About
In April of 2008, the HopkintonRISpeaks blog went down and never came back up. The HopkintonRISpeaks blog was a tremendous resource but could also be a mixed bag at times. Although a lot of news and ideas flowed, there was often plenty of vitriol. Despite this, it was a public forum that is sorely missed. I don’t know who administered the blog, but they were interested in free speech and free ideas, in all their forms. Unfortunately, not all speech is free and limits are often placed on what we can and cannot say. At some point, we need to observe boundaries. When we fail to observe these boundaries and fail to moderate our behavior, we sow the seeds of our own destruction. And hence, HopkintonRISpeaks is no more. This blog is an attempt to recreate the best aspects of the HopkintonRISpeaks blog, without some of the messier parts. To that end, the following points will be observed:
1. All comments are moderated (see points 2 and 3 to find out why).
2. Personal attacks on others will not be allowed. I don’t care about your personal vendetta. Go work it out in therapy or put up your own website. This is not the place for it.
3. Defamation will not be allowed. See the EFF’s excellent article on what constitutes defamation.
4. Yes, we all hate Chariho. That is a given. Let’s not waste too much time on it. I prefer not to repeatedly bash my head into a stone wall.
5. There is fear in Hopkinton. People seem to be particularly afraid of the police department. That said, I am not requiring registration to post on the site. But I am moderating the comments to protect myself and keep the bone-heads at bay.
Caveat: Ok, so you are anonymous. Can “they” still find you (insert your favorite Gestapo police agency here)? The answer is probably yes. I don’t know what your IP is but WordPress probably does. I have no idea how long they hold that information. I just don’t care. Would WordPress give that kind of information out? Probably not without a subpoena. But if you really want to be anonymous, go to the library or pay for a service like Guardster, it’s top notch. Since I am moderating things, I’m probably not going to let you get yourself in too much trouble anyway.
ishmael.comes.calling@gmail.com
June 16, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Hi!
Just saw this mentioned on the Chariho School Parents Forum. While it may is fair to criticize The Westerly Sun http://www.thewesterlysun.com , they do some good stuff and have commanded the loyalty since the 1800’s starting out its predecessor weekly paper.
Please make note the Annual Meeting of the Ashaway Fire District will be on Thursday, July 17TH,. Voters are registered voters in the district or property owners in the district. Filing for district officers are tomorrow. At 7:00 P.M., we will have our board meeting at the Fire Station. The annual meeting will be at Ashaway Elementary School.
It appears I will be the first poster on this blog.
Regards,
Scott Bill Hirst
Member,Hopkinton Town Council,1996-2004
Member, Board of Fire Commissioners, Ashaway Fire District,1994-97, 2007-present
June 16, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Mr. Hirst, thank you for you response. I wish I could say that the blog header about the Sun was tongue-in-cheek but the truth is that the Westerly Sun has a reputation for very poor quality journalism. As a reader of the Sun for some time, I have observed the poor quality of this publication firsthand. The problems of the Sun include but are not limited to: misquotations, poor and superficial coverage of important topics, excessive editorializing of letters to the editor and often just incorrect reporting of the facts. And the TalkBack blog feature of their website is appalling. The types of comments that have been allowed to stand are incredible and well beneath what should be expected of a respectable news source.
This may change in the future. A few months back the Sun hired a new editor and perhaps he can alter the systematic problems that plague the paper. Although the reporter salaries are abysmally low and the turn-over at the Sun is extremely high, that’s no excuse for poor journalism.
Does the Sun have some good stuff? Occasionally they do, but we all get lucky and we all have a good day from time to time. On the whole, the Westerly Sun is no pillar of the journalistic art.
If you would like a little taste of the Sun’s poor quality, see page 8 of todays Westerly Sun (June 16). Note the size of the text that says “Advertisement”. Is this the kind of material a reputable news source would agree to publish as an advertisement?
June 27, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Thank you. I just located this site via Bill Felkner’s and wish you very well.
August 7, 2008 at 5:16 pm
As a former resident of Ashaway, I really enjoy this site. But it seems not much has changed (For the better) since I left in 1982.
The area has a wonderful history, wonderful characters(mostly), and could be a wonderful place to return to if they could work out the problems. i.e., 216 is still a dangerous road, taxes are too high, CHARIHO still wants to build a “Taj Mahal”, etc etc etc
August 8, 2008 at 12:37 am
Small victories happen every once and a while. A big lump of asphalt was recently and unceremoniously dropped onto 216 like a giant petroleum based turd. So now instead of two roller-coaster sized divots, there is one roller-coaster sized divot and a large bump. At 45 mph it’s still enough to wreck the occasional out-of-towner or teen ager learning to drive, but it is something.