Matthew Lee wrote:Hi Jim,
I imagine you can run the numbers. What has traffic been like in terms of number of posters since this turned into the 80% Hospital Forum? I could be wrong, but I think the number of different posters has dropped way down. I know it is hard for some to believe but not everyone cares about the hospital issue in the same passionate manner as others. This has caused the board, again in my opinion, to lose lots of unique posters who used to use this forum.
I'm sure you can look at the numbers themselves. How many unique people have created new posts in the past 30 days? 90 days? 1 year? 2 years? Who are the majority of the posters? If this is to be a forum to constantly bring up hospital news and bash the administration, then so be it. But if this is to be actual "Lakewood General Discussion", this has been lost IMHO.
This was a great community forum that has become a shell of what it once was. Again, just my opinion.
Thanks for hearing me out. Cheers,
Matthew
Matthew
The Deck, a small part of the project rises and falls for many reasons, from time of day, to season, to what is going on in town.
So it is hard to say, as we have never tried to monetize the conversations here, and we never mention them in our ad kits, we rarely check traffic. All of those ideas were left at the door step when we started. I admit Global is down, which again was merely a side note in the original to keep politics out of Lakewood Discussions.
As for mostly hospital, Matthew, have I ever told you what to post or not post? Do you think we call and ask Cory to post or he does what he wants? When you want something up you think is important, like this post. Do you want nameless people to edit it or delete it because you are not positive? I bet no.
So goes the hospital stuff. This thread is about making the board smaller, and everyone says yes, but you and two of the ones wanting it smaller wanted a category just for the hospital.
Now here is the way I see it, and Lakewood better get its big boy pants on, and grow up. In talking with numerous council members and city officials, I have asked them where Essi lied? They agree he has not. The single biggest bone of contention posted here was "ambulance services" and everyone agree Lakewood Fire and Police are top notch.
During the West End places became the West End site, during the Lincoln/Grant/Roosevelt charade, it became the "Menopausal Grant School Moms Site" according to many of the people that now post in good news leakewood
Who am I, or Raul, Dan, Meg, Tom, Heidi etc. to set tone in an honest and open discussion.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with one of the original "founders" he had heard of the new projects a couple months ago and dropped in, his comments were telling. "It would seem it is still working." You don't like hospital talk, post something else, as easy as Alex posting photos of roller derby, flowers, sports, nothing at all.
We are still the gold standard for public discourse, which is why you will see Observers in 5 new communities this summer. Everywhere there is an Observer, much like when it was started here in Lakewood, mayors, councils, school board and most importantly residents call, invite us in, and we see if they have the chops Lakewood used to have. We have been invited to more cities during the past year, then ever before, based on our handling of the hospital.
It should be remembered, the Observer was started with the Library, Schools, and City Hall wanting a place for verifiable residents to have a conversation about what is bothering them, and what they like. What came out of it, was a way to assess the mental health and the insides of a community, while creating a safe zone to talk about tough things. "Weather and sports are the fodder for fools to talk about," was one of the many comments brought forward.
In the end the Deck just is. Some of the people talking about low viewing, are some of the reasons people say they stay away. I don't believe it, because over the years many of those names have died, moved, or post elsewhere using real and fake names.
So in a project where we do not tell people to write, what to say or not say, and rely on it for nothing more than storage of discussion, what do you think should be done?
To people that think it is negative, post something positive, it happens all the time. To those that think we are too fluffy, post something harder hitting. For those that think we are hateful, bring love. But to create an artificial conversation, or table, it is just not what we are about, I hope.
Sadly, we have a lot more conversation coming about the hospital. People will get sick and board, which is too bad, it is a great civic and lesson about life.
Matthew, you have been an Observer for a long time, thanks for the post.
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