The Workings of Scituate Monthly ~ Our Town

“Scituate Town Monthly” is the more commonly known name of the controversial Facebook group, “Scituate Monthly ~ Our Town. People across Scituate see the group as synonymous with “townie” drama, including brown water, new public works projects, or town politics.

Amassing a sizeable 13,000 members, the group has steadily gained popularity since it was founded in 2012 by Scituate resident and SHS parent William Blake. After moving to Scituate, Blake learned there wasn’t a place residents could go to find information about events that were going on around town. “Scituate Monthly” was able to gain early members, according to Blake, because it was one of the only Scituate-based groups on Facebook.

But what else about the group makes it so popular? In the age of social media, many people, especially teenagers, receive most of their information online. The buzzing nature of the group makes it attractive to all different audiences. In fact, after SHS student Roger Dawley alluded to Scituate Town Monthly during his 2015 graduation speech, almost 200 SHS seniors tried to join the group.

With new attention being directed toward this community, Blake has found it difficult to keep up with the popularity. Monitoring 70,000 posts every week is understandably a steep task, and he has expressed the desire for new ideas. “How can we change it to make it better for the town?” he asks.

Fostering a positive environment has become the main goal for the group; however, through the years, more and more negativity seems to keep reappearing. “If your post does not conform to some of those rules, I’ll send you a personal message and ask you the context behind the post,” says Blake, explaining how he will remove some posts immediately, but tries to hear everyone’s point of view first. Swearing was banned in the group due to people abusing their voice within their posts, and this new rule has been met with respect among group members.

Currently, Blake is revamping Scituate Town Monthly’s newsletter and website, and he plans to release those in 2020.