William Stephen (Dare?) Griffin

[DeathByPensions]

For what it's worth, I signed up for these forums around the time that the mayor was out promoting his terrible pension reform plan (hence the choice of username). I work in municipal finance and have for years and noticed something factually inaccurate about an argument this gentleman was making. I very politely typed up a post and disagreed and linked to a couple of sources to check out to clear the confusion as part of the larger conversation. I submitted the post and came back a while later to see if there were any responses. It wasn't there. Maybe because I was a new member and it had to be approved I thought. After a day or so, I didn't see it and wrote it again and submitted. I refreshed and it showed up immediately. Came back 20 minutes later and it was gone. I submitted it a third time and started browsing the forum. I came across a long and un-ironic post from this gentleman congratulating himself about making something like his 500,000th post on this forum, referring to himself as "the most prolific and influential" message board user, and waxing nostalgic about all the people who think he should turn his posts into a book. It remains to this day one of the strangest things I have ever read online.

I then went back to my original topic and my post had been deleted. At that point I just assumed everyone here was a lunatic and stopped posting.

Glad to see that's not the case. 

[Apache]

Kind of wonder why this didn't come to a head sooner. Then again, stephendare served a purpose. He drove page hits. No denying it. he was the king of the gadfly's. I could not have dealt with him as a partner as long as you have, but he did drive the site to an extent. An aside, sounds like he has possibly gone off kilter seriously. The allegations are pretty serious. Sounds like he may be off the rails. Long term relationship, litigation aside, I guess I hope you all have at least made an attempt to reach out to the little guy to make sure he is actually ok.

[coredumped]

Anyone know where his last name came from? Or why he changed it?

[Adam White]

Anyone know where his last name came from? Or why he changed it?

He used to do a zine called Dare Tabloid (I think). So, as is common with zine writers, he took the last name of his zine. I assume that's the reason, though I could be wrong.

[Downtownparks2]

But there were some truly epic articles that were written by him that contributed to the public discussion of this city. His comments not so much perhaps, but still.

For every nugget and amazing factoid, he peppered in stuff that simply wasn't accurate, and maybe even wholly made up. He operates in the gray area between truth and, well, you know.

He brings/brought tremendous energy, a cheeky sarcasm, a love of history, and drive that I always admired, but not a single scruple to match.

In conversations, It wasnt enough to have more proof, or simply accept a difference of opinion, he would occasionally go on these wildly unnecessary scorched earth campaigns against anyone he felt slighted him.

Yes, he brought clicks, but he also pushed away a lot of great community contributors, a few board members and more than a few admins.

[BridgeTroll]

Whew... I survived...

[thelakelander]

I'd argue bringing in clicks was highly exaggerated.  If you run off half the people in the city that's not the recipe for traffic growth.  Case in point, traffic is up.

[I-10east]

Far as I'm concerned, MJ is headed in the right direction. It's ironic that suddenly everyone for the most part is getting along pretty well, coincidence? Liberals and conservatives on MJ are all gonna turn into centrists.    

[bill]

Mt $.02- I understand disputes happen and all, but I am sill incensed that all of his prior postings were removed- I can only hope there is a legal/logical explanation. I am a latecomer to this site, I found it purely by accident looking up articles about downtown. But there were some truly epic articles that were written by him that contributed to the public discussion of this city. His comments not so much perhaps, but still.

Broken clock is still right twice a day

[acme54321]

I would be willing to bet he is the one that removed it all.  Or at least requested it removed.

[funwithteeth]

I'd argue bringing in clicks was highly exaggerated.  If you run off half the people in the city that's not the recipe for traffic growth.  Case in point, traffic is up.

You've addressed this before, but it's still amusing to me how some people here are under the impression that this message board generates revenue.

[Todd_Parker]

So, what does this all mean for a potential aquarium in downtown Jax?

[fsujax]

Well, I hope to see others return to the forum as well....some of us go way back to 2007.

[remc86007]

You've addressed this before, but it's still amusing to me how some people here are under the impression that this message board generates revenue.

I'm sure it is very little, but there has to be some revenue because there are ads on the site. As I said earlier, I'd be willing to pay a subscription fee or contribute to a Patreon if it got rid of the ads and allowed the owners to produce more original content.

[Downtown Osprey]

I miss the lively debates between stephen and PeeStandingUp. Hopefully he wasn't banned.