Celebrating Two Years Online in Idaho Falls

Congratulations, Joe. You’ve created a great site here and you should be proud. Kudos.

I’ve only been using this site for a few months and think it is one of the best around. I did not like your comment Joe that in a short while you are planning on leaving IF and probably even the State. Anything we can do to change your mind? Just kidding, everyone needs and has the right to go wherever they want, but maybe we will be lucky and you will change your mind.

Joe Vandal wrote:

” Without offering excuses for why it happened, I carried a bad attitude for a few months and for that I sincerely apologize. ”

Yes Joe you did have a lot of attitude and YOU damaged some relationships you USE to have with some users here, let alone former monitors.

Have you ever apologized to your monitors individually or in print on the site? Besides your former monitors, I can give you a list of about 3 others, off the top of my head, you’ve said some really unfair comments too, IMO. None of my references are about religion discussion.

These people were all supporters of yours, at least until your bad days.

You absolutely hung one person, a monitor, out to dry, which is when I stopped visiting as much. I contacted that person and asked who you had sold the site to as the Joe Vandal I know when I found the site a year ago would have NEVER tolerated those helping him being beaten up for helping him.

Your actions did speak louder than your words.

In my professional experience, Site Hosts don’t allow inacurrate comments to be made about those they have asked to help monitor the site, when other users don’t know why those monitors have been asked to help.

It would be nice had you posted their names so even new users could ask them to clear articles. Plus, you could have given the limitations of what monitors could do, in their monitoring functions.

That isn’t to say the ex-monitors should be held accountable for their own posted comments. I mean when others are posting inaccurate information about the monitors and their monitoring duties(like monitors are deleting or “watching” who logs on here all day), YOU NEVER TOLD THE TRUTH SO ALL COULD KNOW.

I still don’t see anywhere on here where you name the Site Monitors and their purpose, as well as their limitations.

Joe, this is your site and obviosly you get to do whatever you want with it. Opinions will and have changed over 2 years about the site and you.

I do think some people would still be here today, had you taken more responsibility and stepped up to the plate on some really ugly comments written about your monitors (including your own).

Nope, this isn’t warm and fuzzy like most posts. I’ve seen the site too long and those who helped you build it. Some people may have just seen it the last 2-5 months etc. and not have seen those posts.

Congratulations for hosting the site for 2 years. That is a great accomplishment.

I hope this next year brings you good things to this site. I also hope you are happy when you move.

Odd how happiness is often generated from within.

And a huge thank you to the monitors that got beaten up on this site and never got recognized for all they did to help Joe or new guests. Nor did their role get explained to users at large.

Thanks monitors for all you’ve done to help this site grow, keep comments civil in the chatbox, stop bad language and other things you did that others never realized. Joe and others put you monitors through hell and you were never given the support you deserved, IMO. I appreciate what you did. I can’t believe you were treated so horribly, by the site’s host, when you were helping him enforce his rules.

I guess this really does show it is Joe’s site.

Good for you, Just Wondering.

It’s time some stood up for the B.S. at least 2 of the monitors had to deal with this last year.

Joe’s token apology is at least a start.

Can you imagine where this site would actually be if those 2 monitors still logged on regularly and had the chats they use to? Doesn’t anyone else see who the center of positive discussions are?

Joe - you could make year #3 the best. Just think about people donating their time, experience and education to this site.

There is still time to salvage the situation. Or at least Joe you can make it more positive. You can still go back to those awful posts and clarify what your monitors did because of your directions.

It would be nice if some of those who threw punches as well if they would apologize too, but don’t plan on it.

People are people and they will go where they feel appreciated and not mis-treated.

I’m glad your “dark period” is over Joe. You may want to give that further thought. I seriously doubt this is your first time that has happened. I’m also glad you got your BP down.

Lots of us were worried about you, but realized we shouldn’t worry when you refused to take us seriously. Hell, what do we know? We’re only licensed professionals including one of your ex-monitors.

Glad you have found a better way for you. Good luck this next year.

This is a very interesting thread. I’ve been participating in various internet forums since 1994. I’d guess that 99.99% of the successful forums are “personality dependent.” In other words, the personality of the individual running the forum “wins” or “loses” the success of the forum, blog, or whatever the lingo de jour might be. I’ve also noticed that public forum owners tends to have very high highs and very low lows. Some of the best forums I have participated in would often be off line for weeks or months because the owner simply couldn’t handle the stress any longer. Apparently, the birthing and ongoing life support for these entities is largely a matter of personal passion. When the passion burns brightly, it’s full steam ahead. I’ve lurked on this site for awhile, off and on. Lately, I’ve decided to become a regular participant. Why? Well, I think the owner has pretty well hit his stride. He’s doing a good, solid job doing what he does. He’s keeping it between the white lines and cruising well within the posted speed limit for this type of highway. That takes a lot of patience, skill and dedication. All impressive.
So, I feel like I can post up here and be somewhat assured of an atmosphere of dignity and respect–two very valuable assets! Thanks for doing a great job, Joe. Keep a steady hand on the wheel and enjoy the ride.

First, congrats on the site. I found out from a coworker who’s married to a city worker and the site was described as something that many city workers comment on, especially police officers. I enjoy the site and since I’ve started visiting regularly only 4 months ago I was not aware of previous acrimony and issues. I only know what I see now, and I like what I see now. Good job, Joe.

Actually, I’ve discovered the same highs and lows (in quality and quantity) on other websites, but mainly if there is only one ‘owner’. Even the blogs of my daughters and myself run into this problem, when we have too much going on in our lives to stop to take time to post. Long droughts occur and those who visit to read what’s new end up moving on to other forums. Or, the subjects of the posts aren’t diverse enough to maintain outside interest.

A very successful blogsite that I know of has avoided this very issue by having about 5 ‘administrative owners’ who all contribute posts for comment.

It makes for some very busy times when there are up to 5 posts flowing at once, but all in all, over the past few years, it’s ended up being very balanced. The surprise was that these women met online themselves, and were able to come to a meeting of the minds about similar values, so even though they don’t agree with each other politically and they have different personalities, they complement each other very well and the site is very enjoyable as a result.

I’m sorry to hear you may be leaving, Joe. I hope that when you go, you start something similar in your new area, as you have some real talent for this. I also hope that by that time you have an heir apparent for this site, and I’d suggest you actually go with the multiple owner format (plugging any security issues that you have discovered) as even the most dedicated individual can have bad times and it’d be a shame to allow that to impact the site in general.

But again, I think you have a successful site and I’m glad you started it and continue to maintain it. And I’ve come to enjoy (mostly) the change in theme, even!