A Must Read Alaska reader who writes under the pen name of “Steve-O” provided the 20,000th comment on the MRAK website since this conservative news-and-commentary site launched in May, 2016.
That’s 740 comments a month.
Steve-O wrote his comment beneath an op-ed posted from the Anchorage Daily Planet, titled, “Let the Nuttiness Begin.” It’s about the recall effort underway to get rid of the governor. Here’s the 20,000th comment:
“Make no mistake, this is more about wearing down the populace than anything else. The prolonged siege in the high castle that is Juneau is what these folks want. The working folk will tire of their antics, is the hope. The working folks will accept the rule from on high, and simply return to plowing the fields. The more the ruling class can numb the general populace the more they can get away with…unless by rubbing our hair the wrong direction hard enough and long enough they wake the sleeping beast! The squeaky wheel that is the government employee keeps getting louder and the people they are supposed to serve is just beginning to wake.”
COMMENTS AND HOW THEY WORK AT MRAK
Must Read Alaska welcomes comments on stories. When you read a story, you have an option to comment at the bottom of the story. Write your thoughts and send it, and your comment will seem to disappear. It goes into the approval line, which is checked frequently throughout the day. Each comment is scanned quickly for language and for persistent trolls who are overly harassing or abusive. Those who are setting too unpleasant a tone will roll into the trash bin, while those who are polite opponents, even those who joust continuously (you know who you are) get approved.
If the editor has time, she’ll clean up grammar and spelling. Cuss words will get redacted before a post is approved, and it’s all done quickly between phone calls and stories and is an admittedly imperfect process.
There are some comments that are mistakenly snagged by the site’s pretty-smart spam filter, and the MRAK editor checks the list of blocked spam a few times a week to see if a valid comment ended up there.
Must Read Alaska allows pen names, but weeds out comments from those who have pen names that are abusive. If you choose a nasty pen name, your comment will go in the trash.
In other words, keep it clean, have a good dialogue with other readers, stay civil, and it all works out.
CHECK THE FORUM, TOO
There’s another place to make your views known, and that’s the MRAK Forum. It’s a place where folks can chime in on existing topics or create their own. It’s not tied to a specific story, but is topic-driven. The MRAK Forum is just getting off the ground, so feel free to step up and create your own Forum topic thread. As with comments, you may use a pen name.
The forum is a bit more of a Wild West, and is only lightly monitored. (If you see abuse there, be sure to alert suzanne @ mustreadalaska . com so that this site can retain its sassy-but-polite character.)
THANK YOU, READERS AND COMMENTERS
Must Read Alaska’s editor is grateful to everyone who visits this site, whether or not they offer their own ideas. Thank you for being a reader, and thank you for taking the time to write a response to what you see here.
Having lived in Alaska for almost 20 yrs, and now in Washington and California, I miss friends, business news, and political chit-chat. I still have oil interest and “Must Read Alaska” and Petroleum News fulfills many of my interest. It is time to show my appreciation in kind and show my support for your hard work. Thank you Suzanne
“Build it and they will come”
I couldn’t be happier to see MRAK take off.
Suzanne saw a giant gaping hole in the Alaska media market and filled it.
My preference would be to see the Ad Hominem attacks and name-calling policed a bit more. As an example, a recent piece in the ADN by a member of the famous Fairbanks Cole tribe started out with three paragraphs of Ad Hominem and name-calling against the Governor. Nothing was accomplished thereby. It took about eighty words before a substantive argument was advanced. This approach has become completely acceptable and some of this coarsening occurs on these pages. MRAK has an opportunity to set a higher standard and thereby improve the quality of public discourse. Ad Hominem and name-calling is easy to recognize. Let’s end it here and now.
It would be so cool to have a giant MRAK party for all of the loyal followers no matter what their part affiliation or political philosophy. How about it Suzanne? Maybe in Anchorage at one of the ale houses in early November?
I wonder how many comments the union news Alaska Landmine is up to?
How long has it been around?
I consider MRAK a valuable asset for Alaska resident to offset the fake news daily with their one-sided Liberal opinions…Great job Susan
Ohhhh yeahhhh do I win a pin or something cool?
Congratulations Suzanne, the site just keeps getting better content, growing, and reaching more people who like real news.
Comments are closed.