is people getting wise, refusing to take on debt, and paying down what they have - which is causing the bosses a headache.

Welcome to sick Britain. Snob is alive and well, and children starve.

 

[Jeff Fuqua]

You've got to decide what kind of board you want...Facebook or an alternative?

Very true. And I probably gain or lose members based on the direction.

It's something to think about. We're a conservative historic town in Tennessee. I would hope there would be a way for people to add spicy content using their own names but I might be totally unrealistic.

 

[craigiri]

Very true. And I probably gain or lose members based on the direction.

It's something to think about. We're a conservative historic town in Tennessee. I would hope there would be a way for people to add spicy content using their own names but I might be totally unrealistic.

I'm telling ya, those conservatives are gonna go crazy if and when they get a chance. Some of 'em are gonna yell "free speech" at you and "don't you believe in the constitution" and then they think your board is just like every other one on the internet...and post the echo chamber stuff there (you know, from Drudge, Newsmax, etc.).

I'm only 1/2 kidding...or maybe not at all. If you had one day to look at what all those nice people are doing on the internet every night....when home alone...you'd give up this crazy idea!


But don't let me be a spoilsport.
(BTW, I lived South of Columbia for 3 years in my younger years. Love the place and the area.)

 

[CallieJo]

Wow, CallieJo... YOU'RE HIRED! Great ideas. Thanks for sharing.

You're welcome, Jeff. Glad to share some ideas.

Forget about politics and what may or may not be said. A local site does not have to be about politics...trust me! Lol...you could have a link forum for politics that links to your local newspaper.

Just go for it, man! Don't worry...just do what "you" want to and see where it goes. Besides, building it is half the fun. And screw facef*ck! We need more real people with real sites with real passion!

Good luck!

 

[Crayo]

Jeff, I started and studied these since way back in 1997! There were even some CMS packages back then for doing just that....

I'm going to issue a little warning though. I'm a bit of a muckraker and political junkie, so I naturally got into BIG trouble with my board in our town of 25,000 in NJ. The pols didn't like it, nor did the ruling political party! They actually spoke out against me and the board in the local paper, etc.

But I stirred up a LOT of stuff. We even got covered by the Philadelphia papers (15 miles away), etc.

It would be hard to create a forum where some type of politics will not enter the mix - especially if the particular town (like most) have their share of corruption, nepotism, waste, etc.

I put up a forum on my board in 1998, but had to pull it down. I figured out that a blog fit it MUCH better - because that was I could write the main subjects and others could comment.

Just giving fair warning. There are often secrets under the covers in small towns!

Edit - all in all, my suggestion is that a full forum type is the wrong way to go, and maybe a blog-type is better so that you control the mix!

Honestly, this just sounds like a lot of fun.