Room with a View: Trolls not welcome

We stood up this online newspaper site seven months ago, on June 11, 2011.

The response was muted.

We weren’t surprised that nobody noticed us. The Internet is the biggest and noisiest forum ever built.

We began marketing Orange County Breeze in August. Our traffic grew slowly.

Traffic jumped after Wings, Wheels, Rotors and Expo in October, where we handed out flyers, flying discs, beach balls and remote-controlled helicopters.

Sadly, our numbers spiked following the shooting at Salon Meritage in Seal Beach and the unrelated sudden death of Los Alamitos resident Brad Sheridan.

Most recently, our visibility online significantly improved after a major news aggregator picked us up.

But with that improved visibility has come an increase in comment trolls.

An Internet troll finds its life’s mission in leaving rude, crude or rabble-rousing comments that are unhelpful, display no insight and often incite vigilante activity (at best) or inexcusable lawlessness.

Our comments are moderated.

We enforce decorum, politeness and relevance. We encourage signed, thoughtful commentary. We welcome heartfelt responses to community triumphs and tragedies. We will publish arguments defending positions we personally disagree with. The defense can be spirited, but must not be mean-spirited.

Trolls are not welcome at Orange County Breeze. Baiting and name-calling are not tolerated.

We are not an arm of the government, subject to Constitutional limits on plugging poisonous spume. We do not have to allow trolls to inflict their venomous stupidity on our readers.

Our comment moderators trash trollish comments, and block persistent trolls from leaving further comments.

Orange County Breeze is a troll-free zone. Trolls must find someplace else to nest.

About the Author

shelley

Shelley Henderson is a reformed computer and networking geek turned freelance writer. Now she only fixes her own networks and computers. That leaves time for writing, and writing and more writing. And editing the Orange County Breeze. Shelley most enjoys visiting and finding out about local businesses to write business profiles that allow our communities to learn more about their local businesses and the people who own and run them. If you own or manage a business in our coverage area and would like to invite Shelley to write a business profile, let us know.