Well, at least you explained what you were doing. That’s more than that other yahoo does!

Ted, I appreciate the offer, but I have my own. Spell check works fine and dictionary.com is only a click away if needed. Have you taken a greater than “thou” attitude since moving to the left coast? Your mother might think you are but I’m not impressed.  We still have ice storms and power outages even in the great commonwealth of MA. Just last year the hill towns around us were out of power for up to 3 weeks. (of course lawsuits against the power company are pending). They live in the middle of nowhere and want all the conveniences of a big city. I think that is also known as ” having your cake and eating it too”.

Who is the yahoo that safetyguy is referring too?

OK, I fibbed, I’m not really going to reply by posting in another category with a new article. The joke just isn’t good enough to carry through. It would be rude to clutter up the home page with a frivolous topic.

Thanks for getting the joke safetyguy. It is a bit of a stretch and I almost didn’t post it.

kingfish, if you look at the HVTD home page you will see several articles with titles formatted similar to mine. That’s who safety guy is referring to.

The “thou” isn’t the archaic form of “you” but an abbreviation for thousand. It’s a dull story and I won’t bore you with it here. (I think you have may already have heard it.) And yes, Mom does think highly of me (when I mind my language) but let’s not get into a Smothers Brothers snit here, there might be children listening.

I bet you left the “notify me of follow-up comments” box checked, didn’t you? See it’s not that bad of an item. I hadn’t even looked at the home page when I stumbled across your post, so I didn’t see the similarity in the titles until later. Guess I need to read the instructions before I try to put the puzzle together.

I knew the “thou” was not “you” but thought I would play on it anyway.

I know about the language thing. I ate enough soap in my younger days to know you watch what you say in front of your mother.

Tag….. its your turn to find my other post and give me an answer

If you boys don’t quiet down, Mr. Fisher might give this thread the axe. Remember, it is a ‘community news web site’—not a ‘chat board!’

Go ahead and chat away. I’m curious to see if this lasts much longer.

Actually, the person to whom you are referring explained what he/she was doing with those in this post:
http://www.hvtd.com/index.php/site/articles/new_by_churchgoer_re_r.i.p._hvtd_/

(I asked not to use “comment” but just to post a comment. If the clutter gets too much, I’ll look at it again, but knowing the mixed feelings about the new software, I’ve been moving softly till we get some of this straightened out).

FWIW
Doug

Doug, we appreciate your work trying to bring HVTD back to life.  We really do.  It is a lot, particularly for someone who already has a day job.

You mentioned “mixed feelings” about the new software.  Have you actually heard from anybody who likes this software?  I may have missed it, but I’ve only seen negative opinions expressed here and out in the community. 

It is clear that, with this system, we have far less today than we did with the old site.  Well-meaning work done so far doesn’t seem to have moved us very far back to where many (including me) would like us to be.  I find this site unpleasant to look at and difficult to navigate.  As an ambassador of our community, it doesn’t seem to represent Hartsville very well.

Can you foresee a time when we shift gears and consider other options?

Jon:
My mixed feelings are because of notes like this - I know there is unhappiness, but it is out of my hands. It is entirely Media General’s call, and, really, if the community wants to express that, Lisa may be your best choice as editor of the paper.

I am still involved because of the MOU we had with Osteen that survived the sale, because of my experience with HVTD, and because I have a lot of respect for a lot of folks I have worked with in MG, where my ties go back quite some while.

But I also fear that HVTD is also an exhibit of how news orgs still do not understand the interrelationships between online community and things like software and feedback and the need for quick flexibility. I know Expression Engine is capable of so much more. See, for instance, http://uwrfvoice.com or http://latviansonline.com, both of which are EE sites.

But Media General has approved only a handful of EE modules, which severely limits what we can do here.

Which is a second reason I have mixed emotions—I don’t feel life revolves around Drupal, which was the software we were using before, but I do know that communities become accustomed to certain features. We don’t have those here, and yet I know Matt has been laboring long and hard to help us, but also is limited in what he can do and has lots of other responsibilities.

I would hate to see what was and is a vibrant community dissolve because of software issues, but online software and user interface/experience are inextricably tied in to content.

Osteen dropped the ball, too. It never provided all the tech support it was supposed to (heck, I couldn’t even get a “report inappropriate content” button), and when the sale came was two generations behind in Drupal. So of course things eventually were going to crash. Many of the features you came to know only because I got expanded admin privileges through knowing the tech guy and was able to turn some things on and off and reconfigure others.

Companies, unfortunately, want turnkey systems they can largely lock and load and continue with minimal maintenance. Communities, on the other hand, are high-maintenance things. I’m hoping there’s a middle here.

Doug

I do remember you mentioning the difficulties you’d had getting support for the last system.  There isn’t any free lunch with any system, is there?

It seems like it might be time to get together with the folks who have a stake in this and work out a plan to get the site where it needs to be.

If you’re willing, I’ll be in touch via email to help get that together.

Jons, I am with you on that idea but don’t think it’ll work unless we can meet with the MG management who are in control of this site and its setup. I appreciate all Doug is doing, but he is forced to work with what they give him.

I miss the old site. Before the crash, I had a photo-story ready to put up. Now it’s not worth the time and effort. It’s really discouraging.