- Old Timer on CMC Celeb: Isaac Goldberg: "This interview is going to the first of many skeletons in the closet f..."
- Who Dat? on CMC Celeb: Isaac Goldberg: "Goldberg plays a smooth 2nd base, and has mastered the swinging bunt...."
- A Mitch on Photo Essay: Swim and Track Meets: "good lines, maybe try some canted framing to make the races feel more ..."
- Kimberly M. on CMC Celeb: Isaac Goldberg: "The ex-Navy Seal is the best part of the Washington Program. <3..."
- Adam Smillie on CMC Celeb: Isaac Goldberg: "Isaac Goldberg, you're me hero......"
A Quick Note to Our Haters (and Lovers)
So I guess this post is my procrastination for the night. I’m tired of dealing with a small, but vocal minority clogging the blogosphere with unecessary (and at times downright inappropriate) comments about myself, other Forum writers, ASCMC, and the Forum at large. Since we’ve been seeing a steady increase in both content and readership this year, I thought I’d finally publicly write something as a response to every comment or blog post that has attacked us: please, get us right for once.
Although the Forum shares the same name of what once was CMC’s official newspaper, we no longer consider ourselves a newspaper like The Claremont Independent, Claremont Port Side, or The Student Life. Web 2.0 is how our generation communicates with the world, and this is the format we’ve subscribed to. With a mission to provide content that students enjoy, The Forum as a news blog and student portal has no political agenda and has never striven to solely provide dry news. Run by ASCMC, this is supposed to be a service to the students of CMC. Nothing more, nothing less.
Thus, you have to remember that CMCers are running this and CMCers are reading this. Like a good business, we gauge customer demand and figure out what people like and want to read. We may go to a school where students yearn to fully comprehend and change the world around them, but we’re also a group of students who waste hours on Facebook stalking classmates, who constantly think about sex during our government seminars, and who are very happy to see someone like Ludacris come to campus. There is a strong demand for more light-hearted content that goes beyond news and politics, so we’re trying to provide that.
We also hope that more students use the comments feature, as well as continue to submit original work. This is a forum, after all. Recent controversy regarding our site’s right to censor inappropriate content is unfortunate, as we only strive to maintain the same level of decency that CMC students normally show each other elsewhere ( for official information see the disclaimer in our About Us). This is not your personal soapbox, this is a community. Luckily, issues like this are important for creating solid rules of conduct for the future, and only indicate how well we are doing. We are always open to suggestions and constructive criticism, and hope that we receive more as we grow in scope.
Finally, I apologize for the negative tone of this post. Positive feedback far outweighs the negative, and average daily readership has never been higher. I hope that the Forum’s progress remains positive this semester and beyond, so keep yourselves reading. Just remember that we’re only doing our job.
XOXO
Ross
22 Comments
2009-02-15
21:18:04
Don't like the criticism? Tough. You run a Forum, not a soapbox.
2009-02-15
21:29:26
Well put Ross. With many more contributors this semester (and hopefully more comment-ers), The Forum is already much improved. Good work!
2009-02-15
21:30:44
Aren't you embarrassed by writing this?
"We may go to a school where students yearn to fully comprehend and change the world around them, but we’re also a group of students who waste hours on Facebook stalking classmates, who constantly think about sex during our government seminars, and who are very happy to see someone like Ludacris come to campus."
2009-02-15
21:40:30
Rock on Ross. I appreciate the upbeat and interesting stuff that we are now putting up on the Forum. I really like that the Forum is different and there are too many people who have taken a negative tone here. What it comes down to is that if you don't like it you don't have to read it. Simple as that. And if you haven't noticed the students that do like Ludacris and are distracting themselves/procrastinating with facebook you might not know enough people. Branch out, try something new like your beloved Forum!
2009-02-15
23:46:29
Ross, thank you for this site. There are a lot of haters, such as the "Sigh" person above. These people are trolls who just want attention. The best way to deal with them is to ignore them. Everyone thinks about sex in class, almost everyone has used facebook to look someone up, and the vast majority of the campus appreciated Ludacris' visit. I do agree with CMC Alum that if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen, but I want to congratulate you on this website and the great service you have done for CMC.
2009-02-16
00:03:33
Thanks for the forum. And to CMC Alum and "Sigh", there's a difference between constructive criticism and the rampant idiocy of some conservative nuts who believe that everything is some sort of slight to their beliefs in America.
2009-02-16
00:12:05
Ross, I think you guys are doing your best with this little creation of ASCMCs. It's just growing up so of course there will be ups and downs and lots of changes along the way! Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that I enjoy the new comic feature and the new writers. And I just wanted to say good job to everyone and thank you! yay ASCMC.
2009-02-16
00:15:53
To Amy, Hillary, Kevin, Thank you Ross, and Juliet: Thanks!!! :)
To Sigh: Oh c'mon you know it's true.
2009-02-16
01:06:41
Ross,
If a large number of CMC students are thinking about sex during their gov seminars, don't you think that's a crisis? Doesn't it say something about our gov departments? Instead of finding the lowest common denominator, I hope the Forum will try and raise the standard.
2009-02-16
01:08:39
Oops,
I meant to say:
Doesn't it say something about our admissions office?**
2009-02-16
01:30:27
Oops,
I meant to say:
Doesn't it say something about my repressed sexuality.
2009-02-16
02:53:09
"With a mission to provide content that students enjoy, The Forum as a news blog and student portal has no political agenda and has never striven to solely provide dry news."
I'm not sure this quite lines up with your stated mission: "...the mission remains unchanged: to give the CMC community a medium for the exchange of ideas."
2009-02-16
02:56:49
Nor does it really align with calling yourself the "Forum" in the first place. Might "Amphitheater" provide a more appropriate metaphor?
2009-02-16
03:07:48
I think "peep show" would be more apt.
2009-02-16
09:50:32
Well, at least the strong criticisms prove that the Forum is actually considered a serious enough publication to warrant criticism. :]
2009-02-16
10:27:12
Can we please quit with the semantic arguments. Please. If we want to really delve into semantics, a forum was a meeting place. Forum's were a place for ideas to be exchanged and for business to be conducted. I understand that not everyone took Latin for 4 years in high school but please, by calling a forum an amphitheater and denying that it is a place where ideas are exchanged is just ignorant.
"the marketplace or public square of an ancient Roman city, the center of judicial and business affairs and a place of assembly for the people."http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/forum
2009-02-16
10:28:48
I enjoy the Forum, even if I disagree with some of the views writers have. But I should admit that I copy everything I write in the comments in case Ross decides it's evil and has to be deleted. The problem is largely Ross's own doing, and at some point he should admit that he made a mistake when he deleted CJ's post which, right or wrong, simply expressed a viewpoint and was not mere hate or obscenity. Everyone knows the difference, and Ross crossed the line. The reality is that in everyday polite conversation, which Ross makes his appeal to, people give controversial opinions like Charles did on this Forum. If you disagree, debate him, don't delete him. While this may have cast a shadow on the Forum, I think the upshot is that Ross and everyone around him understands that they made a big mistake, even if they won't admit it. Ross, in fact, gleefully left a disgusting comment up about an individual's personal relationships in order to prove his commitment to free speech. Decency isn't the issue, Ross, view-point censorship is. Hopefully those days are behind us.
2009-02-16
10:35:20
...3/4 of of the posts here are probably the 3 to 4 people who have nothing better to do with their lives than to inflate their egos by misreading (yet again) what actually gets posted on this site and turning it in to some pseudo-political, philosophical battle. I respect you for writing this statement, Ross, as it's more or less warranted, but you really shouldn't set yourself up for the trolls of the world. They obviously don't let themselves think about sex as much in their government classes, so they get themselves all repressed and angry.
2009-02-16
11:07:08
Boomer, do you think about straight sex in your gov seminar?
2009-02-16
11:34:17
Oh yes, the repressed conservative line. Sharp!
2009-02-16
11:52:33
I'm a mean person who tries to belittle others but fails epically as I have no idea what an insult is.
2009-02-22
17:19:15
What constitutes 'inappropriate content'?
Who decides what is 'inappropriate content'?
Is it right to censor someone else's speech or ideas?