Congratulations for a year of providing an incredible community resource.  The CD News info goes well beyond the web sphere as we repeat what we know to neighbors.  As I walked around while unable to go to work during the snow, I certainly told people to go here for news.  And, you all know I commented frequently.  Recent cabin fever?  Yes (I got to Christmas dinner YAY).  Contemplative? Not much, I think and do.  Reactive type? Totally.

I must say that the meeting at Garfield that you publicized dealt with some subtexts in the community in a good way, not to say seeing the SNG actually being in our area of the hood…

As you all are the creators of the software, and I fully support you getting ad revenue to support software development, I thought I’d state some things that would make this a more useful site.  This site is a lot more functional than traditional blogger style blogs, but I expect you are always figuring out ways to improve.  Hopefully, others will chime in and you will choose to implement a few enhancements?

I’m basing ideas off of some features of other blogs, which I also have critiques of, but I am cherry picking what works for me.

www.Washblog.com has a feature for those who have a login of noting, not only the number of comments, but NEW comments.  I think this would be helpful if folks are involved in a discussion.  Washblog is a blog of liberals in the pacific northwest.  It tends to move slowly, so I can keep up.

www.Dailykos.com also has the NEW feature, but as it moves way to fast for me, I appreciate the home page for registered users where I can save articles.  I only go there periodically.  But, it saved my sanity when I was stuck at work watching a debate online, comments like, ‘ If your drinking game includes the term “My Friends”, put your glass down NOW’ mitigated missing the group at Central Cinema.  I also appreciate the weekly wrap up. 

So, having a place on my home page to save stories is helpful.

If any of you thoughtful people have a story to tell, dailykos or washblog are good places.  (end pitch)

Finally, I think it might be worthwhile reaching out to people who have come and gone.  I think some trolls really shut down some people and turned off others.  I have heard a few times, ‘I don’t need to subject myself to racism when I live with it every day.’  I cannot state strongly enough how important this is.  Maybe some emails or some surveys that go out by email.  Honest opinions are always good, yes?

I particularly appreciate the youth and comments from long time community people.  The young people are telling us the truth from their perspective.  When I see ‘All I want is to be safe’ written by a young person, I feel like this blog has just started to do its job.  The response was fantastic.  Maybe, and this is a stretch, maybe there is a way to allow people to connect with emails.  I KNOW social networking is complex.  Maybe, we just figure out who is on Facebook or MySpace.  THere is a Central District group on Facebook….

So congratulations Scott and CDguy (scanner reporting par excel lance – and WHO is the winner between Goodwill and QFC on south Broadway anyway?)  Hope your New Year is Happy.

Best regards,
Kathryn