November 16, 2004
(Updated) Welcome Possibly-New Readers, While We're Gone
Look For 'Communique' In WW's Giving Guide
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
Ok, so in theory this Wednesday's edition of Willamette Week includes a "giving guide" or "give guide" or some such animal, which we gather will include a series of individuals and groups in need of people's money.
Thanks to an outside and anonymous person suddenly donating the cost for it, we will have an ad in this guide. Our understanding is that all of the contributions to the various individuals and organizations listed in this guide will be made through some website set up for this purpose -- in part because we've been told there are some competitive aspects to the whole thing (bonuses for most money raised, etc.)
Note: This is entirely separate from our own mechanisms through which people have contributed to the existence of this site. For the duration of the guide's process, we're asking that except for our monthly contributors, any new or old contributors use the guide's procedures instead.
Because of our presence in this guide, we expect to receive some new visitors, so we felt it made sense to put some sort of item for them in place. Since we are about to leave for the airport for a week-long trip back east, we're putting it up tonight rather than some moment closer to the release of Willamette Week this Wednesday.
Any new visitors coming in will notice that we've been somewhat silent here recently. Go back a few items and you'll see the various other events which have been occupying our time lately.
Overall, the reason for mysterious outside forces conspiring to have us listed in the guide is because there remains a fairly statistically high chance that at the end of the year this site will cease to be maintained with new content, since the entire experiment here is based upon doing "amateur journalism and hobbyist reporting" as a full-time thing -- which is mostly untenable from a financial standpoint.
When the guide comes out, we'd appreciate it if our regular readers who have websites of their own would point their own readers to it, and pimp us out a little. In addition, because this site is a comparatively unique experiment in weblogs and journalism, we're going to try to get some of our contacts in the "new media" world to talk up us and our participation in the guide as well -- thereby giving us, possibly, an entirely other world of people who might be willing to contribute.
In the meantime, any new readers as a result of our participation in the guide should take some time to explore the the nearly two years of this site's existence via the archives, which are divided both by month and by category.
As for our current readers, we ask another favor: Use the comments to this post as an opportunity to explain to any newly-arrived readers just what value you feel this site brings to the Portland area. Those sorts of opinions from those who already read this site likely will help inspire those new readers to come on board.
Okay. We leave for the airport in an hour. We'll be back late Tuesday next week, and will make sure to check in now and again while we're away.
Update
We need to add something here, based upon what the online version of the give guide says, even though we have no idea whether or not the print edition does the same thing.
First of all, we thought we had straightened out their confusion as to whether they were including something to be called "One True b!X" or something called "Portland Communique". Online at least, it appears they went back to their original confusion. Secondly, they were supposed to include some sort of disclaimer explaining that Portland Communique is not a non-profit, and so donations to it are different for tax purposes than donations to the other listed individuals and groups that are non-profits. Online, at least, they do not appear to have published that disclaimer, at least not that we've found so far.
We have no idea if these same errors appear in the print edition, because we are 3,000 miles away at the moment. But at any rate, we've established the proper information here, which is all we can really do.
Update
We're back and trying to get everything together to start in on coverage here. In the meantime, please keep working your networks -- both local here in Portland and anyone you know out in the world who champions weblogs-as-journalism -- to direct people to contributing to us via the WW Give Guide.
Comments (1)
Worldwide Pablo on 16 Nov 2004
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