About this weblog

Updated Jan. 17, 2005

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I've lived in Nevada County for over 15 years, am originally from the Bay Area. My identity is pretty much an open secret - the people I write about know, as I suspect do most of my readers. I'll probably come out of the closet fairly soon; but because Google makes it an irrevocable step....

I have a day job but don't blog about it, or about anything related to it.

I do have opinions on local politics, but am not actively involved in political groups or campaigns.

• Our Pronoun
  At present, the NCFocus team consists of just the proprietor; but following this lead, we believe that sounding pretentious (we,we,we) beats sounding self-absorbed (I,I,I).

• Our Format

  • Quotes are in gray boxes
    Text in a gray box is a quote from somewhere else; we link to the source if possible, and we try to link to who we found out about it from - if we remember. We don't always remember.

  • Comments require registration
    Sorry. Unfortunately; not everyone with something to say in this county is civil. We wish there were a better way.

  • Email
    • Abusive email or other email outside the bounds of civilized discourse may be printed.
    • As for other email, we're still undecided as to a system that makes it clear what can and can't be printed...we also would appreciate it, if the subject of your email is intended for the blog, if you say so.
    • Keep in mind that procrastination in this area is one of our core competencies.

• Our Ethics

  Modified from the original:

  I swear that I have never taken money or received services -- whether directly or indirectly -- from any political campaign or political group or government agency -- whether federal, state, or local -- or anyone else -- in exchange for any service performed in my job as a journalist (or commentator, or blogger, or whatever you think I should be called).

  Rebecca Blood's The Weblog Handbook suggests some weblog ethics; here's where we stand with respect to them:
  1. Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true.
     Yes
  2. If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.
     Yes
  3. Publicly correct any misinformation.
     Yes
  4. Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not rewrite or delete, any entry.

     We interpret this item as meaning, in part, "Don't make mistakes", which unfortunately is not our strong point (please help, when you find any, by pointing them out.)

     "Add to, but do not rewrite or delete" - this is where we part company with Ms. Blood.

     • We freely edit within an hour or so of putting the post up, where its flaws are more readily visible,without marking the changes.
     • We frequently edit older posts too; we try to mark the changes, although later (maybe a week or a month or more) we might go around and tidy it up so the marks disappear. This may sound undesirable, but if you saw what they looked like before the cleanup, you'd understand.
     • We try, hard, not to obscure* or otherwise paper over observations/assertions in older posts that make it clear that we are a complete fool - although the message would probably still get through regardless. I think we did delete some obsolete dreck once last fall, but where the info was removed is marked. What's needed is a change control system that would let you see the prior versions...
       *with the proviso that, within a post, content-free inanities which make their author cringe will be silently deleted.
     • We'd probably bend the rules on changing/deleting a post if it involved someone else and in some way the original wasn't appropriate.
     • We'll also feel freer to delete insubstantial personal posts than Rebecca would. Not often though.
  5. Disclose any conflict of interest.
     Yes
  6. Note questionable and biased sources.
     Yes

• Our Motto

  Just a reminder, "belaboring the obvious" has two meanings. Either it seems obvious to us but we're not so sure it's obvious to you, or it feels fresh and marvelously new to us but is eye-rollingly clear to everyone else. The latter is typically more applicable.

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