by Andy Laub on October 3rd, 2009
Like Dino, I’ve been following this Klocko story with a sort of morbid curiosity; it’s really a slow-motion trainwreck of sorts. Before I go any further, let’s review the players:
- Dean Zuleger: Weston Administrator. Named Wausau Daily Herald’s “Person of the Year”.
- Paul Klocko: commenter “juanmoore” on the WDH forums. Posts inflammatory comments about Zuleger in response to the article.
- Wausau Daily Herald: releases Klocko’s email address at Zuleger’s request.
This is clearly a situation where a series of bad decisions led us to where we currently are, but somehow everyone seems to be pointing the finger at Zuleger when the worst offender here from a journalistic standpoint is the Daily Herald.
I Hate the Daily Herald
I find it amazing that I can frequent forums with hundreds of thousands of users that still remain coherent and fully functional, because if the user base was scaled up proportionally from the forums on WDH, the servers would be on fire and simply trying to log in would cause your computer to explode.
Unfortunately, these are the same people who comment on the articles, resulting in a discussion where commenters who have any rationality left are far outnumbered by people whose entire vernacular consists of insults, bigotry and misinformation.
I find this to be pretty amazing; while I have met many locals in my ten years here, I’ve yet to meet someone in real life who behaves in a way indicative of a typical WDH commenter.
The reason for this is glaringly obvious. One of the beautiful pitfalls of the internet is that it allows anyone to have a voice, and to do so without necessarily attaching that voice to a real person. This is generally pretty harmless, for in larger, global communities, people who prefer only to cause trouble (”trolls”) are pretty quickly called out by the people with a genuine interest in being there (a self-policing of sorts) or in more dire cases, are banned completely.
While this seems to happen occasionally on WDH, it doesn’t seem to occur with a frequency that would send a message to other trolling users, and trolling is exactly what Klocko was doing.
I Love the Daily Herald
There are a few steps the various involved could have taken that would’ve drastically altered this whole situation. A good moderator would have shut Klocko down almost immediately, for while he is well within his rights to be dissatisfied with Zuleger’s award and to express that dissatisfaction on a public forum, his contributions were of little to no value and only intended to hurt others. While he may have been doing his part to further prove Godwin’s Law, it’s pretty hard to argue that “Little Hitler” counts as any sort of useful commentary.
Klocko, if he were going to insist on logging on to a public site and being very vocal about the people he dislikes, could’ve have gone a step further to protect his anonymity, like registering an anonymous email address to use for that account. From what I understand, that’s the only bit of information WDH was able to provide to Zuleger, so it either used Klocko’s name or was easily associated to him after a quick visit to Google. Or (imagine this) not act like a complete lunatic in the first place.
And honestly, Zuleger could’ve let this whole thing roll off his back, but I can’t fault him too much. If put in a similar situation I would probably do the same thing. Klocko has made it very apparent that he has deep-seated issues with Zuleger but at the same time refuses to act like grownup and actually try to resolve them.
So while professionally I’m obligated to chastise the Daily Herald for violating the trust of one (or more) of their users, I find that on a personal level I’m absolutely loving that they threw Klocko to the wolves. It needed to happen, and I wouldn’t mind at all if it happened more frequently to those who blatantly abuse their anonymity.
by Andy Laub on December 8th, 2008
Let’s play a game. It’s a game about greed, so let me just get that out of the way now. You are making a Christmas/holiday/etc wishlist. On it are six items:
- An item $100,000 or less
- An item $10,000 or less
- An item $1,000 or less
- An item $100 or less
- An item $10 or less
- And finally, an item $1 or less
What’s on your list? Keep in mind it needs to be an actual item you can buy (eBay, Amazon, whatever). And no gift cards. Mine would look something like this:
- 2009 Porsche Carrera 4S
- Samsung LN55A950 – 55″ LED-backlit LCD TV
- Canon Digital Rebel XSi – dSLR camera
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens
- A carwash
- 3 Subway chocolate chip cookies
Your turn!
by Andy Laub on December 4th, 2008
Citizen Wausau is proud to announce Citizen Wausau Loves…, a collection of items that we at CW can’t get enough of. CW♥ is a partnership with Amazon.com, which means that purchases are still through Amazon directly, but Citizen Wausau will receive a tiny bit of each purchase. It’s an easy way to help keep us going, all by doing what you were already doing!
And even if you don’t see anything there that interests you, you can use this link to shop on the main Amazon.com site while still using our referral code.
Thanks, and happy shopping!
by Andy Laub on November 25th, 2008
Thanksgiving is almost upon us and with it another winter begins. Which means that what I’d like to be doing is curling up in front of the TV and staying there until April. Or at the very least, just relaxing a bit after a busy year.
But it’s not to be; I’m not yet at that point in my life where hibernation is a viable option, so at the very least I can find a few minutes here and there to take stock of my situation and be thankful for what I have – and what better time for that then now?
I’m thankful for friends and family. This belongs at the top of everyone’s list. Sometimes I need help, and sometimes I need to help, and I’m thankful to have that interaction and that network of people that I can trust and confide in.
I’m thankful for technology. Wow, that’s zero to shallow in one sentence. Lame as it sounds, technology is a huge part of my life. The modern world revolves around computers, and so I’m thankful to be able to take advantage of what they offer instead of shying away. The internet is amazing.
I’m thankful for theatre. Because it’s one of the few diversions in my life that is completely unplugged. And because it allows me to use a completely new part of my brain. And because I’ve met about a million new and awesome people in the last two years.
I’m thankful for a good year. Times are tough and will probably be that way for awhile. But for me the year had a lot more positives than negatives, and I can only hope that trend continues.
And finally, on behalf of Citizen Wausau, I’m thankful for the readers, the commenters, the contributors, the staff, and everyone else who has supported us over this last year. We really, really appreciate it. I don’t think there’s any way to adequately express how much.
by Andy Laub on November 20th, 2008
Frequenters of CW will notice as of a few days ago a new addition to the site: a few conveniently-placed but hopefully not-too-intrusive banners served up by Google. Clicking on the ads gives Citizen Wausau a few cents here and there; money that will be put toward our standard operating costs (hosting, etc) and other side projects.
I hope we can count on your continued support and enthusiasm for the site!
by Andy Laub on April 4th, 2008
After a year of procrastinating, I finally had a moment to head over to the Wausau Police Station and get a license for my latest steed. I really love my bike, and it means a lot to me, so doing that little bit to help with recovery in the unfortunate event of a theft is never too much to ask.
I walked in there, checkbook in hand, ready to pay whatever fee they were asking. As it turns out, it’s free! So I had to pay $0 for a little peace of mind. As I drove (I know, I know) home, I was thinking that the local bike shops should have these forms as well. They could even fill out the relevant information (model, serial) for you when you take your new bike home to save some trouble – it could be the extra little motivation people need to get their bikes licensed.
Or maybe they do this already – do they? And also, to clarify, I’m not sure whether this is also the case in the surrounding villages. Do you know?
by Andy Laub on April 3rd, 2008
Wow. So it’s Good People Day today, as Dino mentioned. I apologize for these coming at you so late, but we were late in finding out about it. But still, it’s an amazingly cool opportunity for us to step back and reflect on the good things we’re doing (or trying to do). Furthermore, we’re just two days past the six-month anniversary of Citizen Wausau, and so this comes at a time when I’m very excited about what we’ve accomplished so far.
It’s only fair at this point to follow in Dino’s footsteps and give a little thanks to the people who’ve gotten us this far. Stop me if this starts to sound like one of those hip-hop songs.
And before I get into it, Dino is the one who deserves the most thanks. He is a content machine, giving us things to talk about where before there were none. He also has my tremendous gratitude for dealing with my ever-changing moods on a daily basis; talking me into the good ideas and out of the bad ones. Without him, there’d be no Citizen Wausau. Thanks Dino!
Others include:
- Bill Coady the grandfather of Wausau Blogging
- Tom Neal, for his continued help and guidance
- Paul Farning, for getting me into WordPress
- Rob Mentzer, for his friendship and constant linking
- Wausau Daily Herald & The City Pages, for giving us some attention at the very beginning
- Gary Barden, Deb Hadley, & Mayor Tipple for taking the time to talk with us
- Abe Gabor, for being Abe
- Pete, Jason, Chris, Joey, Jim, Becky, John, George, Lisa, Kevin, Erik, Pat, Alex and many more for the positive words at one time or another
- The Users, for giving us a reason to keep going. Thanks to those who’ve contributed articles, comments, and blogs. This site is about discussion, and we couldn’t have that without you!
A huge thanks again to everybody! We’re looking forward to making Citizen Wausau bigger and better, but we couldn’t do it without you.
PS: I know this comes hot on the heels of Dino’s post, so here’s a link if you missed it.
by Andy Laub on March 28th, 2008
Coming on the heels of yesterday’s enviro-post I started to think about my bike and when it will be warm enough to ride it to work again. If I’m lucky, it will be at the end of April, and that’s because I have an aversion to cold weather.
But on that subject, did you know Wausau now has a Trek Store? It’s over by Hardees on Stewart Ave (I guess it used to be a carwash?). I’m not totally sure whether it is a Trek-sponsored venture (like a Nike Store) or if that sort of thing even exists, but they only sell Trek and it’s very streamlined and corporate-looking.
What it lacks is any personality, at least for now, that extends beyond the “how can we get you on a bike today?” rhetoric. The other bike stores all have their own, and each have some sort of following (at least the one I go to does), and I wonder if this type of place can pull those people away.
So what say you Wausau? What kind of environment do you prefer when bike shopping? Is Trek even a desirable brand? They’re kind of the Toyota of bikes, in my mind.
by Andy Laub on March 13th, 2008
There was some pretty exciting news for CW last week when Dino told me that we had been mentioned multiple times during the mayoral debate. Furthermore, during the “Cool Dude” interviews we’ve been doing, both mayoral candidates mentioned that they enjoy Citizen Wausau and read it often. What does this mean for you? it means people are listening to the good things and the bad things you have to say! I realize it’s not a guarantee that everything written here will spur change, but it still makes CW an ideal platform for expressing yourselves.
I hope this bit of knowledge inspires some of our readers and commenters to take the next step and contribute an article of your very own. You have the chance to make your voice heard; why not take it?
by Andy Laub on February 5th, 2008
Ah, Charter. Oft-maligned, and for good reason: they pretty much suck at life. And yet, we still rely on them to provide our teevee and interwebs, a decision that I rarely question unless there’s a problem. And boy, is there a problem.
It’s expensive! (more…)
