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| not really censored, just would be a really disgusting image |
My most recent forays into public writing has been a mixed bag. On one hand, I have found a website that seems to be pretty okay with basically publishing anything that i submit to them which is nice. I don't get paid but it's a nice ego boost that allows me to write experimental things such as a comparison of Star Wars to the NHL that would not get published on any of the more mainstream sports sites.
On the other hand, I felt the heavy hand of censorship from the other blog I was managing/writing here. Two different worlds; one where I fulfilled my own wishes as to what i would read and the other where i tried to be a fine, upstanding individual active in the community upon which i wish to raise my children.
I took over the community blog from a fellow 'Jay' back in June and immediately began to revamp the format of the blog and newsletter and trying to raise the readership stats by posting things about the community, from either just simple pictures or of things I had heard about through the dog park and with a healthy dose of my humor.
By taking over, i literally meant that. I met other jay at a coffee shop, he told me the passwords and gave me a short run-down of the blog and that was it. It was going pretty good, although the gig was unpaid. Any money that was collected in advertising went to the Community Association to offset costs of mailing/printing a monthly newsletter that i also formatted. The only contact i had was with the lady who handled the paypal account. Then the realities of communistic blog-publishing set in...
The word communism comes from community or maybe vice versa. I'm not big on political history. Either way it's sad how two words so close together have come to mean two vastly different things that deign to have the same purpose; to define a tribe of people that may have no common thread other than living in the same area and the system upon which they are governed, all people being equal and working for the good of the tribe. Or something like that...again; not a politician.
My first brush with the politics of community blogging came when she contacted me after I wrote an article praising the Cowichan school board that were all fired for not being able to submit a balanced budget to the provincial liberal government. They could not, in good conscience, hand in a budget that continually underfunded their children's education. They did what they had to do and deserved to be recognized for basically standing up to a bully disguised as an Education Minister (and i wouldn't care if they were NDP or Liberal or Green). I was informed I could not write anything negative about the government as, being a community association that relies on government grants, they (to paraphrase) did not want to bite the hand that feeds them. So i deleted the post and that was it. A mild slap on the wrist, slight censorship but really...maybe i did let my personal opinions get in the way. Did it really have anything to do with the community? Well, if the school that my children are going to were facing the same type of cuts, then hell, yes, i would want my appointed school trustees to stand up for them even at the cost of being fired. I would certainly vote them back in again after the current government was voted out.
On the plus side, readership doubled in six months. The blog went from around 500-600 hits a month to over 1200, with 2000+ in November alone. I was receiving a few compliments from people when they found out I was the one writing the articles. I wrote a hilarious article about a pie bake-off i had with a neighbor which was the most widely-read article of the past few years, barring the swimming pool schedule.
I started to get calls from the LCA lady that other members of the board wanted to meet me four months after I took over the site. I said sure, figuring here comes the bad. I went to this meeting and they were all 'you are doing a great job' type thing and it was a relief when it was over that there was not mention of the way the blog needed changing.
Then i received another call. Then another. I was invited to come to the LCA meeting so i could put names to faces. I made a post/commentary about how the local paper continually runs a picture of the RCMP media person under all their crime articles, which gives one the impression he is the local crime kingpin. I received emails, texts, phone msgs that i had to take that post down immediately. Okay, once again a bit of an over-reaction to a humorous short article that I took careful pains not to come across as being libelous or of a spiteful nature, but truly no skin off my back...stepped outside the bounds of community I could justify to myself.
The next month I was informed that the community association was assigning a 'director' for the blog. That didn't sound good but again, no call came. Two weeks ago i finally met with my 'director' and the meeting went well. Another fine, upstanding member of the community with an interesting story and a passion towards improving the community. We talked of ways that the blog could be of help and what we felt the readership would like to read about in future issues. We left on good terms and i was still believing I the primary editor of the blog.
The next week this lady sent me an email of 'notes' of the meeting, much like what is received if one were on any committee of more than four people. On it were notes of what we had discussed of thoughts we had of improving the site's information. I wrote a rather in-depth post the following night, a 'behind the scenes of lavnews' bit, explaining who I was, why i lived in Lavington and things that we had discussed regarding future editorial of the blog, taking the notes she had made and fixing the grammar and such. Basic editing stuff, took me around an hour to clean up and post.
And that's when things fell apart.
The next day, a series of texts made it clear that I was no longer the editor. I was informed the post had been removed as it 'was not for the public' and that I was to have anything I post be approved of by this 'director' and thereby the association before I posted it on the blog. She claimed the meeting notes were not for the public and there were legalities I had to consider. Welcome to Censorshipland. Population Me.
I thought about it for about 10 minutes then submitted my resignation. There is nothing personally vested in the blog for me to have my writings deleted from the blog without trial, especially when i know the legalities of publishing and there was nothing illegal about that post. Someone didn't like that I was being so transparent, as I believe more media type people should be. It was a short note, way shorter than this and I concluded with perhaps a somewhat sarcastic 'no hard feelings'.
It was nice to have had felt that brief success for a time, being able to do things my way and to leave having proof that it was working. In my resignation I expressed that it was my desire to maintain the blog as a 2 way form of communication for the people of the community and not for it to be a 1 way form of communication. I did edit out a part about how ironic it was that this group of people had nothing to do with me (or it) the previous six months until I told them how successful it was.
C'est la vie. Funny. When i started this post, I thought i would be addressing my mid-life crisis that I may or may not be having. Maybe next time.
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