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Here is the short story:
The CHS Pledge Drive runs Tuesday 5/5 to Monday 5/11. Please consider supporting CHS today
Make sure to add your e-mail in the pledge wizard so we can contact you about your gift and details of your CHS story assignments Here is the long story: Why should you support a for-profit Web site run by an ex-Microsoft employee with a neighborhood blogging start-up who lives in one of the wealthier ZIP codes in Seattle? CHS is and always will be an advertising supported business. It is not a nonprofit or a public utility. The site is organized and managed to provide community news and information as a business. Some of the articles, pictures and information is provided by contributors for free. Any contributor that wants can become part of the revenue sharing program and be compensated as fairly as possible for their work. So, many of the articles, pictures and much of the information on this site has a cost. To keep the business running, we sell advertisements to local businesses that either want to support the site, want to have their messages presented to a very focused, very local audience, or both. This is how CHS will continue to grow. Today, depending on which data source you look at, more than 15,000 different people a month visit the site -- somewhere north of 1,000 every day.
But sometimes, there is opportunity to zoom ahead. I am happy to announce that a familiar Capitol Hill face is joining the team this month. Former Capitol Hill Times editor Doug Schwartz will begin contributing to CHS in mid-May. I'm happy to have him particpating at any level but I want to jumpstart things and be able to pay Doug and creative people like him to play an even bigger role in the site. We also have brought on an intern because, 1) we can use the help and 2) we hope to pass along some of the knowlege and fun of running a neighborhood news and information site. Given these changes, it is time for yet another CHS experiment. We will continue telling the stories of Capitol Hill no matter if you give or not. But the media landscape is shifting and CHS has an opportunity to leap forward today. With your help, we can make a jump and bridge the period of growth to the level at which CHS is a fully sustainable business that can afford to bring in great people like Doug and adequately compensate them without pledge drives. We don't plan to do this every year -- in fact, it's very likely we'll never ask for something like this again (learned to never say never, however -- once said we'd never, ever ask for money like this but now look at us!). If this kind of pledge drive is required again and again, there are better ways to structure what we're doing and CHS will change. But this drive can help make sure we never get there. In return for your support of the site, there are some gifts available to help repay your pledge. You can review those at the top of the post. The $250+ level gives you the ability to play editor and assign CHS to write about any Capitol Hill topic you want. Our gift pack for the first 10 givers at $100+ is made up of a few nice thank yous from CHS sponsors including Tidbit Bistro and Northwest Film Forum. Anybody who gives $25 or more can designate a date to have their sponsor message shown on the site. Plus, all givers will be invited to a special thank you wine party at Vino Verite later this summer. Please provide your e-mail address in the pledge form when giving so we can contact you about your gift (and only! about your gift). But the bigger trade, of course, comes from the continued dedication for CHS to cover Capitol Hill and build a place for people to share the Hill's news, information and stories. We hope you'll consider giving today. CHS Pledge Drive -- Tuesday 5/5 to Monday 5/11
Oh, and if you'd rather support us the old fashioned way, buy an ad and share your message with THOUSANDS. Thank you! 
You don't have to create an account on CHS to be part of the site. All content is available and anybody can leave comments regarless of registration. But becoming a site member represents a step up in your connection to the site. CHS members can post articles, add items to the CHS Calendar, add business review listings, create free classifieds, buy ads (yes, please!) and probably lots of other stuff we haven't thought of yet. The stuff you create is vitally important to CHS so CHS members are vitally important to CHS. We transitioned this site to the new Neighborlogs service in May 2008. As of this posting, CHS has 593 members. Just over 19,000 people visited the site in April so you members are a select lot. Let's make it 600 to celebrate. If you've been visiting CHS but haven't yet registered an account, do it today. Two passes to a Northwest Film Forum showing and crow buttons to CHS member #600. And, to thank those of you who have already become part of the site, a 2-person pass for the first member comment... If you print it, share it. Happy weekend.
What was it that somebody requested once? Fewer self-important posts about the blog? Oh well. Quick navel gazing post here. If you are interested in some behind the scenes info and want to learn more about the business behind the site, check out this just-published ReJurno case study about CHS. Didn't know our contributors can get paid for their work? Interested in joining the club? Drop me a line. Switching things up and moving production of our weekly CHS Print Edition up a day from here on out. Now you can enjoy our alternative format all weekend long. 100% more enjoyment! If you print it, please share it. Thanks! Extra! Extra! Read all about it. This week's paper version of CHS is perfect for reading on a sunny April Sunday. No irritating screen glare, for one. Print. Enjoy. Share. Still working out a few kinks but this week's automagical CHS paper edition is the best looking yet. Download it, print a copy, shoo a fly away with it and pass it on. About 300 people have downloaded paper editions so far this month. Don't know how many have actually made a hard copy. If you do print it, consider passing it along for somebody else to enjoy.
If you print it, share it. BTW, advertisers, if you'd like to be included in the Print Edition, please select the RSS ad placement in our ad wizard.
Capitol Hill Seattle is advertiser supported. We feel that advertising is the ultimate business model for news and information -- everybody's eyeballs contribute equally. Our advertisers, then, are a huge part of the site's success. Here's our weekly update of what's new and notable from our CHS sponsors:
We believe place is an important part of every story so maps are a big part of the CHS experience. You'll find one on almost every post. And we map all those stories on the CHS Post Map. We've made a big improvement to the Post Map that you should check out -- you can now zoom in and out and move the map around to see what posts we've written about all areas of the Hill. It's the way the map should work and so much better than the old way that didn't filter on the location you selected. It's kind of geeky but it's cool and you should check it out. Here's the most recent stuff around 15th Ave E:
15th Ave's recent posts
We're not done yet. The map still needs a way for you to enter a specific address so you don't have to click around in the map a bunch of times to zoom in. That is coming very soon. We'll also add the ability to bookmark and, an especially geeky, cool upgrade -- RSS feeds based on the selection of the map you choose. Coming soon.
Posts from where Pike/Pine meets... CHS is advertiser supported. We feel that advertising is the ultimate business model for news and information -- everybody's eyeballs contribute equally. Our advertisers, then, are a huge part of the site's success. They are an important group because they have chosen CHS as the best way to reach people who care about Capitol Hill and they are supporting one of the Hill's only dedicated news and information sources. To further their involvement in the site, we are presenting this weekly update of what's new and what's being offered by CHS sponsors. It's our way to thank them for their support and to tell you about offers and events at some of the area's best local businesses.
Newspapers are struggling. There's a lot of talk about what will happen to Seattle as a one or, gasp, no newspaper town. If you really want to do your reading on paper, it can be arranged. Here is CHS newspaper-style. Enjoy.
 Photo by avitania Last night's CHS meet up at Vermillion was a hit! A handful of brave souls brought mix CDs of their favorite Capitol Hill-inspired songs and then exchanged CDs by drawing names out of a cup (or was it a helmet?). There were a few common artists (e.g., Tom Waits, various Ben Gibbard projects) but no common song or artist across all albums. We realized that we're all fairly greedy and decided that at the next exchange we should bring multiple copies of our mix in order to get more in return. In the meantime, we'll have to exchange our playlists instead: Title: Running Up That Hill (prepared by Final Answer) 1. Formed a Band (Art Brut) Interrupting the flow of neighborhood news and information for a few notes about the site. Here's the latest:
We've introduced an early version of our new CHS Classifieds this week. It's off to a slow start but I'm cool with that. Gotta let it grow. And there are already signs of life. Here's a Job Wanted post. Here's an offer for guitar lessons. And here is a lovely little Valentine from Uncle Vinny to his sweetie of the future:
Consider adding a Valentine of your own to help test out the system and, heck, add a little more love to the world. CHS will give $25 cash and a $25 gift card to sponsor Pizza Fusion to one lucky Valentine poster. To qualify, you just need to add a FREE Valentine ad by Friday Feb. 13th midnight CHS time. And keep CHS in mind the next time you lose something on Capitol Hill. We'll build this thing one found kitty at a time. It's time to get your CHS CD Swap playlist together. Hope to see you next Tuesday Feb. 17th starting at 8p at Vermillion Gallery. Need inspiration? I'm expecting a few tunes from the collective Cap Hill playlist.
Oh, and I also have a brand new shipment of crow buttons for the three or four of you who don't already have two. We've got a new Neighborlogs feature we're rolling out very, very slowly -- CHS gets to be the guinea pig. Please welcome CHS Classifieds.
Please give the system a try by posting a special Valentine classified for your honey. We'll give away $25 -- plus a few more gifts I'm working on -- to one lucky neighbor who posts a Valentine before Friday, Feb. 13th Midnight CHS Standard Time. No need to make multiple Valentines unless U got a lot of love to share. We'll select one username randomly on Valentine's Day. Speaking of usernames, you'll have to be CHS registered to create a want ad. Registration is a key part of why we're building classifieds when something like Craigslist is already such a dominating force. We want to see if an alternative built around a community site... Re-announcing this new feature because, well, it finally works. You'll now find a back/forward headline widget at the top of every post. It should show you the next headlines to explore -- left to go back in time, right to go forward. No, your other left. Also, you'll note we do not show a forward headline when you have reached the most recent post because we do not know what the future will bring.
Sorry if you see some wacky stuff as we roll out the new bits. How do you like it? First request is please don't make me regret my decision to bring this up by ganging up on anybody. Let's talk this out and see what we learn. Maybe there is nothing to it. But I am curious. CHS gets comments like this from time to time.
My reaction to date has been, huh, they must not get it. The whole point of the site is its focus on one place and the ins and outs, news and information, events and, um, stuff that matter here. Or is it? Maybe this is simply a call for the site to look at broader issues from time to time. I really liked having this post on the site, for example. But maybe it is something else. So, I posit this for further exploration: What can CHS do to embrace its redheaded stepchildren? Not saying I'll start doing any of them -- though this is a community blog so anybody can post -- but I want to get to the root of... CHS-V focuses on people, issues and events on Capitol Hill, but is presented in a way that is relevant to the wider community. CHS-V is produced, directed, shot and edited by me, David Albright (AKA Cheesecake). I often post CHS-V related updates and sneak peaks on my blog, and I am always open to ideas from the community via my blog, or in the comment section of this post. Thanks for watching!
EPISODE GUIDE Episode 3 - "Hope Art" By the end of 2008, the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle was covered in Obama Art. “Hope Art,” takes a look at this phenomenon from the perspective of the artists, but also digs deeper to ask what this proliferation of Obama art means about the neighborhood. Are they merely displaying their support for their candidate, or are they being too quick to memorialize a president who hasn’t even had the chance to prove himself? Episode 2 - "Snowstorm '08" Some footage I shot of the Seattle Snowstorm, on December 21, 2008. Episode 1 - "The Blog" This is a profile of the Capitol... Any time you get responses like this in your OTHER category, you had better ask yourself some serious neighborhood blogger questions. Like, why was I born?
Here's the thing about Question 5 in CHS Census 2009 -- well, wait. Before I start defending myself and the question, let's look at the results:
Worth it? I'm a stubborn bastard. As much as the purpose of the census -- and this site -- is to learn about Capitol Hill and the people that live here, it is also about doing that study in interesting and new ways. I was dedicated to finding a few places to more tightly integrate the survey into the fabric of the site. So question #5 was born as a connective thread to a post that had run on CHS and left me wondering what would happen if we dug further into the topic. Here's the original article -- Phases of Capitol Hill Residency (CHR). So, my excuse is the experience I am trying to build on CHS -- everything is connected. You can take your assumptions about my values and beliefs and file them away. Have your say about the importance of density or sustainability or unicorns. But keep your mind open to the possiblity that there is more to every situation. Focus on what you want to say, not tearing things apart. I know that at the heart of the matter, some of you wanted this survey to be more and question 5 (and a few others) limited its success. There can be more surveys in the future. You can check out the complete CHS Census 2009 review here and a write-up on the directional question set here.
Out of a thread discussing a likely terrible incident, a CHS neighbor defined the purpose of this site in one perfect comment: This blog is just another way to talk with people around you. The news and the paper just talk at you with their info. The blog gives a chance for real communication and debate. Be thankful people care enough to be respectful. Be thoughtful of other's perspective. Keep it in perspective. It was not all that long ago we had that rash of problems. The Stabbing on 15th. The night club problems and the gay bashing. We must all come together in an effort to look out for each other. Be good neighbors! (in real life & on the web, its more important than ever!) Open minds are why I give a damn about CHS -- though I often forget that open minds might disagree with me. Thanks for the comment, neighbor.
Earlier this month, neighbor bridget made a proposal:
Let's make it happen.
The following link will show this blog formatted for the iPhone: http://capitolhillseattle.phonefeedr.com It uses a font that is more readable on small screens, and the typical right arrow navigation. Keep in mind that it's just reformatting the RSS feed so you may see truncated versions of the stories. It also doesn't show comments, but you can get comments here. I think this will work on other web phones too, but not sure. Anyone want to try it and leave a comment? |
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