merrimackforum.org shutdown: my thoughts

[rowland]

http://www.nhcitizen.org/modules/content/index.php?id=46

A sad day for free political discourse. But we'll all manage somehow.

[Kat Kanning]

Could you start another one?  It isn't difficult.

[Nat F]

Please do start another one.  I'll even provide all the state and national politics posts from merrimackforum.org.

-Nat (the merrimackforum.org admin)

[error]

I read that post but I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. Some Demoncrats sued somebody to get the forum shut down?

[Nat F]

Yeah, the details are a little fuzzy from that post.  Here's a summary from my perspective, with some additional background as well.

The town of Merrimack used to run a web discussion forum.  In November of '02 they voted to stop doing so.  I then created merrimackforum.org and have been running it since then.  The forum has ebbed and waned in popularity, with many people complaining about the "nasty" tone of discussion that often appears there and citing it as the reason they do not participate.

Last week I was on vacation and had been thinking about ways to improve resident participation on the forum.  The solution I had pretty much decided upon was to separate the state and national politics sections from the rest of the forum and put them up on their own URL.  I anticipate that, combined with a more involved moderation policy will increase resident participation on merrimackforum.org.

Apparently at the same time one of the "nasty" discussions was ongoing mostly in the national politics area.  When I returned from vacation and began catching up on the threads I decided to lock the state and national politics area and transition merrimackforum.org to a strongly Merrimack oriented forum.  At some point (when I have time) I plan on putting up a forum with the contents of the previous state and national politics areas but it's not an important project to me and I may decide it's not worthwhile.

Apparently a lawsuit was mentioned in one or some of those posts.  It was not a factor in my decision.  In fact I've been directly threatened with lawsuits due to running merrimackforum.org five times over the past six years.  Each time I have held my ground and resolved the situation simply by talking with the party(s) threatening to sue and explaining my position while expressing understanding for their concern and offering alternative paths of action.

-Nat

[rowland]

Please do start another one.  I'll even provide all the state and national politics posts from merrimackforum.org.

-Nat (the merrimackforum.org admin)

I certainly can't fault you for that.

If you could direct me to a backup of the posts I can take it from there. But I can't promise anyone a specific time frame. My business is a feast or famine sort of thing and it's just heated up recently.

If someone else offers in the next week I will defer. If not I'll take it.

[RD]

Please do start another one.  I'll even provide all the state and national politics posts from merrimackforum.org.

-Nat (the merrimackforum.org admin)

When people registered to post on the Merrimack Forum, they knew who owned it, and they agreed to certain rules.  To give all that data away to someone those people may not know or trust would not be a good idea in my opinion.

[Kat Kanning]

 

[David]

If it was a private forum, I can understand protecting the info, but if it was a public forum, it really doesn't matter.  All the info was already out in public.