Jamie Ross, who built and runs the eight-year-old site with his brother Dave, told me that about 20,000 people visit Maplewood Online (MOL) each month. About 6,000 of them have registered user names to participate in the message boards or in the classifieds section. “The great thing about the message board is you can find out what's happening around the area virtually instantly,” Jamie said. Well, he didn’t say it. He emailed it to me. The guy could be a hologram for all I know.
Each message board participant is represented by a clever “user name.” These handles include Rastro, twokitties, Tulip, Dr. Winston O’Boogie, notehead, and Tom Reingold. In reality, they’re probably known by common names like Joe, Bob, Phil, Sally, Jane and…Tom Reingold. They post messages in a series of themed folders, including technology, work, books, finance, arts, and sports. But the most popular boards are “Soapbox” and “Politics.”
For many, the boards are merely a spectator sport. But the MOL veterans – a motley crew of anonymous voices, real-seeming people, and some caricatures – post multiple times a day. It’s not clear when they find the time to post, but I suspect few are in line for “time management employee of the year” in their non-virtual careers.
Posting tactics vary wildly on MOL, but, unlike blogs, message boards are about community dialogue, not just isolated blather. A user named C. Bataille who’s made over 2,300 posts on MOL writes, “On MOL we celebrate and worry and chuckle and mourn together. We offer and ask for help and experience and opinions in huge portions. Many of us truly cherish this little corner of the world and feel particularly bonded to our neighbors.”
AJC, (4571 posts) may have had such bonding in mind when he wrote, “I’m done playing with some of you lug heads! Give it up and get a life...”
In fairness, AJC was posting on a different topic (something to do with a chocolate chip pancake recipe, I think), but he’s not the only participant who leaves his kid gloves in the kid glove compartment. This is adult swim time. Some of the most heated topics include the property tax revaluation, local election campaigns, school policy, and the so-called War on Christmas (the one in which Maplewood is Fallujah).
Politics is a big draw on MOL, and MOL returns the favor. In late 2005, MOL hosted a virtual debate between all three contenders in the democratic primary for seats on the town council. MOL users were only allowed to watch from the stands, but they cut loose on the general political boards, where DeLuca, Profeta, and Grodman supporters mercilessly battled until their fingers were numb or their kids needed to use the computer.
But grudges are fleeting on MOL, and you’ll often find posters looking for common ground or making conciliatory gestures. Duncan (5,445 posts), notes “There are many MANY smart folks on here and no matter what their opinions and the validity thereof, there is always something to be learned.”
Well, almost always. Even Duncan felt compelled to respond to a fellow smart folk in a recent post with this bit of eloquence: ”That line of ‘reasoning’ is horse hockey.”
In addition to being a virtual open microphone, MOL is also a hub for sharing town news and information. For example, Freeman’s Fish Market used the MOL messages board last summer to respond to questions about their concession stand at the Maplewood pool. Maplewood grass-roots organizations announce meetings and events on the boards, and reading MOL can provide more insight into what’s going on inside our public schools than your average floppy-haired Columbia upperclassman.
But MOL addicts Notehead and Pippi share the ultimate communal experience on Maplewood Online. They found each other on MOL two years ago, got married in October 2004…and plan to meet face-to-face sometime this summer.
Why are Maplewood and South Orange such fertile grounds for discussion, debate, lug-headedness, and equestrian slap shots? Tom Reingold modestly suggests a link between a community’s character and its communication, “South Orange and Maplewood's people are more educated than people in most other places. We are civically active, too,” he writes, “This is why you see people (on MOL) knowledgeable in so many arts and sciences, with wide interests, and with clever and useful insights and advice.”
With a whopping 11,716 posts to his name, Reingold probably understands this culture as well as anyone. And his face is online, too, so if you see him in the real world, please tell him I said :)!
See how this article appeared in the 1/12/06 News-Record
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