10-02-2008, 09:56 PM
kirsty Wrote:Actually, before you slate WaukeganCrew, I would love you all to take a look. Furthermore, if the word 'arrogance' is to be banded around, then feel free to use it towards me, preferably face-to-face rather than in an internet forum. I am the one who wrote the copy; I stand behind my words; I believe that Kelly Ann and Jeff K knew that I was involved in this. I do not hide behind a screen name, and I never will. I was as open on the Town site as I will be in this site, and the Waukegan Crew site. All I want to do is to do my part in making Waukegan better. Being informed is part of that process.
The purpose of crew therefore, is as it states: to act rather than to talk. Just to be clear, WaukeganCrew is not a cover for Chris Wakefield or any other candidate. From my point of view, I am unable to vote as I am not a citizen. This also means I cannot collect signatures on ballots, for Chris, Sam, Mayor Hyde, or any other. Moreover, Chris, like all the other candidates, have their own forums for that purpose. Nevertheless, I invited a few Waukegan-ites over to my house a couple of weeks ago to meet Chris Wakefield and to hear what he had to say. This was done with a view of inviting all of the candidates, one by one. Since my house is not big enough for a larger group, and my children need to get to bed without hearing 'adults' shouting at the candidates, we decided to invite the other candidates to a public venue so that all interested citizens have an opportunity to hear their platform. Once all the candidates have had a chance to speak, WaukeganCrew will get behind one of the candidates. That's it.
I appreciate all of the work that the people at Town have done, particularly with regards to the School Board. I also appreciate this forum; in fact, any forums that facilitate open discussion on matters pertaining to Waukegan are a good thing. But just to get the facts straight, WaukeganCrew is not a faceless, arrogant, elitist site. Anyone is free to join. Just as I was asked to register for this site, and Town, the same is true of WaukeganCrew. Any subject is up for discussion - the only difference is that we want to keep the topics focussed on Waukegan, and not matters such as Sarah Palin's childrearing abilities, or savings at food markets. Those topics are better discussed in other forums. But within the topics of Waukegan, anything is up for grabs. If you hate all of the candidates for example, then you can use our forum to discuss it, no holes barred.
I hope that you will join us in our efforts.
Kirsty Booden
When I first read the post about the new crew forum, I did take a look. I did not see any information as to who was behind it and I am not a big fan of giving my name, phone number and gawd knows what other information to an unknown entity. There have been many groups (some not-so-nice) talking about starting a forum to fill the void left by the demise of the beloved TOWN forums, and I did not know which of those groups was behind crew. Mr. Weate told us about himself and why he has started this forum, so I decided to give this one a try.
I have had my share of whackjob forum posters harassing me out in the real world - some even went so far as to track down and harass friends of mine - so I don't really care to post under my full given name. Those who need to know who kellyann1293 is know how to get in touch with me if they need to, but I don't want to hang a neon sign on my head or have my phone number in someone's database just begging to be hacked. And I also appreciate the more anonymous posters who quite often give damn good information but cannot disclose their names, due to a variety of factors. Time after time a story broke on the TOWN forums days or weeks before it hit the News Sun, Daily Herald or the Trib.
Personally I don't much care for forums where discussion topics are limited; national politics certainly affects us here in town; the goings on in Zion, North Chicago, Gurnee and other nearby towns affect us as well. Many folks on modest incomes seek information on where the best deals can be found, and there were many deals made in the "buy and sell" section. Community events (Waukegan Orchestra, park district events, reunions, etc) were often announced and promoted on the TOWN forums. New establishments in Waukegan and neighboring communities were discussed and reviewed - it was a source of free advertising (within limits!) to local residents for new businesses. Sure, discussions got out-of-hand, but to me personally I would rather take that chance. I know it's not for everyone. The TOWN forum was a great community, even with all the BS (and no, I don't mean you, BandStudent!!!
). Many posters have met and some great real-life friendships were born on those raucous forums, and many eyes were opened to what's really going on around town. I will be forever indebted to TOWN, its webmaster and the arbiters for giving us that outlet for as long as they did.
Best of luck to the crew group! Forums are definitely not one-size-fits-all, so I say the more the merrier! And once again, a big thank-you to Mr. Weate for providing this forum. It looks like many of the regulars from TOWN have made their way here - even The Muse has joined, to continue updating us with news of concert events.