The Golden Key

Hi All-

Sorry for the delay. I appreciate your patience. It wasn’t until yesterday afternoon that STIR gave me the golden key (the password and account info) for Play in the City to start making this site “my own.” It’s going to take some time before it actually becomes that, so hang in there!

Until then, I want to take the comment barrage in a different direction, one that’s more productive. I advocate constructive criticism and would like this to turn into something positive before I officially get this rolling.

Since everyone is already reading and providing feedback, instead of telling me what you don’t like, I’d rather you take this opportunity to share your suggestions or what you’d like to see accomplished. Maybe there are some places you’d like me to explore and write a blog about, or perhaps you have more advice for a new blogger. If you’d like to contribute to this blog, please continue to offer helpful pointers and ideas that will make this site more enjoyable for all of us.

It’s going to take a couple days to bring this site up to speed. I’m excited to get this going and assure you a new blog is coming!

Comments

[Kaitlyn]

?!?!?!?

What happened to all the previous entries???

[KarenC]

Kaitlyn-
Don’t worry! Every entry and comment was archived by month, NOT deleted! (I wouldn’t trash two years of Erin’s hard work) You can find the archives on the right-hand side of the main page.

[Sara]

Kaitlyn -

Click on one of the months off to the right under "Archives" and the old entries are still there.

[dan]

You should go to... the control panel of your blog. Once there, you should make it so that when I click on links, they don't pop up in a new window. You can't really bounce around this site without ending up with like 20 windows, all showing the same channel.

[Tiffany]

Karen, I'm glad you took Molly's advice:

"I propose a new direction; one that could continue on for future posts and provide a good framework while Karen finds her footing. Since everybody is all ready and willing to provide feedback, I think we should take it in a different direction. Rather than telling Karen everything we DON’T like, why don’t we take this time to tell her what we would actually like to see accomplished or any advice you might have for her."

Hopefully people will now leave comments with suggestions and pointers that will make the blog more enjoyable for all, like Dan did! Personally, I would like to know about the more obscure events in Milwaukee. Things like Summerfest and Bastille Days are fun, but a lot of people already know all about it. Find some events that are less well known (and preferably free!) and tell us all about it!

[KarenC]

Dan,
Thanks for the suggestion! Man, that’s annoying huh? I haven’t had tons of time to tinker with the site, but I will play around with it tonight and fix those little quirks.

[KarenC]

Tiffany (and Molly)

Funny thing, I shared the same thoughts as Molly in the blog I saved last night and intended to post this morning (as I did). Interestingly, Molly was dead-on with the suggestions I planned to make for redirecting the comments! I guess I wasn’t quite on the ball last night (a bit exhausted from volleyball, so I hit the hay pretty quickly), but Molly helped get things moving. Many thanks.

Of course Summerfest and ethnic festivals are amusing, but like you said, they are events most people already know about. For that reason, I definitely plan to discover many unfamiliar events and activities to share with you in the near future.

[Christi]

Horray for a new blogger. The site is starting to look good. Can't wait to continue reading!

And kudos to you for being so upbeat about the recent critisism. Way to put a positive spin on it!

[Molly]

Karen,
I’m trying to stay positive on your behalf but you’re making it extremely difficult for me. If you’d like me to continue participating with this blog, I highly suggest that you don’t continue to plagiarize my writing. What you posted this morning is almost verbatim to my post last night and you didn't credit me until Tiffany pointed it out. I’ve been nothing but positive and have only tried to encourage reader participation in a constructive way. I believe Play in the City is a great service to its readers and wish for nothing but the best. I really hope this isn’t representative of your future writing. I’d hate to think that it is a standard practice for you to pass off other people’s ideas and writing as your own until you’re called out by your readers.

[KarenC]

Molly, I didn’t plagiarize your writing. As said, I wrote the post last night. Is it really that absurd to believe that two people could share the same idea?

Like I said, this was something I was meaning to write all week; unfortunately, I just got access to TypePad, so I couldn't post it until this morning even though it was already saved and entered last night! Just because you *think* you wrote it first – in that condescending way you consider “helpful” – doesn’t mean you thought of it first or were the only person to come up with such a *novel* idea. In fact, I didn't even read your comment last night. Believe it or not, I read it this morning AFTER I took care of things. Geez.

So, if you’d like to discuss this further, Molly, please click on “email me” and we can talk about this in a more respectful manner. Thanks.

[Kimberly]

Congratulations on your new gig! I look forward to reading all about your adventures. My advice...just do your thing in Milwaukee, have fun and make it interesting for someone like me. I live in Minneapolis and want to know more about all the different activities, hot spots (and not-so-hot spots) and hidden treasures to go to when I visit. Also, share a lot about yourself. That's what I loved about Erin. She was real and shared it, and that created a connection for me.

Congrats again!

[Krista]

Are we ever going to quit arguing and accusing? My advice is this:

Karen, just have at it. Go out and do your thing and share your stories. That's really all you can do. Be candid. Be spontaneous. And have fun. I'm sure we all have tons of ideas that are better or would be more exciting, or maybe we think we're better writers. But what it comes down to is this: Play in the City is now yours. Key word YOURS. Enjoy it. Make it your own.

[Shelley K.]

A quick snapshot of the two, if I may. While the wording differs (to a close degree), the idea is the same. The intent to copy was there, PITC, with no orginal thought contributed, and no attribution given. This is a classic example of plagerism.

Can this blog, which is quickly turning into a joke, please take another direction before Karen takes the ship down with her?

Molly:
"... Since everybody is all ready and willing to provide feedback, I think we should take it in a different direction. Rather than telling Karen everything we DON’T like, why don’t we take this time to tell her what we would actually like to see accomplished or any advice you might have for her. I’ll start, since I obviously had some ideas for this thing in the first place."

Karen:
Since everyone is already reading and providing feedback, instead of telling me what you don’t like, I’d rather you take this opportunity to share your suggestions or what you’d like to see accomplished. Maybe there are some places you’d like me to explore and write a blog about, or perhaps you have more advice for a new blogger. If you’d like to contribute to this blog, please continue to offer helpful pointers and ideas that will make this site more enjoyable for all of us.

[Eric]

O.K. I'm gonna chime in now.
I was with Karen when she wrote this stuff. We discussed all this before Molly had posted her comments. And the ideas are really nothing new. I posted almost the same idea, just not worded as well a few days ago.
Molly and Karen actually have a very similar writing style. There are a few simalarities between their final entries and actually Molly's final entry was really similar to karen's first entry before she was chosen as a finalist. It was so similar that my initial reaction was that Molly must have somehow known someone from visitmilwaukee and must have read karen's entry, which is of course absurd.

Here are the ideas that were in the post

1) Be patient I'm getting things set up
2) taking comments in a new direction
3) Let me know what you like/don't like
4) I'm excited

1 & 4 she couldn't steal and 2&3 were something that I myslef posted a few days ago

Also I understand that people are passionate about this but please refrain from leaving comments such as this:

"Can this blog, which is quickly turning into a joke, please take another direction before Karen takes the ship down with her"

It's isn't helpful and it doesn't help Karen know what you want to hear. Please if you can't be constructive maybe you should just go read something else.

[Doc]

"Please if you can't be constructive maybe you should just go read something else."

This isn't quite what Visit Milwaukee wants to hear, Eric.

[Krista]

This blog would TAKE another turn if everyone would chill the hell out and let it carry on.

[Eric]

Are you from visitmilwaukee?

Someone left a comment a few days ago that made a lot of sense. Noone wants to read a whole buch of comments of people bickering back and forth. Leaving these sorts of comments might actually deter people from reading the blog.

[Krista]

VISIT Milwaukee is probably loving this. The site is probably rolling in web hits right now, and when it comes down to it, it's all about business. So to continue arguing is helping them, I'm sure. But it's really not helping anyone else who'd like to see this blog - which has been mostly dormant for weeks - liven up again.

I've never seen anything so ridiculous, you guys. The contest is over. Nothing can be done. Unfortunately, even if Stir handpicked Karen and hired her to write this blog, people are going to hate it. Not everyone can be pleased. And quite frankly, when this all started, I vowed to not even read PITC anymore because I wanted Erin to stick around.

And I'm sure even if Molly one, people out there would chastise the hell out of her for one reason or another. And really, for no good reason. After a while, it just gets old.

But change happens. And many of us are always going to hate it. But just let it happen. Arguing is doing nothing.

[Amanda]

Sounds like someone has sore loser syndrome, Ms. Molly.

You are a sad excuse for a writer.

[Lisa Marie]

Karen,

Congratulations on being the new PITC blogger! I'm dismayed at the criticism you've had to endure over the last few days. I hope you're able to work past it and have a lot of fun with what is sure to be a great adventure for you!

~Lisa Marie

[Erin]

Yeah, this is just getting comical. All the people who are continuing to bash Karen seriously need to get a life.

And I'm with Krista: whatever's going on here - lame and pointless as it may be - I'm sure the hits are going up and up, and obviously people are interested.

So I say rock on. You've already got quite a readership, Karen!

[Christi]

Heck yeah. Whether positive or negative, people are reading and from the looks of the comments, they're coming back many times!!! Hopefully this'll all blow over once the Milwaukee blogs are up and running. Maybe then, these people will go crab someplace else and let us enjoy the blog again!!

[Julia]

Karen! Get your blog on! And hopefully people won't criticize what you ate for dinner at the newest restaurant or what you bought at the Farmer's Market, or your favorite bike trail in the city :)

Molly! Start up your own blog and maybe Karen will link your new blog to this blog and you can share readers, or whatever. Same with you people who think you can do better - blogs are free, go start one up!

[Julia]

Also, did you work at MIFF in 2005? Because I did too and I think that's why your name looks familiar!

[Chris Haworth]

What about me? :) I'm the forgotten, red-headed stepchild of the contest. Who's gonna pay attention and love me????