Congratulations to On Line Opinion for taking out the award for the most popular Australian political website.

I would have to agree that this place is great as it gives you a place to vent and speak out and it saves alot of frustration and despair and need for medication.

Thanks to all at On Line Opinion for your effort. A deserved win.

and thank YOU Jolanda for the effort you put into your posts and the clear concern you have for our future :)
cheers.

I second (or third) that!
It has been wonderful to be able to look at everybody's opinions and perspectives.

Well done, OLO and all the contributers!

I tried on line chatting when bored, but it bored me even more. On line Opinion, however, is always interesting with its articles and opinions. Trouble is, it keeps me from my study!!

Lizzie4, I know!
OLO keeps me out of mischief, but also from work, exercise and chores!
Oh dear!

Imagine if we had a chatroom on OLO! Then we could motivate each other to get up and DO something ;)

I'm just glad I get to vent here, it saves me from yelling controversial statements in public areas...

I love it because you can say what you really think. In public certain opinions are not only frowned upon but can definitely come back to bite you and it's frustrating not being able to say, "I disagree. I don't think that at all. In fact I think that's complete garbage. You can have your opinion but please don't ever speak for me".

OLO is also article & issue-driven & therefore hopefully educational & purposeful. Poor & lazy (but common) thinking, when written as opposed to spoken, inevitably gets exposed & weeded out over time as better thinking takes its place. And thank God the site is by & large non-partisan by it's creators. The American scene is crazy where nearly all sites are partisan-based.

Keep up the great work OLO. Best political site for me by far.

Spendo...I haven't quite got to the 'yelling' in public places yet.. nothing more than a sign or 2 so far..and TNT I did get bitten in the bum, well.. kind of.. my sign got attacked by a Red who came out from under the bed ( a woman) for the IR laws protest rally, and took exception to my otherwise well received sign "Blame China" (subtitled 'Tax slavery at customs').....

OLO is magnificent because we connect with not only the issues, but others in a very important way.. we are all trying to change the country and contribute to its future. Even though we disagree, I HAVE seen some amazing changes which I didn't really expect.

Also, its rare that anyone here abuses people HAH... 'not' :)... but at least they don't use profanity.. cos it aint allowed..
No problem ..a bit of abuse here and there adds color and flavor to the debating mix.
I cannot imagine OLO life without Pericles and CJ Morgan. But Kenny.. I can imagine it without you :) you never really grapple with issues.. just jump in with throw away lines and put downs.. BADDDD Kenny :)
Blessings all.

spendocrat, now everytime I read your name it will make me laugh. An image of you shouting political slogans at random in the street -cracked me up.

David thanks for your kind words. It's always comforting to know that there are others that acknowledge and see some of the things I see and feel.

I fear that the system has dumbed and cut our society down so much and for so long that nobody knows to care about anything anymore.

Apathy everywhere.

Yes, I agree - OLO's my favourite website, for all the reasons above, and also that it provides me with firsthand experience of the workings of some fascinating minds and worldviews that I would otherwise avoid like the plague in my daily life.

I love you too Boazy :)

However, I think GrahamY could ease up a bit on his AGW 'scepticism' crusade - it gives the rest of the site a bad look.

I know what you mean JC. Graham is not in my good books at the moment.

I enjoy this site, and most of you know my fun playing the serious, the mischievious, the crusader, the party pooper, the church basher, the red basher, I was even called a gay basher and a red basher. My rantings always get me into strife, occasionally make a total dick of myself, and above all, I am satisfied if it is interesting or even quirky or funny, sometimes serious.

Others have been funny, quirky, dry in humour, so many "devils advocate", informative, passionate, dogmatic, inncocent and human.

Those I disagreed with most I seem to empathise with most lately and that is a strange thing to learn about people.

With left right and centre aside, when people care, I tend to take notice of your postings the most as there is some humane drive that fires up people's words.

I think I have made some friends, even the rivals I have been mean to. I think we are kinda mates, in a pub kinda a way. Is this all just informative or therapy to let out our frustrations?

OLO is the village garden that grows with many plants and flowers. Let it grow, it is a part of Australia as its own entity. We can cultivate admire, or mow over. We all like a garden to contemplate.

Happy year of the pig to you all.

I too thoroughly enjoy online opinion and some of the wonderfully written articles and viewpoints and also some of the humorous comments that have really given me a laugh at times.

I also have a soft spot for David Boaz because of his sincere approach and his come on lets get organized and do something about it attitude.

Best wishes to everybody for the rest of 2007.

GOOD GRIEF.... we are not all on a plane where the aircrew has just informed us "we're goin down" are we ? :)

all this effusing love and affection.. its almost like our last words ..cripes..

I think I better restore the balance and grab the nearest 2 x 4 and whack some of my 'enemies' :) (in love of course)

Actually..if my next thread gets approved you will all want to whack me ! .. *points to the pile of meter long Timber*....

cheers all.

I cannot add to what has already been said about OLO but to inform all that I enjoy it. Those with whom I disagree generally make me think, which is good.

Sometimes I'm glad there are threads that do not particularly interest me as it gives me time to get other things done. I have to limit my time with OLO.

As a relatively new starter on this site, I have so far enjoyed myself, particularly when reading some of the humourous postings in otherwise solemn topics. It is great to see that different opinions being expressed in a relatively civilised manner, and most OLO contributors being able to discern real issues from political propaganda.

It gives me a bit of food for thought after a long day of mundane work. Will definitely keep reading some of the inspirational postings that some of you offer to the forum...Cheers.

I dare not sleep with my "enemies" complacent of my principles, David ;-) I have read Leviticus, and I got the general idea. Spare the rod and life goes on.

Good on ya OLO. Now wouldn't it be scary for here to attend a live conference wearing your name tags.

Some of us would be instantly recognisable.

A old bloke wearing a brown shirt carrying a cross a bible...

Jolanda

Yes it was nice of you to mention it.

I guess I should say something.

All I can think of is it reminds me of many years ago when visting cousins on their farm.

Mother encouraging one of the young boys said - congradulations! Robert- You have come first in your class, how wonderful.

He replied Thank You Aunty .

When she asked how many kids in the class he replied-

Four Aunty

[smile]

People Against Live Exports & Intensive Farming. - It doesn't matter how many people were in the class. He came First. The other three students may very well have been students of a very high calibre. He should feel proud.

Jolanda

Actually I stuffed that up.

He came fourth - not first sorry.

Also it was a bit tongue in cheek.

kind Of Like what happend to you

Good To see you posting again anyway.

People against live Exports. I haven't stopped posting, I just stopped posting at certain places to avoid certain rules like unfair and biased moderating and to avoid certain people. We seemed to be able to disagree here without getting too personal, and then along came you.

But I tell you one thing, I will stop responding to you. Your manner doesn't and wont ever help the animals as you seem to always want to put people down and that seldom makes people friends.

Do me a favour and dont ever respond to me because I am not talking to you.

Jolanda

First of all this is a public forum. If you dont want people to comment then why open a post. You dont get to pick and choose or try to block me out of conversations either.

Secondly I dont understand your attitude towards me.

My name is Antje Struthmann and I certainly never meant to offend you in any way what so ever.



The story about my cousin was a joke. My Aunty married a Aussie Farmer many years ago.

There were only four kids in the class and he can 4th.

Perhaps we have different sorts of humours but I thought most Aussies would find that funny.

If a thread is open and I feel I would like to make a comment- I shall.

If for some reason I do not agree with something you have said or even if I agree I have a right to respond to that comment.

What you do or dont do is entiley up to yourself.

Antje Struthman

Again Antj I apologize as I did in the other thread. I thought you were somebody else coming back to bring up things that have already been done to bits and as a result I responded the way I did.

I am sorry.

The thread seems to have been gatecrashed.

Congrats OLO, good on you Graham, well done.

Remember the last time we had a conversation like that Rainier? When Graham did that survey and wrote the article describing us to ourselves? And if we had a get together nobody wanted to be stuck sitting next to Leigh? What a hoot that was. And so long ago. So many new people here now.

It really is a great site and a good concept. Certainly puts a smile on my face (most of the time!).

Yep. T'is a quality site, with about the right mix of passion and informed debate. (Yeah, I know, we all get a little frustrated by certain 'passions' but heck, that's kinda the point).

I don't necessarily agree with most, but with only a couple of exceptions I think everyone here tends to consider what others have to say. They mightn't always take it on board, but you can almost always count on at least one post that makes you stop and think for a moment before writing a reply.

Then again, sometimes a post gets up your nose and you just rant (hmm. Perhaps some of my more recent posts on immigration were a tad ranty, but heck, I guess I made my point).

But there's room here for that too I guess. The discussions aren't too sterile, but not an emotive free for all either. As long as OLO manages to occupy the space in between, it should remain interesting.

Cheers to you all - spendocrat, rainier and CJ Morgan for some thoughtful posts I can agree with and yes, to you too Boaz and even runner and numbat for some that I disagree with but can consider... Perhaps even Leigh too, though I think we'd need to put our ranting fingers aside...

Likewise TRTL, and my best wishes to my other comrades and acquaintances too.

If you would have told me ten years ago that I would be discussing a whole range of social and cultural issues on a computer with lots of other people across the nation, I would have thought you were a few bob short of quid.

But here we are! LOL

Spot on, Rainier - 10 years ago I thought email listservers were pretty amazing.

And here we are... LOL... or is that OLO? ;)

Oh - and thanks TRTL. Your comments often provide welcome relief in some of the less enlightened threads :)

Thanks for all the very kind comments. When I started working on OLO three years ago I was intrigued with the model of an independent online media outlet. Since then it has grown immensely with the support of many fine writers who also believed in the concept. Can I please chip in with my HUGE thank you to all those writers who submit articles, write articles especially and who go out of their way to assist me. They really are the nicest bunch of people and without them there would be no OLO.
Susan Prior
Editor