neatimes.com

Now that I'm retired and have time I fool around with things that amuse me...

Some years ago there was a website called Topix. It was quite popular, and could occasionally be useful for local information in near real time. Unfortunately it became, as unmoderated forums usually do, unusable for normal people.

If the regular folks in northeast Arkansas would like something like that back, have a chat with the administrator at NEATimes.com. I haven't kept the SSL cert updated so depending on your browser you may get a warning. If it begins to get used regular-like I'll start keeping it updated.

I put up a quickie template for now. If anyone is interested in working on it, I'm cool with Wordpress or something similar. I'm partial to homebrew coding myself, done it for thirty-something years, but I'm an ole geezer that likes knowing how all the innards work.

Gimme a holler, or if you like just set up an account at the forum, see if anyone else shows up to chat with.

I ain't especially rich, but I'll pop for the expenses (domain registration, hosting, etc.) to get it going. If someone wants to put up a Wordpress news site, I'll let them have the ad revenue.

OK, it's been a year - give or take a handful of days - since I started this. What I see of people talking about things is about nothing. There are three primary 'news' outlets in the NEA area - a TV station and two newspapers. The TV station is owned by a fair-sized media company that owns about 180 TV stations with the Jonesboro one being about average. Television is what it is - a dying medium with most operators milking it for whatever they can while it lasts. The websites for the stations are as useless as turning on the tube or clicking the stream.

The two big newspapers in the area are owned by - guess what - a small company that has about three dozen newspapers. Talk about a dying medium. There is potential there but none seem to have the vision to exploit it so like the TV people they milk it and watch it slowly die.

I've been there and done that and got the overpriced T-shirt (two if I took a girl to the show) and after fifty years I understand the why and in the end that's all that matters. I made my fortune - not a big one but I'm happy with it - and don't much care what these outfits do. It's amusing but only mildly so and the most amusing part is seeing young people going into it as if there is a future. I suppose many - maybe most - of them think there is a digital future. The way their employers are going about it there isn't - the big boys are being subsidized by the big conglomerates that own them and a lot of them are likely to be cut loose before long to sink or swim. Most are likely to sink.

But to get back to people in a community discussing important - or not so important - matters. The news outlets have Facebook and X links and a reader can make a comment but there is no coherent discussion thread. One or two of the small outlets allow commentary on the local site but the activity is almost non-existent. That may be because the audience is nearly non-existent but there you are. Recently a number of disgraceful affairs involving the Jonesboro Police Department have occurred. Without a central forum (or more than one if you like) there is almost no public discussion. Do people just not care? It is tempting to think so as the mayor of Jonesboro had no problem being reelected.

I mentioned the old Topix site and the reasons for its failure are easy to see. Probably a nationwide forum of that sort is not practical but could a local one succeed? The expense is negligible compared to the revenue potential. A half dozen websites putting up canned or spoonfed content to make a few bucks from ads doesn't serve the public and the ad buyers aren't getting a return on their investment. The people who work for them have jobs for now but the future doesn't look good.

I have talked to a few of these folks, trying to interest them in important issues. I offered irrefutable proof chapter and verse of something that would make a career for someone willing to pursue it but perhaps it was something that would offend important people.

What would it take to get the attention of someone in that business? If there is no conscience could I appeal to the mercenary instinct? You're a young person in a business that doesn't have much of a future. Suppose you got a lead on something big? It might make some people unhappy but if you had the goods it could make you a star. You might get attention from really important people in the big leagues. If it works out you might get "the call". Like a minor league player getting noticed and called up to the majors. National news networks, seven figure salary. And that's really all that matters, isn't it?