It was not about the rascist comments i dont think. i was about the choosen few we were talking about you know the big boys club and when they cry to the right people things get done real fast like!!!! right panow!

Yes, unfortunately all it does take is a bad apples to close the PAlive chat. Same as it only took a few bad apples to censor music and TV. That's just the way it works.

It's not worth the effort to start and maintain a forum, which would be what you refer to with registered names, and a "threaded" format. There is really only a few people, including yourself, that are here quite often. It's just not populated enough to really make it worth it.

So while it may be an inconvenience to you and the few others that post on this site often, its just not a viable solution to operate a moderated forum on this site. the "SeeClickFix" box is the closed thing on the site you will get to a forum.

Sure, it may be a little more work and time to post a message on the new PAlive chat system, but currently, its the only way to filter out the garbage without someone constantly monitoring the site.

It's back

I tend to agree. I have no problem using my real name. This is a really good site for finding out information regarding community events and concerns. I have had many questions answered by people on this site.

Perhaps you should contact Rawlco radio, the creators and administrators for paNOW. This particular site is independent of paNOW, owned and operated by a different company altogether, so it is not the best place to air your grievances.

Yes, we have suspended public access to paLIVE. While many individuals and organizations used this feature responsibly there were others that did not. In recent days we experienced some serious abuse and after reviewing our control procedures decided to suspend this feature when we could not guarantee a repeat. In the month of May more than 92,000 unique users visited paNOW; many, many more than when we first started. As a result the one or two percent that chose to abuse this feature had increased from a few hundred when we first launched to perhaps a few thousand, well beyond our ability to manage and moderate a responsible discussion. We will continue to encourage audience engagement on paNOW - reader participation is a big part of our success and what separates us from 'traditional media' in our city - but we will do it only when we have the ability to ensure a responsible discussion and we believe this can only be done through pre-moderation. By it's very design, it is impossible to pre-moderate a LIVE chat and while we could register users there is no guarantee a registered user won't take the conversation 'into the ditch' so to speak. Yes, paLIVE will change (further changes to come) and we will explore other ways for readers to share their thoughts, knowledge, news tips, questions, and community happenings. Please email us when you have something to share and we'll find a spot to get the word out. We'll have more to share about our approach to audience engagement in the coming days, stay tuned, and thank you for reading!

I agree with the live chat being shut down. It got way to out of hand far too many times.
This is a news site, not a social networking site.
If you are wanting that sort of chat, there are many other sites dedicated to that.

There's been plenty of censorship on this site since it began, and not only related to the obvious offensive issues of racism and such, but to the asking of hard and unpopular questions. It seems while you are entitled to your opinion, if you share it, you will be muzzled.

I don't mind that the chat has been closed down. It was hard to find any useful information on it because people used it as a gossip center rather than as a place to share information about the community. paNOW has a Facebook presence. Use *that* chat for chit-chat and leave the site chat for community information like bus and school cancellations, unexpected street closures and community reminders. At its worst, any questions you might have of the community were off-screen in short order because of a few people treating it as a party-line gossip session.

Rapshody, I know it's not PAnow's site. I wanted to get people's opinions on the shut down and since I can't post on the chat I chose here because it appears on the page.

and proper moderation requires someone to be there...at the interface level, not waiting for "key word" notifications in E-mail.
Moderation is often handled not by administrators but users, trusted with the judgement and given the privileges to say yay or nay to a comment. I myself am a moderator on a car enthusiast website and I handle 250+ "threads" a day, between three of us we moderate it quite effectively, and the site has 9800 users from all over north America and Europe. Included in that is an IIRC live chat room....but whatever.

meh

I am glad it's shut down. Most of the conversations on their were pointless at best and racist at worst.

thankfully that box/ website proved to be one of the most popular places for people to spread hate, racisim and negativity.

Guess you got in the last word, once again Mr. Hermiteowitch

I love how people are so easy to give in. Why do you let the rascist people win? Beacause your too cowardly to fight it. Everyone seems to back away from topics that are controversial, this is a very bad trend. Sweeping things under the rug doesn't make them go away it makes them grow. The whiners have won the day and that is a sad thing indeed.

I prefer it the way it is right now....informative!

Mr. Hermiteowitch is the REASON that Pa now needed censorship .........

Chat live shutdown...well there were the select few that took it up anyway with their stupidity.. if you want to visit ..go for coffee ..there was nothing constructive on there anyway..just bloody idiots.. at least their is something imformative filling that space now.

hey everyone we can go on patoday.ca and talk live. check it out.

I'm sorry but I don't follow your logic Sasquatch. How do you 'fight' with anyone in this sceanrio. People use these avenues of commincation to spew out whatever they want, without fear of consequence, as it is completely anonymous. Some of this rhetoric is people's true thoughts and feelings and some of it obviously is some people's warped way of just trying to stir the pot (so to speak). I am quite happy that the PA Live option is done for the moment anyway as I think it was a stain on an otherwise well done website. I am really impressed by all of the effort that has gone into this site, the local and world news, the community focus and the fact that it is updated frequently (the John's Garden Centre story was on within a couple hours of it happening). Amid all of that, I get to hear that someone is enjoying their morning coffee and wants to say good morning to (insert screen name here). It always seemed a little too FB'ish for me and competely out of place on an otherwise very professional looking site.
So, from one reader at least, thanks PA Now and keep up the good work!!

I recently purchased a new cell phone, and now have Internet access on my phone. I just assumed I was not using my phone correctly, because I was not able to find the comments section! I did not realize they had removed it!

I agree, it is sad when the few ruin it for the many. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to hide behind ‘user names‘ and say things one might never say in person. A double edged sword, this Internet