Yes, the Answer Man, who has been on a short self-imposed hiatus largely because he wore out his welcome everywhere else, was forced recently to remove himself from his six-year hiding place in the Croatan National Forest after he was cited by game wardens for impersonating either a black squirrel or Marv Albert’s hairpiece. They could never decide which.

Soon he will return on this blog to offer his rather limited insight into any and all topics of interest as long as they don’t include what ’s next for Brett Favre.

Feel free to post questions but don’t put yourselves under any undue pressure to do so either. The Answer Man has the ability to make up both the questions and answers. This does not, however, mean he is amphibious.

Here are some links to past Answer Man entries.

Reveals reasons for Super Bowl

A stocking stuffer from the Answer Man

Sorting out weird letters

Campaign season brings out the Answer Man

Proceed with caution, children at play

And remember, the Answer Man stands ready to tackle all issues, tissues and misuses — small, medium and large.

Just don’t call before 9 a.m.

Should TheTimesNews.com ban unrepentant, unsavory or otherwise unconscionable commenters from further posting on our Web site?

It pains me to even ask such a question. After all, I fundamentally believe that speech should be protected at nearly any cost. It is, most can recite, one of the basic freedoms outlined by the framers of this nation. But what lots of people who cite the amendment fail to mention is that free speech also carries responsibilities. In addition, free speech shouldn’t trample upon the free speech of others.

That’s where our online and print divisions at the Times-News are right now with a handful — and I mean only a handful — of name-calling and crude posters who inhabit the comment function contained on stories posted by the newspaper online. This tiny faction often drives discussion away from the topic at hand, delves into personal attacks against other posters when they have nothing else to offer in terms of legitimate comment and halt what might otherwise be interesting and perhaps enlightened debate. And the comments violate the guidelines set forth when Community Voice was created earlier this year.

From my perspective these posters — who are all anonymous — have become an Ernest T. Bass kind of element. And while Ernest T. was a fictional and humorous character on the old “Andy Griffith Show,” nobody in their right minds would actually like to have a cackling rock-thrower in their neighborhoods.

At the moment we can block potentially abusive content and do so with a message to the poster. That has had little impact.  As a result there is serious discussion at the Times-News about what guidelines might be used to ban someone from posting on our comments sections and forums. We’ve asked for feedback from other interactive teams in our company as well. At the Times-News this is a group deal. There is no one editor of the Web site. Several areas supply content. Nothing is clearly cut in this new territory.

So I’d also like for readers to send along any comments they have at the end of this post.

Believe me when I say any ban would be an avenue of last resort. We welcome debate, commentary and criticism. Personal taunts and name-calling that harkens back to middle school recess as well as matters of racism or obscenity are matters for serious review.

The questions I ask are these:

Do abusive posters keep others from joining our forums?

What’s the potential damage to our site or other brands?

Did I get into this business in order to take on the role of Principal Skinner where I’m forced to monitor disputes not worthy of the playground monkeybars?

Here are some comments I received via e-mail on this topic. Please add your own.

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“Early on when you began the new format, I was delighted that you might actually censor some of the content which had devolved the previous edition of the forum into a cat fight and bully pulpit for the unsavory elements in our community. These folks were not commenting often on the content of the article under review, but were using it as a chatroom and a platform from which to launch very personal jabs at anyone with a differing opinion. Now it seems you have allowed this newer and improved format to stray down the same path.

 “From the onset of my first post … the barbs began to fly … I responded politely with a warning that such behavior would not be tolerated, and reported the comments as offensive. Apparently no action was taken by any “moderator”.

 “It was suggested later by another poster in a private communication that we should simply ignore the guy, and I complied. As I expected, that only drew more ire and personal insults, some of which were also subsequently reported as offensive content with no apparent action taken.

 “I have also had private communications from other readers and now ex-posters on the forum that they find this behavior intolerable and so no longer choose to be a part of the forum because of it. After all Madison, it DOES violate the very rules of the site, and intimidation does not breed open sharing of ideas.”

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Here’s another.

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“If one differs with his opinion and tries to introduce theirs, he attacks with name calling ridicule and debasement to say the least. I have tried in the past to not respond in kind, but I must say if one is backed into a corner, the fangs can come out.

“It has caused me to reduce my posts just to avoid the abuse. So it looks like the school yard bully has his own playground now.

“We have had some decent sparring in the past without incident and some agreements, but his demeanor is like one who is of a multiple personality and you never know when the demons will appear.

“I know you have no control over others personalities, but the off gassing of their mean temper and verbal attacks are keeping some people from participating. I have invited many people to join the conversation and have had response like “Why would I want to subject myself to such verbal assaults just to voice my opinion?” and “I have dealt with children all my life and some on here haven’t yet made it out of childhood”. 

“If you can, read some of his attacks that use name calling, slurred names meant only to make the other one mad. There is no substance in it and almost every time it draws folks off the subject. I guess it is his defense when he can’t adequately explain or defend his point and must draw others into something else where he feels comfortable, abuse!”

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Anybody else got an opinion?

If you believe the experts — and I’m talking about the gang at the animated TV show “South Park,” then any and all bets on earning big Internet money may resemble panning for gold in a pile of autumn leaves.

At least that was the summation to an episode this year of the boundary-breaking series on Comedy Central that is now in its 12th astonishing, sometimes shocking and usually thought-provoking — and to some simply anger-inducing — season.

We learned this, of course, from the Canadians.

Yes, in the episode “Canada on Strike,” our odd-looking and speaking neighbors to the Great White North (hey they’re drawn that way) become infuriated because Canada is no longer taken seriously (It’s the only nation in the world, it seems, that Americans can joke about with impunity from political correctness). As a result, Canada goes on strike for “more money” based on the widely held assumption that loads of loot is available to people who embarrass themselves again and again and again on YouTube.

Canada, as most might guess, learns a lesson the hard way.

And as is the custom on South Park, one of the children, in this case Kyle, at the end eloquently and without profanity sums up the situation neatly by offering what he learned.

OK, there was a clip here but it was removed on YouTube and I’m working on finding a replacement. Needless to say, however, it was way cool and perfectly summed up the issue of profit on the Internet. Here’s a link until I get the real thing.       

So anyway, “Canada on Strike” aired in April so by the time I rolled into San Antonio last week for a meeting of newspaper editors from Freedom Communications, the company that owns the Times-News, this episode was pretty fresh on my mind. For the record, we used to call this  annual yearly session the “Editor’s Meeting.” This year the name changed to “Content Conference” as a nod to our growing presence, efforts and investment online.

In other words, the Internet.

Our work there so far has been formidable and in some ways incredibly successful. TheTimesNews.com, for example, has grown from roughly 70,000 page views per week when I arrived last May to more than 200,000 a week and more than 1 million a month. Our growth in a year has been 180 percent in terms of use. Time spent on the site and users have also swelled. Unique visitors rose from 55,000 a month to 106,000 from May 2007 to April 2008.

Others in our company are reporting similar interest from what we call our online “audience.” Users are drawn to breaking news, sports, community chat and forums, video and photo galleries. In all — when you factor in our print and online customers — readership of the Times-News is at the highest point in its history. We really should be bragging our fool heads off.

So why then did all of those editors last week resemble survivors from a Shock Theater marathon?

Perhaps Kyle on South Park explained it best. So far the predicted decline in our print revenues have yet to meet an acceptable matching point with our online financial gains. While our Web revenues from advertising are going up — it’s not happening as quickly as daily newspapers had hoped.

We’re not alone. Earlier this month Media General, which owns the Winston-Salem Journal and Tampa Tribune announced a large number of employee buyouts. Nearly half the staff in Tampa was given this option. At the News and Observer in Raleigh 200 were also offered early retirement or some other package.

So times are tough in an industry many of us have devoted our lives to. While some of that can be traced to the changing habits of readers and our own response to it, another portion can be linked to tough economic times in America today. The struggling real estate market is one key element. Gas prices and the rising costs associated with that is another.

But I’m generally optimistic that things will get better. Our daily circulation of the Times-News remains strong and our Internet traffic continues to get more congested. When the economy gets healthier, I predict we will, too.

And then maybe we can get us a big share of that Internet money.

I got this note by e-mail on Thursday night It was under the heading, “Times-Schnooz Blogs.” Here it goes:

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“Tolerate broad thinking, but take action against obscene or hateful material. Make it a credible and safe place worth preserving and sharing.”

Quite frankly, Scarlett, I really don’t know where the f— to begin with that.
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That was pretty much one of the hot-off-the-presses (to use what’s becoming an antiquated term) responses to the launch earlier Thursday of our new online community on TheTimesNews.com called Community Voice — brought to our Web site by a third party provider known as Pluck. As regular readers remember I posted about its arrival a couple of weeks back. This writer, who did not give a name, references a quote from an alleged note attributed to the editor that accompanies each story as a guide or warning for those who care to post comments. I say alleged because I neither approved nor saw this note in advance. Then again, I’m not the editor for our online materials — only one of many referees. We are not issued whistles.

I’m just guessing but I assume this writer is troubled by the sickening political correctness of this “safe place … preserving and sharing” part of the note, which I’m told came from an outside source. It has a very “let’s hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’” quality to it, I must admit.

I hope to track down the scurvy dogs who authored this and hopefully alter the wording to make it sound a little less like a den of hash-smoking hippies conjured it up at 3 a.m. after listening to a Joan Baez album. That said, I would like for comments via our online forum to be more civil and less potentially libelous than the ones that often came with our previous host. Either way, please wish me luck. I’ll likely need it.

So far so good …

Otherwise, the launch of Pluck’s Community Voice is going far better than expected and I’d like to thank all of our online users for making this happen. At other launch points in our company many of the frequent posters declined to do so after they learned registering was part of the program. Many people don’t wish to sign in before speaking out. They prefer to not only remain anonymous — but not easily found. But here the climate has been much more receptive. Several have already developed their own blogs, commented on stories and posted video. Some are opening forums for running commentary and others are diving in. More than a handful have already selected iconic photos to accompany their online alter egos.

 

Yes, it sounded, well, impossible.

And so it is, at least for this week.

The launch of our new format has been delayed. I do not know exactly why – it just is.

But what I will do is put the whole deal in the words of movie character Barry Champlain, the protagonist of “Talk Radio,” a movie by Oliver Stone that starred Eric Bogosian. Here’s what shock jock host Barry Champlain told his audience after he was told minutes before going on the air that his show wouldn’t be going national as scheduled.

It’s classic.

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“I’ve just received some terrible news. Night Talk will not be broadcast nationally tonight…due to the usual corporate, big business, inefficiency, sloppiness and bureaucracy.I’ve just been informed of a scheduling problem. Nothing personal, nothing logical, just business as usual. Maybe the show will go national next week, maybe next month. No one seems to know.I’m sorry. I feel I’ve let you, the listeners, down.But I’ve been in this business long enough to know you can lose the battle… and still win the war.

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OK, so I’m not quite as angry as Barry Champlain.  He’s a fictional character after all. Nobody in real life could be that angry, unless it’s our very own Homegrown Snob.

Anyway, here’s a copy of the story I was set to publish tonight about our new system, which we’re told really will premiere next week. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. I’ll reserve any future options on my breath 

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The words of another editor in our company speak volumes.

“Punctuation is back,” Jeff Thomas wrote in November when his newspaper began a new online system for logging comments on stories while also creating a virtual community.

We couldn’t say this any better ourselves.

This reference is aimed at online readers and commenters on TheTimesNews.com, the online edition of the Times-News. Many have expressed frustration with the commenting tool now in place which forbids question marks, semi-colons and quotation marks. The system was put in place to filter out spam, Web addresses and profanity.

(Next week) that changes. TheTimesNews.com introduces Community Voice, a new application online that offers visitors to our site the ability to blog, establish networks of “friends,” and comment on every item published on the website.

It’s a system built specifically for you, our readers. It’s meant to be interactive and engaging — the kind of place folks might like to hang around for awhile and swap ideas and debate.

The biggest change for current users will be in the comments function on our stories. Community Voice gives administrators of TheTimesNews.com better tools to banish those who hijack worthwhile discussion with venomous words, taunts, personal vendettas and racism. Those types of comments violate our user agreement  and under the old system the online community was considered the cops for wayward traffic.

Now we can do it ourselves and even ban repeat offenders. We can do it by requiring  registration that includes a valid e-mail address. You’ll need to sign up once, and then log in each time you return to  TheTimesNews.com if you want to use any Community Voice functions.

The whole point of online discussion is to debate the issues. We hope users enjoy our new format and will enjoy becoming part of our virtual community.

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We’ll try this again next week, promise.

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Not exactly what organizers and volunteers want to see at the new home of the popular Flea Market — the largest fund-raiser of its kind in this area and a Herculean undertaking anywhere and anytime.
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“A water pipe broke, or I guess a water main,” Boswell said.
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Luckily nothing was damaged by the water — at least not much a mop and some hard work couldn’t fix right up. The folks at Hospice are plenty used to the latter.

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That much was evident on Tuesday when a group of media folks and business people gathered to talk about how to publicize the Flea Market. Seemingly dozens of volunteers were there at the same time moving furniture, artwork, books, computers and appliances that will go up for sale starting on June 13.
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There was no outward sign of any water trouble at all by mid-morning Tuesday. The new home for the Flea Market still needs some touching up. After all, it’s been 20 years or so since the structure was used for much of anything. Since it was decided late last year that the Flea Market would occupy this site, workers have been in overdrive getting the 100,000 square feet of shopping area ready and coordinating parking and interior safety issues with Burlington police.
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Now they want to get word out to the public about where the Flea Market will be this year.
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That’s where the media types came in on Tuesday. The Times-News has been a large supporter of the fund-raiser over the years and that will continue. In the past we’ve covered any news regarding the Flea Market, profiled organizers and featured prominent volunteers (anybody remember the little girl who sold lemonade there last year? Well, she will be there again this year). We’ve covered the setting up, the opening and the closing and in-between we’ve sent in two reporters with $50 so they could write stories about what they bought.

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We’ll still do all that stuff this year, too.
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But we do plan to add a major online component. An ongoing site here at TheTimesNews.com about the Flea Market will provide information, schedules, maps, lists of items up for sale and even pictures provided by retired Times-News photographer Jack Sink.
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The print stuff will start on Sunday with a story about the new site by Mike Wilder — who has covered the Flea Market extensively over the years. The building and location will offer some interesting changes for the event — including a possible tie-in with neighboring Western Steakhouse, which is looking into sponsoring an outdoor cafe with some of the proceeds going to Hospice.

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“But not hot dogs,” Boswell said in reference to the cafe’s menu. “We make 100 percent on (our) hot dogs.”

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I know, I know — time to stop the presses, break into “Oprah” with a TV bulletin, alert Anderson Cooper or post a BREAKING NEWS alert online.
Well, maybe not.
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Yes, Allred calls Jay Ashley and I more regularly than Carolina beats Clemson in basketball. This time he wanted to talk about one of his favorite recent subjects: Our online comments that tail each story we run on www.TheTimesNews.com. Allred, a Republican representative in the state House, isn’t alone. Just look again at the wild blogging that persists on any of our online stories to get an idea of what’s written there by largely anonymous posters who go by names such as “Amazed,” “Justice” or my personal favorite “Jimmy Poopypants.” I hope to see future posts from Rita Poopypants, Ulysses Poopypants or Kahlid-Abdur Poopypants.

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Thankfully the Poopypants family hasn’t seen fit to post on our latest bout of stories involving the travails of former used car dealer Kevin Brogden or joined the ranks of usual suspects weighing in for or against the sheriff. Just to say this one more time for folks who don’t bother to read the blogging rules: The Times-News DOES NOT eliminate comments. It is a self-policing forum. I would hope that posters would refrain from making potentially libelous comments about people who have not been charged with crimes but some seem to have little respect for others.
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For the record, anonymous slingshot practioners don’t float my particular boat, but until the world changes back into a more civil place the rest of us are apparently stuck with it.
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I just had to say it once more. The way it looks I’ll probably be doing so until my dying days. My final epitaph will likely be “Here lies Madison Taylor: He could not delete online comments.”

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Anyway, Allred was rankled by some of the online posts on a story about Republican Celo Faucette who’s seeking the state House seat now occupied by Democrat Alice Bordsen. Now don’t get the wrong idea. Allred wasn’t browsing round online himself. The man hates the internet and blogs. He said his wife pointed them out. And so most know, the vast majority of posts were favorable to Faucette, a longtime figure on the local political scene. Allred simply doesn’t like the idea that people who won’t identify themselves take shots online at people who are in the public eye.
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“I don’t like what they had to say about Alice either,” said Allred, a big-time critic of his fellow Alamance representative.
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“Didn’t you think the comment by the person who wrote ‘i didn’t realize alice was back from italy already.’ was pretty funny?” I asked.
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He paused a second and said, “Well, my wife did.”

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On polling we’re far from experts at the Times-News. We ain’t Zogby, whoever they are. Nobody here goes by the name Gallup. We still don’t know what happened to Harris — oh the Harris Poll is still out there somewhere but I just don’t seem to hear about it like I used to.
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One of those mysteries I guess.
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But despite our incredible lack of expertise we still persist in putting a poll online — in fact these days we have several. On this we’re likely no better or worse than CNN, ESPN or any other online service. I wouldn’t tout their accuracy within 100 percentage points. Nobody but nobody should make even a decision about where they might eat lunch based on one of our TimesNews.com polls. In fact, should somebody in local government use our polling as a reason for taking action — or failing to — I would recommend that that person be tested for drug use immediately.
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The polls, as I’ve written before, are there for fun and because everybody else in the free world also has one. Have at it.
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This week we unveiled multiple ways to join our polling. Some noticed on Tuesday that we ran a list of Super Tuesday presidential candidates for people to choose from — it was the least we could do since Alamance County folks felt a sort of votus interruptus yesterday. With all the national talk about Super Tuesday some here just wanted to join the fun and vote so they could in all likelihood share a spiritual kinship with Wolf Blitzer. Our time is coming though, and on May 6, well, Tar Heel voters may just decide the Democratic nominee.
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That would be way cool.
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But the poll had some glitches. Acolytes of Texas congressman Ron Paul noted that his name was omitted — a mistake I admit. Paul didn’t stand much of a chance on Super Tuesday but he and his followers are aware of this. Paul is running to make a point and he has no real intention of going away — at least not far away. And personally I simply hated the poll because it did not divide the Democrats and Republicans — so it wasn’t a true primary test.

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No matter, it still had about 180 respondents in less than 24 hours, which made it among our most popular polls ever.
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In terms of our polls, we still have the twice-a-week one that runs on the lower right hand side of our homepage — if people can find it. What we can now do is run different polls with individual stories. Click on “Graham revives liquor by the drink debate” and you’ll find a yes or no question about that issue. Go to “Burlington denies outside advertising at Savannah West” and readers will find another poll.

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It’s good, I guess, to gauge the mood on local issues. I’d love for everybody who goes on our Web site to take advantage of it.
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Just don’t take the results to the bank and expect to get a loan, OK?

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