OPINION
how the opinion section was listen to the tales
When I started this section, I didn't
think it would really get big at all. Then it took off like a blind date
near Lorena Bobbitt. There was such an enormous influx of posts, that it
would have died off somewhat quickly if not for the time and help of Dan
Steadman and Justin McKinlay. They did all the dirty work here, which
mounted rather quickly. This section rapidly got filled with many
repetetive and sophomoric posts. December 5, 1996 was the last time the
old section was updated; on February 13, 1997, it was shut off and
replaced with a complaint, calling for everyone's opinions on what to do
with this wing of t.d.n.
The overwhelming response asked for the Opinions to remain, if there was a
way to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. On July 1, 1997, the newly
automated section was activated, packed with opinions from the old version
of this archive, and armed with a crew of volunteers to help clean out the
mess.
Postings were moderated by "the OpinCrew" in an attempt to
eliminate mindless posts. This volunteer group of commando readers was
made up of:
Rachel Bok
Stephen Hull
Brian La Pask
Michael Newnam
N Patterson
John Skolfield
Nicci S
Chris Schneider
Jody Westmoreland
This worked rather well for five months, until it got to be really no fun
for anyone (how many times can you read "Hooker with a Penis is about
my mom fisting me when I got an enema when I was eleven"?). So, after
15 months, the just-post-it system went into place. This was a viable but
ugly solution until 2001, by which time autoposting had stopped working
for months at a time, and the place was chock full of some really awful
and repetitive posts. And then the current system finally took over, as
part of the grand 2001 site redesign.
Sadly it took until almost 2003. Dan Green managed to keep on bringing up
the issue of "when is it coming back / I will do all the work"
-- and here it is, hopefully paying off. This latest forum-based
incarnation is a reality entirely because of his dedication and
persistence. So far, it is working out.
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