St. Maarten Private Eye

To all the Private Eye's out there.

From a simple blog on Blogger, SXM Private Eye has come a fair way. You won't find much on the old site, I deleted most when I transfered it here, but it shows how it all started. Back then it was just me blogging, but I found there were just too many issues I wanted to keep track of and encourage debate and discussion on. I wanted to get more people involved and writing and so the site you find today was born.

I like to use the word "evolving" myself when it comes to SXM PE, not just because I want to take a dig at the "Intelligent Design" crowd, but also because that's whats been going on. It evolves for two main reasons, the first is because of you all, the readers and particularly those of you that choose to write here and join discussions or debates. The second is because I have ideas of where I would like it to go. I would like to one day be able to post video and audio clips on here, so that when comments like this come up, you could all listen to the audio clip and decide for yourselves. I would like to post video and audio clips of IC meetings and press announcments, I want to show the crooks in action, but all that takes time and money, two things I have little of at this time. One day maybe, perhaps a sponsor will step up, anonymity can be guarenteed, just keep in mind brown envelopes with cash buy no favors with me, or any control of this site.

So, until one does, we will just have to evolve as best we can and as I said above, you, the readers and users of this site, have a big part to play in this. Below I am going to list some guidelines on how to post stories and photos for all of those out there who wish to contribute and play a part in this evolution. I also plan to set out some policies for the site and what it stands for. Other people may come here and disagree, we welcome such debates, however I am managing editor/administrator and this site was created to promote these policies:

SXM Private Eye seeks protection of the island's environment from unsubstainable development. It is not anti-development nor does it have any "hidden" or "personal" agenda's as Roy imagines, our love for St. Maarten is genuine. Visitors have been coming to our island home for decades for many reasons, but the current state of what we consider "irresponsible development" is destroying many of those reasons. Our environment is being destroyed and seriously degraded by irresponsible development, our children need us to preserve some of what we have left.

SXM Private Eye is pro animal welfare which we believe is a reflection of our society and community. The planned Dolphinarium IS a stupid idea.

SXM Private Eye seeks transparent and honesty in government, something we feel is missing at this period and something we believe is vital to ensure a healthy community and a secure happy future for our island. It is particularly vital at this time of constitutional change because what we have now is "Banana Republic" style politics and governance. An oligarchical system that feeds on nepotism, cronyism, corruption, greed, secret deals and schemes, it's time it stopped. At the very least we can make it more difficult for those that operate in this manner by publishing, discussing and exposing it here.

SXM PE is NOT socialist or communist, however it is liberal and it also believes that government has a role to play in the health and wellbeing of the community and it's citizens. This means that we believe that both health and education should be of a high standard and should be available to all and that adequate funding should be a priority. A functional and effective social system is needed, for our youth, for our pensioners, for our children and our handicapped. We are pro choice, for seperation of religion and state and equal rights and tolerance for minorities. (Yes, that includes gay rights).

SXM Private Eye stands for freedom of speech and expression, which many people in St. Maarten are afraid to have or express, about many issues, particularly if they have political aspects to them. Anyone is welcome to do so here, anonymously if they choose, but we do not tolerate personal attacks or threats upon other users. (You can abuse Roy and Theo all you like, but try to keep it factual and intelligent.) This is not a flamefest site, we seek intelligent debate and discussion. We reserve the right to edit or delete but we will only do so in extreme cases. It has not happened yet.

Well, thats it for policies right now, but I think you all get what we are about.

Now, as for tips and guidelines for those who wish to become contributors to the site.

Comments
Comments should be made under the relevant thread or articles. You can make comments without signing in but they will only appear once an editor has approved them. If you have signed in then your comments will appear straight away.

Blogs
Blog options are available to registered users only and should be used only when you have an article or indepth opinion to post.

Images
If you wish to add a photo or image (scanned clipping) to your comment or blog then you must first upload it to the site, (unless it is already available online). Once the image is uploaded you can then have it appear in your post or create a link to it. (See HTML Code list at the bottom of this page)

Pages
I have enabled the Pages option for registered users. This should be used to submit articles or stories that you want to refer to in your posts or add to the site. Local Hero used this option when he copied and pasted the Nature Foundation press release from his email.

Use the HTML code below, replacing the red wording with the required information and add it into your post as required.

At the end of the day, don't worry about mistakes, they can be corrected. Feel free to experiment in the comment section below. I hope this has helped you all and if you have any questions feel free to email us at flippersxm@yahoo.com

Flipper

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