RIP: Squeeze the Pulp

Squeeze The Pulp (STP) was initially set up as a political forum to counter to OrangePolitics shortly after Carrboro annexed the Homestead Road communities. While OP is a blog, STP was a discussion forum, a technology that I much preferred. Content-wise, STP was angry about the annexation and especially the annexation process. But occasionally the discussions were much more informative than those on OP because the posters weren't all in agreement with each other. On the other hand, some of the discussions were just downright offensive. After a particularly ugly thread on Moses Carey, in which one poster used a number of racial epithets, Fred Black and I left that forum and swore never to return. I went back on that promise during the fall 2007 election when I was supporting someone who I thought the angry posters would also support. Unfortunately, anger was all some of those folks had to contribute to the political dialogue and their vitriol and name calling contributed, in large part, to my candidate's loss. Instead of using the technology to rally around her, they used the technology to trash-talk those they opposed.

Today, a new STP has been unveiled in the form of a wiki rather than a discussion forum. Two "columnists" have been given their own sections of the wiki to moderate. One of those columnists was the most virulent of the angry posters. "We have brought on some of the more controversial posters from the old Pulp as contributors. Each controls their very own slice of the Pulp."

So after a couple of years of blasting OP as someone's private sandbox and criticizing that individual's editorial decisions, now Mr Angry Poster has his own private sandbox in which he can make his own editorial decisions. Talk about hypocrisy.

And then there are the definitions. Apparently the owner of STP has a lot of Mr Angry Poster in him. Here's an example: “BOA” – A term used to denote the governance board of Carrboro, known for its playpen mentality. Only pals are allowed in. Often compared to the monkey house at a zoo, the BOA is known for the figurative flinging of monkey dung at those in opposition to the errors in judgment routinely committed by the BOA." Now there's a great strategy for improving political discourse in the community. The Angry Posters seem to overlook the fact that VOTERS select the Board of Alderman. They were so ineffective in supporting the candidates from their area that they lost what should have been a slam dunk change. Now they resort to name calling. That just about sums up STP.

The owners of STP and OP have the right to do whatever they want with the technology they manage, even in STP's case if that means giving rights to individuals who have less than the best interests of this community in their hearts. We'll see how these changes work. To the STP owner: it would have been nice to have known this was coming so that those of who did invest the time and effort to do research could have pulled our old contributions. I will not be posting at the new site.