New way to gauge opinion

Opinions. Everyone has them. It's renewable and inexhaustible.

In keeping with a new year, the Wairarapa Times-Age is reviewing its Opinion pages, and you may notice the street opinion has been revised to a Thought of the Day.

The street opinion, or Vox Populi, meaning voice of the people, is an age-old standby for newspapers wanting to get random faces with light - or sometimes edgy - comments.

The difficulty has been sheer fatigue from the public. The "vox pop" nets about 1500 people a year, inevitably more than a few repeats, which does, if nothing else, build up an impressive stock file of many of the faces in Masterton - who happen to be wandering the streets at 11am.

I concede it's not a reporter's favourite duty. I can remember trying to do voxes in Wellington and someone handing out Bible tracts would intrude on my territory, handing out messages from God and trashing whatever goodwill that recipient might have had for a reporter asking a question. Being bothered by God does not put a person in a frame of mind to be stopped twice.

The vox has become such a well-known prowl that Masterton people, spotting a slow-moving reporter with a camera and notepad, have started crossing the road to avoid it. We frequently hit the response "you got me a few months back".

Yet opinions are the best source of fuel for a light daily piece because they are infinite. Which is why we're going to keep vox pops to garner public information in support of topical stories. There will be times when we're doing a story on a council project, or there's a problem with infrastructure. What's the voice on the street say? We'll head out and get your thoughts.

In the meantime, we're changing to the Thought of the Day, which is a random question for the day posed to our Facebook audience.

Keep in mind we very much desire the Letters to the Editor. There is a thoughtful analysis and consideration, and often sophistication, from letters. We have many regular correspondents, who care about Wairarapa and express it well. But I would always welcome more. Letter writing is a skill and it's good to see readers who can exhibit it to argue their point.

However you do it, we welcome your opinion. Just remember - don't abuse others.