CIVIC MENTOR / System Development Project / PROGRESS REPORT

Posted:  15 May 14

I AM STUNNED WITH DELIGHT!

Purpose

This bulletin is to gratefully communicate, primarily, with the thousands of people, from around this magnificent world, who left personal comments on my fledgling "CivicMentor.Net" website and who are waiting for my acknowledgement. That website gave them the path to reach this blog, for their consideration.  My guess is that some are likely to be exploring the blog, even now. (Hello, there!!)

I would also like to inform the loyal readers of -- this "systems-development-tool" and " systems-delivery blog" ==  who have visited 1,242 articles -- directly -- over 133,000 times in 2+years == to inform you as to the astounding reception -- being encountered from outside your normal view -- for I think it will be helpful to a happy outcome for you to know.

The comments are there for all to examine.

Background

About a year ago, I had reason to rush the purchase and establishment of the dedicated, full-blown website -- CIVICMENTOR.NET.

I did this for three primary reasons:

1. Last year, and on very short notice, I had the opportunity to speak before a large group of fellow County neighbors -- and needed, quickly -- an easier-to-remember URL to offer them  -- to access this blog -- than the cumbersome URL we are stuck with (for now).  
2. As you can see, that awkward name is "VNYLCityGov.Blogspot.com."  This choice of names had to do with the original purposes of the blog -- to serve my home neighborhood -- a purpose which has exploded in function and scope.
3. You have to admit, the new URL is a lot easier to remember and type-in.
4. Eventually -- when everything is ready to go operational -- "CIVICMENTOR.NET" is to serve as the MAIN PORTAL -- into a complete "citizen's electronic-universe" -- offering at least one -- comprehensive, cohesive, and coherent set of rational system-models -- to better organize and advance -- individual and collective civic existence -- under complex modern conditions.  
5. I also thought I should seize the desirable website name before the opportunity was lost.

I wasn't yet ready to develop the site, beyond the above-stated intentions (still a month or so off).  I'm still busy defining, designing, building, testing and refining the component subsystems.  

Therefore, I hadn't been watching the comments at the site more closely.  It's still so crude and wordy and needs such a lot of work to make it user-friendly -- that I thought it wouldn't have much effect, yet.  Silly me.

Yesterday, I took a look -- AND WAS FLOORED! 

My Surprise

Thousands of people, from around the world, have felt moved enough to comment -- (and that's really something!) -- but their comments were stacked up, awaiting publication.  (You see, I had set the site to allow me to moderate and approve EVERY SINGLE comment before publishing each one -- but I never expected all of this, so soon)

SIGNIFICANT, at least to me is this:  it seems sure that there are many more thousands who visited but didn't (or couldn't) stop to comment for their own reasons.   That seems statistically sound to me -- and I am content, no, delighted with the thought.

Yesterday, I cleared about 1500 waiting comments (quite a lot of spam had to be removed -- no sweat there -- that's just the game we have to play).  I have around 4,500 left to go! 

And so far, I've published 489 bonafide personal comments -- and will keep chipping away, till the backlog has been cleared, entirely.  You can view them at any time, at the bottom of the first (and only) page.

While I also intend to post negative comments (if they are not mean-spirited) -- I have yet to encounter any.  It seems that more people than I realized get and support what I am trying to do.

And, I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON:  I don't intend to let this sneak up on me again.

My Gratitude

I can't tell you how encouraging all of this is.  And, it's already making a huge difference to me. More than ever, I'm on fire to get this thing done and into the social fabric.  How can I not, in the face of such wonderful support?

DEEPEST THANKS to all who have commented.  While it's totally impractical for me to respond to each individual comment, in every single case, I do see every word you've written -- and thank you, most sincerely. 

Some of you have requested technical and theoretical advice which should be answered, directly.  I intend to answer those by creating general sections for you to consult -- since you deserve a direct answer and your questions might be useful to others. (I can't do this right away, but it is high on my list)

WE ARE ON OUR WAY, FRIENDS,
as the great human chain-reaction continues
along its merry way...

David Nelson

All Original Content © 2014 , The MENTOR Enterprises / ELMS, All Rights Reserved -- BUT, I hereby waive those rights, to this extent: You may freely copy and pass this along, if you think it will do some good -- as long as it's free of charge, unchanged, and you include this statement.