13 Comments

Another brilliant piece of local journalism. Thank you!

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Thanks Irina

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Brilliant article offering a very personal, real story amidst the big geopolitical reporting of the Ukraine invasion. Keep doing the good work, and I hope Daniel’s family finds some peace after all the grief.

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Long meandering article which seems to drift without purpose. The part with Levy seems so confusing. At the end we dont learn much about the death or the lives of foreign fighters in Ukraine. Poor journalism.

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The article isn't, and doesn't claim to be, about the lives of foreign fighters in Ukraine. The Mill is, after all, a local newspaper, and this is about Daniel, a local, and giving some context to his life and death is the purpose. The writers make it clear that there's very little information to be found out about Daniel's death - hence the word 'mysterious' in the title. However, in my opinion, they have drawn together what they were able to find out about Daniel into a pretty coherent narrative. They haven't reached any glib conclusions, or, as far as I can tell, made any suppositions that they have no evidence for. In my opinion that's good journalism. l've learned about things completely out of my experience and I feel sad for Daniel and his friends and family.

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What a mean spirited thing to write of a publication you subscribe to. You say you’ve provided constructive feedback but none of your comments are constructive, just pejorative adjectives. You also happen to be wrong, but that’s your prerogative.

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What a strange and preposterous argument to make - subscribing to a publication somehow bars one from criticising articles it publishes that one doesnt like.

I find it even more astonishing that you dont find the editors reply deplorable. Keep your value judgements to yourself

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Ahhh we've avoided asshole comments like this for three years, and then the moment we get a clutch of US-based subscribers because Substack shares our end of year appeal, they arrive. Feels very American - put some reporters down to prove to myself I know my onions. It's fine to have a short attention span Neil, but just read other stuff or enjoy your weekend.

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Great way to treat paying subscribers. Congratulations!!

Instead of trying to take the comments on board and improve, you attack the reader. Feel insecure much?

P.S The Mill has great articles like the one on Temperance Bars and I generally enjoy reading the articles here. And pay for it too.

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I'm glad you're enjoying other stories, Neil. But I don't get the point of comments like your first one and I'd much rather have a constructive culture in the comments than developing what most sites have, where people post random drive-by put downs because they're in a bad mood. This isn't Twitter.

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Perhaps a negative comment should lead to introspection rather than lashing out against the reader in the first place. By calling me names in your first post and then insinuating that my comment was a random put-down because of bad mood does not create a constructive culture. Not all articles will be great and people may have differing views as my comment followed a very positive one left by another reader. It is not a good idea to shout down negative comments simply because it hurts your ego.

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We'll agree to disagree. Have a good rest of the weekend.

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Ofcourse, but that doesn't give you the right to abuse any of your readers as you did in your first reply to me. An apology would be the honourable thing to do for that.

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