For Norfolk residents, it's the cyber ties that bind

While his daughter Lee works on his ponytail, Andras Radics works on Norfolknet.com., the newsy local website he helped create nine years ago. Joining them in the combination kitchen and office space are family friend Nicola Dahlstedt and Radics's wife and site cocreator, Vijay (right). (Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

On the nine-year-old online community bulletin board now imbedded in the fabric of Norfolk, most people go by their initials, trading advice for babysitters and breakfast places, plumbers and piano tuners. Some also hash out issues from political appointments to tax increases.

Is there anyone who doesn't know about Norfolknet.com?

The site run by Andras and Vijay Radics went live on June 2, 1999, and has become a staple of morning reading in this town of 10,000. And afternoon reading. And evening. Or as often as the Radics can post comments and responses, which are still individually cut-and-pasted on the site they run from their kitchen.

The Norfolknet page gets 1,500 daily hits; about half the town's households check in weekly. Andras Radics says he spends four hours in a week with light volume on the free public site, and 10 to 20 hours when there's heavy usage. Some weeks, during heated, rapid-fire debates, it's about 40 hours of his spare time woven somehow into the work week.

Radics, a software developer, is an even-handed webmaster who keeps things friendly. Rather than censoring angry or hasty posts, he rewrites to keep things civil.

"One of the neat things about Norfolknet is that it's allowed me to meet many more people than I possibly could have by just attending pick-up soccer and concerts on the town green," he said. "I've been corresponding with some of them for the better part of a decade."

Radics and his wife, who works in environmental remediation, moved to Norfolk 12 years ago from San Diego.

Their long-range plans for Norfolknet include automation. "Ultimately I would like residents to adopt parts of the site, create their own content, and manage and maintain it," said Radics.

Patti Howard, a site regular, said some folks go overboard in posting messages on yard beautification, or the working mothers vs. stay-at-home mothers debate, or the infestation of coffee-drinking/cellphone-yapping SUV drivers. And someone will try to be funny "and then 37 people respond as if their pants are on fire," she said.

But that makes Norfolk like any other community, Howard said: "Folks fight, then make up, then join forces, and then start the cycle all over again. I wouldn't have it any other way."

The site draws a range of participation, like this SOS logged at 8:23 a.m. on July 1, along with a photo of a dead, hairy monster:

Can anyone tell me what kind of spider this is? I found it in my bathtub as I was about to get in . . . It was a very large spider, not one that you would want to bathe with . . . hence why it is now missing a leg . . . It has gone on to the spider heaven. . . - PRR

An answer arrived within an hour: PRR: I think you have a wolf spider. We have found many in our house over the years. There is lots of information on the Web but this site may give you a brief introduction to your former tub-mate . . . . - LMM

Posts also poured in as officials considered bus fees to fill a $148,000 gap in the school budget. Among them was this response from MON, a regular.

"Why stop at just charging busing students? Let's charge everyone who uses town services."

MON suggested the Fire Department charge $500 for calls and $5,000 when an incident is owner negligence. Or, $50 for a cat stuck in a tree. There could be a charge of $25 for each missed meeting by an elected or appointed official, MON went on, and a $200 annual Senior Center membership fee, "seeing how it is an exclusive elders club that shuns the rest of the community at the taxpayers expense." . . .

Why just single out the kids, MON asked: "Let's recoup money from all people using town services. Pick on the grown-ups, not just the children."

MON is Dr. Mark Nelson, a self-professed "rabble-rouser" who isn't shy about revealing his identity: "Everyone knows who I am," he wrote in an e-mail.

Howard, who moved to Norfolk from Foxborough last year, said she quickly determined that Norfolknet posts don't just linger in cyberspace. The first back-and-forth she saw on the site involved a stretch of road in front of her house where neighbors felt traffic moved too fast for the curve.

"A couple of days later, there was one of those traffic signs that electronically posts your speed, courtesy of Norfolk Police," Howard said. "That's when I knew that Norfolknet is populated by folks who can get things done."

The Board of Selectmen's chairman, Ramesh Advani, called Norfolknet "a tremendous service" that allows people to look for information and anonymously speak their minds on issues they care about. It "encourages dissent and multiple points of view," he added.

Susan Bycoff, who settled in Norfolk in 1984, sees the site as a resource.

"You can find out anything that has happened in town," she said, "results of elections and recent budget cuts, within moments of it happening."

Some folks live to stir thing up. Not a problem, Bycoff explained: "I have learned which ones are credible and which ones just like to 'blow smoke.' "

And when pressure rises, though, and a debate gets stuck, someone usually posts a recipe as a calling card for peace, she said.

"Something like apple cake will go up, and it serves as a reminder that we need to lighten up."

Michele Morgan Bolton can be reached at mmbolton1@verizon.net.