When ICMA asked to me to participate as a blogger my immediate reaction was to run screaming. Blogs in my community are very popular and prevalently used to attack...assassinate...annihilate...(I could keep going but I think you get the picture) City staff. Though I know I shouldn't, I read them everyday to stay abreast of the latest misinformation and character attacks so that I might select the right amount of armor to protect myself and sufficiently warn others of the approaching cavalry.
Reading the "anonymous" posts by bloggers is a painful process for me, particularly because I know I can not respond or defend the great work of my colleagues, and even if I did, it would not sway the overwhelmingly negative tone of the blog discussion. It is even more painful to accept the fact that several members of our City Council rely on blog content as their sole source of information about City business and frequently post comments (often misinformed) themselves.
Recently I have tried to wain myself off of blogs to cut down on some of my daily punishment and just when I began to make progress ICMA creates a blog and asks me to be a writer. So, after a little more thought and a personal pep talk, I decided that this may be my only opportunity to actually participate as a blogger and use the blog for good instead of evil. No longer do I have sit by with my hands tied yelling and screaming my disapproval, disappointment and disagreement with the latest post!
Because I am an optimist, I am convinced that there are better blog experiences out there in the world. What about your community? Are blogs used for good or for evil?
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Wow -- I could have written the exact same account as Tanisha. In my last job there was a wretched Web site with a "Public Comment" section, which was basically five to ten people who hated just about everything to do with town government and thought they could convince the rest of the world of their position by posting rumors and outright misinformation.
And, we had the same experience when any "normal" person posted something in defense of those being attacked -- that person was attacked even worse, and there was no convincing the regular users of the site that local government served any positive purpose.
For my own sanity, I did not post there and finally convinced myself not to visit anymore -- the experience of reading all that negativity was too depressing. And since I knew it wasn't true, that was good enough reason to avoid it. I advised others who were the targets of this site to do the same -- basically ignore it (like your Mother taught you to do with bullies) but some still read it and even worse occassionally posted replies.
The Internet is like everything else in the world -- so much good from it, but it too can be used for evil.
As for blogs and sites which serve to bash those trying to do good, I'm sorry I don't know to whom I should attribute this quote, but it is fitting, "I've learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it."
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