Vanguard Changes to Commenting

MicrophoneBased on the discussion from yesterday, I wanted to clarify the options.

Option 1: This is the main option and the only open registration as of 4 pm.  Log in through Facebook.  To clarify, you must post under your actual name here.  Any obviously fake Facebook accounts will result in deleted registrations.  It is important to note that you are not having your personal Facebook information posted to the Vanguard and you don’t need to have your Vanguard posts post to Facebook.

Option 2: For those who want to post through the Vanguard system under their real name – either with an existing account or a new one – send an email and so long as I can verify your identity, I’m happy to give you access that way.

Option 3: You can petition for use of an anonymous posting.  You need to provide me in writing (email is fine): Name, a valid email address, a valid phone number and a reason for remaining anonymous.  We will not share this information with anyone.  No promises on the approval, but I’m more likely to approve people posting under a first name or first name/ last initial than a moniker.  Also your posts will be more highly scrutinized especially on personal attacks.

All requests should be emailed to: info@davisvanguard.org

Author

  • David Greenwald

    Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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Categories:

Breaking News City of Davis Open Government

69 comments

  1. > Based on the discussion from yesterday, I wanted to clarify the options.

    If I understand the above, and I don’t think I do, since I post under my own name, I am grandfathered in to the Vanguard’s system?

    I do not use Facehook, as I will not voluntarily link myself to others online with their sticky-spider-web algorithmic matching system.  It’s a private company that can be hacked into or voluntarily (or by force) the information delivered to a future corrupt government.  The whole country is a bunch of sheep-fools and I’m not participating in that.  So I highly object to using a Facehook style system like the Enterprise does.

    I am a Jew.  Family stories have it about half the family was killed in WWII.  Do you understand how totalitarian regimes find and kill those those don’t like, how genocides happen?  It’s through who you associate with.  We have set ourselves up in this country to be tracked  almost instantly through an electronic system we ourselves voluntarily participate in.  Are you all freaking nuts?

    We have made it easy for a totalitarian government to blacklist, find and even kill those they don’t like.  We may appear to live in paradise, but history shows that things can CHANGE, and fast.  Don’t make it easy to be found by who you associate with socially, fools!  And by fools I mean almost everyone.

    I do have a shell Facehook account that has no links or bio and uses a fake name (that anyone with a brain can figure out, but (hopefully) not the automatic sticky Facehook web), for the single purpose of commenting in the Enterprise.

    Additionally, I found a dirty secret about Facebook: you can post things that appear to be public, but only you see them and they didn’t actually get published.   So I was commenting for months on the Enterprise — to myself #doh!#.

    Then months later I published something, and people commented on it.  WTF!  Then recently I found out that something I posted again didn’t show up, even though I see it.

    That’s only the start of my rant about Facehook.  F— Facehook.  F— it where the sun doesn’t shine.  I do not and will not have a real Facehook account, and all of you who do are fools.

    So what’s the deal?   Do I have to use Facehook or not?  I’ll use my shell account, but I will not post under my real name in the Facehook system.  I have no desire to be anonymous to the Vanguard, and I applaud the end of anonymity, but Facehook, bad choice.  Especially if it’s mandatory.

    Many of you will think I’m paranoid.  In a word:  YES.  I’ll wear my tinfoil hat to a future City Council meeting to prove it.

    PS.  I will miss Barack Palin & South of Davis.  The whole town knows who Frank Lee is.   Napolean Pig will no doubt oink and give themselves away.  Biddlin isn’t anonymous, we learned.

     

     

      1. David

        I thought that most folks on DV are your friends on Facebook and they are your   followers  yours Twitter account .  I  asked you once why nobody is responding to your tweets linked to DV ? I am quite surprised by the comments I read. Allen even brought  brought  his family killed in Holocaust  into this subject . It shows that Americans are more paranoid an scared than immigrants which lived under the communist regimes rules and more scared than  11,000,000 illegals immigrants  which are living  and working  in USA for years. Unbelievable.  It is seems  to me  that the  DV and the DV’s President has be a member of the evil forces society  which go after these who will log in by the Facebook account .Is this indicates  Miau, miau or Orwell’s novel 1984 ?

        1. It shows that Americans are more paranoid an scared than immigrants which lived under the communist regimes rules and more scared than  11,000,000 illegals immigrants  which are living  and working  in USA for years.

          No, just me.

          I actually doubt this would happen in the near future, but my point is, why do we set ourselves up to let it happen?  It used to be we were a culture that valued our privacy, and the government butting out.  Now we post our stupidest moments for all to see.

        2. Alan

          I somehow agree with you but if you look millions on Facebook , Twitters and other other social media and GPS and smartphones , and chips under the skin than you can run but you can’t hide . If you can see picture of your home  on the Google than you can’t hide . It is beyond our control . Even Banks can’t always protect our bank accounts from hackers .  My self not to get into mood of paranoia ,  I am telling to  myself . Who give a dam about some Polish immigrant name Waszczuk what he says and what he wrote and posted on the social media . ?  I don’t open any e-mails from strangers  and I don’t get into conversation with guy from Nigeria who offer millions and I don’t shop on Craig’s list.

        3. JW, true, but not the point.  Of course, if the govn’t targets ME, it’s all over.  One tank shell and BOOM.

          I’m talking about finding a person and everyone who associates with them, by traits, instantly.

  2. Obvious fake Facebook accounts?

    How are you going to know because filters can be set on Facebook that doesn’t allow outside access.

    It can be set to ‘only friends’ access or ‘only the user’s’ access.

     

    1. Not to mention, fake names that don’t seem fake.

      If someone doesn’t show up at City Council meetings, do they exist?

      So “Scotty Potter” shows up on the Vanguard.  Anyone can set up a Scotty Potter Facehook account.  No one knows Scotty Potter.  The account is actually a fake name.  Scotty Potter is actually Brett Lee’s alter ego.  How does the Facehook system stop this?

      It doesn’t.  My obviously fake Enterprise Facehook account doesn’t stop me (only sometimes, and I don’t know when) from posting on the Enterprise.

      So, quite obviously, this is an exercise in appearing to do something, while doing nothing.  Since when did the Vanguard become a government agency?

       

      1. So, quite obviously, this is an exercise in appearing to do something, while doing nothing.  Since when did the Vanguard become a government agency?

        Exactly.  I’m sure some people who didn’t have FB accounts are now setting them up so they can contine to comment.  Even if their accounts are open to the public they won’t have much if any history.  Are you going to deny them David without really knowing if they are fake or not?   I don’t think this has really been thought out.

        What if commenter is a big donor and wants to keep his alias but doesn’t have a valid reason?  David are you really going to deny that person knowing that it will probably cost you donations?  I have my doubts.

         

        1. What if commenter is a big donor and wants to keep his alias but doesn’t have a valid reason?

          Hey . . . their business was threatened!  How insensitive of you, BP!

          I do hope I’ll be able to figure out who you are in the “brave” new world.  Will you mention once, “formerly known as BP”?  Or will you post at all?  #sniff#

           

          1. Why don’t you just register under your own name, and be more careful about the things you post?

        2. Don Shor, I’m always careful about the things I post.  The only time I get provocative is when I’m attacked first then I’ll respond.  I haven’t stepped out of bounds anymore than any of the other commenters on here.    I think part of your problem with me is you don’t like my political leanings.

  3. Hmmm . . . Ok, I didn’t see the commenting change article yesterday.  Was it posted later than the rest . . . doesn’t matter.  OK, 113 comments to read.

    One suggestion, in case not brought up:  it strikes me most anonymous posters, except Frank Lee, who’s business might be burned to the ground by a psychopath, would only occasionally need to post anonymously for whistle-blowing purposes.  So why not have everyone under their “real” name, and then have exceptions by article, instead of by person.

    1. What’s odd too is David claims people can still either keep an alias or just use their first names if they supply him with a valid name, phone number, email and reason and David promises never to give out their identity.  So what does that accomplish?  People can still post knowing that their info will never go public.  So what will be different?

        1. Read the article:

          No promises on the approval, but I’m more likely to approve people posting under a first name or first name/ last initial than a moniker. 

           

  4. Marina Kalugin December 22, 2016 at 2:15 pm
    Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    I see the same ole same ole whiners and sockpuppets going at it … oh wait?   it isn’t 4 there yet..

    and I prefer NOT to use FB.. .that is where I share the REAL creepy sh@@ that the idio@@@@@@@@  won’t be able to handle…..otherwise known as inconvenient truths…

    ya know for the ostrich people … and they won’t like that at all.

    PS>  David.. how much is FB charging ya al for THAT service…

    and I will have to beg out then as I do try to keep some things private… the kinda things that would cause me to fall over dead on the sidewalk if they all knew my real emails and addresses   

    fortunately my newer addresses all have 24/7 security and or doormen 24/7

    and properly trained Malinoise is on her way …

    in the former soviet country of Georgia when my family visits we get personal guards with UzZIES> two guys with two uzzies each..

    soon as a few more urgent things are done…. I will go for a visit.. friends of my parents from the Asian country we all fled.

    The man went to the Soviet Union…omg

    and even there he managed to direct factories and made some wise choices.. now they have offices all over the world.. and all the children and grandchildren are OX educated.

    See if only my family fled back to Russia?

    Reply Report comment
    and I AM snuffed out… for what?

    [moderator] I actually have no idea why that went into the moderation queue.

      1. ahhh Jerry.. one of the real life stories I sometimes share involve my dad and my brother and me..  Because my family  elders were well educated and enjoyed hanging out with “stojerih” and Ballet dancers and musicians and also were friends with the consul and so on.. in the late 50s/60s/70s..  we were all spied on… by the USA … not any different then when I was invited to the USSR several times by the USSR>   anyway.. my  brother, RIP, was brilliant but had some issues.

        After I was dating the former MIG pilot who defected and then lived in Norway until they suspected HE was a spy and ended up in Mountain View…

        there were some very strange goings on.. .. my brother had fled CA for Alaska where he made really good money…

        And then at some point he fled back.

        Well one night my family was enjoying a quiet evening across the Bay in Lafayette and someone flew by in a car and many shots were fired at us sitting in the dinette..

        No one was heard…and we reported it..

        We had no idea who in 1980 would do such a thing.

        Was it because my hubby was in the news as a potential soviet spy?   again?

        Was is because my parents had just hosted the consul and his wife?

        Of was it the drug dealers who followed my brother (RIP) from Alaska back to CA?

        My dad (RIP) and I would often discuss the possibilities. . Today was his BD.. the 23rd..  I know is says 22 on this calendar but in Asia it was already the 23rd.    🙂

        St Nicholas.. and I used to often say my dad was a saint… and the good ones die young…

         

         

      2. and on my login ..it is still snuffed out.. neither are for viewing  by the minions 🙂

         

        PS> I would be a really bad spy as I always announce what I am doing, where and when…..

  5. One last farewell before the 4:00 gong strikes.

    Happy and free futures to all my fellow barnyard critters! Doom and eternal despair to all evil-doers.

    Oink!

    1. Marina, the history on that is that it was staff members in the Governor’s Office who took the punitive measures against Frankly and his business.

  6. and that is a good idea Alan.. the only issue being that those who are above the 75% in Davis that is most…  will figure out very quickly who is who no matter how many times they change their name..

    and wtf is the deal with Frankly …. who would want to take HIM and business out and why?

    must be a developer or cronie

    1. There’s going to be a State Funeral Procession commencing at 4:01 pm on F St. in downtown Davis starting at Starbucks with a horse drawn carriage containing the remains of Barack Palin.

       

      1. David, the Vanguard staff and by invitation only a group of liberal commenters are at Vito’s Pizza right now getting ready to shout out the countdown to the departure of conservative commenters on the Vanguard.  Countdown will commence at 3:59 pm with beer salutations.

         

        1. Nice knowing you Quielo, I always enjoyed your sarcasm and comments.

          Things are starting to get dark, my breathing is getting weaker.

          I’m feeling faint.

  7. 60….59….58….57…I’m mellllttting….49….48…47….help me……for he’s a jolly good fellow…..38…..37….36….raise your glasses…..26….25….24,,,,a toast to the demise of conservative posters on the V….15….14….no more Republicans….yeahhhh….10….9….8….7…things are going dark…3….2….1,,,,Silence for Barack but wild cheers at Uncle Vito’s.

    1. Congratulations! You are the very first Vanguard commenter registered under the new system! For your prize, um, we’ll think of something.

      Thanks for your contributions to the Vanguard conversations over the years, and for helping us move forward!

  8. OK. They’re gone. Now we can talk openly about our plot to take away everyone’s guns, prevent any more housing development in Davis, end the death penalty, open the borders to everyone, and increase the local minimum wage to $30 per hour. Power to the Snowflakes!

  9. yes… and there  is a reason some of us are always “out” nothing to hide… or something we wanna prove… same thing actually…   🙂

    some may have learned that absolutes are unattainable. .at least in the physical universe.

    That the color white is actually a combination of every color and that those who most attack others for racism or such other “bad” traits are only hiding their own racism etc.

    cya guys.. I am still here when done for the day…. and since I always used my real name.   I am still ole me…

  10. Have I mentioned that there have been several times when people have claimed that my mother did not name me darelldd?

    Well, here I am, out in the open.

    I’m Darell. With a lot of D initials.

    1. Jeez. That wasn’t very exciting. Looks the same after 4pm as it did before.  :sigh: I was hoping for much more drama. Or that my picture would make me look younger or something.

      1. Darell, you’re still somewhat anonymous. How does that work? I see a Howard P up above, also. Is this turning into a twelve step program?

        I cheated on my photo. It was taken at my 40th birthday party. I guess I should change it to a photo from this century. I wouldn’t want to decieve anyone.

        1. Paul,

          A 12 Step Program? Hmmm…

          1)  Hello, My name is ____ and I am a Vanguardian.

          2)  I use to comment under a fake name, but I am now using my own name.

          3) God or higher power, please grant me the patience to understand the things I cannot change like David Greenwald and his board requiring me to log in with my Facebook Account.

          4) God or higher power, grant me the strength to be able to stick to the issues so I don’t get “dinged by Don Shore” (the great moderator)

          5)  Grant me the power to debate issues with Tia Will and especially David Greenwald…and…

          Ok…I’ve had my fun.  Sorry Paul, but I just could not resist when you said, “12 step program.”  I have heard people tell good and bad stories about 12-step programs.  Knock on wood –  there will not be any major problems with the change over to non-anonymous posts.  David is asleep (of course because he wakes up so early), but I was reading the VG and have been quite impressed that we have not had any major challenges with the change.  Challenges can and do often happen when there are major changes with web pages.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

        2. Paul,

          Yeah, I’m not sure what the process is. I simply followed the instructions and logged in with FB, and here I am, with all my same credentials as before. I’m pretty sure that nobody can claim that I’ve ever tried to hide my identity. Darelldd has been my internet handle ever since the internet became too popular to use just my was-once-unique-spelling” of Darell.

           

  11. I like the changes and I’m happy to see others do too! I hope others who haven’t commented or written articles in some time come back and comment and write articles for the Vanguard!

    We welcome you back!

    1. Time will tell… I do believe the tone will change, and I have no problem with that.  Don’t have the feeling that I’ll feel provoked as I had been, then childishly did the ‘tit for tat’ thing… a “kinder, gentler’ environment?  [not that I was particularly fond of the one who made that phrase famous… the sincerity was in doubt]

      1. And, I hope that after reflection, some who may be taking a “time out” will return, being a bit more circumspect… I am convinced that David and the VG made a ‘necessary’ move…

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