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About rival local community forum called www.harringayonline.com

the northern heightsthe northern heights
edited February 2010 in Local discussion
About rival local community forum called www.harringayonline.com: I cut n paste this off the web: harringayonline.com was on bbc news: Another community site was set up by Hugh Flouch when Haringey Council mooted pedestrianising Wood Green High Street. According to Mr Flouch, his site now has 2,500 members. He used the site to organise a petition to visit every local street likely to be affected by knock-on traffic. "The council were just not listening to the community", he said. "By the end of that year we had 500 members. Now we are touching 2,500." However, Haringey Council dispute this and insist the site did not influence council policy. Mr Flouch says his local MP is now a regular contributor to the site and that "connecting people through the internet can have a profound effect on neighbourhoods. "Not everyone wants to turn up at a cold church hall for meetings. With these sites people can log on for five minutes at lunchtime - it's much more flexible." In a recent lecture, Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian newspaper, talked about the perceived threat of community websites to "traditional" journalists. He said: "Depending on your point of view, you [journalists] may find new ways of connecting and informing communities inspiring or terrifying. "I think it is both. And it is good to be forced to think about what journalism is and who can do it." ................. harringayonline.com seems to focus on the ladder roads just north of Finsbury Park in an area of haringey borough called harringay. The local residents get angry about potholes and traffic wardens etc... Haringey council recently claimed that harringayonline.com did not influence their policies. Odd that they claim that when local residents flag up their many concerns on harringayonline.com it seems odd that Haringey council will admit that this website has not influenced their policies in any way.Surely they must have got some ideas from this website that influenced policies, its packed with informed local residents.Or maybe Haringey council genuinely have not got any ideas to influence policy from this local website. If so then they aren't paying attention. Why are Haringey Council so keen to boast that the local website has not influenced their policies? Particularly as the website gives this council plenty of free of charge feedback about the local area? Is it because harringayonline tells the truth and the council don't like it?
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  • the northern heightsthe northern heights
    edited 1:38PM
    To read the full article, type: "web warriors take on the big boys" into the BBC news website search engine: article called "local websites tackling councils and the multinationals" by ed davey, 25 feb. Video clip on here about harringayonline as well.
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  • tosscattosscat
    edited 1:38PM
    Is 'rival' not a bit strong? Would 'other' not suffice?
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  • IanIan
    edited February 2010
    Rival or other (and I agree with you TC), a website about a different part of London doesn't feel like a good substitute to me. From a navigation point of view I much prefer the interface on SG.org. Theirs is just a barrage of noise.
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  • miss anniemiss annie
    edited February 2010
    I live in the borough of Islington and so, it seems from the northern heights other post last night , does he/she. Why on earth then would harringayonline be of interest?

    I agree with Ian. I briefly looked at harringayonline just to see what all the fuss is about and it did seem like a bunch of people ranting.

    Surely the point of a forum is to join in with online conversation or discussions and to find out about more about the area you live in, not just to post longwinded rants.
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  • ActionVerbActionVerb
    edited 1:38PM
    I don't care. I really, really don't care about HaringayOnline.
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  • JungleFaceJakeJungleFaceJake
    edited 1:38PM
    I live in Islington as well.

    Bore off!!!
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  • andyandy
    edited 1:38PM
    "Rival" is hardly the word. I know Hugh, we've had beers together and we've talked about the different things we could do. There are a bunch of sites in London trying to serve small communities and his is one.

    I like the guy, I think his forum is good. He has different ambitions for it, but there's no "one right way" to do this. Everyone is learning from each other.
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  • ArkadyArkady
    edited 1:38PM
    I smell troll.
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  • the northern heightsthe northern heights
    edited 1:38PM
    Thanks for all comments critical or otherwise. Like football, It's all about opinions. Some people say that strouggreen.org is more enjoyable to read than the harringayonline forum because harringayonline forum feels like liz and hugh's blog. Because Hugh and Liz who run harringayonline are constantly starting threads,what this does is bump off the front page many of the threads of the other people on harringayonline forum.Whereas andy and dave don't do this on this forum,they comment but they don't push the other locals comments off the front page by starting loads of new threads on a regular basis. Sometimes it feels like on harringayonline that liz and hugh are spamming their own forum - what i mean is they are starting so many threads about local and national issues that other punters threads dont get a look in. Andy n dave r not doing this on here. Hugh and Liz should put their threads onto their own blog page on the harringayonline forum and just do what dave and andy do Also on harringayonline do we really want to see the photograph of people who contribute? It's better to keep a forum annonymous ie you dont need to give your real name like on this one and then when people are abusing the forum give them a warning to watch it. Some people say harringayonline has higher content of discussion but that stroudgreen.org is a more entertaining read. Considering one side of sg rd is islington borough and one side is haringey borough if locals arent interested in haringey borough which haringayonline fourm covers many stories on then they arent paying attention or arent interested in local area of stroud green/and other local haringey stories...thats their dull opinion I respect your right to be rude. Being offensive is an important part of freedom of speech in England. I hope I've offended people, it might have woken them up from their daily mail reading slumber... Jungle face jake stop mugging yourself off - jog on son you muggy mug off and that troll slabber can shove off an all...clear off... yes altright rival isnt the word - but you have got to bait the threads otherwise the fish dont bite - if you get my drift - and then the quality readers dont notice the thread as it drops off front page... lets hope england beat the paddy's tomorrow in the rugby...and that wayne bridge sticks his head in and sticks his foot into JT.After JT forced Wayne Bridge to retire bully boy style... It would be nice to see Wayne Bridge ending JT's career with a boot to the knee... honk honk!
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  • tosscattosscat
    edited 1:38PM
    :D
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  • the northern heightsthe northern heights
    edited 1:38PM
    The harringayonline.com punters are talking about this thread here that u r reading now on stroudgreen.org.on their copycat thread on harringayonline.com called: " harringay online on BBC London news" On their thread there's a video clip you can click on about their forum Bascially they don't like it on the ladder and they want to live SG.
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  • andyandy
    edited 1:38PM
    I'm still waiting for my login to the brilliant forum that the northern heights runs.
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  • wideboywideboy
    edited February 2010
    Harringayonline is a true hyperlocal site, same as Stroudgreen is. As Hugh pointed out to me, (I hope I've got this right) the site is primarily focused on the area (village?) of HarringAY rather than the borough of HarringEY, so there shouldn't be much overlap with SG.org.

    While on this topic, I'm involved with establishing the site islingtonresidents.org.uk which does perhaps overlap with stroudgreen more literally. That site is still in its infancy, but has more of a leaning towards borough-wide council issues, social housing and HFI (Homes for Islington) which also spreads into things like PFI or 'Partners' properties.

    @Ian I don't get on with the 'Ning'-powered interface at all either, also seen on the w14london site amongst others.
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  • JungleFaceJakeJungleFaceJake
    edited 1:38PM
    Wow... That told me.. thanks for putting me straight..

    You are really really boring though..
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  • JoeVJoeV
    edited 1:38PM
    @TNH You may cherish the right to be rude, but you don’t want to pay for it. There’s a difference between deliberately being offensive and saying things that may cause offense. If you can’t figure out which is which maybe you should you should walk the walk and start your own website instead of moaning about what a crap job everyone else is doing in providing you a free forum to be obnoxious.
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  • DonnaDonna
    edited 1:38PM
    I like it. But I like stroudgreen.org as well. everything's a bit more casual here and I love the way you stumble upon some fun stuff and it's just really friendly. Having said that, I'm not sure this thread is a particularly good example of all that!
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  • diondion
    edited 1:38PM
    I knew you would like it DonnaW! You always like everything!
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  • DonnaDonna
    edited 1:38PM
    Yes... except for car alarms in the middle of the night. I posted something negative about them. Just to balance things out a bit. I don't know, I guess I just don't see this forum as a place to be negative about stuff. I like using it to share tips and find out stuff that's useful, although admittedly reading people's negative rants can be fun occassionally too! (Oh no, I think I just said I liked more stuff!) :)
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