Billy comments on comments

Billy, the college friend from thousands of years ago, has called again. He’s equal parts amused, concerned and curious about comments on The City Wire.

For what it’s worth, Billy continues to believe The City Wire will never be a long-term success unless it includes stories about hunting seasons, high school football and presents a weekly photo feature of a local Hooters girl.

Billy: Got your note about this new version of The City Wire being up for 20 months. Well, it’s better to be lucky than good, because going 20 months without so much as a photo of some old boy tagging a deer is running on pure dang luck.

MT: Maybe so, Billy, but am surprised you didn’t suggest we have a photo of some old boy tagging a Hooters girl.

Billy: You think you’re a real live wire, dontcha? I’m surprised your little smart-alecky mouth hasn’t written a check your ass can’t cash.

MT: Sorry, Billy, I just thought

Billy:  And that would be your first mistake: you thought.

MT: Wow. You’ve come loaded for bear.

Billy: OK, maybe that was a little rough. You know I like this City Wire thingy you got going, and I really do hope y’all do a swell job with it. But I’m not sure if them comments won’t be the death of The City Wire.

MT: How so?

Billy: Well, frankly, the comments are beginning to wear me out. I mean, when y’all first opened up this thing for free-wheelin’ comments, hell, I hit your site several times a day just to see what folks were saying. But anymore it’s just a bunch of conspiracy nuts who think anybody with any type of government job is out to destroy the city or kill the environment or take away their birthday. And when it ain’t conspiracy folks, you get comments from people who are negative about everything. You could post a story about how motherhood is good, and within three comments you’d have a back and forth with idiots saying city director so-and-so is against motherhood because he puts his left foot forward when he walks and we all know that left-foot-firsters are part of a secret Freemason plot to end motherhood by using the Mayor’s budget to buy ice cream and ammunition. Or some crazy junk like that.

MT: I hear what you’re saying, but we are the only media platform that allows citizens to engage in unfettered public discourse. There will be some bad that goes along with what we see as the positives of open discussion.

Billy: Yeah, I get all that about being open, but, damn, do you really have to let comments stay up that are just flat out wrong or crazy?! A few days ago you had comments about how Mayor Ray Baker and Ken Pyle, that housing authority guy, were in cahoots to screw citizens out of their property and money. Now c’mon Tilley, I don’t know much about Fort Smith politics, but I do know that Baker and Pyle are about as far from running buddies as possible. I’d go so far as to say they probably don’t have much account for one another. So how do you let that kind of stuff be posted as a comment?

MT: That was humorous about Baker and Pyle.

Billy: It wasn’t humorous. It was wrong.

MT: We are closing comments on stories when they get off topic, and we do delete vulgar comments or those way beyond the line in terms of being mean-spirited. But moderating comments may become a slippery slope.

Billy: If you can cut mean comments, then cut the comments when they are wrong.

MT: Because I’m not comfortable with me being the final arbiter of what is wrong. Sure, the thing with Pyle and Baker was a black and white case, but many of the comments with which you or I or someone else may disagree may be more a matter of perception than a matter of clear right or wrong.

Billy: Tilley, I think you are getting dang close to outsmarting yourself.

MT: No, hear me out. For example, we had a few folks post a lot of comments about how the city of Fort Smith was spending too much money and could use a good round of budget cuts before finding a new way to fund the Fort Smith Convention Center. Some of the comments were a little personal, and maybe we should have cut a few. Also, most of the comments were, in my opinion, wrong and way off point with respect to a rational, long-term solution for the convention center, and

Billy: OK, Tilley, get to the dang point.

MT: The point is, the commenters were about half right. The city did, or does, need to evaluate its budget and find short- and long-term efficiencies and cost savings. For example, the city department heads recently outlined about $2 million in one-year real cuts or in not hiring people for unfilled positions. Also, city employees noted that the city could save more than $225,000 a year by stopping the program that provides taxpayer dollars to local non-profits and entertainment events.

Billy: So how were they half wrong?

MT: They are wrong because a few budget cuts from a $40-plus million general fund will never be enough to consistently maintain in future years the convention center. A more financially efficient city government and finding a long-term management and funding solution for the convention center are two different issues.

Billy: What about them comments about the convention center being unnecessary and just shutting it down or moving the city offices to the convention center?

MT: That’s another good example of comments that are wrong, but valuable to the discussion.

Billy: Wrong AND valuable? Do you get how stupid you sound? Do you ever just listen to yourself be stupid?

MT: Look, I realize it’s somewhat counterintuitive, but hear me out. By my conservative estimates, the convention center annually generates more than $8.5 million in regional economic impact. It could be as much as $20 million if using commonly accepted economic rollover theory, but let’s stick with $8.5 million. The question, then, is are we willing as a community to pony up about $1 million a year to capture a minimum of $8.5 million in economic activity? Only a diehard aginner who refuses to accept or understand the benefits of tourism and business travel would reject such a proposition.

Billy: That’s all good and swell, dips%$#, but how is a wrong comment also valuable.

MT: Because it provides business and civic leaders in the area a sense of what people are thinking. Knowledge is power. And knowledge of what people think is what The City Wire provides.

Billy: Maybe you have yourself convinced that knowing what people think is valuable, but I don’t see any benefit in it. There are nut jobs what still think the earth is flat. Where’s the value in that?

MT: I’m not saying all comments are valuable. I’m saying that our relatively open comment policy is more likely to create better community discussion than some static letters-to-the-editor screening or letting me be the judge of what is right and wrong.

Billy: I think you’re drunk.

MT: And I think you’re wrong, but am posting your comments anyway. See my point?

Billy: Yep, you are drunk. And speaking of points, when are you going to quit being a politically-correct homo and start doing regular features on Hooters girls?

MT: When I really am drunk. Talk to you later, Billy.