hburgnews turns 1
posted by Brent FinneganThat’s right. A year ago today I launched this blog. I wasn’t sure how long it would last, but I’m pleased to see that people have discovered it.
Currently there are nine active or semi-active contributors (including myself). In the next year, I’d like to see that number increase. I hope more local news hounds take an interest in citizen journalism and use hburgnews as a means to publish their stories and get the word out.
In case you’re interested, here are some stats:
posts: 409
comments: 3,797
deleted or filtered spam comments: over 5,000
incoming links from other blogs: 119
Technorati rank: 218,186
daily readers range anywhere from 100 - 400 on average
I don’t have stats on the total number of readers overall, but according to Google Analytics (which I installed this spring) it’s had a total of 7,547 unique visitors, 34,630 visits, and 122,332 pageviews since March 25.
Thanks to Waldo Jaquith for his help and advice over the last year, and to Thanh, Joe, Gxeremio, TM, David, Josh, Kai, Emmy, and everyone who contributes and reads.
If you have an interest in citizen journalism and local issues, and would like to participate, email me at hburgnews [at] gmail.com
posted: July 17th, 2007 by Brent Finnegan
filed under about hburgnews.
Comments: 10
Comments
Comment from Emmy
Time: July 17, 2007, 9:44 am
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HBURGNEWS!!! Thanks Finnegan for starting something so good for the community! I love this blog!
Comment from Deona Landes Houff
Time: July 17, 2007, 10:12 am
I am so, so grateful for you work on this. Thank you! Your tone is spot on and your and your ego totally in check. I hope my boy grows up to be like that.
Comment from republitarian
Time: July 17, 2007, 12:16 pm
Congrats Brent.
People don’t realize what goes into a GOOD blog and understand what it takes to make it successful.
Maybe one day, you’ll parlay this into a run for the clerk’s office….:O)
Comment from kai
Time: July 17, 2007, 1:44 pm
Herzlichen Glueckwunsch zum Geburstag! The blog has really made an impact in the last year, creating gravity for thoughtful citizens and community leaders to engage each other. It’s quite a public service you’re providing as a private citizen, finnegan.
Another stat: The newly released Arts Council website, http://www.valleyarts.org, is getting close to a third of its hits from Hburgnews and hburgblogs. We’re a small, community-based nonprofit benefiting from hburgnews’ ability to draw in people interested in local news.
Comment from Frank J Witt
Time: July 17, 2007, 1:55 pm
Hey Finn ~ great thinkers are great people. Kepp up the good work and keep us informed about your movings within the “unemployed”.
Thanks!
Comment from Waldo Jaquith
Time: July 17, 2007, 11:15 pm
That 10:1 ratio of comments to posts is a sign of a vibrant community, a blog that is a hub of community. For a first year, that’s pretty great. In fact, compare the 3,797 comments in your first year to the 19,486 comments on cvillenews.com in over six years, keeping in mind that there has been a steady annual increase in comments on cvillenews.com. You’ll have double, triple, maybe quadruple the comments on here in six years than my blog has now. That’s mighty impressive.
Comment from finnegan
Time: July 18, 2007, 9:10 am
Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I certainly hope this blog will continue, even if I get too busy to run it in the future.
Comment from zen
Time: July 18, 2007, 12:18 pm
Hey finnegan, congrats and cheers on the milestone. I know for a fact that what you’re doing here (as well as all of the other contributors) is greatly appreciated by the community at large.
Keep up the great work!
Comment from Tim
Time: July 19, 2007, 2:38 am
Brent, want to offer congrats for Hburgnews’ first birthday as well. There are many great things about the site but my favorite is that it has allowed me to see that there are so many other people interested in the local community. Agree or not, I’ve had to realize that the people who post/comment have the common goal of making Harrisonburg better. It’s a great vaccine for the “Nobody else cares so why should I” blues. I love this town and I love you’re blog.
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