Just got done reading
this post from Howard Owens and man, what a great article.
For 4+ years now I've been an 'advocate' for our local community, doing what I can do provide great local news and trying my best to create a community that can 'meet' online and discuss things to make Arnold better. It has succeeded in many ways, and failed in others.
SuccessesI'm not sure where to start. This website has not only introduced me to many people in the community who want to be involved locally. I've made many new friends (and admittedly even a few enemies) because of AT. It's nice to have a place to meet my neighbors that I may have otherwise never met.
I've also seen a direct impact on people who aren't even readers of the site. In particular, the city council now has another 'voice' through the website, one that can work for or against them, depending on how they choose to use it. For the most part, they choose to pretend Arnold Talk doesn't exist, or has no weight in their community, but I know otherwise.
ArnoldTalk has brought fundraisers and people in need closer together. It has helped me find a puppy dog a new home, and it has even helped my son get a ride home on a rainy day.
FailuresNo community is complete without a list of failures, and this one is no exception. I've personally been verbally attacked and cussed at, some council members are too old to see the benefits that AT provides, and some people have used the site to attack others. That's not what I made Arnold Talk, darnit.
Since the site launched, I've funded it myself. Some people seem to think I'm doing it to make money, but if that's the case I wish it'd come true. I've never broke even on the site, and that kinda sucks. While I think the site provides enough information that it'd be nice if I made a profit, that's not the case yet. Last year I did get a very nice donation, and I spent nearly all of it buying signs and shirts to help promote the site.
My wife and I still fight over the site to this day, mostly because she sees it as simply a place where people go to bitch about the latest council meeting. It's true, people abuse the site to complain, sometimes in a not-so-civil manner, and these things spill over into my personal worries, which I express to my wife. I hate that part.
I once had a local businessperson laugh in my face when I asked if they'd like to advertise on the site. Their reason -the bickering. They didn't want to be associated with it.
Oh and lastly, the biggest failure, probably the only one that really bothers me is the lack of participation. I adopted a section of highway thinking the residents of our town could set aside two or so hours of their life once or twice a year to help, and that was probably my biggest fault. No one ever shows up to help, and it shows me that people really don't value all that I've done.
Local is the FutureI was recently offered a very nice sum of money from a local business person who wanted to use the site to promote their business. I didn't see that their direction for AT would be simliar to mine (that being - a nice place for Arnold residents to come and build the community) so I didn't sell. I still wonder if I should have.
Local websites such as this one are the future of the Internet. Recently the biggest area newspaper, the "LEADER" decided to change their status to a subscription-based newspaper only. They never did launch a website, and now they are even further isolating their readers. Patrick Martin himself admits on the front page of last weeks paper that the readership will go down, and then in the same sentence he assures advertisers that numbers will go up. How does that work?
ArnoldTalk will continue to be a local hub of information for our community. I'll continue to scour the Internet for local stories of interest, and I'll continue to promote the site (and therefore fight with my wife). I really hope you take a moment to get involved in something going on in your community. And if you do, please let me know about it so we together can make Arnold a better place.
