Bonners Ferry Rants, Raves and Rabbit Holes was meant to be an escape, an online sanctuary… where this community could vent among peers, scream and stomp their feet for a minute, or share information— without disrupting or dragging down the other community groups. It was never supposed to be a replacement for real life or used as evidence to condemn our neighbors.
Social media can be a great and effective tool when it is used as an adjunct, but it is also easily manipulated and requires a certain amount of respect and understanding in order to be used safely. I should have seen this day coming the moment I had to make a “rule” telling members not to block the admins. When Erin and I talked about this a few days ago, she said “Tools should be used for growth and development, but RR&R is being used to degrade and destroy our community.”
Boundary County— you are MUCH more diverse than what you’re showing us online. In real life, I see you. I see your intelligence, your professionalism, and your heart. I notice your integrity and your dedication to MANY different causes. I see you navigating your likes and dislikes with ethics and morals.
Then I hop online and all I see is division. I see two distinct sides but neither one is the truth. The Pearl Theatre is either a Portal to Hell or a Children’s Theatre. The School District is stealing our money, or it needs our money and anybody that disagrees hates children. Productive discourse has been made nearly impossible by alt accounts, and bullies hiding behind “satire” or “parody.” I’ve been contemplating how to redirect or rebrand RR&R, while remaining steadfast in my promise not to silence you with censorship. And I realized I don’t wanna.
RR&R has been taken down. Nobody was banned. Nobody violated any rules. It was simply time. Archiving wasn’t an option because RR&R has been a no holds barred repository for an entire decade; and I refuse to let the last 10 years of rantin’ and ravin’ become hunting grounds for litigious personal agendas. Erin and I spent almost five hours removing every single member from the group… one at a time. All 6,000.
And that’s that. If you need me… I’ll be in real life…drinking coffee with my husband and debating whether or not to park in front of the water spigot during the fair this year.
Happy Ranting Ya’ll.
Tami Elizabeth
Bonners Ferry