Tuesday, April 26, 2011

THE VENERABLE JEFF WELCH OF PUGET SOUND OPERATORS BLOG SUCCUMBS TO ATTACKS

PTONews (formerly Puget Sound Transit Operators is on hiatus until further notice.  After a long year of many articles covering many topics, I’m taking a break from online communication, and have gone “off the grid”.  I’ve even deactivated my FaceBook page.
While I’ve enjoyed the cathartic nature and some of the feedback generated by the blog – many have used the content I’ve put out here as fodder to render personal attacks against me, and far more people have taken the time to send me negative feedback than positive.  With that in mind, I’m re-grouping to re-discover the job that I truly love without quite so much focus on the irritating stuff, and may return to posting at some point in the future.
The content of PSTO has been preserved here, so all archives remain available.
-Jeff Welch

http://pstonews.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/on-hiatus/

5 comments:

  1. I prefer to think of it as "taking a break".
    -J

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  2. My response via Twitter: Maybe you should just blog, instead of running a "Transit Operators" forum? Still love to hear about ur travels via transit

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  3. The original concept for the blog was that it would be an information and networking resource for Operators and others in transit as well as riders. Unfortunately, the contributions were one-sided, and many who wrote to me privately were unwilling to express their views publicly or to post articles of their own unless I would allow them to do so anonymously. Some even said that they feared for their jobs if they made any public observations about their own profession.

    Our union has done a frankly pathetic job of information distribution, and our leadership remains invested in secrecy - and doesn't WANT us talking to each other the way my blog made possble. Members of union leadership have attacked me and lied while doing it. Riders who've liked what I've had to say turned vicious the minute I said something that they disagree with, as have some fellow operators.

    Enough is enough.

    -Jeff

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  4. It's a damn shame Jeff, that's the bottom line.
    You had a great blog, it's a huge loss for the transit blogging community, I know what you were facing, I get the same pressures.
    As soon as you got out of obscurity, forces that are threatened come after you.
    It's a risk to speak you mind in this land of "free speech".

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