'Let's give 'em something to talk about'
- Chuck Thompson
- 18 hours ago
- 10 min read
A roundtable discussion with the administrators of Kings Mountain Town Talk
By Chuck Thompson | The Shelby Independent
Kings Mountain Town talk has been a community gathering point on Facebook for a few years now. Recently, with the elections in full swing, it has become as place where people have promoted their candidacy, asked questions, caused a few arguments, and the occasional smearing here and there – but the site is meant more for family friendly content, and the administrators' duties are to prevent as much inappropriate activity as possible, but allow members to communicate, express their viewpoints and sometimes get a little heated.
But it’s not really a political site. It’s where 41,000 members go to ask questions about events, or cooking, make personal announcements, share events or festival dates, sell items or just to be nosy – or more appropriately, browse the notifications.
With an average of 4,000 posts per month, it’s one of the – if not the – largest group chat sites in the county. But it wasn’t until Hurricane Helene, which devastated everywhere in the state, west of Charlotte a year ago that the page really began to take off, helping others know who has electricity, dispel rumors, and maybe start a few more, but most importantly, let people know who needed help, where to find supplies and much more.
At an actual round table, with a charcuterie board and smart phone on the table at The Marketplace in Kings Mountain, The Shelby Independent sat down for a roundtable discussion with a founder, administrators, and a moderator to discuss the phenomenal growth and use of Kings Mountain Town Talk.
The beginning and Hurricane Helene
In 2021 Emily Ruff, one of the co-founders of the group said she woke up to a Facebook notification, “You are the primary admin of Kings Mountain Town Talk with 441 members,” she laughed.
The group chugged along, steadily growing until that fateful day in September when the group did what the group was intended to do – help people know what was going on during Hurricane Helene.
Helene struck Western North Carolina and parts of the Piedmont, on Friday Sept. 27, 2024, after three days of heavy rain that had been drenching the area ahead of Helene’s arrival.
By the time the category 4 storm had reached Cleveland County, the entire region was already waterlogged. Adding insult to injury, the wind and the official rain from Helene battered down on Cleveland County, causing downed power lines, trees, buildings, roads, and causing extensive flooding.
“Helene is when we really got an explosion of members,” said Jada Henson, one of the administrators. “I think people liked the idea of a family group. We have worked on growing the group to something that helps the community.”
By Hurricane Helene the group had 14,000 members.
“During Helene, everyone was coming to our group to ask questions and see what was being reported,” explained Henson.
“A lot of people were flocking to the group for help because they weren’t getting any information,” added Ruff. “Concerned people in the city couldn’t get family members on phone and just wanted to know what is going on.”
Ruff said people were helping one another, replying with comments such as, “Hey if you need to charge your phone come over here – come here for a shower or put your meds in our fridge.”
Food was also located and distributed via Kings Mountain Town Talk.
The Marketplace, a business in Kings Mountain, where The Shelby Independent sat down to talk with the admins of the social media group, was a big help to those in need, among other restaurants in the city.
Kings Mountain Town Talk (KMTT) helped people to figure out what was a rumor and what wasn’t, although, like anything, it wasn’t perfect, and it’s difficult to know what was true and what wasn’t, giving rise to some false claims and rumors.
“Everyone was worn down from Helene, from what happened to Western North Carolina and all across Cleveland County and Kings Mountain, added Matt Dover, group administrator. “There were false claims that Kings Mountain had flooded; fake social media accounts saying bodies were floating down the street – a lot of conspiracy theorists flocked to the group because of the rumors Kings Mountain was flooded because of the lithium mine.”
Henson took videos and posted them on KMTT, showing everyone the city was still intact, it wasn’t flooded, buildings weren’t gone as the false claims reported.
“We saw damages from trees and power lines,” Dover remarked, – noting a couple of people did pass away due to Helene, one being Dover’s wife’s aunt, and also a man cleaning up his yard. Both died due to trees falling on them.
The Crowders Mountain Christmas Fire
In December 2024, a fire broke out in Crowders Mountain State Park. Roughly 700 acres in size, the fire was noticeable from the City of Kings Mountain and had everyone worried, according to the group.
“I could see that out of my back door” Henson said.
“We had a lot of people asking about what was going on,” added Dover.
Henson said she called non-emergency lines to find out updates “Nobody had informed anyone of anything; acting like it wasn’t a big deal. It had been going on all day and the emergency line didn’t know what was going on.”
But that’s where KMTT came in for answers. “The group had the scoop,” Dover smiled.
They said even the Charlotte news channels were reporting incorrectly about the fire.
“Why is the mountain on fire?” Henson said, noting people replied, “What fire? What fire? What fire?” they all chuckled.
It wasn’t until the orange glow couldn’t be ignored that it became well known by residents. But the city wasn’t providing updates until the orange glow was blatantly obvious.
“This city has had to hire a social media manager to combat the bad rap they are getting from social media and talk about things that the city previously had not talked to residents about,” Dover noted.
“And now the city posts in the group when something happens,” added Ruff
KMTT has made a difference, leading the city to make a change.
“We like to put an emphasis on free speech,” explained Ruff, “There’s limitations, but we want people to feel free to talk about what is going on in town – and as long as you’re following rules, it’s okay to post.”
Elections
The 2024 national election also caused a few more rules to be initiated.
“It was all Tromp! Biden! Trump! Biden!” said Dover. “We moved politics to another sub-site, but anyone can still talk local politics going on in Kings Mountain in the main group.” As is evident as of late.
Dover continued, “People don't always know who is running for what positions, so we try to help clarify who is who, and running for what seat.”
According to Ruff, politics isn’t something they particularly wanted on the site, but it is what it is, noting, “We would have loved to have kept national politics (out) but we couldn’t regulate it and it got so ugly at times, so, we just do what we can.”
The 'hate mail'
And with all the good members that follow the rules, it wouldn’t be a Facebook group without the bad to tag along behind.
“We have had death threats, "acknowledged Ruff. “We’ve had people report our social media accounts to get them banned from Facebook.” Something that is all too familiar in the social media world.
Henson claims she has dealt with cyberstalking, death and sexual assaults threats. The administrators also said fake KMTT groups have been created in the past to try to copy or discredit them, but the ‘hate mail’ is always lurking.
“It amazing how we have 40,000 members who can abide by the rules – and it can get mentally exhausting at times form the threats, but 40,000 following rules shows people are mostly good,” said Ruff.
“We do say things sometimes and can get a little sassy but we have personal lives too, and sometimes take a break and come back to someone saying “Lets boycott Bojangles!" They all laughed. “People do that,” Dover chuckled.
It’s also a platform people use to promote themselves – their own social media, such as Living Like Larry.
Amanda Smith, a moderator for the group, and who runs The Marketplace in Kings Mountain, made ‘Living Like Larry’ t-shirts, selling t-shirts with his likeness.
“It was a ‘scratch your back – scratch my back’ deal and he received the profits from the t-shirts just to get people in the store.” Living Like Larry’s local fame took off last year.
“He joined last summer” said Dover “He started posting selfies just around different places, and people started giving him hate, so we began posting about standing with Larry and that’s when ‘Living Like Larry’ came about,” Dover added.
To delete, or not to delete, that is the question
The admins and the moderators have a group chat to decide if something should be deleted or left alone. Half a dozen panel moderators are discussing posts at any given time – with 40,000 members it requires that amount of time and people. It’s impossible for thousands of posts a day to be seen by everyone and to be monitored by a handful of admin and moderators.
They don’t allow the sale of animals or animal byproducts – you can’t say you’re selling eggs, you can only say you have eggs.
Re-homing of animals is another issue they deal with, “We try to distinguish certain posts that are borderline Facebook rules, not just their rules.” explained Henson.
Opinions about opinions are another gray area. “What crosses the line from what is considered a stupid opinion, to actually calling someone stupid?” Dover inquired, stating it is something they have to consider almost daily.
“There were times when we had to delete an entire post because the comments got out of hand, or else we would have to ban everybody on the comment thread, so we delete the original post,” explained Ruff.
From the incident at the Holiday Inn over the summer where a gunman had a standoff with police, to the Asha Degree disappearance, and the current election cycle. Many posts come up in discussion among the administrators and moderators.
Comments regarding a family member involved in a feud or a crime aren’t tolerated, however deleting comments that blatantly break the rules have caused people to socially attack the administrators.
“There were times when I felt that I needed to pull my self-defense mechanism out of its secure drawer to somewhere I can reach it.” said Dover. “All this over 1’s and 0’s on a screen. It’s scary sometimes.”
Once in a while they will also coordinate with other groups to prevent or block scammers. Not just bots to deal with but real people scamming people for money claiming to get their kids back or claim they need bail money to get someone out of jail or need help to get off drugs or need money to pay rent, or just a place to live.
“People will constantly post pictures of their children in rags and someone will donate clothing or other items and then will sell it all for drugs,” noted Henson. “One person donated lice medication but she shaved her kids’ heads and did who knows what with the medication. And that’s part of the reason we have banned the request for donations. We have very limited requests due to people scamming the situation.”
“We have higher quality content,” added Ruff. “Some groups are moderated to death with little to no activity because the members are being sidelined. We live here; we work in the area. We know a lot of people. We can get information directly from city employees and officials. If we want to talk to somebody we can ask ‘hey what's up with this’.”
Waterlogged with data
“People are still angry over the water,” Henson spoke of the foul water smell and bad taste that plagued Kings Mountain until the start of the 2025 school year. “The official response wasn’t getting it – people were mad and getting sick – I wholeheartedly believe people got sick from it. When a doctor says don’t drink it, and restaurants won't serve coffee and tea because of it -- well, I think some officials are watching the page now.”
While making a difference among the working community, it still doesn’t resonate with the younger demographic, as Dover explained, “Were not the hip place for kids, but we are a credible place to get information (shared by members),”
“There's not a good source for information in Kings Mountain besides KMTT,” said Ruff. “We don’t have a big tv station; we have to rely on Charlotte – and even local media – we have a large corporate newspaper and a local Kings Mountain paper but we’re not like that – we just let voices be heard. The local newspaper has ‘This is what the city says,’ and on KMTT we have what the residents say.
“I do not watch tv, I do not know how to operate a Roku stick – I need town talk,” said Smith. “I can’t go to the local news channels, but Town Talk keeps me informed and involved on what is going on here.”
Henson piggybacked off Smith’s comment, stating, “Its important to know what’s going on in your community and what people stand for – If people can’t tell you who’s running (for office) and what they stand for, it's very cornering” said Henson. “I want to get people more proactive this election cycle.”
“People complain about the city council on KMTT; I say, go complain about it at a city council meeting, too, get involved in government as much as some are online,” added Dover.
The future for Kings Mountain Town Talk
“I want it to grow more, but I’m proud of where it is now,” said Ruff. “ We started with 464 members four years ago and now we are at 40k. It’s amazing and I hope to see that continue as we move into the next few years.”
Dover agreed, adding, “Were we want to see this in five years, a trusted source of information for the KM community to come together to talk about issues in a way that is accessible to all without fear of bullying and I would like news outlets to come to the group for information and continue to be helpful for anything that comes down the pipeline such as floods, fires hurricanes, whatever you name it – we just want to be a place for people to congregate and help one another.”
“As a citizen I like the small, local aspect of it” said Smith. “Were’ neighbors, but I like how it's made of local people in our local community. We're a small town – and we're growing, but we're a place for our community to come together – at the end of the day we need our local groups to inform and help one another.”
Henson added, “We hope to continue to be as we are now, a credible place for information through the posts of our members.”
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Chuck Thompson is a reporter and columnist for The Shelby Independent.
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