Nairnshire Community questions answered
Well, it appears that while almost all community projects are locally welcomed, when I try and get involved it leads to a storm of protest and criticisms – if the recent comments at the Gurn are anything to go by!
As Graisg has closed that thread, I’ll try and address some of the questions raised here:
raking in advertising for himself
I’ve already stated I’ve invested business money in developing it, but all income will go to community projects.
That means I’m spending money on the project, so that all income – not net profits, but gross income – can be spent on community projects as appropriate.
content stealing
There’s no content stealing on the website – local issue blogs are syndicated via excerpts or post titles on the forum to help people see what’s happening in Nairn. The Gurn does similar publishing post titles on the right hand side of his blog.
There was a slight technical issue for about a half hour during set up which resulted in entire blog posts being republished, namely because of a quirk with Blogger.com blogs.
Obviously this is bad manners at best, and copyright violation at worst, and was quickly corrected – now only post titles are pulled from the Gurn and Simply Swans, and existing posts have been edited down to this format.
Could Brian not join a local group that would use his talents and skills
I offered to provide a free website, development and marketing help to any local group – whether community council, charity, or similar – a while back, and the Gurn covered it as well. The offer remains open.
find that he is often very out of touch with how I feel about Nairn
MyNairn is a personal blog, always has been, always will be. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on issues such as fighting the closure of the MacClean centre, supporting Sainsburys, or opposing Deveron’s Sanddown application. 
However, there has never been anything to stop anyone from setting up a blog online and the Gurn has tried to provide helpful information on this a couple of times.
Additionally, the community forums do not run according to my personal interests and are not subject to editorial controls on what is covered and in what way – whatever the community wishes to discuss is up to the community, and I will not be controlling discussions there, simply ensure they remain civil and avoid personal attacks and fighting.
why are you using the Cinema of Dreams forum?
The Cinema of Dreams website effectively died when Tilda and Mark asked for the forums to be closed down, and then decided against using the Cinema of Dreams name.
It was either a case of letting the community there die, or give it a chance to develop a new. Considering that a lot of people put a lot of thankless effort into developing it, I think it’s important to give it a chance for further life and show they are appreciated.
no money in advertising in Nairn
On the one hand Graisg argues that newspapers are dying – then suggests Nairnshire only needs a newspaper to serve it; he says Caithness.org is a great example of a community site and wish Nairnshire could have one – then is critical of one being built. He also suggests that aggregator services such as Wikio will do the job fine instead – but how much money will Wikio donate to community causes in Nairn?
I did actually tell Graisg at one of the previous blogger meets that I didn’t think I could run a commercial project about Nairn because interest is so niche – but that doesn’t mean to say investing time and money in a community project cannot be beneficial.
I’ve made it clear I’m keeping ambitions purposefully modest at first:
For example, in the recent reports on Dutch Elm Disease killing trees at Viewfield, a community council asked where money would come from to pay for replacement trees, and the intial reaction was one of uncertainty according to the Nairnshire Telegraph.
This is where private intervention could help ensure it is done quickly and cost effectively, without having to dip into community budgets or money reserved for local services.
Another thought is the small children’s play park at the back of Mill Road – there’s nowhere for the grown-ups to sit while the children are playing, so at least a bench might be a good idea. Possibly even expand the play facilities if funds allow.
Then the possibility of organising volunteers to clear litter from the beaches and dog poo from the access paths.
None of these are big ideas, but just may help make small but appreciated improvements on quality of life issues, without waiting for public bodies to finally act.
I’ve also made it plain that I’m happy to top up any funding with private business money.
I’m the sort of person who is happy to do positive things, and the internet is a fact of the 21st century – it would seem a greater shame not to help promote Nairnshire if I can create the opportunity to do so.
No one complained at my publicising Nairn’s beaches when the OS left them off the maps – is it really so terrible to help put Nairnshire itself firmly on the map in terms of making the place more accessible via the internet?
In the meantime, there’s still plenty of development work ahead so I’m not expecting to officially launch the site as complete until sometime next year, but in the meantime I’ll keep the placing chugging over.
No one has to join the forum, but if you have news, information, questions or requests, you are more than welcome to join up and post what you wish on the Nairnshire community.
After all, it’s there for you to use for yourself if you care to.
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