Thursday, March 01, 2007

Giving your comments a little personality.

I have a number of commenters who are writing as Anonymous. My problem is that I have no idea who is who after a while. I suggested today down in a comment, that if you want to remain Anonymous and also want the thread of your ideas to be tracked by the readers, adapt a handle.

There are three options for comment identy -Blogger login, Other, or Anonymous. The item of interest in Other. Click that and give yourself a handle, then fire away. You will still be Anonymous, but now you can connect your ideas over multiple comments.

I came back to my computer after lunch and there were 7 or 8 anonymous comments. In some of the threads, I know the same person is back to write more. In many threads of late, I get 2 or 3 anonymous comments in a row and it is confusing.

This blog isn't on my server. I can't and will not track who you are by some trick. So have no fear, unless you put on a cape and visit me at the Rec Center, we will never know who you are. :)

For one of my gym buddies, I suggest "The Hammer"! In honor of your driving distances of course.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good idea.

Sheila's campaign must be bankrupt of viable ideas. No one has stepped forward in her defense, only Anonymous personal attacks on Cole.

Anonymous said...

Personal attacks on Cole? Huh? There are more accusations that Sheila's supporters are systematically messing with Brad's signs than there are attacks on Cole floating out there.

Anonymous said...

As I mentioned previously, I live outside city limits and am not eligible to vote for mayor.

"Testy" commented that Sheila's campaign must be bankrupt of viable ideas.

I don't know about that, but I do know that sometimes WHO you know is equally as important as WHAT you know.

Here's a true story to illustrate that point:



A couple of years ago, I was part of the Boy Scout camping committee. We were looking for possible locations to hold our annual Camporee, and it was suggested that SIU's "Touch of Nature" facility on Little Grassy Lake might be appropriate. Because I work in Carbondale and I'm not tied to a desk all the time, I was tasked by the committee chairman to check with the management of "Touch of Nature" and determine if having a Camporee with several hundred Scouts was a possibility. So I called, and explained what I had in mind. And I could tell that the person I was talking to was somewhat less than enthusiastic about the possibility of having hundreds of Boy Scouts invade the property. It was like "well, we've never done that kind of thing before, and we're really not set up for an event like that, and I really don't know..." and I thanked him and told him.."OK, that's what I thought, too, but ...GLEN POSHARD asked me to call and find out" and all of the sudden, there was a marked change in attitude. Yes, before Glen Poshard was President of SIU, he was chairman of the SIU Board of Trustees, and he also helped the southern Illinois Boy Scouts as he was able. And sometimes, just a mentioning a name was plenty of help! To make a long story short, we did end up having our Camporee at "Touch of Nature", and it was a really great experience, thanks in part to the enthusiastic cooperation of the "Touch of Nature" management and staff.

Brad Cole has done a good job as mayor and that's certainly an asset. But Sheila's "network" may be an asset that is equally as valuable to the City of Carbondale as Brad's experience. And isn't that what's important? What's best for Carbondale?

PeterG said...

I think you aren't following the trend here. Sheila supporters personal and undocumented attacks on Brad are a part of the foundation of her support group. But you know that already.

If this thing was based on accomplishments, Sheila would have no chance.

PeterG said...

I'm not so sure that Sheila's network is better in producing results then Brad's. For example, Brad talked SIU into becoming part of the city. This is a big win. You would think that Sheila's big ties to Glenn Poshard and status as a instructor/professor (guess I need to look that up sometime) should make her better at getting SIU to do things for Carbondale. But hard work and good ideas are better then knowing someone in Washington.

But there is a second part of this equation. In order to get something done, you have to have a plan/dream/idea of what you want to accomplish. This is where Sheila falls short and Brad really shines. Sheila has put forward almost no good ideas, where Brad is an idea machine. Sometimes I don't like Brad's ideas, but mostly they are really good.

What I really like is how Brad takes his ideas, makes allies and gets results. What exactly have we seen from Sheila as an idea in the last 4 years? Killing our enterprise zone amendment in Springfield? Go ahead, name 3.

If you are telling me that her Father's buddies from the US Senate, or people who want her to use her status as the child of her Father are going to start giving Carbondale pork barrel money because she is the mayor, that is yet to be seen. The certain trend is that the pork goes to where the voters are, and voters are one thing that we have in very limited supply. Paul Simon didn't bring home the pork and I don't think that Sheila will as mayor either.

If Sheila does become mayor, I can see her starting to work on Brad's ideas. The problem is once you remove Brad, there will be no more ideas for her to steal. Then we will be back to where we were 5 years ago. She doesn't seem to have a circle of idea people, look at my ripping apart of her campaign document. There just isn't depth there.

Ideas plus network, I think is a great combination. No ideas, plus great network is worthless.

Anonymous said...

Good thing she has ideas then, whether you recognize that or not.

PeterG said...

Name 3 of Shiela's ideas on economic issues. You can't do it.

Anonymous said...

"This blog isn't on my server. I can't and will not track who you are by some trick."

You don't need to track by some trick. If you read enough of my comments, it's obvious what department I work in. If you do a little more fishing on the writing style, you (or people who make tenure decisions about me) could figure out who I am without much effort.

PeterG said...

If you think that anyone cares what you say here, you should stop writing. Or you could type with only your left hand and maybe no one could trace you because of the change in style. :)