I’m unsure how I managed to get the privilege, but somehow I ended up with “forum administrator” on the bill of my cap...along with several other titles. Now if you’re not familiar with the newspaper’s Web site and its forum on Hey Martha! (a national forum), you may be in the dark here. But apparently many, many of you are familiar with the local public’s dialogue, because it garners several hundreds of hits a day.

The last month or so, our forum was hijacked by a few character assassins who have been using it for their personal manifestos. Freedom of the press, however, does have its limits.

I like to think of myself as a champion for such freedoms, along with the public’s right to know, but freedom of the press has a few requirements. Firstly, laws over the years have proven to us that one must own the press. In other words, I can’t demand the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press or any other newspaper print my opinion or post my conjecture on its Web site. The company I work for doesn’t own the Times Free Press. Likewise, one can’t say anything he or she wants on the Times-Herald’s public forum when it doesn’t belong to them. For that purpose, man created personal Web sites. I said “man created” because we can’t say God created any of this hoopla in which the public thrives, because He is undoubtedly saddened by the low to which man has sunk.

Truthfully, although I am the forum’s administrator, there are a hundred things I’d rather do with my time than read other people’s rants and ramblings. But once in a while, I find it entertaining, especially when my own name is being bashed like a pinata.

Saddled with the forum administrator title, I was called to take action recently. I’m not enamored of threats and bullies — especially those who use vulgarity and take pleasure in slamming one another. A few writers have been banned from our forum, while others were warned. Some threads have been removed, and more are sure to follow if writers can’t learn to play by the rules.

I kind of see the forum as a toy for adults, but we all know what happens with toys when children don’t play nice.

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A note to the writers of Letters to the Editor — this week alone I’ve had five letters with no phone numbers for verification purposes. They are not listed locally in the book or their numbers are “non-published.” If you’ve submitted a letter than has not appeared, most likely it’s yet to be verified. Hand-delivered letters are easiest to verify when writers present their IDs. Otherwise, one must be reachable by phone. It just bothers me to see good opinions going to waste sitting in a file on my desk.

n Melody Brunson has worked in the Times-Herald newsroom since the summer of 1985. When not at work, she’s taking care of her pride and joy — Madison, 3 (almost 4) and Mariah, 2 1/2.