Discussions

Well, good afternoon there, Mr. James O'Connor, Brandon Sun editor, since you're lurking around here anyways. Are people really taking potshots at you for no good reason? So you felt the need to single out this website (although not by name, but come on, people aren't that dumb!) and its members comments in today's paper. Congratulations! Why not sit around in coffee shops listening to people's conversations and do the same thing?  
 
Whether right or wrong, people come to this forum to post their opinions for the same reason you see people sitting around in donut shops, drinking coffee for hours and spouting off what they think. It's human nature to want to make your opinion heard. Sometimes it may be based in fact, sometimes it's based on hearsay. But if I were to keep my mouth shut (a move I'm sure many would applaud), I would never get the chance to hear other people's differing opinions and learn from it.  
 
I suggest, next time you “feel compelled to respond” to e-Brandon members' “odd and spiteful comments”, rather than retreat to your office and spew it out in a traditional method of publication, why not join the fray here? Or do you feel safer using a medium where response is not instantaneous and the dialogue is not free-flowing? (Not to mention the fact you get to choose what makes it to print!) You may not understand the on-line culture, but people feel free to speak their minds here not because they are anonymous, as many nay-sayers may think, but because it IS like going out for coffee and gossiping with other members of the community. I don't think anyone takes anyone else's chatting as hard news here.  
 
I guess all I'm saying is that if you insist on taking it so personally, maybe it's time to check into another line of work. I'll bet it's not easy being in your business, but until you develop a thicker skin about it, maybe you should take the things you read on here with a grain of salt. But hey - that's just my opinion. :-)