The Voice Blog at 17

Today is the 17th anniversary of the Burlingame Voice blog.  Our original paper editions were hand-delivered to front porches a few times per year, but the move on-line in 2003 brought more immediacy and added interactivity--attributes we take for granted today.

The list of Categories (found on the right hand frame) has expanded as a means of tracking the conversations on specific topics and, of course, there is always Google or Duck Duck Go if you want to go way back in time.  That degree of referentiality and the back-linking it enables is a clear differentiation from other on-line resources.  When coupled with our laser focus on Burlingame issues, only crossing the border when the local impact might be felt, and the option of anonymity we allow makes for an informative and fun forum.  At least we hope so.  The rising readership numbers (particularly as the pandemic has increased everyone's screen time) would seem to support that view.

So blog on, we'll be here.  Happy 17th Anniversary.

Comments

[resident]

Thank you.

[Joe]

You're welcome. The other good news is we won't be asked to "cancel" the name of the Voice--or our town, for that matter!

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt — each name in this pantheon of presidents faces possible purging from a San Francisco school, according to a recently released working paper drawn up by the school district’s Names Advisory Committee.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-may-erase-presidents-names-from-schools-15433452.php

[uhap]

Congratulations on your 17th.
And thank you for this site.

[Phinancier]

Before the Lincoln, Washington and Roosevelt schools change their names a Texas legislator has an idea

As outlined in the resolution, a great portion of the history of the Democratic Party is filled with racism and hatred. Since people are demanding we rid ourselves of the entities, symbols, and reminders of the repugnant aspects of our past, then the time has come for Democrats to acknowledge their party's loathsome and bigoted past, and consider changing their party name to something that isn't so blatantly and offensively tied to slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and the Ku Klux Klan.

Is anyone checking into McKinley and Hoover? Franklin is probably safe for now.

[JP]

I think the Socialist Party is available.

[Bruce Dickinson]

Guys, it's not every day that you get someone of the stature of Bruce Dickinson to contribute to a community blog for a town of 30,000 in California.

I will say that what Joe and Russ have created here reflects their love and passion for our great community, the foresight in seeing the benefits of blogs way in advance (better than most multibillion dollar newspaper companies at the time) and a site management and editorial approach that is second to none!

On this latter part, I think the BV strikes the right balance among establishing rules, but allowing wide freedoms of speech and expression and policing with a deft and gentle hand. Bruce Dickinson believes this allows for fun, entertaining, but equally hard-hitting community based insight and analysis of issues of the day. Like Bruce Dickinson, Joe and Russ are smart, successful individuals with a high opportunity cost of time, but what they do they do it for the love of the community and its residents.

If Bruce Dickinson were to run his own blog, I would do it the exact same way...well maybe with a couple of modifications: 1) a better search function 2) A category entitled "Bruce Dickinson" in the margin on the right.

Nicely done guys!

[Joe]

Sir, if we could improve the search function we would do it in a New York minute. The other suggestion we could do in a NY minute, but....well, no, sorry. Thank you for the recognition. Coming from you, it's gratifying.

[Joe]

It's not surprising, but worth noting that NextDoor took down the whole thread I was commenting on last night here:

https://www.burlingamevoice.com/2020/07/bay-area-exodus-how-big-how-long.html

You have to wonder why anyone would bother trying to have a substantive debate there.