Dems group ends message board

There are no plans to revive the board, the club's secretary-treasurer said.
POLAND -- Posters such as "local historian," "G. Gallup," and "night owl" will have to look elsewhere on the Internet to air their local political views. Democrats of the 17th and 6th Districts voted to discontinue that club's message board.
"We decided to take the message board down," said Atty. Mark Belinky, the club's secretary-treasurer and main monitor of the board, after a club meeting Tuesday at the Poland Baseball Association hall. "We thought it was time for a break."
There are no plans to bring it back.
A farewell message was posted in its place Tuesday evening. With six years in operation, it was the longest-running, noncommercial message board in Mahoning County, he said. "We're proud of that."
The board didn't require registration, instead favoring a free-flowing exchange, but as such, it required 24/7 monitoring to guard against personal attacks, he said.
Some got through
Even though the terms of service prohibited personal attacks, there were some users who posted them, causing monitors to remove them.
"It was too much for a volunteer group," Belinky said.
The club may decide in the future to offer a blog where local politics will be discussed, but he doesn't envision another message board.
"For a community that is so interested in politics, we have very few blogs and message boards about local politics," Belinky said. "I would encourage anyone who is interested in having one for political discussion to do so."