600th Post Celebration

Well, it may not be much of a 'celebration', but this post marks the 600th on NewsOverCoffee since its launch in April of 2006.

There are now 500 posts on the News blog, 75 on the Sports & Activities blog, and 25 on the Book Club. Readers have made over 1300 comments (not including my own) attached to these posts.

About 300 people visit daily during the week and in both December and January over 6000 unique visitors were recorded. When I started this site I estimated the total population who could be online in the Nazareth community to be about 14,000. This figure is an estimate and I recognize that not all of the visitors are now living in the Nazareth area, but that not withstanding, the response has still been remarkable.

A new site was launched this year called Placeblogger.com It is a database of hyper-local sites like NewsOverCoffee, from around the world, but primarily in the United States. What I found when I searched it at the end of January was that there were 48 registered placeblogs in PA, and NewsOverCoffee was one of four in all of Eastern PA, excluding Philadelphia (which has 18 itself).

In short, we are all participating in something unique and special. These sites will undoubtedly spread to other communities as more people learn about them and how to run them. For me, this has turned out to be quite an interesting ride. I've met a lot of great people and concerned citizens. I also like to think I've learned a lot.

Moving forward I'd like to see the site expand. Originally I conceived a place where people would visit to get all the information they needed, not only news, but weather, classifieds, meetings, local sports, youth activities, pretty much everything. These things got stripped out one after the other as it became clear to me that people needed the local news that was to granular for the regional newspapers to cover and required some form of reporting that the weeklies could not provide.

It won't all happen at once, but I'd like to see community groups and organizations become more involved. I'd like to have all of their events listed in a comprehensive community calendar and information from their meetings posted so people can learn what groups we have, what they do, how they can become involved, and what they need.

I'd also like to see more of the student activities and youth sports take advantage of this site. Chorus, band, drama club, there are many student groups and activities, not to mention Scouts and Brownies and other groups that help and serve our children. I'd love to give them recognition for their work on the Activities page. So far I've received very little in this regard and I think it could really expand.

So if you are involved in a community group or have a child in an activity, sport, or performance, don't hesitate to share it with me (send email to editor@newsovercoffee.com). There is no cost and pictures are always welcome.

Thanks to everyone who has read, told a friend, commented, and submitted information...and please keep doing so!