What about people who hurl insults at you using our own names? Don't WE deserve a thank you?

Too bad, I've enjoyed your column. If I ever run into you at the train station, I'll let you have a swig of my Ice House!

Grow some thicker skin Tony, maybe you'll actually keep your next job.

Schlitz on tap? Where?

I will miss Subdivisions because I know you, like myself, have a genuine affection for this town.

As always, I laughed long and out loud at this column, Tony. Too bad about Patch, but a writer like you will always find a home.

See you around! I'll leave you with this temptation for a future column: http://bit.ly/TrrY6t

Adios! Jeff and I will really miss your deep perspective on DG.

Thanks Tony, I always liked your work. lol@Ray

Tony, I'd throw a farwell party for you if I actually thought what you wrote mattered much to me except for that infamous Bummer Park article which actually pissed me off. Perhaps now you can devote some of your valuable time to the PADS program or brewing an affordable beer to sell in quarts to the PADS bums who are deprived and have to drink Ice House. I am glad you think you are a legend in your own mind. I think the Patch readership will decline quickly now. Hopefully, Amanda will find somebody to replace you.

OK, everyone. I think the old adage, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all," might apply here. I am very grateful for the columns Tony has provided over the past couple of years. Please refrain from personal attacks, or your comments will be deleted promptly. Thanks for your cooperation.

Standing up and slow clapping.

Solid exit, Tony. Sad to see you go, but given the direction of the Patch over the past year or more, I'm not surprised. Its hard to watch anything die a slow death.
The Patch as we knew it is largely gone, the rest is going, and my guess is that the whole thing will one day go the way of that Pets.com sock puppet.

Its sad - but oh so telling - that the Patch has seen some of its finest locally focused writers leave as it continues its "evolution" (decline).

The trolls in Trollville will celebrate your departure. Let them. It says far more about them than it ever will you. (And I say that as someone who has disagreed with you plenty from time to time.)

Thanks for your thoughtfulness and for your willingness to entertain another point of view, even when you disagreed. Class act.

See you at the Moose.

Looks like another old adage "he can dish it out but he can't take it" already applies here.

Hi everyone, I'm sorry if my comment was misunderstood. I can probably count on one hand the number of comments I've had to remove from DG Patch. The comment I deleted had a particularly nasty tone, and I removed it to try to maintain some sense of decorum on Tony's last article. I encourage open discussion, and frequently promote it, but this is what our terms of use states:

"While we encourage people to be honest and post what’s on their mind, communities thrive when people care about each other, and as such, Patch expects all of its users to be respectful of others. This means that whether you are being complimentary or critical, whether you are agreeing or disagreeing with the subject of an article or another user’s comment, you should act in a civil manner and refrain from personal attacks – after all, these are your neighbors."

Obviously this doesn't mean we should be censoring. I whole-heartedly disagree with censorship. However, in this case I saw the thread taking a negative turn and wanted to at least say something to encourage more positive discussion. We've worked very hard to bring the local focus back to DG Patch in the past five months and will continue to do so in 2013. Anyone with story ideas or news they'd like to share should email me at amanda@patch.com. Thanks and have a great weekend!

Amanda, don't sweat the small minds with the big mouths. When they scream "censorship" they're just hoping for an editorial recoil to match the ones that come from their own immature intolerance for a world that doesn't fit with their myopic view of the world.
You are kind to provide the explanation you have, but it probably won't help calm a childish tantrum of the melodramatically wounded (as the parent of a 2 and 4 year old, I know a tantrum when I see one).
Carry on.

Thanks Tony. Don't stop writing. It's good for your soul. And ours. Warmest. Paul.

I've enjoyed Tony's columns, even when I've disagreed. I thought he had a certain humor in his writing. I'm sad that he's leaving, not so much because I'll miss him specifically. Rather, it's a sad comment on today's culture. Over the years, I've read Mike Royko, Bob Greene, Richard Roeper, and John Kass. All have/had strong opinions, were all attacked, but that was their paid profession.

Tony is not a paid, professional, columnist (since he writes about his true profession we know this). The problem is that people like Tony write a column with their opinions, and then are venomously and personally attacked. Not his ideas, his person.

I think it is a sad state of affairs when the anonymous Trolls drive away a thoughtful columnist. As Tony's tagline states, "Conform or be Cast out." Tony, I guess you did not conform, so you were cast out.

What local citizen will next want to put their name on a column in the future? Paul C.? Rick? Ray? Sign up with Patch and write a column yourself, since you seem to have your finger on the pulse of DG.

Best of luck, Tony. I enjoyed the read every other week!

Sorry to see you go. I admire your thoughtfulness, your courage and your humor.

Tony, the first columns I remember are the series of restaurant reviews with an eye towards bringing small children. As a new parent and newly within walking distance of downtown restaurants they were perfect. The humor almost always connected for me. Thank you.

The negative comments towards Patch are not too surprising... there probably isn't a lot of money in hyper local blogging, but, what is available probably needs a hyper local touch. Maybe you and Elaine will be reuniting? Amanda, good luck. I will continue to read but do not envy your challenge.

The negative comments towards Tony were surprising to me... but I guess they shouldn't have been. They were at least entertaining.

Thank you for your writing!

Chris

I enjoyed Tony's columns because of the different perspectives and ideas about what I believe to be a very good village. Hopefully Tony will move his writing to a blog. Blogger.com offers free blogs.

Tony, come over to nwzPaper.com already! We just passed month three of public beta testing and Sam DeWitt of Denver, CO marks journalist account number 352!

http://nwzpaper.com/journalistPerspective?userId=352

I highly recommend everyone to check it out if you are sad about the decline of Patch.

Best,

Dan McReavy