Happy Saturday Morning OCSN friends & haters! Back in February we posted a basic Question & Answer (Q&A) to welcome new members to the OCSN Community. Some of these original questions are still relevant, but we are working on an updated Q&A to post later in March. Ocean County Scanner News has been delivering news since July 2013; longer than some other media outlets many of you rely on as being “factual.” Usually OCSN does not make a habit of trashing or belittling other news agencies; except for the Asbury Park Press. We will continue to share information and pictures with almost every other news agency in New Jersey, except for a Gannett publication. Simply they are the true bottom of the barrel for local journalism and breaking news.
Many of you are not used to factual news delivered in the manner which OCSN does. While our news is always verifiable with an OPRA or audio file retrieval, most readers are used to fluff and bias. Often times new readers are confused as they read our stories and discover that we give the facts as we know- but without a political bias, or telling YOU how to think. Mainstream media usually has a bias or agenda to push and generate revenue- we only want to tell readers the truth. Often times our stories are nonsensical, humorous, or offbeat, but we truly get to post whatever we wish to. It doesn’t matter if we heard it on a scanner, if it relates to Ocean County, or any other reason some of you feel the need to criticize what we post. If an OCSN story doesn’t interest you, feel free to keep scrolling or search a story that does interest you.
Ocean County Scanner News welcomes all the 5,000+ new followers we gained in March 2021- and we hope you stick around. Those who still can’t figure this page out- we feel for you. We will continue to highlight and call-out comments and people for being stupid and speaking stupid comments. Finally, we truly aren’t interested in your criticism of our journalistic excellence. Either welcome aboard, or read about our content on various pages days later.
Below is our original Q&A session from 02/23/2021- enjoy
Q. What exactly is this website/ Facebook Page?
A. Ocean County Scanner News is a legit, licensed, and registered News/Media Organization LLC based out Toms River. Our full mailing address is 1001 Fischer Boulevard, PO Box 105, Toms River, NJ 08753.
Q. I don’t understand the purpose of this news page?
A. OCSN delivers news that everyone else covers, but we mainly base our stories of actual transmissions and dispatch calls on police scanner radios.
Q. Why isn’t there a “Full Story” when I click the link off Facebook?
A. OCSN tries to write as much detail as we have with an original story. Most of our details or facts are unknown at time of dispatch, but we post enough to make a general awareness story. The WordPress software we use automatically posts our stories to our website and pastes the “Click Here for Full Story” preamble regardless of article length.
Q. This page isn’t very professional- I am not used to news delivered like this?
A. Thank you, OCSN maintains our own version of professionalism. We never claim to be the most prestigious or proper news outlet in Ocean County- we deliver news as factual and as comical as we can.
Q. When did you losers start doing this website?
A. OCSN began operations in July 2013 as “Lansing News Network” and transitioned to a broader Ocean County wide news source by 2018.
Q. How many people actually follow this awful page?
A. As of this writing; 43,580 people “LIKE” OCSN & 47,436 “FOLLOW” OCSN. The roughly 4,000 people whom follow and don’t like are people who are embarrassed to publicly like us, but enjoy reading and stealing our news.
Q. I appreciate the news and understand how valuable the information is, but can you explain the stock images to me?
A. OCSN maintains an elaborate library of 10,000+ owned photos and videos we either took ourselves or maintain a license to use. Other outlets use Google Maps, or Google street view; OCSN avoids that level of unprofessionalism and laziness as often as we can. The use of stock images in news media is nothing new- we just take pride in sharing images that enhance whatever story we are posting. When a story features an image taken of the actual incident- OCSN will usually try to make it known readers are seeing an authentic scene photo.
Q. Who runs this page? Is it one guy in mom’s basement, or what?
A. OCSN currently operates with a staff of 4 Administrators/Journalists, 4 journalists/photographers, and a deep network of crowd-sourced people in the community who feed us material. Currently OCSN is a volunteer organization, but we will be adding more staff with OCSN 3.0.
Q. How can I contact OCSN with questions or news tips?
A. OCSN maintains a 24 hour tip line for fans to send text, pictures, or video anonymously to us for use on our website and social media pages. You can text (304) 506-OCSN anytime with anything you want us to see or do a story on. You can email OCSN at: [email protected] for anything on the business side of things. By default OCSN shares user-submitted material anonymously- but you can request us credit you.
Q. Who takes all your pictures? Some of them seem to be invasions of privacy.
A. Our photos come from in-house, or user-submitted material via our anonymous tip line and/or email. Pictures and/or videos taken from a public place (street or sidewalk) are able to be used publicly as people in a public environment have zero expectations of privacy. OCSN does not alter, take down, or blur faces on any of our images- unless mandated to do so by a legit court order.
Q. Who can I complain to about the crap on this page?
A. To be short- nobody. OCSN maintains an API (Application Programming Interface) via Facebook which automatically posts our material to our website, Facebook, and sometimes Instagram. Clicking report post, or report OCSN does nothing but wear out your fingers and/or mouse. We aren’t going anywhere just because you don’t agree with us.
Q. Your comment section is often an example of the lowest common denominator of public opinion.
A. We hear frequent complaints with our user comments, mainly on Facebook. OCSN does not maintain the full-time staff to police or moderate comments- so we do not actively delete comments. Should something be spam, offensive, racist, or just a violation of Facebook Community Standards- users are encouraged to report the individual comment. Doing so does NOT harm OCSN- but can bring quicker attention to certain comments. We generally believe in free speech and allow adults to speak themselves- and hopefully defend the crap they spew.
Q. Can you tell me more about OCSN 3.0?
A. OCSN 3.0 is scheduled to tentatively launch on 03/30/2021. We have a whole host of improvements and features rolling out, and public comments/announcements/promotions will be posted in the coming weeks.
Q. Is there room for me to join the OCSN team?
A. YES! We are looking to grow and expand. If you are looking to join the team, please email us and we can explain what we need- and what you will get in return. Email [email protected] for more details and information.
*We will post additional Questions and Answers later as they come in. If YOU have a question for OCSN or OCSN staff- please post in comments and we will answer in a second Q&A session.
YES- we are still working on our OCSN 3.0 rollout scheduled for 03/30/2021. We do have more details to share regarding our enhancements; but as expected we are experiencing challenges.
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