Cranberry Stressline Forum

Message Thread #2

 

Declare Your Links
Friday, 07-May-1999 9:18 PM
Message:

Where is this site linked? How accessible or well known is this website? Are you sure we need to air this dirty laundry to the world? Is this helping Ocean Spray? Is this helping increase the value of Ocean Spray? Is this helping our returns? Is there a better forum for doing all this, maybe a more secure or private way of trashing the Co-op? I don't pretend for a minute that I am smarter than anyone here (particularly those who read the WSJ, you know who you are), nor do I feel that I have the answers to any of these problems. I do think that this website will hurt our brand equity, if discovered by anyone capable of helping Ocean Spray out of this mess (Coke, Acme Multinational Beverage Co., etc.)
I agree with most things put here. We are in trouble. People are suffering, and we need some new direction and leadership. We should, however, bring this back to the coffee shop, the advisory meetings, and barn meetings where this stuff belongs.

John Q. Grower


Replies:


Saturday, 08-May-1999 08:31 AM

This website is not associated with or sponsored by any group of growers or employees. It isn't associated with any beverage company or fruit handler. It is solely the product of the two people who live and work in the grey house with the red doors on the cranberry bogs on Tispaquin Street in Middleboro, Massachusetts. It began as a site about our family's bogs. It's evolved into the forum precisely because we care deeply about what is going to happen to all the people involved with our industry -- our families, friends, and co-workers. All the confidential letters written and all the words spoken at closed meetings in the past months seem to do no good. Maybe this will. I   hope so because I'm proud to be an Ocean Spray cranberry grower and my name is Betty E. Brown.

Betty E. Brown

Saturday, 08-May-1999 09:30:15


My point is that this is not constructive. It is helping to destroy the value of the brand, given anyone in the world can read this. That is where my point lies, think about who could be looking at this. Your intentions are fine, but nothing is being solved here. All that is happening here is the publication of our problems. How is that helping? Where are the solutions? If this continues, the percieved value of the company will diminish further. Do you think that consumers should hear about disgruntled employees? I am just wondering how easy is this page to find? What search engines are you registered with? What keywords will produce this page in a search? You did not answer that.

Sunday, 09-May-1999 11:21 AM

Editorial Response


How easy is this web site to find?

Anybody with the patience to search the all the major search engines will eventually find this web site.

What search engines is the site registered with?

I registered the site with all the major search engines many months ago when it only dealt with farm stress. Most search engines search the entire web regardless of whether the sites have been registered. Once a site is registered, "spiders" or "robots" return on a regular basis to update the listings.

What key words will produce this page in a search?

Most experienced searchers will try several key words and phrases. Each search engine has a different way to index sites. Some, but not all, use meta tags as part, but only part, of their criteria. This is coding the webmaster adds which lists relevant key words and phrases. Cranberry Stressline has a long list of key words which cover major topics addressed. It is not my intention to make the site difficult to locate for people looking for information about the cranberry industry or farm stress. In fact, the standard of the Internet is for webmasters to make their meta tags as relevant to the web site as possible.

However, the keywords that bring up this site vary from search engine to search engine, and are always changing. The least helpful search term is "cranberries" since it is also the name of a well know popular music group. Generally two words inside of quotation marks, or connected by the word "and" is a better way to search.

Do I think consumers should hear about disgruntled employees?

I have been a journalist for a number of years, senior staff writer on a print Police magazine called Patrol Log, then editor and publisher of the ezine Police Stressline where I have written about police racism and police brutality. Police Stressline also has a very active Forum.

I think that those who are interested in reading the truth should have an opportunity to do so. I believe (except for national security of course or real trade secrets) the public has the right to all the facts and opinions on any given subject, and that it is up to them to reach their own conclusions.

The most publicity this web site has recieved has come from Ocean Spray's Chris Philips who was quoted in the New Bedford Standard Times as saying it was "odd and misguided".

Hal Brown

Saturday, 08-May-1999 6:37PM

The sad thing about this forum is that this web page is the only place we can have frank discussion. Information that we receive from the company is not credible by anyone's standards. And as far as any company rescuing us, (from our own management team?), they will be far more astute and have a clear understanding of the depth of our problems, beyond what we can imagine. So have no fear, prospective investors (?) are certainly not going to listen to us. Maybe, we should be listening to them.

Now, short of driving all of our tractors to the white house, what do you recommend?

L. Rinta

Sunday, 09-May-1999 09:36 AM

Dear J.Q. Grower:

A) How did YOU find this web-site?..by chance?...I don't think so!!
B) I have been to 13 yrs worth of Advisory Meetings, I don't have time to hang around coffee-shops, and I don't know about any barn
meetings recently. I do know that I have been the victim of a 50k robbery! ($25/bbl.) And like other victims, I think talking about it helps!
I don't think keeping our skeletons in the closet benefits the grower/owners. I does however benefit those who participated in this crime to slip away with no consequences for their actions. While you are certainly entitled to YOUR opinion, I think by arguing among ourselves as to methods of action, only gives aid and comfort to those who abuse the power and trust delegated to them by the grower/owners of the co-op.
The main benefit of this web-site, besides acess to information from other sources which is collected here, is that it enables ALL growers coast-to-coast to communicate freely!! We are not just limited to the same old faces who have the time and inclination to attend the Ad. meetings or to hang around the coffee-shop!! Hopefully out of a truthful discussion of the issues, and a dialogue that reaches across the country,( and isn't just limited to those WSJ readers in Mass. who bother to get involved and who truly are concerned), a plan of action WILL arise, and a LEADER will step forward to lead the growers to the next level and into the new century! All I know is that the old ways, and following protocol and being a good soldier, and not breaking rank has gotten us into the mess we're in now. Let truth and free speech reign, and the chips fall where they may!

D. Ross

Tuesday, 11-May-1999 4:22 PM

Dear J. Q.
A little more fuel for your fire...since you are so concerned about O.S.'s "brand equity", and since you seem not to like the WSJ and those who read the it...maybe you should try the Boston Globe!!
In the issue of 5/11/99 on page D4 in the Business Section there is a very interesting opinion piece/article entitled "CEOs: Guardians of Brand Equity" Maybe you should become more informed on the subject of who affects brand equity and how...before you go and trash this web-site and those who post on it ...I think T.Bullock has much more of an effect on O.S.'s brand equity than we who put posts up on this site!!

D.R.

Wednesday, 12-May-1999 7:57 AM

I don't think I was trashing this site, or that was not my intention. I merely hoped to get folks thinking about some of the ramifications of this type of venue. I want to encourage a more secure message forum. By the way, I have no problem with the Wall Street Journal, but I have no time to read it. My time is occupied by growing cranberries. My reference was to a small number of people who alluded to being smarter than most, and used that newspaper to illustrate thier intelligence. May the force be with you.

J. Q.

Re: Declare Your Links
Tuesday, 11-May-1999 16:22:19

Wednesday, 12-May-1999 07:57:19

Wednesday, 19-May-1999 09:21:34

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