So what is RiotACT these days?

Simple statement of fact can hardly be considered juvenile CC. That is my opinion about you, that you constantly reinforce with your rambling commentary and falsely elevated platform of self-worth that you appear to be standing on.

The challenge, therefore, is to prove me wrong, instead of attempting to rebutt my comments with more vitriol.

You will note that I don’t normally engage people in such a manner until they exhibit the qualities of a peanut – actually you probably will not have noticed that but other RA’ers will have.

In some terms this is frowned upon as lowering myself to your level, but in my line of employment I consider this as dealing with technological issues in laymans terms so that the peons can understand what they need to know.

Not once have you appeared confused by my statements so I rest my case. I still consider you are a peanut.

Ooops posted in the wrong thread. FFS

“CC – you are nuttier than peanut butter. I am constantly amazed you have made it down this far along the evolution trail.” Posted by Maelinar.

But juvenile you unfortunately remain. I rest my case.

Ho hum.

Woody,

The only place speed cameras have an effect on speeding are the areas which have them. People will speed up again after the zone. Therefore it would make more sense to have them in school zones. Its not rocket surgery, but I’m sure you’ll have another nice comeback which involves calling me a “dickhead” or “selfish”. I’m just stating the facts. I’m not blind, I do a lot of driving and witness these driving habits every day.

Jazz,

Would some form of template provide a little more ease for posters and a loose guide to what would make a more coherent, reliable approach to doing things the RiotACT/’open journalism’ way?

as in announce, link, background, opinion, sign off/shot at the pool room – sit back and watch the commenting gold?

But I think you’ll find my opinions on this subject very well formed (and informed) and consistent Comment by chester — October 2007

Tagline ! Tagline !

CC – you are nuttier than peanut butter. I am constantly amazed you have made it down this far along the evolution trail.

“A bunch of fat f*ckin PS pricks with 7hrs & 12 minutes to waste every day on meaningless sh*t that does not contribute to the world revolving in any way. After they have spent 7 hrs & 12 minutes ranting about topics they know nothing about (only online with fake names so no-one can tell them to their face how f*cking stupid they really are), they will drive home, yell at some cyclist, microwave their dinner, watch ACA, download some porn and call it a productive day.”

Although I don’t fall into the typical reader ‘profile’ as some of you may know, I don’t really think that i’m a prick… I haven’t witnessed/read about any overly prickish behaviour. I’ll gladly give this guy my name so he can come and tell me how ‘stupid’ I am.

I used to read RA all the time, but I don’t have that sort of time anymore. I check in occasionally and only read the topics which i’m interested in. I think the guys who are running the site now are doing a great job.
All the people who are whining about it either A) Go find another site or B) DO something about it, like submit your own article?

God, some people are such pricks.

Sometimes the “link to mainstream media” stories can be worthwhile – if the author has something significant to add to it (whether fact or opinion), like a local spin on a national story, or tying together multiple seperate stories into a wider story, or linking a story back to something that’s been broken or discussed recently on the riot.

I am puzzled by people posting links to a story in the mainstream media. There’s no extra info, nothing extra… we can all read the CT or the SMH or the Qbn whatever it is. I like to read stories/gossip from locals that hasn’t appeared elsewhere. This is a valuable outlet for that (despite the venom people hating it).

I also like the local eatery/food articles. Where else will you see these? from some CT journo who was comped? ha.

I see plenty of stuff that I reckon is boring/pointless but you know what? Who cares? It doesn’t hurt me that it’s here. I feel no need to spit hatred at the writer for hoisting it. I just move on to the next article. The minute someone starts the abuse, they’ve already lost the fight.

No it didn’t flush me out. I keep an eye on this site in the hope it will become (perhaps I’ll even risk “continue to become”) less juvenile. But I think you’ll find my opinions on this subject very well formed (and informed) and consistent. But as Maelinar’s and other’s posts suggest, the very definition of dumbf*ck might be said to be anybody who reads too much into a screen name.

And Ralph has been 5min without telling us that the market will fix everything!

This has been a great post. Lots of OT, but it’s even flushed Crazy Chester out again.

I really like all the photos people take. Some are a bit ‘look at me I can get all arty with a camera’, but they capture a little bit of Canberra each time.

For all its faults I still like RiotACT.

And, it does have an interesting readership. I remember chatting to a cop and she told me that they kept an eye on postings on this site, particularly on controversial topics.

Bonfire, I’ve been ‘worrying’ about you lately – you haven’t called anyone a “softhead” for quite a while! 🙂

ive also suffered kooks hassling me for things i have written here.

so i have followed maelinars example.

a few ra’s know who i am but i dont feel the need to publicise my identity. it serves no purpose.

i am after all just a keyboard issuing forth opinions into cyberspace.

i stand by every word ive written though.

except when ive played devils advocate. or stirred the possum. but apart from that….

my name has a story 🙂 – it came about when I decided to give the future a persona.. and this persona didn’t like being called the future because the future never happens, and the imminent present seems much more tangible than the future. A little bit after renaming itself the imminent present it realised that it was also not diane nor had any desire to be diane therefore the imminent presents complete and utter lack of diane obviously meant that it was Absent Diane of the Imminent Present. I soon got jealous of this persona I had created for the future and stole it for myself!

Bourke,

You friend sounds like a bitter twisted asshole. I don’t fit into any of the pigeon holes he has set out in his email. Your mate sounds like the kind of guy who would order a pizza and then get all crazy and pissed off because they charged $5 more than advertised on their outdated website.

Seems like his extra tight lycra bike pants are cutting off proper blood flow to his brain.

Apologies for the incomplete post – but this is long. A summary which is going to end in words to the effect of more thought has gone into Maelinar than your parents put into your real name.

Enjoy.

Maelinar of the Internet Persona

Maelinar is the name of an Elvish Ranger type character that I created when playing a Role Playing game many years ago in my 20’s. The translation to his name meant ‘Warder of the Gardens’, or in modern terms, security guard. Maelinar did pretty well at what he did, and was fun while he lasted. His bow could never compete with the hard-hitting swords and pikes of the front line, but standing at the back generally doesn’t get you injured either.

In later years, as the advent of micro computing and the Internet came into the fore, it became apparent that I could go one of two ways, I could use my real name, or I could use a moniker. I recall reading particularly nasty reports at the time of people having their identity stolen very easily, and it happened to me on a few occasions. I decided to use a moniker in order to protect my identity, and quietly removed any references to my true name from the Internet.

When deciding to use a moniker, I put extensive thought into the moniker that I was going to use, presumably for the rest of my life, and the reasons behind why I was making this decision to take up an additional name. Essentially, it comes down to the fact that Maelinar does not have a credit card, nor does Maelinar have a bank account, but Maelinar is me.

I have other nicknames, I even have other names such as my Indonesian name, Fauzi. Going over the breadth of names available to me at the time, I elected a name that I had made up myself, in originality not even a name intended for me to use, from a pleasant time in my past, and of sufficient size and randomness to ensure I could get first dibs on my nick on Hotmail, Gmail and every other internet account I have.

As time has gone on, the internet developed, new products have become available that were previously unheard of, for instance, who would have ever thought of interactive news that was submitted by the readers ?

In my own mind, Maelinar became a person from the first time somebody responded to me, as Maelinar, in the belief that I was not artificial intelligence. I could have quite reasonably remained a troll, living under my little bridge in a haven of anonymous logons that never have any real influence other than gaining access to otherwise prohibited material and having eBay accounts etc, until I chose to respond actively on a local news site.

When I chose to respond towards local news, I moved from my perch of mysteriousness to a public broadcast of, to put it in basic terms, this is me. Maelinar became me. Maelinar will now be forever immortalised as me on the internet, as much as Keanu Reaves is the character ‘Neo’ in the movie, the Matrix.

So who am I ? Maelinar of the Role Playing Persona is a character that shared a fantasy world encounter of epic proportions, although I must quietly state that he was a far more reliable character than most of the rest of the party he adventured with, evidenced by the fact that he stood beside Hastol Nafor to engage an oncoming rush of bandits, where the rest of the party blipped into invisibility and skulked away.

The catch behind all of this is that being an Elvish Ranger type, of course I had the ability to fade into the shadows, and in sensible tactical terms, facing somebody with a bow is generally something you want to do from the sides, at range, and out of the way of an approaching charge if at all avoidable.

But is that me ? Is that Maelinar, the Elvish Ranger, the same chap who posts on internet forums, or is this another, third alter-ego ? A hybrid Maelinar, half Elvish Ranger fantasy character, half Human ?

In what would appear a stunning stroke of luck, one day I decided to play a prank on my local newspaper, and ran and advert requesting a zeppelin and a sopwith camel for an elaborate hoax. In all reality, this was as Maelinar of the internet persona, as we had been discussing on the forum the merits of the aforementioned paper.

Little did I realise at the time that a rival newspaper would pick on the story and run with the headline for 2 days. I’ve since been interviewed by the victim newspaper itself, although from what I gather there is an ongoing dispute between the reporters and the sales representatives who deal with the advertising, and in the circumstance of never the twain shall meet, I’ve been let off the hook by their own internal fighting.

This is not to say I’ve been entirely bulletproof by this encounter – I’ve suffered editing issues, although quite frankly when they deleted the word ‘lightsabre’ from a latter advert, the entire concept of the ad was lost, and they didn’t even print my request for ‘a team of kooky teenagers for a ghost investigation unit, must have own van’.

~as mentioned this is an incomplete chapter~

“A bunch of fat f*ckin PS pricks with 7hrs & 12 minutes to waste every day

Haha sounds like someone got burnt – RA readers/contributers need thick skin – and hay – at leaset I leave 13 minutes a day to get my work done 😛

PS plenty of times I have offered to slug out a disagreement in a PCYC of the advesarys choice – (note I have neither boxing lessons or what you woudl call an atheletic body – quite skinny really) even wanted to start a poll and friendly bet to see who would win – on every occasion I was denied my 9 rounds so there ya go..no one wanted to put their money where their mouth was…not that I advocate violence – just woudl have been good to have a RA media contingency and a debrief here on this site…. but ya get that aye ?

Anyway – back to my 13 minutes of work… oh hang on , it’s lunch time.

“RiotACT is…
“A bunch of fat f*ckin PS pricks with 7hrs & 12 minutes to waste every day on meaningless sh*t that does not contribute to the world revolving in any way. After they have spent 7 hrs & 12 minutes ranting about topics they know nothing about (only online with fake names so no-one can tell them to their face how f*cking stupid they really are), they will drive home, yell at some cyclist, microwave their dinner, watch ACA, download some porn and call it a productive day.”

Thoughts??”

I am not a public servant, I don’t watch ACA (or TT), and I happen to like most (not all!) cyclists!

And what has your friend done lately to make the world a better place??????

And he was too sloppy to check his facts (or even find them – IIRC he couldn’t locate the transcript of one court case at austlii). That was my problem with him and many here.

If you can shoot someone down in flames with a better argument and more compelling facts, fine. Go for it. I have no probs with people shooting the messenger provided they’re not talking out their arse, hiding behind anonymity or just echoing an equally mindless majority.

JB using RA as a personal vehicle for attacking individuals, as he did in my case, without doing his research, is particularly poor form IMHO. I’d also add that RA is the only place on the net I’ve ever felt genuinely creeped out by a poster (no not JB). That’s nothing to be proud of in my books.

I continue to find it ironic that I was attacked by people who think it’s OK to go around advocating firing squads and other violence as a means to deal with those in society less arrogant and self-righteous than themselves. But in many ways it reflects the dark, sinister underbelly of Canberra perfectly.

I have been heartened to see that the current management seems to be thinking about these things a bit more. Influential people may look in but I’d suggest the reason why RA has little impact on them is because you need to up your game. You make yourselves too easily written off as a bunch of boors.

Yes, JB did seem to have a ‘very sensitive’ side at times!

A bit of sledging is fine, it seems to come out primarily here though when people know that their arguments aren’t holding up.

As for the much lauded Johnboy, whose ability to summarise/copy links from actual news stories and make snarky comments should never be questioned (or his ability to slag off people freely but crack the sooks if it ever got dished back) – his thoughts on RA are made abundantly clear over at the Concat – “There’s no shortage of arseholes and why would you want to deal with them if you aren’t getting paid?”

The site works well in it’s currently minimally moderated form

Come back Johnboy. I once commented that there was no better in Canberra for a website with local news content. The day that JB left was the day that RA became trivial and irrelevant. JB’s contribution was significant and indepth – sad that it had to end.

But hey, I’m not offering any contributions (as I’m too busy being a capitalist). So I’ll leave RA to it’s trivial existence.

If it’s opinions about RiotACT you’re after, I just got permission from a friend of mine to post part of an email he sent me yesterday describing his impressions.

PLEASE NOTE: These are NOT MY WORDS OR MY OPINIONS!! Just posting them for the sake of discussion….

RiotACT is…
“A bunch of fat f*ckin PS pricks with 7hrs & 12 minutes to waste every day on meaningless sh*t that does not contribute to the world revolving in any way. After they have spent 7 hrs & 12 minutes ranting about topics they know nothing about (only online with fake names so no-one can tell them to their face how f*cking stupid they really are), they will drive home, yell at some cyclist, microwave their dinner, watch ACA, download some porn and call it a productive day.”

Thoughts??

that is just the nature of the internet – especially with a well established community.. welcome all – if you post something controversial as your first post expect controversy back – if you give and get stick and don’t go off sooking then you are accepted as part of the community.

and I wouldn’t worry about any of ralph’s comments they aren’t even his own – pretty much everything I read of Ralph’s I have heard some head up their arse conservative politician dribble about somewhere else – and sometime almost to the word:)

A little bit of verbal abuse never hurt anyone. Deadmandrinking called me a tosser last week, but I’d still be happy to buy him a schnooner of beer any day! 😉

That was at your first post btw.

I find it hard to disagree with you.

and Ralph – not all science is about testing hypotheses. If a person (or a planet) is nearly dead, you don’t just try one thing and wait to see if they die. You explore all possibilities, and attempt preventative treatment.

I actually think the attacks on first time posters are very short sighted. This site works because people with different local knowledge post information, and it is a pity to shut someone down the first time they do so – they won’t come back.

Nothing the moderators can really do about that though.

All – thanks for the comments. I moved house yesterday so didn’t really have an opportunity to log on and participate in my own thread…

The comments here more or less confirm what I suspected, that for the most part the open discussion is what drives this place. Whilst not everyone is a fan of the attacks on some people, it seems everyone certainly reserves the right to be part of one… 😉

Jazz – I look forward to seeing those changes to the infrastructure.

S4anta – spot on with that link…

part of the attraction for you, you mean mael. not so convenient for finding stuff in our archives. 🙂 you’ll note we dont shut it down very often.

Good replies Ralph. Stick it to the greenies!

Part of the attraction to RA is it’s ability to switch from one topic to another Jazz…

Plenty of historical posts to the effect of “How did we get from Jam to Honey to Vegemite” ?

can we keep the discussion to the topic on hand & save teh ecological debate for another thread?

Noodle, We do apply a bit of judicial moderation where we feel it is getting a bit out of hand.

Deadmandrinking – are you sure that noone gives a rats arse? We know that a number of very influential people are aware of what goes on here. not everything granted, but enough.

Ralph

Are you going to be the SGS Campaign Manager? I think you would make a nice fit on ecological matters

OK Atmosphere specialist Ralph, you are correct on only ONE point you have made, albeit you didn’t even mention it.

The single fact in the CC equation that is an absolute constant is that there is exactly the same amount of carbon on earth now as there was a million years ago, notwithstanding what we’ve fired into space ourselves and the odd meteorite.

Another inarguable point is that the place where the carbon is has also changed, 1,000 years ago the majority of it was earthbound, increasingly it is becoming atmospheric.

Let me divulge into Geosequestration – or in more simple terms for you, the bubbles in beer. One of the biggest carbon sinks on the planet a short time ago was the ocean mass between Tasmania and the Antarctic. All that water, all that space, all that CO2 being sucked up. One theory is that it’s now full. Another constant is that it’s no longer working as it did, as it’s no longer sequestering CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Hitler denied that the Russians and English were advancing until well into the campaign. It is widely acknowledged that there was something wrong with him as well.

Get my drift ?

What really riles me up is those pricks who post up pictures they have taken.

Bunch of nucking futters

Seriously though – I give and I take – like in the real world – but petty arguments about me or my hobbies are best saved for the school yard.

If you wanna play your better than me game – Ill be subserviant from the get go because I will gain nothing from proving myself a better person to a bunch of people I do not know – and those I do know (in RL) will know who I am – so no point proving anything to them either..

Peace….

Gee Woody, even people with the most basic knowledge of statistics knows that correlation doesn’t imply causation.

Despite the correlations, there is no proof that CO2 is causing rising temperatures.

Please tell me why scientists still can’t adequately explain cloud formation, let alone atmospheric hydrology, particularly when water vapour is something like more than 90 per cent of the atmosphere.

Big

theoretical

hole

I disagree, noodle.
Seriously, where’s the fun in having an argument if you can’t abuse the hell out of someone? I know it’s much more productive to debate the topic, not the debater, civilly – but this is an internet website. Nobody important gives a rats arse what we’re saying and it will not change the price of eggs in sweden, so why don’t we let out our inner urges? We all know everybody else is a prick and we’ve all been dying to tell them that, so why not use this wonderful medium to do so…
You prick.

Since you asked, I don’t like seeing the level of personal abuse that sometimes gets hurled at contributors on this site. It sometimes seems to get very personal and very nasty, and its one of the things that stops me contributing as often as I might. A bit of judicious moderation (not censorship) would be welcome.

Hypothesis: there is a correlation between CO2 levels and global temperatures.
Test: Compare CO2 levels and temperature for the last 400,000 years.
Result: There is an extremely strong, direct correlation between CO2 levels and global temperatures.

Hypothesis: Human beings have created a significant rise in CO2 levels as a result of expanded industrialisation and consumption of fossil fuels.
Test: Look for a sudden increase in CO2 levels coinciding with the Industrial Revolution and increasing to the present day. Result: Such an increase exists. CO2 levels are higher than at any time in the last 400,000 years, and the increase directly coincides with the industrial revolution, increasing stedily until today.

Hypothesis: global temperatures are increasing.
Test: measure global temperatures.
Result: global temperatures are increasing.

Hypothesis: global temperature increases should result in observable effects, like massive reductions in ice-covered land masses and sea ice.
Test: look for such effects.
Result: such effects exist, and the frequency of their occurrence coincides with an increase in global CO2 levels and a corresponding increase in temperatures.

Unless you’d like to posit an alternative mechanism – a plausile mechanism, mind, not vulcanology or sun activity, both of which have been ruled out – for our current circumstances and those of the last 200 years, mebbe you should just STFU about ‘science’. While you’re at it, we’d love to hear about where all this CO2 we’re producing goes, and how it doesn’t cause a greenhouse effect, and how this effect doesn’t cause warming, against what every kid who has ever made a terrarium out of a plastic bottle knows to be true.

Ohh, I’m all for looking after the environment too, openyourmind. I support things like hazardous waste reduction, cleaning rivers, fixing soil erosion etc.

Real environmental problems that have measurable costs and benefits.

anti green types to put up solid arguments and not just hide behind flippant comments

You mean flippant comments like, the artic ice sheet melting, polar bear extinctions and sea levels rising by 100 metres, all because of humans?

Of course green leftists never make flippant comments.

Plenty of solid arguments have been made here in the past. Don’t forget all your dire climate change ‘predictions’ are based upon scientific conjecture and speculation. See, I thought science for the past couple hundred years was based upon testing hypotheses, not achieving ‘concensus’.

The site is fantastic guys. Moderation would kill it.

Single issue blowins like the turd whinging about the noise from a bar etc deserve everything they get.

Big thankyou to all those involved. I’ve enjoyed the evolution of RiotACT post JB.

As a bit of pro cycling lefty, I’m happy to receive the odd dig, but I’d prefer those global warming denying, smoking, the economy fixes everything, anti green types to put up solid arguments and not just hide behind flippant comments. Generally if you draw out the bogans, they end up making a silly comment. My favourite being Bonfire telling us all that dropping cigarette butts is no different to trees dropping leaves. That one went straight to the pool room!

Hoorah for Riotact! I’d just suggest less whinging judge/stanhope/etc-bashing in the stories – if I want commentary masquarading as news I open the Telegraph…or just click ‘comments’.

Also, local knowledge sharing is excellent whether its pie shops or things that happened long, long ago, although I guess in moderation. As a relative newcomer here its good to have that background that isn’t really available anywhere else.

Hey, don’t get me wrong about restuarant/cafe/bakery/takeaway reviews: most of them are very informative.

I just don’t like the ones where someone’s had a bad experience and decides to post on here as a one off poster with an axe to grind i.e. the Five Dollar Extra Tightwad!

“It has changed since it was the Johnboy show, with much more variety and many more punters having a go at posting stories. I’d like to see this continue.”

My sentiments exactly GnT. However, I’d prefer it if admins were a little bit more judicious about what posts make the cut. We need to keep everything focused on the ACT and surrounds, and have less posts like this one where the person could have found out the information he wanted by posting in a similar thread.

But I’m pretty happy with it. Sure, it’s a whingefest, but it was always a whingefest. Without Johnboy though, it feels slightly more democratic – more like a blog anyone with anything interesting to say can post to, not just the admins themselves.

I don’t mind the food/service standards posts. It is better than having the same old article at the top of the page for days on end. As long as not ever article is frivolous.

I like throwing the occasional nasty comment in, especially when it upsets those whinging lefty, greeny, lesbo types.

We’ve all got access to it via the wonders of austlii. Case called Silberberg. Alleged racial sledging/abuse on a blog. Not nice and makes me feel a bit cautious about some of the things sometimes said.

Noooo! I have to disagree. I love to hear peoples opinions on restaurants and food around Canberra. Especially since I have lived in Canberra for less than a year and I am interested in new places to visit.

I agree with Absent Diane.
This place is far less serious than work, but local enough to keep me interested.
But fewer stories on bad pizza service, about the quest for local coffee\takeaway, or feature articles on wonderful\woeful\debateable pies in Kaleen would be a plus.

ra – it gives me somewhere to be weird when I am all serious face at work 🙂

I believe that RA provides does provide a useful function sorely lacking in the Territory. It neatly fills the gap between the serious news outlets (which generally gloss over the local issues) and the all the insight of a magazine gossip column.

As regards to the personal sniping (hostility) that has started to occur… I find that that if you simply ignore it, the snipers get fed up and eventually move on.

RA rules. Everybody here is tops*, mostly because they can give as good as they take. The robust thrust and riposte over most issues discussed here is healthy for everybody, and by Jeebus, it’s good for democracy. So what if the occasional bit belly button of lint slips past the quality filter – just gives us all something else to pounce on and talk/whinge about. It’s the “Riot” ACT, not the “orderly refereed debate over crumpets and cucumber sandwiches” ACT.

*except Ralph^
^Just kidding – love ya, moit. 😉

“Hahaha Mr Evil, you reminded me of that $5 pizza tighwad.”

Yep, he/she was certainly one of them!

Thanks for the vote of confidence swaggie.

Cameron, I’ll try to cover each of your points but if i miss anything, feel free to ask again.

For the last 6 years we’ve been exceedingly lucky to have johnboy spend so much of his personal time managing the admin of the site. Firstly while he was working at capmon and later when he was trying to get the Concatenate up and running as his own business venture. In both of those roles we were fortunate that he had access to a lot of news feeds and had the time to pick and choose the great stuff to put up here.

The other Four of us: Che, NTP, Kramer and Myself have all had full time day jobs and still do that we try to fit running this site around. Unfortunately those dont always permit us several hours in the morning to trawl through news feeds and as a result we rely heavily on the submissions of the readership for news and views of interest.

It doesnt surprise me in the slightest that the site has changed as a result. This year to date 163,335 people have read The-RiotACT. In total that equates to 557,123 visits and 1,603,694 page impressions. Just because you dont agree with what those ~160k people want to read, doesnt make their contributions, or opinions in the form of comment any less valid than anyone else here. I was also surprise to learn just recently that the ACT has a turnover of around 36,000 residents every year. Not surprising then that new views come on here from time to time.

One of the things that we have tried to stay true to is that we offer an open forum and ACT & region based content. As Maelinar points out, we do have standards.

If people want to put their own spin on a story then let them (unless defamatory, stupid, wrong or not about Canberra in which case we’ll can it), they’ll get rebutted or supported with comments.

Its just the same as if we admins put a certain spin on referencing an article from the ABC, Canberra Times or a Press Release.
Yes it can be a whinge fest because thats what people like to do and they want to tell their opinions.

We’ve been putting a lot of work in behind the scenes on a new RiotACT that will let you skip over the stuff you dont want to read & follow more closely the stuff that does interest you. Its still a little way off just yet.

Every single forum I’ve ever been on always seems to have a thread saying “this forum used to be great, now it’s gone all bitchy”. My opinion is that people discover a great site and start posting with enthusiasm, then someone posts a comment that they don’t agree with, and they form the opinion that the whole site has gone downhill.

RiotACT is an open forum. IMO every story, as long as it’s local and not offensive, is legit. If you don’t like reading someone’s rant, don’t.

It has changed since it was the Johnboy show, with much more variety and many more punters having a go at posting stories. I’d like to see this continue.

Hahaha Mr Evil, you reminded me of that $5 pizza tighwad. Good times.

Maybe John Howard and Kevin Andrews actions and words on tolerance and understanding of others are filtering through to the wider community.

Just wait until someone posts about some teenager from some ethnic minority picking his nose at Civic Interchange – the place will explode in moral outrage!

I’m a bit over the crap that seems to appear here like:

* some ‘virgin’ poster has a grudge against a shop/business/restuarant and decides to come on RA to have a whinge – and then becomes all hurt and upset when we don’t all bend over backwards being helpful and understanding because we think they’re pathetic.

* someone comes on here wanting to know about some murder committed at the Private Bin in the late-80s, then got all high and mighty when the thread wandered off topic slightly because we weren’t all going out of our way to assist his/her research!!!!!

Basically though, I do think we’ve all gotten a bit less tolerant and grumpy here: maybe it’s global warming?

Cameron,

I this penny arcade pretty much sums it all up.

Read this comment.

“I know it looks like we run any old crap here, but we do have some standards.” – Johnboy, July 2006

RA just seems to continually evolve in an ongoing process largely due to (as the OP states) the influx of new readers / posters. Constructive comments do seems to be overshadowed at times by useless comments and the departure of JB had a big impact, he did rather make his presence felt on a day to day basis, but admins are largely doing a top job – no change required IMO.

I’m disappointed that discussions of old, no matter how heated they got, have turned into the usual pack of jackals ganging up on dissent.

In other words, people shutting down discussion rather than fuelling it has become more prevalent.

Let it all go through. It keeps people entertained. At worst, it is good for a laugh.

If someone has spent the time writing the article, then I think it is legitimate, or at least they thought it was.