Hey Martha Forums Defunct

[Confluence Logansport]

It was evening on the 1st of September before I was able to check in
on the Clinton County Kokomo Tribune forum. I fully expected to see
everything operational and the people who were screaming about the sky
falling would be the only ones without a forum.

Unfortunately the tales of doom did in fact come true. honestly I am
not all that surprised. I knew that Groupee had stopped supporting
our forums long ago. I guess I just assumed there would be some
official warning. Instead all we heard was second and third hand
information mostly from nut-cases wanting us to join their over
restrictive forum.

Since the case can't be made much better I have taken the liberty of
reposting in its entirety a post that was made to th PT 'new'
community blog. Any references made about forums are either referring
to the 'new' PT blogs or the Hey Martha forums.

Sound of Silence
Hundreds of voices were silenced last night when CNHI through Hey
Martha blocked entry and destroyed all comments to any forums except
the heavily regulated forum in Enid, OK. Some comments on open forums,
unregulated, are obnoxious, painful, or libelous but so are daily
conversations on the street. This ugliness is the high price that must
be paid to have total freedom of speech. Freedom is not a thing that
comes easily, it must be fought for and the price of keeping it must
be bared every day.

This forum is nice and I enjoy it greatly and yet it lacks the sting
of totally open expression of thought. That is not the libelous but
the questioning or reporting of things that others might find
embarassing personally or to business. Every child learns that
everybody will not like them and might say cruel things about them,
this and learning to handle it is a natural part of life and the
growing process.

Enforced silence is not the way to handle dissent.