A poll concerning the Bolesławiec swimming pool, “What next for Orka?”, appeared on the Bolec.Info portal. Bolec.Info proposed solutions that could be voted on. Some were realistic: do nothing, everything is fine, merge it with one of the municipal companies (e.g. ZEC), or reduce employment. Others were utopian: sell it to a private investor or merge it with the swimming pool in Osiecznica. There were also nonsensical and ironic options: transfer it to Bolesławiec County or give it free of charge to the Piarist Fathers.
Bolecnauts took the poll as a joke and voted for the most absurd option: give the pool free of charge to the Piarist Fathers. Bolec.Info treated the poll as a credible and reliable source of information and produced an incredible report about it: “Shock! Bolesławiec residents want to give Orka to the Piarists!” The piece appeared on the front page of their newspaper, which has recently been published once a month.
This behavior surprised the internet users themselves. One of them wrote: “But it’s irony. I myself clicked on ‘give it to the Piarist Fathers.’ Give them everything. If there were a poll titled ‘What should you do with your own salary?’, I’d click on the Piarist Fathers too—let the poor things have it.”
A Bolecnaut using the nickname hemi wrote: “If one of the options had been: build a new WTC, would that have won too? Would that also then have been UNBELIEVABLE? People were fooling around with this poll, so there’s no reason to take the results seriously.”
Other posts came from readers outraged by the report: “I was also VERRRRY disappointed. You took a poll that people treated ironically (specifically, the votes cast) and turned it into a serious article that so clearly indicates what is supposed to happen to ORKA. I wonder why there wasn’t an option to (…) reduce ticket prices so people could afford this pleasure. There would be greater turnover and higher income. Why is this so simple only for us ordinary bread eaters?”
Bolec.Info readers reacted similarly when the same information appeared in the newspaper: “It’s not serious to put a news item on the front page based on that ridiculous poll about Orka. Was there no more important lead story?”
Another reader wrote: “PRIMITIVISM. Until today I thought Bolec.Info was worth reading to know what is happening in the city, and now this disappointment. I thought, let the rabble have their say in a poll on whether to poop on the president’s forehead or into the councillors’ hands. It would be even worse if they decided that the editor-in-chief should be the one to clean it up.”
Neither those writing for Bolec.Info (whoever they are) nor editor-in-chief Katarzyna Bodzioch took the feedback from Bolesławiec residents to heart. Uncritically and irresponsibly, they continue to play at being the media. They can. It’s democracy. And Bolec.Info is part of it. After all, there is no obligation to respect readers, no prohibition against making fools of them, or against exploiting their sense of humor to write nonsensical reports about what Bolesławiec residents want.
(information: ii)