It's been almost eight years since the first post here on nvp.com, North Vancouver's original political blog.
Conceived and first owned by Barry Forward starting in February 2005, a civic and provincial election year then taken over by John Sharpe in 2011, this blog has seen much lively discussion on North Vancouver political issues. The Blog has had a part in serving the community of North Vancouver very well as a forum especially at election times with the purpose of bringing the issues to the forefront for discussion. In it's headier days the Blog saw prominent political figures posting and commenting, but in more recent times it has become more of an anonymous poster's haven. Which ever way it has and will evolve my hope is that it continue to have a valuable voice in the community and political discussions of North Vancouver. Long live The Blog!
15 comments:
C'mon John - this blog is actually a sneaky way for municipal councils to keep the anti-development people distracted and occupied while massive 300 story highrises are built on every available piece of land in North Vancouver.
Don't try to deny it. It's funded by the Developers and we know it.
It is a District Blog and should be renamed. There are 4 blogs for the City already.
Ummm, Barry, I hope your comment about the blog being funded by developers is as tongue-in-cheek as 300-storey towers.
What would the birthday celebration be without Tommy Douglas?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEYwVb-6TeE
Anon 4:00 - and very fat cats at that....
Anon 12:42,
Not sure whether it's a criticism or not, but fair enough either way. My post could have included how the The Blog did use to have more balance with CNV issues and it would be nice to see that come back. At election times in 2008 and 2011 it did. A greater diversity of registered posters would of course help or I could pay more attention and time to the City. I don't thnk renaming it would be possible without a whole new domain which changes the whole internet address of the site.
And Barry your sense of humour is about as dry as humanly possible.:)
We in the City would like more balance too! (and not just speaking about the blog)! Although I think the situation has somewhat improved, especially with Craig in election mode and seems to be trying to be calmer!
Sad what happened to this blog.
8 Years ago it covered a lot of important issues, even got the inside scoop on the federal nominations for both parties, etc...now its all just bickering about stupid issues even the councils wont discuss, and its the same handful of left wingers agreeing with each other on most issues, and arguing viciously over the few areas where they have a cigarette paper's margin of difference on opinion.
I wish Barry Forward had continued with this, it could have been so much more than what its degenerated to.
Thia blog was sad to begin with. It only exists as John picks up a bit of money during election time.
I read the Outlook and News now and have their URLs bookmarked so reprinting their links while you pretend it is a blog is a waste.
So again I will ask the question, if you think the blog is useless why do you read it? Over and over again? And why do you find it necessary to constantly criticize?
To be brutally honest, between elections, it's always been pretty much the way it is now, and once an election is near or called, the excitement, real debate and "scoops" start appearing from (usually) anonymous posters and other "reliable sources" that turn out to be surprisingly accurate. We've always had the WQs and other wing-nuts posting on here but most of the serious politicos know her trademark and try, as hard as it is, to ignore her. It will be the same in another six weeks, trust me.
Anon 4:25 PM,
The Blog already had started to slow down when Barry still owned it so that is not an entirely fair statement. Barry's previous career was as a news maker/reporter so the Blog was a natural for him. I do try to keep it moving, but only have so much time to devote to keeping up with issues. It was more diverse when there were upwards of 30 registered posters who were mostly active. I agree with 12:01 AM that if it's so bad then why do you visit the site?
And to Anon 7:53,
You are so wrong. I pick up no money whatsoever for this blog. As a matter of fact it costs me a nominal amount annually to keep it going. I do it because I think it's good for the community to have a political discussion forum.
And hey, there is always the chance it will improve too.
And 99 comments on a recent post isn't shabby at all. Very few posts in the history of this blog have received that many comments.
And yes I know, they're not all quality comments , but they never were in the past either.
Some of the comments are pretty harsh. The blog has a few vocal left-wing contributors, a few constructive conservative posts, a smattering of politicians, a couple of nuts (pretty well known to blog regulars) and an ebb and flow of N. Shore citizens that get involved as the spirit moves them. The registered contributors are no better or worse informed than the Anons so they tend to fall into the usual categories.
Yes, things heat up in elections but some of the most frequent and adamant posters are just as temporary as the campaigns - they come and they go.
All in all an interesting place that keeps local interest focused.
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