The BarneyBlog and High Desert Forum Network

As I mentioned on-air and probably here, I’ve done a few blogs/Websites over the years – heck, I built, in Microsoft Publisher (with an art assist from Greg Cross), The Bulletin’s first Website, back in the ’90s – go ahead, check out the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine if you care!

So it could be considered part of the Barney Blog/Website and High Desert Forum Network!

Oy. Let me explain.

I’ve started a few blogs in the past, and they mostly still exist. Plus, I’m anxious to add a non-article-specific forum to KTVZ.COM – probably nuts, considering how the comments alone get scarily abusive and potentially litigious at times – but I have this intense, perhaps insane desire to get communications going among Central Oregonians. Hopefully sane, thoughtful Central Oregonians (and visitors who care about our issues) who wish to discuss issues, not spend their lives either glued to the TV or firing off flames back and forth in an article comment thread.

Yeah, nuts. I should be committed;-)

Anyway, let’s take a trip through history:

The Computing FOOL: Circa late ’90s – Ah yes, Microsoft Publisher – for the time, it was sure fun. And creating Websites back when you had to know FTP, etc. I haven’t figured out how to get in there and change it – and I don’t want to, it’s a fun little time-capsule of pre-Y2K nervousness and – well, I’ve moved since that messy desk picture was taken, but it’s replicated in my current abode. (This thing was playing music until past year or so, that file musta gotten lost or something.

Please Release Me!: Then I found a super neat Website creation site – not a blog creation, but full-blown Website – called Squarespace. I still pay $5 a mo. for the thing, for two reasons: 1) It’s about the easiest way I’d seen to then, and really still, to create full Websites, not just linear blogs – and 2) It’s home to my Grand Idea for a book/consultancy/speaking tour/$$$-generating movement – to help people in government, public business anybody realize that they don’t have to play the old PR game and beg for time/space from Old Media – they can communicate with and build relationships directly with their customers/voters/etc. Barack Obama knows it, and so do a lot of smart folks. But everyday folks who have lives to lead need a helping hand and kick in the tush, hence… the idea for Please Release Me.

If I could clone myself, that’d be one of my top clones’ missions – and just might get enough attention and money to let the Real Me retire;-) (Or at least hire some great help and stop working so hard;-)

Barney’s BendBlog: Circa 2001-02 or so – This was before Blogger got bought by Google, and as with everything else I’ve done like this, it’s suffered from neglect as I pursue by workday passion, KTVZ.COM. But suffice it to say I can talk more…freely there than in a blog like this that I’m using within the station’s Website. Depressingly, I found that Blogger does allow World Now’s new Video Player Widget to embed its code into the site – and that WordPress, from what I can see, doesn’t (oh, I’m sure if I run it through some third-party program, no thank you very much;-)

I also had the truly frustrating – and it’ll sound familiar to you – experience of getting stuck without the password for the Blogger site, and getting stuck in some sorta vortex trying to get it sent to me and straightened out. (Honestly, I think the world could blow up some day because the person in charge of The Button hits it out of frustration because they can’t remember the damn password!)

So I invite you to visit any/all of these semi-moribund Websites/blogs, leave a comment or 3, and suggest which if any deserve further attention from Yours Truly. (I especially like the Squarespace one, believing there’s a true calling for PR 2.0 (I believe that’s been used) or whatever the “Truly Public Relations/New PR” mantra could bring.)

Now, as for the forums. As I said, I’ve been trying out various pieces of software – oh, and before I forget, the article comments’ tiny typeface WILL get larger in a week or two, yay! – but there’s no real way to try these without trying them on the public.

WorldNow also has announced a partnership with KickApps, a social software creator, but we’re not sure how much will come of that. Still, I’ve used forum software it’s powered, Yuku, to create the High Desert Forum. I like the look, but again, how can you tell if something will be useful until you have it? So please, try to sign up, make posts, etc.

And if you wish, compare it to some earlier tries, such as this one created in Forumotion, or this one, powered by ActiveBoard, or this one, through ExcoBoard, or this one, through ZetaBoards.

Yep, as Chicago once sang, “I’ve been searchin’ so long… to find an answer.”

And who knows what other free/easy/good-looking forum software is out there I haven’t tried? (Maybe you? Please let me know!)

I believe in the Internet’s ability to have us talk to each other, and communicate in ways we never could. The comments on articles – now I don’t know how many, but surely close to 10,000 in 4-5 months – have been infuriating, frightening, depressing – and entertaining, enlightening and hope-inspiring of a true community dialogue.

So please, kick the tires of my “network” – if they break, well, no $ lost, just a bit of time – let me/us know which you like and why, and if you think I’m nuts or if it’s a grand idea.

Sure, there’s the Social Networking software of Facebook and MySpace and many others offering similar platforms. We may well use one or some of those tools as well. But I believe the good old fashioned, somewhat ’90s-style forum software is a great foundation as well – and these too are branching into blogs, embedded video, etc.

 So, do you agree? Is there a place, with controls over those who would hijack discussions and create flame wars, to really talk about the issues – in, dare I say, respectful fashion that involves listening and an open mind, not just venting to flap one’s digital gums?

I’d like to think so.;-)