If you try the links in this post, let me know in these comments whether you were successful in connecting.

I can get over there with no problem, via your links.
I'm in SE Portland, but the page never asks for any of my info (and I don't have a Portland Online account).

Looks like the "back fence" is a message forum -- probably someone just posted a link to your site on the message boards.

Cheers

Scratch that --- your link to the specific post doesn't work for me, but I can browse the forums.

The North Portland portion of Portlandonline isn't new. This portion of PortlandOnline is an "experiment," and the plan is to expand it to other neighborhoods in the future. I believe it is the result of a grant. PortlandOnline/Northportland has won awards in the past couple of years for what it is doing for the community as a whole Where else (in this day and age) can you have direct communication with you neighborhood Police officer? I, and others, love that it is a place where we can post topics and discussions that are monitored by local officials and the police. I have seen posts asking questions about suspected drug houses and seen responses from Portland Police detailing how best to deal with said location.
I would rather see you give this area credit for what it is accomplishing instead of railing against it because it seems "elitist."

GONG! (That sound goes off whenever I am criticized for saying something that I didn't say.)

I didn't rail against it. I suggested that everyone, not just registered users, should be able to read it.

Jack, I clicked on "North Portland Online" and got there with no problem. The site displayed with all the tabs. And to dieselboi, read Jack's post slowly and word for word. You won't see the word elitist anywhere nor do the words in the ordered typed suggest any such thing.

I live in N Portland, and the North Portland Online, which had so much promise in concept, is pretty much worthless. Nobody uses it, last time I checked. The fact that it requires a login at all keeps me away. What's the use in requiring a login for what's billed as a community bulletin board. I think the problem is a great ONI idea was implemented by the city's IT department, and nobody was talking to each other during construction.

You are mistaken, yonkee. Not only are you incorrect about people not using the Back Fence(I just went there and see postings from today and yesterday, not to mention almost every day since it was created), but you are also incorrect about how it was formulated. I was an ONI employee at the time and helped with the construction of the project in close contact with the Bureau of Technology Services (BTS) employee assigned to the project. While I do agree that ideally this forum should be accessible to everybody, keep in mind that it was a pilot project. First, they wanted to see if people would use it in one area of town before they spent more money on the project citywide. The question I have, now, is why they are not starting to implement it citywide, because it has been a great success. There is even Spanish information, which I helped to translate. If having to log in is too hard for you, I guess community engagement isn't for you. You can save the login info on your computer and it's literally as easy as a SINGLE click once you set up your account (yet another very simple task that takes about 1 or 2 minutes). Thank you to the people who have used the site and are correctly reflecting its use here.