Above: years ago- taking a look at maritime culture. Port Townsend boatyard.
In The News
Port of Port Townsend in WA’s Olympic Peninsula quits social media
By Kai Uyehara – Seattle Times
May 5, 2026
“…government agencies are increasingly using social media to communicate with constituents. But the Port of Port Townsend said it is hopping off the bandwagon this month.”
The Oak Bay Starfish take:
Some people do not want to be on Facebook and should not have to go that route to find good, updated info on public agencies. Public websites, public interaction and the local press are the way to go.
Time for the local press to take their power back.
No social media- no need to use your giant web company account to create profile/register/sign in/create user name/password, etc.
Also prefer local papers that have a comment section.
Years ago, I lived in several different small town areas. Places like Kingston, Port Hadlock and north of Penn Cove.
These areas had small, local newspapers and those papers featured active, online comment sections. Paying for a newspaper subscription was OK with me. There were basic rules for commenting, but it did not seem to matter what name people went by. I never cared.
I used to love the comment sections.
Local papers have stripped away all comments from past articles, and removed the opportunity to post comments to new articles.
Various newspapers in the Puget Sound area have gone with this trend.
Suppressing comments, getting away from asking questions related to public policy and telling us they need more support from subscription and advertising sales.
Got it.
Related:
Sound Publishing And Black Press Media
Manage it, don’t ban it. Online comment sections
People who take no public funds, private donations or advertising dollars are free to ask questions at any time. Why not the press? Call for unpaid volunteers and you’d get better news coverage than what we have now.
Newspeople Not Asking Questions