Life in the blogosphere is not without its milestones. Here at Aspen Post, after little more than a year alive and online we passed a miraculous milestone in August 2007 when we crossed the threshold of 1,000 posts up and available, along with over 2,300 comments therein.
You could look it up, but in the annals of local blogging attention must be paid to this kind of output–with frequent passion, precision, and playfulness as the by-products. Keep in mind that when we threw the switch at Post Time Media Inc. we had no idea whether anyone would blog, or whether anyone would care. With 50 bloggers in the books, now we know they will and they do, and thereby hangs a tail.
When we started, our assumption was that local columnists and writers would take to blogging like nobody’s business–people like Andrew Kole and Alison Berkley, like Jerry Bovino and Paul Anderson and any number of people who opine for a living in Aspen and/or thereabouts.
Not so. Turns out writers with columns or talk shows or pre-existing platforms are far less likely to blog on Aspen Post than a whole new (brave) wave of writers who now have a place to turn that accelerates the dialogue far beyond a letter to the editor. People like Mitch Mulhall and Edward Troy, like reckless G and alpha 6, like B. Jon Traylor and Rochelle Mike McGarry and Kit O’Carra and Will Kesler and Clifford Fewel and Wharf Rat and Big Bald Bobby and DrBill and Michael Brylawski and Jeremy Simon and many, many more. Jamie Lynn Miller’s blogs have been spectacular, and Beth Brandon’s were so good the Aspen Daily News picked her up as a columnist. And Keith Hemstreet has helped to make everything possible.
In this small way, Aspen Post and our other blogs (Snowmass Post, Skiing Post, and Fractional Post) are part of the tsunami of user-generated content best exemplified by the likes of YouTube and Facebook. We have also made the monumental step of showing that businesses can and will blog, with the Aspen Club & Spa, Zele Cafe, the Aspen Music Festival and School, Chef Dava Parr’s Fresh and Wyld, and countless others kicking in with key content. Now that’s entertainment.
If you click on our “About” button on the home page, here’s what you will see:
“Aspen Post is a new way of looking at the world–without editors, without editing, without filters, without anything between those of us who care to talk, and those who care enough to listen before they talk back. Aspen Post is a new soapbox placed smack in the middle of the public square, from whence any and all can be heard. Even in a democracy, a simple idea like that can be revolutionary.”
So the journey of a thousand miles that began with the first blog on Aspen Post continues as we speak. Where this will end up, no one knows, but we do know that we have given voice to our community in a way that is all to the good, with a level of discourse we can all be proud of. Aspen Post belongs to everyone who cares enough to care. That’s huge…and it’s also pretty cool.
Congrats, Michael! No one can accuse you of being deficient in the shameless self-promotion department. And copious amounts of positivity will likely be the necessary ingredient for the ultimate blossoming of the site(s).
I certainly thank you for establishing a public forum available to those of us who think we have something to say. By the way, don’t forget Keith Hemstreet–he is a fantastic writer with great perspective. My life is taking me elsewhere–perhaps temporarily, perhaps permanently; nonetheless, I have enjoyed all that Aspen Post has to offer. And yet, I seek more, if only for the fact that the day encompasses only so many ticks of the clock and the opportunities for true interaction are precious.
While I relish the consistent dialogue with Mitch, Reckless, Alpha6, Ed, and for one glorious week, Jackhammer, I can’t help but think it would be more meaningful to have them over for dinner, frivolity, and a modicum of hi-jinx. I believe your site will really begin to flourish when the numbers of bloggers committed to their submissions begins to rise. Wanted: Brylawskiesque writers willing and able to articulate and defend a position. Too many posters hit and never come back to their material. Nor do they take the time to respond to comments. That is not dialogue; rather, it is the world according to [insert blogger here].
Perhaps in time that will change–it may be a numbers game. The Golden Triangle, as you call it, may take a while to mobilize the 120,000 perspectives within the sound of your voice behind the KNFO curtain. That will be a fine day, indeed, and you can be proud of the fact that your vision helped create it. Until then, I hope you will challenge your community to write not only about what they do know, but what they might not know and not yet understand. High risk, high reward.
As you would say, Best!
Keith Hemstreet is a GREAT writer and we wouldn’t be where we are without him.
Thanks, Michael!
Michael,
this forum is getting a lot of people to come out of the closet with their views, which if they have any passion, are defended and even accepted if there is merit. A most hearty congrats. I will always be Ed from Aspen and the liberalgladiator, but now reside in Basalt, schedules permitting, we should get together and meet again over a beer , or Arnold Palmer, with our respective spouses to be!
Nice try with the unedited, unfiltered ploy. I’ll nibble, but I won’t bite. I’m taking the sweet taste of honey with me, and leaving the horseradish behind.
I just wrote a nice, long reply to this column. I laid my intentions out there, talked about what the online community blogging forum will do for the grassroots America, etc. I admitted my immediate intentions (Michael… we’ll talk tomorrow!)…. and then, bam! poof!
@%#^%@#$% I hit a wrong key and deleted the entire post! Dangit! I’ll be back, and with a force.
Luke! — J