Raise the Hammer

Hey!!! I just got down voted on a comment a few minutes ago -- My post did not even contain: race, class, taxes, religion, Connaught, high-rise, low-rise, developers, politicians, urban, suburban, LRT, BRT, global warming... What gives???

Well...Ryan, that does go to prove my hunch for the second time :-)

One just has to see the 'votes' (never mind doing a pattern analysis)... to see that certain posters who dislike certain posters have started to use the voting mechanism to leave a trail of their displeasure across the various blogs/articles on RTH.

Certain voices here scream for transparency in our politics. And then they go right ahead and practice their own version of in-camera voting to vote down even innocuous views similar to the one made by me above. - Not based on a counter view, not explaining their vote, merely exercising their right to vote behind the safety of anonymity.

In many ways this can very easily begin to mimic the many imagined forces of evil - that 'certain poster' on this blog are claiming to fight.

Something is indeed rotten in the state of Denmark!!! I think it is time for 'Highwater' to step in and weigh in on things here. :-) I did got a "swell" post from Highwater once in the past... that beat any +/- vote I have ever gotten!

I think that certain poster here who have helped grow this community building project called RTH over the years, have ended up taking ownership of this space -- and are having a hard time letting it go... so that it can evolve and have a life of its own with a multiplicity of voices and even the occasional screams and rants.

Sounds familiar? It is called - old Hamilton politics! That thing we end up spending so much time on fighting, that we forget what it is that we are fighting.

Ryan, I don't think it is a matter of fading comments or articles that are negative -- it is more a matter of fading ownership of this project by those that have claimed ownership of this space -- so that RTH can grow from under the deep shadows that are being cast over it, and evolve into a agile "distributed" platform of views representing a broader cross-section of our community.

Are you ready for the NextHamilton? It is all about "open" source or open vote - they say... or is it?

In the end it does not matter how RTH is used, or for what fights it is deployed or hijacked, or whose voice is subjugated or made to be heard, or who wins the elections or who looses. What really matters is whether it maintained its "First Principles" in the process.

It is (or will be) the fifth anniversary after all... time to reflect, to grow. Time to start voting with a conscience.