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READERS

To try to get a sense of whether it’s finding readers out there in the blogosphere let’s look at some stats:

Since the first posts at the end of March it has had 14,786 “page views”. WordPress — the blogging template this blog uses — doesn’t give a distinct individual users statistic so we’d have to do some guessing:

Here’s May’s numbers: Average daily page views: 249 up from 204 in April.
Home page views: 3,534
Daily average home page visits: 114

Top 10 most read posts
Nanaimo: the Cultural Capital of Canada 297
It’s time for political parties in Nanaimo 276
Picking Candidates for City Council 200
The Role of Local Government 199
Train Station Restoration Underway 157
About 155
Contributors 134
Email re Port Place Mall to Mayor Ruttan 130
New Hotel – Really? 122
Cranky blogger takes Daily News editorial board to task 99

So let’s try to figure out how many people are reading it -

Daily average home page visits: 114. Some people would visit the home page more than once while surfing the site and some people wouldn’t come to the site by the home page Read the rest of this entry »

Break out the bubbly!

(Make mine Spanish Cava) This wee blog at about 6:15 Monday night had its 10,000th page view. If we can figure out who number 10,000 was we’ll put his or her name in for the year end draw for the toaster oven!

Here’s the most read posts:

Port Place Mall Redevelopment

New Hotel – Really?

Cranky Blogger Takes on Daily News Editorial Board

Email Exchange – Frank Murphy and Roger Kemble

City Commissions, Committees, Panels

Downtown BIA Association is looking for City appointed directors

Train Station Restoration Underway

Email to Mayor, Council re Port Place Mall redevelopment

All the News that’s Fit to Confuse

There’s been 86 posts and 276 comments. Thanks for checking in and commenting. The blog is taking on a life of its own and we continue to hope it can make a real contribution to the ongoing discussion of municipal issues in Nanaimo. You can contribute by reading, commenting, emailing (nanaimcityhall@gmail.com) or by submitting photos. You can also post to the blog directly — just get in touch if you’re interested in doing this and we’ll help you set it up. (It just needs some co-ordinating (password) with WordPress the free blogging platform we use.)

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BLOG SUGGESTION BOX

Let us know what city issues you think are most pressing. What areas would you like to see the blog cover? What’s working well in your neighbourhood and what isn’t. Use the “comment” tab  at the foot of this post and let us know what’s on your mind!

What’s happening in your neighbourhood? Email and let us know: nanaimocityhall@gmail.com. You can include pictures. Click the photo at the foot of the page to see the Photo Gallery.

Home

Let us know what city issues you think are most pressing. What areas would you like to see the blog cover? What’s working well in your neighbourhood and what isn’t. Use the “comment” tab  at the foot of this post and let us know what’s on your mind!

What’s happening in your neighbourhood? Email and let us know: nanaimocityhall@gmail.com. Include pictures — you can also join our Flickr group. Click the photo at the foot of the page to see the Flickr gallery.

Mon Petit Chou. F. Murphy photo

THE ORIGIN OF THIS BLOG: COFFEE AT THE VAULT

I’ve long had a Saturday morning routine that takes me out and around the harbourfront walkway, get my weekend newspaper and head to the Vault for a house cap and a piece of apple pie. (I submit, your honour, that Demi’s “house cappuccino” — it’s a double espresso in a small cup for extra flavour intensity — vies for top spot in the “best cup of coffee in Nanaimo” category.) This is where Ron Bolin, Wayne Schulstad and I would meet and attack the pressing civic issues of the day with caffeine fueled brilliance.

Ron and Wayne are very brainy chaps but Ron can’t carry on a hockey conversation to save his life and Wayne’s a golfer. I’m not. Nevertheless…

We hatched the idea of this blog as a forum that could hopefully draw more people into the conversation of issues around our City Hall and allow for broader debate and more detailed research.

A prototype was put together, some posts written by what one of the local newspapers has referred to as the “usual suspects”. The Globe & Mail’s Frances Bula mentioned it on her blog francesbula.com and the Nanaimo Bulletin gave it front page coverage and an editorial. In the next few days the site had over 2,500 “page views”.

Indications are that there is heightened interest in municipal affairs right now. And that’s gotta be a good thing. I’d like to think this blog could play a useful role.

NanaimoCityHall blog differs from most blogs in that it is not the online journal of an individual. You’ll find here posts from the 3 originals and we’re actively seeking more contributors. This is not an edited journal — posts you read here will not be edited (seriously objectionable comments may be edited for civility and relevance). So it’s more like a bulletin board in that respect.

Join the conversation. Comment on posts of interest and consider becoming a contributor. We’ll set you up with a username and password and you can post away… Let’s hear from VIU, local architects, social activists, neighbourhood associations, artists, engineers, environmental activists. Let’s bring some of the decisions being made on our behalf on Wallace Street out into the light of day where we can have a better look at them.

- Frank Murphy

email: nanaimocityhall@gmail.com

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MONDAY APRIL 26, 2010

NANAIMO DAILY NEWS

Blogger Takes Political Coffee Chat On-line

THE ORIGIN OF THIS BLOG: COFFEE AT THE VAULT

I’ve long had a Saturday morning routine that takes me out and around the harbourfront walkway, get my weekend newspaper and head to the Vault for a house cap and a piece of apple pie. (I submit, your honour, that Demi’s “house cappuccino” — it’s a double espresso in a small cup for extra flavour intensity — vies for top spot in the “best cup of coffee in Nanaimo” category.) This is where Ron Bolin, Wayne Schulstad and I would meet and attack the pressing civic issues of the day with caffeine fueled brilliance.

Ron and Wayne are very brainy chaps but Ron can’t carry on a hockey conversation to save his life and Wayne’s a golfer. I’m not. Nevertheless…

We hatched the idea of this blog as a forum that could hopefully draw more people into the conversation of issues around our City Hall and allow for broader debate and more detailed research.

A prototype was put together, some posts written by what one of the local newspapers has referred to as the “usual suspects”. The Globe & Mail’s Frances Bula mentioned it on her blog francesbula.com and the Nanaimo Bulletin gave it front page coverage and an editorial. In the next few days the site had over 2,500 “page views”.

Indications are that there is heightened interest in municipal affairs right now. And that’s gotta be a good thing. I’d like to think this blog could play a useful role.

NanaimoCityHall blog differs from most blogs in that it is not the online journal of an individual. You’ll find here posts from the 3 originals and we’re actively seeking more contributors. This is not an edited journal — posts you read here will not be edited (seriously objectionable comments may be edited for civility and relevance). So it’s more like a bulletin board in that respect.

Join the conversation. Comment on posts of interest and consider becoming a contributor. We’ll set you up with a username and password and you can post away… Let’s hear from VIU, local architects, social activists, neighbourhood associations, artists, engineers, environmental activists. Let’s bring some of the decisions being made on our behalf on Wallace Street out into the light of day where we can have a better look at them.

- Frank Murphy

email: nanaimocityhall@gmail.com

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HOW TO NAVIGATE THIS SITE

THE CONTROL PANEL AT THE FOOT OF THE PAGE Just about everything in the control panel box at the foot of the page is clickable giving you a range of ways to retrieve information. The control panel appears at the foot of every page you visit. Clicking the Nanaimo City Hall Blog tab or the large heading at the top of every page will return you to the home page.

Here’s how to most quickly and easily retrieve the information you’re looking for:

CATEGORIES Posts are indexed by category and more will be added as needed.

CONTRIBUTORS Organizes posts by author.

NEWEST COMMENTS Organized from most recent, links to the relevant post.

NEWEST POSTS Organized from most recent and at the foot of the retrieved post clickable arrows move you to earlier posts and back again.

SEARCH Search the site for anything you’re looking for. Enter a keyword and it will retrieve all relevant posts.

ARCHIVES Posts from most recent are also available by clicking the Archives tab at the top of page.

POSTS BY DATE Click the date and see all the posts entered on that day.

Also in the control panel box:

EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION At the bottom left corner you’ll see the email subscription box. Enter your email and you’ll be automatically notified of new posts on the site. Free and easy. No spam, no use of your email address for any other purpose. Unsubscribe is one-click easy right on the emails you receive. Easy and instant.

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MONDAY APRIL 26, 2010

NANAIMO DAILY NEWS

Blogger Takes Political Coffee Chat On-line

Read it.

Check in often and read the posts and comments. There will be lots of opinion certainly but there will be at least as much emphasis on fact based research.  Personal attacks will be avoided.  If they slip through, they’ll be removed.

Subscribe

At the bottom left corner you’ll see the email subscription box. Enter your email and you’ll be automatically notified of new posts on the site. Free and easy. No spam, no use of your email  address for any other purpose. Unsubscribe is one-click easy right on the emails you receive.  Easy and instant.

Comment

Contribute to the conversation. Agree, disagree, commend, correct, fill in detail. In Nanaimo’s highly partisan and polarized civic environment let’s elevate the level of the discussion and the debate. Blogs require your email so they can avoid spam attacks, but your email is not retained by the website.

Write

Become a contributor. Submit a bio and some background that lets the reader know where you’re coming from. This is an exercise in citizen journalism. Commitments to cover and report on city council, committee, and commission meetings would be welcome. Public hearings and development proposals are other areas that could be covered here.

Contact us:

email: nanaimocityhall@gmail.com

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THE EVOLUTION OF THIS BLOG

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NANAIMO CITY HALL is an on-line “civic plaza” — a place for discussing and debating local issues and politics. Our local newspapers  have done a good job covering City Hall and have over time developed a readership for municipal politics and development issues. But our intent here is to try to take the the discussion up a level.

Contributors will be identified with a bio and a frame of reference that helps us understand where they’re coming from. Comments are welcome and will be moderated and edited for civility and relevance.

At the LINKS & DOCUMENTS tab you’ll find background resources including materials from the 10 Year Official Community Plan Review which resulted in the elimination of the Urban Containment Boundary.

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