[Hi Wendy,
You’re not the first person to suggest such a format. One of my regulars has been pushing me for that for quite a long time.

I have been a little reticent about it on another level because I did once have a publicly open Guest book. In the early days of AfricanCrisis I had a Guest book that people signed. That Guest book became more popular than my forums. People loved it. I kept it open and anyone who arrived could say ANYTHING they wanted in it and I never censored it. But blacks and enemies of my site abused it.

For example, we even published people’s email addresses and then later realised that blacks were coming, taking people’s email addresses and passing it on to 419 scam artists, spammers and criminals. So I then had to suppress email addresses. Later still, the Guest book was so harrassed by communists and various scum who abused it that I stopped it being open to the public. And sadly… that also caused it to lose its attraction.

So based on past experience I am wary of just opening up, to any Tom-Dick and Harry – public comments on stories. I’ve had ANC scum come in and engage in various word games, and I’m sick of that. So that’s why the forums now work by registration.

So if we introduce this feature, I would only introduce it to people who register on the site. I don’t want it abused by scumbags who hide their identities and play silly games or just write a lot of BS.

Keep in mind that sites like CrimeExpo use standard commercially available packages to run their site. I think they use a product called Drupa or something like that. With the coming rewrite, people have been suggesting the same thing to me. We investigated Joomla. We ran Joomla for a while but then Joomla did weird and inexplicable things on our mirror site and that just added to my fears so I am going to just rewrite, completely, from SCRATCH.

The only publicly available software we will use will be PhPBB for out bulletin boards (which are already running on it).

I have an aversion to using some of this commercially available software. On the one hand it does give one instant features, but there is a lot it does not do. Also, because it is well known, there are known hacks and security issues, etc.

And when I want to make changes or EXPERIMENT with features nobody else has, it is difficult with some of these products. Experimenting with features is an important aspect for me.

So my approach has been to write my own software – but AfricanCrisis is pretty old now and needs a drastic rewrite and new look and I need to do this all in my spare time while trying to keep the site running. (Ultimately I’d like to run the site FULL TIME because then I think I could create a truly kick-ass site with some wild features that no sites in South Africa currently have).

You’re not the first to suggest this comment feature and there are different ways we could do it – which I won’t bore you with.

I will definitely make a note that this feature is needed when I do the rewrite. But we’ll control it so that random scum can’t just come and deface it. But regulars will be able to.

re: Selebi
I think Neil/Juan is buckling under the strain of the negative publicity and that’s why his comments are so utterly bizarre. I think he is now AFRAID of what is coming to hit him and he’s trying to make various statements to try to avoid being hit by the bus. But its too late.

I also think Neil/Juan now HATES the Mass Media – the very people he COURTED for months. I warned him about this up front. I stated this early on. I don’t know why he’s surprised he got burnt. Now he hates them and anything they say and he claims they smear EVERYONE including Selebi. Now he’s going completely over the top into the realm of total insanity – attacking the Media when they do a GOOD THING! That’s unbalanced! Media smears are old games. I have not checked properly, but I think I recall that Neil said something extremely nasty about The Citizen. He tried to attack them in some way. I want to get the exact details – and by going and kicking them in the nuts he has now awoken something he should not have.

Neil/Juan seems to lack a sense of BALANCE. Today this is his enemy, tomorrow that. That’s not good. That’s not the way to be if you want to now set yourself up as a leader. At least have some consistency. Stick to your points. I think, given his recent statements that he has laid the foundation for ZERO support if he starts a political party. I cannot imagine people supporting someone who cannot stand firmly on a point, and whose enemies change according to his mood swings.

His recent ramblings – the few that people sent me – like the Selebi thing struck me as very pathetic. He is just disembowling himself and totally undoing everything CESA stood for. Its really sad.

But Neil should have known from day one, that he wanted to fight and play with the big boys… he was challenging Govt, wanting to throw people out of office. If you play with the big boys, don’t be surprised if the big boys punch your lights out. I have long lived with the concept that I could be railroaded like Neil any day when it suits someone. My fate in the end could be identical or worse. But I play, knowing full well that one day, some fist is gonna come and sock it to me and I might not be able to handle the punch – unless perhaps enough people stand by me. But I play the game knowing that it could happen. I could get socked and… people who support me might even abandon me. That’s how it could end. But I know that… and I live with it. Neil/Juan seems to have thought he could run around attacking people and nobody would fight back. Suddenly he’s no longer their darling, suddenly the tables are turned. He should not be surprised. That’s the nature of this game. People get taken out all the time. Rising stars could be smashed into the ground tomorrow. I could be next.

Look at Dan Roodt. Dan was a rising star in Afrikanerdom. Some people like Adrianna Stuijt reckoned that Dan was gonna be THE LEADER OF THE AFRIKANERS! She was convinced of it. Where is Dan now? I heard from Afrikaners that Dan was coming up big time, and then one day Dan decided to attack some established old Afrikaner leaders… and… it wasn’t them that lost support – it was Dan. He went to take them on, messed up his act, and kaboom, they knocked the wind out of him.

So in this game one must be careful if you go out there swinging punches, and the next thing you know someone knocks your lights out. But I’ve never harboured any fantasies about it. It could be my turn next… and I’ll keep on… until someone takes me down! But I do try to play the game with some kind of balance and intelligence too. Jan]

Hi Jan,
seems the crimexpo site is having major problems! I feel the format they used when posting an article allowing a response to an issue was very productive. Could your site not adopt the format? I would really like to respond directly to an “issue” which you have posted, it would facilitate two-way communication and allow people to expand on any particular issue.

Just a thought…. the crimexpo comments on Selebi were bizarre.

regards
Wendy