We citizens of Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester, and Essex care about our local governments and what they’re doing--or not doing. When we meet on the street or at the supermarket, we talk. We read the Gloucester Times and the Cape Ann Beacon. We talk to our public officials and to each other at public meetings, in the op-ed pages of our newspapers, and on Cape Ann TV. But many of us still feel that we’re not being listened to or we’re not being told what’s really going on.

We need a good place to talk online to our public officials and each other about local and regional issues. That’s what this forum is for.

What makes this online forum different from the other forums and blogs Cape Ann people use to talk to each other? No anonymity. Anybody can read what's written here, but if you want to post a message, you must register (one time only). To register, you must give your name and address. (We’ll check to make sure it’s really you, not someone pretending to be you.)

Every post you write will have your name and town next to it. We believe this alone will make this forum a safer and more civil place to discuss the serious issues that face Cape Ann.

Not only that, this forum is moderated. All shades of opinion, left, right, up, down, in, and out are welcome. However, moderators will enforce the following rules.

• No obscenity
• No libel
• No advertising
• No personal attacks
• No plagiarism. If you quote, cite your source
• No irrelevance. If it has nothing to do with Cape Ann or politics, please say it somewhere else.

What about national or international politics? There are many websites, forums, and blogs on the Internet devoted to national and international issues. This is not one of them. If you think something happening in Washington or Bejing has special importance for Cape Ann, please explain why you think so. If what you have to say would be just as interesting or important to someone in Kansas as to us who live here, please say it somewhere else.

Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester, and Essex have serious problems. By itself, an online forum won’t solve them. But we believe that a good online forum can help us solve them by supporting public discourse that is more inclusive, better informed, more civil, more thoughtful, and more democratic than often takes place in other media. If you agree, please participate.

Public officials are welcome to post on this forum, but members of committees covered by the Open Meeting Law are cautioned not to violate that law by using this forum for "deliberation on business that must occur only at proper meetings. It is not a violation to use e-mail [or this forum] to distribute materials, correspondence, agendas or reports so that committee members [and the public] can prepare individually for upcoming meetings." --Attorney General’s Open Meeting Law Guidelines.

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Click on FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) at the top right of any page. Still need help? Email us.

"The anonymity the Web provides is both empowering and destructive at the same time. People can say things in blogs behind screen names that protect their identity that they wouldn't, for whatever reason, say in public or put their names to." That’s what Mayor Caroline Kirk of Gloucester wrote in a May 2009 column in the Gloucester Daily Times entitled "The trouble with anonymity."

Anonymous online posting became a scandal in Rockport the previous March when according to the Times Selectman Charles Clark discovered that 459 comments against him and other selectmen had been posted on the Times blog under a total of 88 aliases, creating the illusion of a grassroots movement that did not exist. A check of the originating e-mail addresses showed that all 459 comments had in fact been the work of four people, including one selectman and one former selectman. The Times has since adopted a policy of no more than one username per e-mail address, but it still allows anonymous posting.

Democracy is not a masquerade party. Anonymous posting on a forum devoted to hobbies, sightseeing, art, or music may be harmless fun. But If you raise your hand at Town Meeting, go before the City Council, or write a letter to a newspaper, you have to give your name and town. It’s the same on this forum.

Say what you want, but know that everyone will know who said it. The opinions expressed on Cape Ann Politics are solely the responsibility of the posters and may or may not reflect the opinions of the Cape Ann Politics team of volunteer administrators and moderators, Jim B Media, or the phpBB Group. A link to an external website is not necessarily an endorsement of that site.

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