State of the Website Address

by Chris

Wow, what a month.  First of all, I would like to say a sincere thank you to all of you who have continued to check the site, continued to provide support, continued to keep your hopes up, and (most importantly) continued to keep your enthusiasm about our GREAT city at amazing levels.  You are the reason this site became exponentially more than it was ever intended to be.  You are the reason I love living here. 

Needless to say, losing Dana was like losing all of Raleighing's appendages.  Sure, the site was my idea.  Yeah, the name, design, format, branding, etc, etc, etc were all mine... but everyone knows that Dana provided nearly all of the meat of the site.  Hell, I've repeatedly admitted his insights and spirit were the motivation behind all my work to make the site a reality.

We apparently had a good thing going.  I recall sending out emails to our friends when we hit the 100 readers-a-day mark and again when we hit 200...  'cause Dana and I surely didn't have that many immediate friends.  When we hit 3000 a day at our peak (which amazingly we continue to hit... even without new posts), I wasn't quite sure what to make of it.  Surely, I was proud as hell...  but, to be honest, I was feeling the burden of keeping a site like this going.  I will never speak for Dana, but from our conversations I can say he felt some of the same pressures...

As Dana explained in his post, his departure did have a little to do with our difference of opinion on the nature of this site.  But mostly, we both have just hit various crossroads in our respective lives that have dictated that we retreat a bit from our "volunteer" work on this site.  I adore my life, I now adore my day job, and I still adore this city.  Unfortunately, a site like Raleighing is very hard to maintain when everything else is more important and more fulfilling, you know?

Anyway, much to the chagrin of the many ingrates who posted rude, hateful comments on the site, I have taken the past few weeks to reflect on the site and it's purpose in order to determine its next steps.  Some of you who check the actual site (rather than just the daily emails) have noticed that a couple of days ago I posted an announcement on the site that I am now accepting applications for writers.  Yes, I have decided to try to keep this good thing going, but have determined that I just don't have the time to do it alone.  So, I am hoping I find others who have the same kind of passion I do for this wonderful city. 

No, I do not want writers who would do well at the N&O.  I do not intend on replacing them.  I need folks who want to incite the kinds of conversations that are not influenced by anything but the passion for this city to become one of the great personalities of our beautiful country.

Speaking of the N&O (and let's just go ahead and throw in the TBJ since they have thrown themselves into this situation as well), I will inform all of you--especially those who are considering applying for a contributor position here--that it has come to my attention that both publications supposedly consider Raleighing to now be a threat to their business.  Several of my best sources have pleaded with me to refrain from posting insider information as those publications have apparently stated that they will not feature content that has first been made public on Raleighing.com.  I, of course, have not been able to 100% substantiate this information, but the fact that more than a few of my sources have independently approached me with the same request is quite curious.

I absolutely will not claim that our local news providers are taking such aggressive moves towards newsworthy items for our area.  This would certainly not be what I personally would consider to be fair practices.  I mean, come on, Raleighing has never been about making money from this information.  We're just trying to keep all of you, my beloved neighbors, informed.  We're just trying to do our (ok, my... for now) part in making this perfect city the kind of place we all know it is and can be.

Ok, I'll get down off my soapbox now.  Deeeeeeeeeep breaths...

I have just today sent out approximately 15 invites to potential authors for Raleighing.  They have each been provided accounts on the site which will permit them to write articles.  For now, I will remain Editor-In-Chief of the site which means each article will not go live until I've had a chance to review it.  I'll not only be doing the spelling and grammatical check, but also will do my best to verify the information reported.  But, as always, we'll continue to respect the power of our community to assist with the validation of assumptions.

Thank you for continuing your ridiculously amazing support of Raleighing and Raleigh.  Those of you who are true Raleighers, go to the site and submit an application to write for us.  I'd love to find a whole slew of the best Raleighers around!  Let's keep our vision alive!

Finally, thanks for your patience.  You all rock my world.

Chris

Comments

[Mike Quinlan]

God bless you and your fine efforts. Keep the conspiracy theories at bay. They are probably just that...

[Brett]

You made my night! ; ) So glad to hear the site isn't going to die...

[jbgraves]

I'm glad you're moving forward and look forward to your success!

[Cham]

Sounds like a revolution. Viva la Raleigh.

[Don]

Chris,

I'm glad to hear the site will keep going! Keep up the excellent work!

[Roy Attride]

This is an amazing site for Raleigh and a great resource for all in the area who want to be kept up to date on events, development and happenings. I am VERY releaved and excited to hear it will continue!

[Todd]

Hooray! Congratulations to the new contributors. I can't wait to see what they/you bring to the site.

[Christi]

Thanks for all you do!

Regarding your side note about the N&O and the TBJ ... Hell, half the crap the TBJ writes is wrong anyway. They actually wrote an article about my company being purchased in September (it was) and then continued a long saga on how it was being put back on the market again. The funny thing is our new owner wanted to know who the hell was putting it on the market since he knew nothing about that. Needless to say the TBJ wouldn't even return his calls. They take no responsibility at all for their inaccurate/unconfirmed stories.

[jarobinson1]

Excellent news! I'm so glad you're going to keep the site up. The N&O doesn't compare.

[marty]

I'm so glad to hear this. The site is a great idea and has been incrediblely well run.

It was really nice to see "raleighing" lit up in my Bloglines today.

[Cindy]

You made my day, and it's all about me. :-) Thanks for keeping it up. I'll have to look into this authoring thing...

[Raleighing-fan]

Chris-

I'd afraid to say that your conspiracy theories are on the money. I have been told explicitly by both pubs that they will not repeat info, which they try to use to blackmail small companies like mine into giving them exclusives. Its downright extortion, and I despise the local print media for it.

Raleighing, on the other hand, rules! Please, PLEASE keep up the good work!

[becky]

Dig it! This site is like a friendly watering hole that has worn soft edges on its bar, and where everyone's equal regardless of whatever other hats they wear in different compartments of their lives.

cheers!

[Elizabeth]

Just wanted to say I'm so glad to hear this, I'm a Raleigh native planning a move back in the near future, and my husband and I have both enjoyed keeping up with the city through this blog. I look forward to reading more!

[Snad]

Hoorah! Thanks for all that you do!!!

From a 39 yo Raleigh native who dearly loves this site.

[Lea]

Great news. Thanks, again, for all the work you're putting into this site.

We've been in Raleigh only a little over five years, but lovelovelove it here. It's good to hear Raleighing is back.

- L

[Justin H.]

FWIW, people who use RSS feed readers to keep up with the site are hearing about your request for potential writers for the first time.

[Nick]

Raleighing is back! w00t w00t!

[Mike Quinlan]

Hi,

A reply mostly to "Cindy" -- who I attempted to reach twice thru purported email addy but was rejected. Sorry in advance, Cindy, but this is like a train wreck. I can't help myself...

RE: Conspiracy Angle. I am horrified!! Can this really be true? Big, bad N&O versus 3,000-hit volunteer blog?? Can this really be true?

If so, how low, how ridiculous. And, has nobody ever thought of outting them via WRAL consumer reporter or another source?

Color me naive... I'm speachless, but would love to know more. And sure wouldn't be afraid of calling them on it if it is true.)

Mike Quinlan
mikequinlan@mindspring.com
(Proud to be a 27-year resident of the best damn town in the USA.)

[Bull City Rising]

Chris:

Just wanted to say good luck and good blogging. I run a much younger, more recent Durham blog (Bull City Rising) and have been inspired more than once by your and Dana's great work on Raleighing. You two have done a tremendous job with Raleighing and I hope that with new contributors you'll be able to keep things going. Glad to hear you'll be keeping things going!

All the best, from your smaller but slightly hipper neighbor to the northwest. ;)

Kevin @ BCR

[TarGator]

Welcome to the dark side of the N&O. Many other bloggers have suspected them of dirty tricks: stealing stories without attributing sources being the most common complaint.

[The Raleigh Chronicle]

Our newspaper, the Raleigh Chronicle, an extremely small but locally owned competitor to the News & Observer, would like to say that we are happy to see Raleighing.com continue. We read it all of the time for story ideas. We won't comment here on the N&O or the TBJ, but if a story appears here first, then it certainly doesn't mean The Raleigh Chronicle will ignore it. In fact, under the Creative Common License, Chris has let us use an article or two in our publication and in our sister publication the Raleigh Downtowner as well. We congratulate both Chris and Dana on doing a service to the city of Raleigh and we're glad Raleighing.com is back!

PS: We're looking for writers as well if anyone is interested...