Yesterday, Paco spoke with a reporter who posed a question to the effect, is the blog and website successful relative to its original intent? Now, it remains to be seen how fair the article will be (it will be linked) but there's no time like the present to assess our successes and failures.
Paco Villa has several goals. First and foremost, the site is intended to provide a forum for CPO's to vent, share information and interact in general. In that context, the site (most notably the Bulletin Boards) has exceeded all expectations. That isn't to say there isn't room for improvement there--the daily visits indicate less than 5% of the membership participate here.
Even so, prior to the blog there was NO venue for statewide communication--we've broken new ground here. Moreover, we continue to enjoy a growing visit and pageview share, have regular visitors from across the nation and have received a great deal of media buzz. For these reasons, I give Paco Villa a C-plus (just a tad shy of B minus)in terms of that goal. It's downhill from there.
The 2nd goal of Paco Villa was to humanize CPO's in the public eye. In that context, I have failed abysmally.
Whether it's the strident, vitriolic attacks of Sack-B's Rex Holwerk, cheap shots from the LA Times or the biased reportage of KOVR's Mike Dello Stritto the profession, CCPOA and this website have been consistently disparaged. As was to be expected, our enemies use uncensored (and unverified) bulletin board comments (from purported CPO's) to condemn us all. Unfortunately (and also to be expected), the overwhelming majority of the content there is consistently ignored--the posts that reveal the humanity, professionalism and ethos of our membership and profession.
On that count, I give Paco Villa a big, fat "F."
Another critical goal is exposing corruption, incompetence and stupidity in DORC. Now, no less a person than Spud himself credits Paco Villa with his professional demise. I'll take an "A" for that but, then again, that was last year's story. Since Spud's departure, our efforts have fallen flat. Despite the unimpeached accusations posted herein, some of the worst pieces of crap have not only been retained but promoted. So, average the "A" from Spud with "D" for the subsequent term and Paco gets another "C+" to "B-."
There are a few other goals, mainly on the personal side, that aren't all that important (like getting enough revenue from Google Ads to pay the annual hosting and domain fees). What IS important is perseverance--if there's any validity to the statement "repeat a lie a thousand times and becomes the truth," surely repeating the truth often enough will catch on...(?)
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Paco's Report Card
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6 comments:
i give paco an A-.
jcat and oompa also get an A-.
one way to help spread the word is to print up some more paco stickers...i have had 100 plus requests for them ...i will buy some and hand em out.
over charge us and the profit can be used to update pacoland.....let me know what you think of my idea and i will sell em like girlscout cookies ...maybe the sq snakbar will help out.....
Actually, I have a box of stickers somewhere...I'll locate them and ship 'em out. Will advise. As to the revenue issue, it's not that big of a deal. I almost cover the costs with ads. I DO think the stickers are a good way to promote the site though. Thanks.
send oompa a pm and i will get em handed out and spread the word.....the word of the day is peni --sillen....
I've said before that I think pacovilla does an amazing job of addressing that final goal, the exposure of administrative incompetence.
As for the humanizing, my feeling is that many of the comments on this blog fail to go beyond the default position that "criminals are dumbshits and deserve whatever punishment they get, the media are all fools, and the government is retarded." This kind of griping humanizes COs, but only in the sense that it shows them to be, like everybody else, limited in their ability to relate to people who are different. Once you had that post about how depression and suicide are a reality for COs, and that actually seemed to be getting at some real issues. It seemed like a sincere effort to grapple with a real problem and an attempt to propose some basic solutions that can help COs. I think the blog could benefit from more of that, more of an effort to say "perhaps our incredibly fucked up system could work a little better for COs and for taxpayers, and maybe even for inmates, if we tried X, Y and z." But that's hard to do, no question.
Paco,
Are you kidding me! You have caused nothing less than a revolution within CDC AND CCPOA. Rest assured, both are scared as hell of this site and its capabilities. This site is responsible for shinning the public scrutiny light on incompetance no matter where its found. Go back and search some posts; Do you really think PAAC would have gave a rats ass about defective ballistic vests had PV not posted the problem? Do you think CCPOA would have stopped selling confidential peace officer information to Mastercard had PV not revealed it? Do you really think SPUD and crew wouldn't have completely sold the house had PV not beat him with the stupid stick? Sir, PV is an A+.
Mike
What Mike said.....
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