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Brings me back to the day.... "My daddy can beat up your daddy.."

I should have pointed out in the original post that only comments in the specific Chalkboard post were disabled, not the whole blog.

It's a shame it had to come to this and I'm hoping we never have to do it again. But the conversation was in the gutter and was only getting worse.

This isn't the first time we've had name-calling on The Chalkboard, but it definitely is the worst instance. I heard from several readers who were unhappy about it.

We're hoping that by closing down this one blog strand, people cool down and move on to more constructive conversations elsewhere on The Chalkboard.

I guess my question is why the people who wrote those comments (and that blog gets a lot of comments!) are so angry. Perhaps that's the "story" and not shutting down the comments.

And it was shut down just when I was getting the upper hand...

I wrote to Bruce and agreed with the decision to shut it down. But I have to take exception to John's statement... "When it's done by those who post anonymously.... Well, the advised behavior for others is to ignore the trolls, as difficult as that may be."

Normally I agree with this tactic, but in the case of the Chalkboard, anon posters are the meat of the dialogue (as it is). Those people change identities faster than I can type. A good registration system will help immensely.

In any case, the 'Board sure provided me with some much needed diversion while I was running unexpectantly deep and silent on my own blog.

I guess it's to be expected that people who drive around with "I've been Grier-ended" bumper stickers would get a little touchy when criticism is directed at their leadership.

Sue, the closing out the comments decision was based primarily on the observation that commenters were flinging insults at each other rather than discussion anything of civic value. That, plus the knowledge that discussion of school redistricting will occur on subsequent post -- and in fact is -- with a calmer tone.

David, you're the one many, many months ago who taught me the phrase, don't feed the trolls, when I was being bombarded by someone who, believe it or not, thought our paper was too liberal.

Yeah, these types of insults were the types of things that most folks stop using, oh, in the third grade.

Sue, I don't know why people on some blogs can discuss controversial, emotional topics like adults and why The Chalkboard degenerated into ugly name-calling this weekend.

In response to Sue's post, anyone involved knows that in the past most of the commenters on the Chalkboard have been residents of North High Point and Jamestown. Why are we mad? We were the only residents in all of Guilford County whose children were assigned to a school by a lottery the last two years. The other HP schools received their first choice both years, while the rest of the county went to their schools that have been assigned since 1999. Yes, we were angry.

Now, the BOE has decided to diversify schools in High Point ONLY. Want to know which residents will be affected by the proposed maps? Mainly those from North High Point and Jamestown. Southwest High School is the 2nd most racially diverse high school in all of Guilford County but two of the four proposed maps rip the heart out of the school to "swap" kids with another area of the city. While all other areas of the county (except for those with new schools being built) will be using the maps from 1999, High Point is redistricting for diversity. High Point doesn't have new schools. Why isn't it time to diversify Grimsley, Page and Dudley? They are closer together than the 3 HP high schools.

We just want to be treated like the rest of GUILFORD COUNTY by the Board of Education and we will be angry until that happens.

I think Bruce will admit that we have been nicer lately :)

That's true; people at the Chalkboard generally have been nicer lately. I hope it continues!

For what it's worth, the only guy who keeps in touch with me from my message board-moderating days is a guy I kicked off the board three times.

I guess that should give us some hope for this medium. Or at least some appreciation for its eccentricities.