It was just a year ago today

[LouisWu]

Today is a big day for Chief and I, in fact the whole week has been devoted to reminiscing about how much time we devoted to getting this site set up after a couple of aborted attempts. It's hard to believe that we have lasted an entire year, and are now embaking on our second. Congradulations Chief; I never dreamed you would have over 6,000 posts on this site right now, much less 117 members. I will owe you that burger.

It has been my pleasure to help run the site, and I am very glad for the few problems we experienced. I also need to thank Justin for his computer expertise in helping me to get the server set up correctly in the first place, so that we could finally function properly. I am looking forward to the next year of continued smooth operations here at Clarkblog.org.

Louis Wu
Administrator

[Chief]

yah...just where the hell did a year go?

I've been trying to think of something to say this weekend to mark our first anniversary, haven't come up with any long speeches, but I did want to say a few things this weekend.

First of all our real birthday was several days ago, because I had tried to stand up Clarkblog by myself using WordPress, and was just not satisfied with the reults. I didn't want to spend the money to create a WordPress skin, so I abandoned that. Louis and I talked and he agreed to come in and help configure the Simple Machines Forum software for me, and has stayed on in the background, and been available when I needed him. Many thanks to you, Louis.

It's been a strange year. We agreed to keep the site going for one year, to see how well it was accepted after that time. This place was always considered a one year experiment to see if an internet discussion board that was focused primaritly on the goings-on in Clark County could survive. We have had our ups and downs over the past year, but overall the entire experience has been excellent. The question still remains, What next?

Where do we go from here?? I have managed to get myself into some of the hottest political discussions here in town by insisting on seeing and dealing with facts and not opinions. I've tried very hard not to be just a one-hit wonder, by talking about a lot of different subjects. It's a great feeling that 117 people have signed on and support the site by checking in to see what I have to say on things. I appreciate all of your quiet support.

At the same time Clarkblog has seen some low time too. Back in April the columbian had their attorney threaten to sue me for at least $150,000 plus attorney's fees, because they considered my site to be "unfair competition". The resulting fracas meant that Clarkblog was all but shut down for a short time until my attorney could sort things out, discover that it was just an elaborate ruse by Lou Brancaccio himself, and the site was cleared to go back up on the net. We have built readership steadily since that time.

In fact, one of the most reliable readers of clarkblog.org is in fact Lou Brancaccio himself, because he checks in several times every day to see what we are talking about here. I think he also keeps an eye open for news tips, but he and others down at the columbian have reacted more than once to what goes on at this site, and that's a good thing.

They say that friends come and go, but enemies just accumulate. I know I have made a few enemies over the past year. I step on a lot of toes, and I do that deliberately. Sometimes that's what it takes to get the point across, and I have made a number of points over the past year.

So where do we go from here? For now, I will keep on doing exactly what I have been doing for the past year; keep my eyes peeled, and my ear to the rail and write, write, write, and write some more! I still enjoy doing this blog, so I plan to keep doing it until it suits me to put it down, and do something else.

Semper Vigilans

Chief

[Chief]

I couldn't resist, and with the new month upon us, it was perfect timeing...

----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Koski
To: letters@columbian.com
Cc: Tom Koenninger ; tom.koenninger@columbian.com ; lou.brancaccio@columbian.com ; john.laird@columbian.com
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 6:03 AM
Subject: Thank you for your support


Dear Editor;

In September I finished my first full year online discussing Clark County issues at my personal online web journal (www.clarkblog.org) and what a year it has been! I thought it was noteworthy that in the month of September 2007 alone, Lou Brancaccio, Editor of the columbian was the number thirteen most frequent viewer of Clarkblog! That's actually down a bit from August, when Lou was most frequent visitor number 10! In face Lou has been one of the top 25 most frequent viewers of Clarkblog for several months now.

vancouver-gw2-e0.columbian.com 263 1715 4.80 MB 28 Sep 2007 - 11:08AM

From my September site statistics, that translates that Lou viewed 263 pages, gave the site 1,715 Hits, used 4.08 MegaBites of disk space, and his last visit was on Friday last, and it appears he made it an early day...

I just wanted to pass on a big "Thank You" for showing such interest in my personal journal, even after threatening to sue me as "unfair competition" just six short months ago. How times change!

Thanks for over 5,200 site hits so far this calandar year Lou! Please keep 'em coming in October!!

Stout hearts...

Bob Koski
aka "Chief"
www.clarkblog.org

;D

[karma]

:D A fitting time to use the information and congrats to you both!!

[Chief]

Thirteen, with a bullet...

Congratulations, tommytutone...

;D

[Waterbuffalo]

Who holds the most amount of time online and amount of posts here at Clarkblog.org? :-)

[Chief]

Me of course. Click the stats box on the index page to see a ranking of Members by postings. the columbian's stats that I cited are from the 25 most active IPs as tracked by my stats service...

[Waterbuffalo]

Maybe I'll just have to keep up with more qualitative materials?

[Chief]

This just in:

One of my confidential informants just forwarded me a copy of a memo that is reputed to have circulated late yesterday at the offices of the columbian...

This information has not been independently verified, but I have decided to offer it anyway...


INTEROFFICE MEMO

FROM THE DESK OF THE EDITOR

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/coolsheik.jpg

Date: 10/1/2007

To: John Laird, Tom Koenninger, Greg Herrington, Faye Blackburn
Cc: Staff
From: Lou Brancaccio

RE: Accessing Clarkblog.org from the News Room server

Priority: [Urgent]

Hi guys;

View or sue??

These are not easy answers for journalists who sneak around private websites looking for stories, when there is potential danger of being caught red-handed in the act.

When journalists go after a story on the internet, there are some fundamental principles for us to follow:

** Don't use your real name

** Don't put up with any “unfair competition” from amateurs

** Don't access Clarkblog.org directly from the Newsroom Server

I remember going over these rules a few months ago when I spent all of the weekend news crew’s pizza money to buy that nasty-gram from the Shark in Seattle, but hey! What did I know?

Now, that media hater will spin this situation this way: “The columbian was upsetting the applecart and made Clarkblog.org’s website enforcement job more difficult.”

That simply is not true. We were not in the way, we didn't interfere and no one was hurt because of us.

The Editorial Board has decided on what the official “Party Line” over this unfortunate incident will be:

"You're just doing your job just like that guy (Chief) is doing his job. Everyone's just doing their job. But from now on use the AOL Proxy Service we just blew this quarter's Pizza money to buy …"

That's all anyone could ask.

Love,

Lou

[karma]

I'm sorry but this is so funny!!! Whom is spinning whom?

[Waterbuffalo]

Why do I feel a huge crash coming down on Clarkblog.org again?
feels ill.. Hope I can make the rtc meeting tonight.

[Chief]

Are you questioning the veracity of my Confidential Informant Network, WB??

Say it ain't so...

;D

[Waterbuffalo]

No, I'm not questioning it.

I haven;t been feeling well since this cold spell has been hitting us the past couple of weeks. Think I have a cold coming on and hope it won't last too long.

Just having a bad feeling Chief....

[Chief]

Nine, with a bullet, as of this morning and so far this month...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/shot_av_80.gif

;D

[Waterbuffalo]

Chief: some times things don't always go the way some one wants. Had a feeling that the paper might be building a case.

[Chief]

A case about what? I mention them as little as I can, so the only case to be made is when they will acknowledge me as a source...

And a favored source at that!...

;D

[Waterbuffalo]

Not worth commenting anymore, but the original thread is a hoot. Now he's saying how he is going to do his actual avoidance techniques and try to mask who he is. Is there a way to block the AOL proxies?

Well back to clarkblog.org postings..

[Chief]

Sure, but you end up blocking too many others as well. It's very tricky when you start getting into blocking access to these websites.

[Waterbuffalo]

Blocking isn't always the best route. But there are ways of taking care of it.

Though I think you might enjoy showing them up and what is coming across your desk?