Originally started as a way to add some localized humour to the site, it has has ruffled a few too many feathers in a negative way for Medicine Hat Media on behalf of myself. While I did receive some nasty emails about it personally, I also got some “laugh-backs” as well, but unfortunately the people that liked the humour aspect will have to look elsewhere, more specifically, just add some locals on Twitter to get your fix. I’m definitely interested in any opinions on the matter, especially on the following aspect, please read on:

This is actually a perfect tie in to a rant I was saving. It’s apparent to me that a lot of people think Medicine Hat Media is some type of organization or start-up business model. I’ve got questions asked to me like, “How much do you make off the site?” or “Who pays you for this?” when in fact, we are a non-profit website, and most importantly, a blog. Maybe there’s hope for something more in the future though. We are not professional writers or journalists, although we try our best to do a good job – most of you probably have spotted a grammatical error, a typo, or maybe 100 of them if you have been a reader for awhile. It’s a huge responsibility for us (talking on behalf of Sean and I) to maintain and write for the site, both having a full time and a part time job each. Fortunately we have some dedicated contributors helping us spread the news of local events, which is the core function of the site; for that, we thank you kindly.

Back to the topic at hand: Can negativity actually exist on this site when describing a local business, restaurant or otherwise? In the past it has brought us many of emails complaining, and rightfully so. These comments and reviews could in fact hurt these businesses because people do read this site. Although Medicine Hat Media started with great ambition and freedom, the freedom is… well not so much anymore. Our negative comments and reviews are saved and talked about among friends rather than posted here. If you find us being negative about something, it’s usually about a large corporation or a single criticism on top of a plenitude of positives.

It’s almost contradictory in a way, we have become biased to help protect our community and local businesses. Maybe that’s not bad? But what happens when a business does a bad job? Shouldn’t it be in our best interest, or even Medicine Hat’s best interest to reveal that? I’m personally torn on the matter because I want to support local business as much as possible, but I’m a huge proponent of freedom of speech, especially on the web.

The most recent example being the vandalized signs as featured as part of “Friday Fail”. I could wager a guess that if I blurred out any business references from the sign, we wouldn’t of got nearly as much criticism, or any at all. In fact, it was okay when some very prominent members from the community posted it on Twitter, but because of my above comment, people hold a higher standard for this site, the onus is on us to deliver what they want. Like I said, I’m very interested in what people think on the matter, please comment and share your opinions. Hopefully you managed to read through this, if you don’t care to comment, at least vote on the poll below to let us know.