Several board members voiced their concerns about the contents of this wonderful vehicle of communication, and ordered drastic changes, or a disclaimer attached. I opted for the disclaimer, and you can see it on the right sidebar. There was discussion about the "anonymous" comments that have been contributed by the viewers. I personally welcome your comments, and frequently have suggested that your comments be brought up at our board meetings.
Most blogs on the web have comments added by persons with a distinct username, which of course is an anonymous identity. I am writing under my username "Living in Paradise", although my cover was blown recently when I left town.
Rather than agree to eliminate all of your wonderful comments, or to demand that you use your real identity in writing, I have decided to continue on with the blog, but change its name. I was asked to remove the photo, but, because it is not a registered trademark, there is no reason to do that.
I anticipate absolutely no change in the content of the postings. This blog is about things that happen in Regency Cove, and I believe that I have been fair and neutral in presenting any information.
As before, I will not accept and publish comments that are personal attacks on any resident of the park.
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10 comments:
This blog brings Regency Cove into the 21st Century, where, increasingly, access to INFORMATION has become more and more essential to running our lives. It is true that one cannot KNOW too much about anything. Congratulations to the blog on your efforts to bring us the INFORMATION we need.
I have one main thing to say: Thank God that at least one person on the board has GUTS. Free speech is one of the most wonderful rights that we have as free Americans. We certainly should not have to lose those rights when we drive through the gates into Regency Cove. Regretfully most of the other board members don't seem to feel this way. This certainly contributes to the low respect that the DBPR seems to have for the BOD at Regency Cove as they continually refer to the board as a very weak and inefficient board. Hopefully other leaders will put personal ambitions aside and begin leading for the good of the park with the same intestinal fortitude that you have and not for their own personal agenda.
I think your efforts in providing a fair blog has been great.My only change would be to make it more open and let posters posts subjects for comments on.(Most boards this is the case)This is still America where everyone has a right to thier opinion as long as there is no threats or slander.New ideas bring new results and its not good to stagnate because things can always be better.Those that fear change have to check their motives and remember the more you struggle with something the more power you give it.
Don, RIGHT ON! Couldn't have said it better myself!
Amen to all.
I preface this comment by stating that what I am about to say is my personal opinion and should not be construed as a representation of the Board of Directors of HORC.I will however, reference what the Board's objections were, as they are a matter of record.First of all no one objected to the Blog as a concept, in fact everyone who spoke said it was a good thing.The articles,pictures, news updates & general information about the activities in the park are enlightening, informative & inter-esting. Had it been been presented to the board properly before installation, it would have been unaminously approved. My critique is threefold: 1) It was not conceived by or presented to the board for consideration and approval. It leads the reader to believe it officially represents Regency Cove. In fact it was created & installed by a board member acting independently on their own volition. This blog is not only for the eyes of HORC people, it is accessible to the entire tecnological world and neither the board nor management has pre-knowledge of its contents or editing. All edification is done soley by one individual acting alone.Questions and comments by the editor do not necessarily reflect the opinion of any one else- especially the board. 2) The comment section of the blog is especially offensive. I respect the right of free speech and appreciate the value of constructive criticism & in fact I strongly advocate & welcome it.However comments in the form of demeaning name calling and dispar-aging remarks are not constructive or worthy criticism.It is even less credible when written anonymously.Every editorial newspaper in the country requires the name and city of the author.It takes no guts, resposibility or intelligence to discredit someone in secret. And in the beginning there were personal verbal attacks, the results of which can not be reconciled. WhenI begin to read something that is derogatory in nature, I look to see who wrote it.If it is anonymous I attribute it to being gossip & stop reading it. It is cowardly to say something derogatory & hide behind the skirts of anonymity & I regard that person a literary thug.Even if the the person being demeaned responds and reproves the comment, the secret writer can hide without censure. If you cannot stand by your conviction don't expect me to.You can use a screen name to enter the blog but if you demean someone else by name, have the guts to sign your own. 3) The article accompanying the disclaimer is also divisive. No one said users could not comment. What was asked was that comment writers identify themselves. If that was not acceptible and the editor still advocated anonymity, a disclaimer stating that fact was ordered. The statements by speakers at the workshop meeting were paraphrased and taken out of context. The objections by board members were presented by "Living in paradise" as being against the blog entirely. That is not so!
Ron Herb
Am encouraged to note that there are over 3100 "hits" on the blog. Its doing its job....
I want to start out and say in the 3 1/2 years i have been here this park has had many,many improvements made to it and i know it took a lot of effort by our boardmembers and we should be thankful for their efforts as well as the others who have served.I have had my differnces with some on the board over certain issues and due to Ed Bedore all worked out well.So even if at times the words used were wrong it THE ACTIONS that count.Their will always be differnces with any group of people on a board no one is perfect-but from what i see they have vastly improved this park. As far as signing ones real name goes-its the message not the messanger that is important.We vote without ournames,people responding to TV shows and radio shows usually only use their first name.So is the park above the President,TV,Radio,and most message boards.This is a blog we are not writingthe constitution here or signing it.I have not seen any demaening name calling on this blog or any slander.Even our President gets called names.Let all get real!!!
I have just read the comment from Ron Herb where he is critical of the blog and of the editor "Living in Paradise" whom we now know is Sandy Ross. Why did he feel it was necessary to write this comment? As the subject was well discussed at a recent workshop meeting, Jeanette and I left that meeting with the impression that all had been resolved. Mr. Herb would have you believe that the blog is accessible to the whole world and just pops up on your computer screen. However, it would not be that simple to access this blog. If someone outside of Regency Cove accidentally pulled it up, they most likely would not know who or where we are and probably would not be interested in the squabblings of a 55+ mobile home park. I believe that Mr. Herb understands this quite well. Mr. Herb says that Mrs. Ross is the sole editor of the blog. It is my feeling that the only thing she edits is offensive language as my comments have been published as submitted. I couldn't help noticing that she published this very critical comment from Mr. Herb apparently as written. If Mr. Herb had been the editor of the blog and received a critical comment towards him, would he have published it? Only he knows for sure. If Mr. Herb had some issues with his fellow board member, Mrs. Ross, the professional thing to do would have been to speak to her privately rather than to put it on the blog, the same blog that he had just said could be read by anyone around the world. A few days ago I called Mr. Herb to attempt to set up a private meeting regarding my concern about his comment to Mrs. Ross. There was no answer so I left a message on his answering machine requesting a private meeting of just the two of us. I never received a return call from him. He apparently felt that the meeting would not be of value to him or he just did not want to meet with me face to face. If we had met, I probably would have found this letter to be unnecessary. If I was as ambitious as Mr. Herb, I would meet with anyone, friend or foe, to hear their ideas as I thoroughly believe that knowledge is power. I have known Mr. Herb for several years even before moving into the park. When he was up for election I voted for him. Now that I have had time to observe his work as a board member, I would need to give the subject considerably more thought.
The purpose of any blog is to create a sense of community.The primary goal of a sense of commuunity is the safety of its shareholders.Good news and bad news must be reported weather the blog is official or unofficial.In the last week we had a shareholder attack on Blvd 1 with a head injury by a stranger in the park-which required over 2 days in the hospital for his injuries-with a police report filed and a abulance called.Why has not this been reported? To correct any problems the shareholder must be aware of them-to hush them up puts others in danger.I am ashame of this ations of sweeping it under the rug.Would this have been reported if it was a board member-we all own one share and take our pants off one leg at a time.Lets deal and inform all of these major attacks against our shareholders.If this cant be done then the board and blog is useless.
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