Archives for July 25, 2005

Still with the ‘wind in his sails’ from the vilification of whalers, Environment Minister Ian Campbell now intends to champion coastal development – or rather coastal protection. I am not really sure which.

In the various associated media reports Campbell claims the need for a solid 30 years plan (I think the Australian coast is dying a death of a thousand cuts because state governments and local government are basically planning in two, three, five-year cycles and what we need if we’re going to save the coast is a 30-year plan…)

and then in the next breath he suggests that it is OK to use the next endangered species to get his own way (i.e. invoke environment laws protecting migratory birds, endangered species… perhaps even platypuses).

I think the Minister is shaping up to be a disaster – but probably a very popular disaster.

I have received an email accusing me of censoring comment at this web-log.

The writer of the email could not have know that about 8 comments from yesterday afternoon did not get approved (they included comment from David V, Ender, Louis H and David W). My apologies.

The problem was probably in part a consequence of the two-stage approval process that sits behind this web-log and perhaps compounded by this site being down (provider/server problem) for at least 30 minutes around 6pm last night.

I do sometimes censor (i.e. not post an entire comment), but usually let the writer of the email know – unless it is spam.

I sometimes edit.

I have previously posted a piece about ‘rules’ and ‘name calling’see https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/000675.html (19th June).

Some of the comment following this post was interesting and useful. I think I have come to the conclusion that:

Messages that are spam, abusive, defamatory or off-topic should not be posted.

According to the ‘site traffic’ statistics for this site, there were about 2,000 unique visits to this site last month (i.e. about 2,000 people read this blog at least once, some many, many times). It is perhaps surprising (and a bit boring) that there was not comment from more of a cross-section of this potential community.

Perhaps some readers are frightened that their ideas/comments will be ‘attacked’ by a global warming skeptic or believer? There are contributors to both sides of this debate that hold very strong views, take comment personally and are not very sensitive.