Rockville Central May Break This Weekend

Gentle Readers–There’s a spot of maintenance we need to perform on our publishing engine over the weekend (for those who care, we are upgrading to WordPress 2.8.1). I wanted to let you know becuase there might be some, um, downsides.Our web site is highly customized (by me, which is to say by a person with no more hacking skill than a chimpanzee wearing oven mitts) and so the upgrade may break things. It is possible that you may visit this fine web site over the weekend and find it looking very odd. Worst case is this lasts into the week (please, God, let that not happen, please.)When it’s all done, it should be back to normal. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. I am planning to do this on Saturday.Thanks,–Brad RourkeP.S. Cross you fingers for me.

People: BE CIVIL IN YOUR COMMENTS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

It is just a few days since I posted a >reminder about our comment guidelines. In a nutshell they are:

• Only write what you would say to someone’s face
• Be civil; criticize people’s ideas but not the person him or herself
• Hurtful comments are NOT HELPFUL

If anything, since then, the tone of some comments has gotten worse. This is hugely disappointing. I am hopeful that we can lift ourselves up, instead of sink down further.

This is a community space, provided free for all, meant to be helpful to all. Your right to express your opinion does not extend to mocking and berating others.

Honestly, this behavior is beginning to disgust me. There is no excuse for calling someone names. You may as well be writing on a bathroom wall.

So I am giving fair warning: If this continues, I will begin to aggressively filter comments and I will consider shutting down all comments.

A Reminder About Our Comment Guidelines

Gentle Readers,Periodically it is useful for me to step in and remind people about the norms we have here at >Rockville Central when it comes to commenting. It’s been a long time since I did that last.

While we are an online site, and we look a lot like a “blog,” we’re actually something a little different than that. Rockville Central is a civic space that happens to exist online. We’re more like a big, informal civic meeting. So some things that are typical on many blogs we just don’t think have a place here.

Over time, I have distilled it all into a few simple guidelines:

1. Try to only write what you would say to someone’s face — this is a civil space, not a bathroom wall [UDATE: fixed erroneous "not"]
2. If you disagree with someone, write about their ideas — not about them
3. If you are angry, express that — but don’t go overboard with hyperbole
4. We are neighbors, so please think twice before you post as “Anonymous” or “Concerned Voter” — saying who we are promotes accountability for our words
5. My bias is to let most comments stand but comments that cross the line will be deleted — in extreme cases I’ll close comments on a certain post or take other actions
6. Patently offensive comments will be deleted — swiftly and without notice

Think of these guidelines as our comment policy. They are not rigid (except for that last one).

Since we redesigned Rockville Cenrtal, comment activity has picked up dramatically. With that increased activity has come some increased emotion. By and large this is good and just shows that we need places to talk about difficult issues. But sometimes people have been getting pretty close to that line I talk about above.

So I thought it would be a good time to remind people.

The “anonymity” issue is one that I get a lot of questions about. I am trying to strike a balance between ease of use and accountability. So I don’t have a hard and fast rule. In fact, I change policies over time based on what I feel are the needs of the space. Sometimes I clamp down and make people “register.” This has the effect of slowing down commenting because some people find it hard to navigate that system, but it does usually get the tone of things back on track. Most of the time, though, I keep it pretty open.

And of course I recognize that there are legitimate reasons for posting anonymously (in the cases of whistle-blowers or people who would be in danger if their identity were known). I also recognize that some people are just more comfortable staying anonymous, so in general I don’t go around yelling at people just because they don’t want to say who they are — I just try to remind folks periodically that this is a place where you can be public.

Today’s “policies” won’t necessarily work tomorrow. These are guidelines and they can shift over time.

One last thing. Remember this is a volunteer effort and we try our best. We’re not trying to build notoriety or throw bombs — we’re trying to provide a community benefit by opening up this space and keeping it open day-in, day-out.

If you have questions, concerns, comments, or criticisms, please feel free to email me directly.

Or, of course, add to the comments below!

(We have a long history of concern over comments, like most online spaces. Two good articles that give insight into our specific history are here and here.)

Rockville Central Second Most Popular Local Blog In Maryland

We can’t help but toot our own horn just a little bit, because we’re so excited! The authoritative >Maryland Politics Watch has posted a traffic analysis that concludes Rockville Central is the second most-read local blog in Maryland.

In the article, written by Adam Pagnucco, our entry says:

Rockville Central Stats, from Maryland Politics Watch

Brad Rourke and Cindy Cotte Griffiths have created a true online gathering place for the City of Rockville. Their site carries a mix of news, editorials, announcements and pictures that many residents have adopted as an indispensable resource. Local politicians are particularly watchful as many have submitted guest posts and city elections are approaching. Rockville Central has been the second-most visited local blog in the state after Inside Charm City over the last two months.

And it’s accompanied by a very gratifying upward sloping graph!

The traffic is very gratifying. But, more important to us is Adam’s point that Rockville Central is a “gathering place.” That is our purpose. Speaking as a “civic junkie,” I am just over the moon to think that just opening up a civil, informative online space can fill such a need in a community.

I hope others consider starting their own such online spaces, here in Rockville and elsewhere. It all adds up to a more vibrant and healthy community.

Much research shows that communities with a habit of working together to solve problems are more resilient communities, able to weather ups and downs in the economy and other crises.

Rockville Central New Look Set For Friday

Dear Readers:>

Cindy and Brad have been working very, very hard to get all the bells and whistles just right for the redesign of the Rockville Central homepage.

If all goes well, we will be unveiling it tomorrow morning!

So, watch this space. Please make sure you give us feedback on what’s working and what isn’t. There may be some bumps in the road at the outset, but we will try to minimize it!

Thanks in advance for your patience.

Rockville Central Featured In DC Examiner

Just a quick note — we’re so pleased to be featured in the >DC Examiner’s first Montgomery County Blog Roundup, among just four blogs! Here’s what they say:

Rockville Central offers news and opinion focused on Rockville. The blog welcomes contributions from readers and local figures, especially those who wish to express disagreement with the blog’s editors. Rockville City Council members John Britton and Anne Robbins have written recent guest posts expressing their opposing opinions on pay raises for Rockville city employees. Rockville Central is often updated more than once daily, including a Picture of the Day (readers are also invited to submit pictures for POTD consideration).

Sounds right to us.

Thanks everyone, for your loyal readership.

We're Number Three! We're Number Three!

Our loyal >Rockville Central readers know that one of our favorite sources of political information and commentary is the inimitable Maryland Politics Watch. MPW is the most-read political blog in Maryland.

How do we know? Because MPW’s Adam Pagnucco keeps track of the Free State’s “blogosphere,” and issues periodic reports, based on all blogs that make their stats publicly available (as we do). We’re proud to say that, according to Adam’s research, Rockville Central is the third most read local blog in Maryland, after our friend Dan Reed’s Just Up The Pike. This from Adam’s latest:

Local blogs that do not focus on political ideology now account for almost half of all Maryland site visits. Their combined visit count has leaped from 34,649 in December 2008 to 64,240 in April 2009. The leaders in 2009 site visits through April are Inside Charm City (80,984), Just Up the Pike (30,701), Rockville Central (27,697), Tales of Two Cities (19,547) and Oceanshaman (14,396).

Read the full piece here.

Thank you, readers!

Watch For A New Look!

Speaking of being >In A Rut, our friends and readers might have noticed that Rockville Central has long looked . . . well, pretty much the same as it always has.

But, we are nearing our second anniversary (our first post was June 4, 2007) and we’re bored, so we are planning a whole new look! Glory be!

We just wanted to let you know so that: a) you’re not surprised; and b) you are forgiving when we have the inevitable downtime and hiccups.

We’re hoping to do the changeover sometime next week or the one after, in the wee hours one night, so you are likely to wake up to a whole new Rockville Central.

As always, we welcome feedback and comments.

Thanks!

Responses To Our First Reader Survey

Gentle readers,>

As you know, we recently asked you to take out a readers survey. We thought you might be interested to know the results.

We established the survey in order to help us fine tune a few things about Rockville Central. Your input matters a lot, and there is a lot we plan to listen to. 103 people completed the survey, roughly double what I initially expected.

Anyone who is interested can see the full results here.

Here are the main findings:

• Overall, people who responded to the survey give Rockville Central high marks. On a scale of 1-5, we average 4.51, which leads me to think that we’re basically on the right track. Of course, people who don’t like Rockville Central probably did not respond, so this “overall grade” is among the least useful questions! Still . . . it feels good.

• Your favorite features on Rockville Central are, in descending order: general news about Rockville (4.23/5), city election coverage (4.09), recaps of community meetings (4.06), contributor opinions (3.93), and the weekly events listings (3.87). The high rating people gave to City election coverage surprised me a bit. I do get emails from people who think we are covering to much of that boring politics – but it seems they may just be a vocal minority.
• The qualities of Rockville Central that you most value are: that we are upfront about our opinions (4.12/5), that we try to be unbiased (4.06), we cover a wide range of subjects (4.00), and that we are Rockville-only (3.98). Here again was a pleasant surprise that placed a number of emails I get in context. I hear from some people that we our coverage is “slanted” which hurts because we try to be very much the opposite. It is gratifying to see that the vast majority of respondents appreciate our attempts to be down-the-middle and also to be upfront with our own opinions. One other surprise in this question: the relatively low weight people give to the fact that Rockville Central is volunteer (3.24). When we started, I thought that was something that added to the trust that people might put in Rockville Central. In fact, it appears people don’t really give a hoot about that, ranking it next to last (just above “quirky and zany,” which got 3.23 out of 5).
• As you know, we recently changed our email system. I’ve gotten about equal numbers of complaints and “thank yous” for the switch. According to the survey, for most people, our new system with one email per day with links is best, but the plurality is not large (44.3%). Scanning the comments, I can see that people strongly prefer whatever their preference happens to be when it comes to email notification. People also would like to be offered more choices when it come to email receipt. We’re working on that, but it appears that overall the new system is working OK for now. We’re going to keep it as is for a bit more and keep seeing how it goes. (There are a lot of factors that go into this email question, more than you’d imagine. Please trust we are thinking everything through, even if the result is not what you would prefer! I am skeptical of our ability to offer email choice anytime soon, I will be upfront about that.)
• Some people don’t like the POTD (Picture Of The Day). I was aghast to see the POTD ranked near the bottom of people’s favorite features (3.46/5)! Scandal! This was a surprise, because I get a lot of emails and comments from people about how they like the POTD, and we also get a steady stream of POTD submissions. So this is an area where I am going to just willfully and capriciously ignore what everyone says and keep posting a picture every weekday morning, as we have since the beginning of Rockville Central. It just means too much to me, as it is something I look forward to each morning! But now I understand that it is not for everybody!
• Rockville Rocks! When asked about some hypothetical “new ideas,” people expressed a lot of interest in seeing a concert that featured all-Rockville performers. 61.8% said they’d be interested. (In that vein, go see the East Rockville Pumphouse Open Mic on Saturday.) That’s something we will definitely examine putting together. In addition – and this was a bit surprising to me—large numbers of survey respondents expressed interest in hearing from speakers on issues (55.1%), and engaging in small group dialogue on issues (56.2%). This is something we will also definitely look into, and you may begin to see some lectures or forums in the near future.

Overall, there are three chief lessons I take from reading all the responses:

1) The personal voice is important. We don’t need to be wacky and zany, but people appreciate that there is a very clear narrative voice that is not pretending to be omniscient. It adds to the trust people place in us.

2) Stay balanced. One of Rockville Central’s chief qualities in the eyes of readers is that it is always trying to be fair. That people see that is a precious thing and not to be squandered. We must always strive to maintain fairness. Yes we will make mistakes and yes, sometimes people will disagree with us when we express an opinion. But we must be vigilant about our openness and even-handedness.

3) Cover all of Rockville. People love that we cover Rockville only – but they want us to cover all of Rockville. Some comments took us to task for focusing more on “west side” issues and giving “east side” issues less play. That is an absolutely fair criticism and it is one I am always trying to work against. I have varying degrees of success in that department, but please know we are committed to including all of Rockville in all we do. I happen to live on the west side and so that is what I see every day – I know that brings with it a responsibility to look harder elsewhere but sometimes I fall down. We rely on readers like you to both catch us when we are not walking our talk – and also to help us with tips, colums, and co
verage. Please keep us informed about what you know is going on throughout Rockville, so we can pass it on.

I was humbled and moved as I read the survey responses, because it was clear that many, many of you who took the time to respond see Rockville Central as “yours.” That means so much and I will always try to respect that.

Let me just add one last thing.

Since we began, I have seen Rockville Central as a volunteer-only endeavor. However, as I mention above, this is not as highly valued by readers as I thought it was. In fact, some commentors let us know they would like to see ads for local businesses, and would be interested in seeing Rockville Central becoming more self supporting. I am not saying this is definitely the case, but I am beginning to think that may be the next step for us, to “grow up” a bit and let Rockville Central become something that stands more on its own legs.

I am terribly anxious about doing that, because I don’t want to throw away something that is working pretty well as it is. But there seems to be a credibility issue at work here. As Rockville Central has grown, I get the feeling people want to see it become even more of an “institution” that they can depend on.

So that’s something to watch for. If you see us begin to accept advertising or do other things that look “official” – please know that they are in the spirit of building on what we have, and trying to do what is best for our readers and the community.

Thank you.

Please Take Our Readers Survey

Here at >Rockville Central, we are always trying to improve. We want to do the best job we can.

So, we’re asking for your help. Please take our reader survey and give us some feedback!

It’s only sixteen questions and should not take more than ten minutes of your time.

Just click here to start the survey!

Thank you.

POTD: Back To The Future (Part One)

>

This photo is by Rockville Central friend Eric Jensen. There’s a punchline to the title, which you will learn later in the week!

For now, just note that this is the construction site for the new District Court House building.

DON’T FORGET! Starting tomorrow, we are going to a one-email-per-day policy. We will send one email each day between 4 and 5 pm, with the day’s headlines and links to articles. This is to save your inbox. See this article for a fuller explanation.

Who We Are And Our Civic Values

Gentle readers,>

Of late, a number of things have happened that made me realize it might be useful to talk a little bit about what Rockville Central is and what we aspire to be.

I don’t know if it’s the full moon or what, but there have been a number of controversial issues in the air. I’ve gotten a number of “back channel” emails that purport to reveal inner workings of things, and I have by the same token gotten some emails that complain about perceived slights, or point out that the Washington Post does a better job at reporting.

So, here’s the deal.

Rockville Central is not a newspaper, nor an official information source. Rockville Central is a volunteer effort, done in spare time. We emphatically are NOT in competition with any newspaper, such as our friends at the Gazette. (If we were, we wouldn’t link to them so much!) We don’t make any claims to journalistic objectivity nor to completeness. We just try our best to let you know what is going on as best we can.

Given that, we rely on readers to let us know if we get something wrong. Where we make errors of fact, we are happy to update articles so the correct information is in there.

We are not the only source in town, so we can’t include everything. Sometimes I feel like people are disappointed that a particular event or news item did not get covered. We can’t be everywhere.

As we don’t pretend to be reporters, we also don’t pretend that we are objective. Yes we have opinions. We try to be transparent about them and we try not to let them get in the way of letting people know the facts. We try to be diligent about tagging our opinion as “opinion.”

Even more important, we also rely on readers to let us know when they disagree with us. We depend on you posting comments and speaking up! I recently received some emails seeking “retractions” on issues that I thought were really judgment calls. When I suggested to the writers that they post comments or even submit “contributor opinions” for consideration, many declined. The more voices are on Rockville Central, the better. That may mean that we disagree with one another on occasion, sometimes strongly. That’s OK. We all live in the same wonderful town.

We aren’t looking for scoops. Sometimes people send us “inside information.” I usually do nothing, but just keep it in mind to help me understand context. Still, I often worry that the sender is watching and waiting for the information to come out, because they gave us a scoop. But we don’t have the same motivations and aspirations that a newspaper does. We’re trying to be helpful to the community. Sometimes that entails publishing information that some would rather not have out there. But, just as often, it entails being sensitive to what might be hurtful, or what not everyone necessarily needs to hear. Yes, we do get that fine line wrong on occasion — we are human.

We aren’t looking for traffic per se. I recently posted an article about the good traffic statistics we had last year. I may have inadvertently left the impression that we care deeply about that. Nope. When I started Rockville Central, my image was that it would be akin to a small, mimeographed newsletter shared on a neighborhood block. I really did not imagine more than 30 or 40 people might ever read. We value helpfulness and civic-mindedness. The increases in traffic are gratifying, but only insofar as they are indicators that others in the community hold similar aspirations and values.

We don’t attack anybody. Some blogs are devoted to skewering public figures or grinding a particular axe. Rockville Central is not that kind of place. We want this to be the kind of space where we can all talk together. We don’t want anything here that someone would not say to another’s face. (Along those lines, it’s important to note that we have never yet declined to run a Contributor Opinion, but if one were too over the top we would definitely do so.)

Okay, I have gone on long enough. I just thought it important to get some of these ideas out there. As Rockville Central grows, my chief concern is that it maintain the civic qualities with which it started. Sometimes you need to stand up and declare what you stand for, as much for your own guidance as for others’. This felt like one of those times.

Thanks for listening.

Yours,

Brad Rourke
Publisher

Our Email System Is Changing

>

Is Anyone Reading This?

The other day a friend asked how many people read >Rockville Central, and I have to confess I did not know a precise answer. I looked into it, and I thought it might be interesting for readers to know, too.

We started Rockville Central on June 4, 2007. See here for an article I wrote for the National Civic Review on the reasons behind it and lessons learned. (Or here for a recap.)

Our readership was on a steady upward trend throughout 2007, and for 2008 this trend flattened a bit but is still increasing. What turned the corner for us was the 2007 city election.

In other words, 2008 was probably a pretty representative year. So, here are our traffic statistics from last year:

Last year’s page views: 84,456

Last year’s number of unique visitors: 59,452

So, in other words, we had almost 60,000 readers last year. Wow!

Thank you so much to all who helped make 2008 a great year! We’re already off to a great start for 2009 and we will continue to roll out new ideas, so stay tuned.

From us to you: Thank you.

So you know what a "unique visitor" is, it's a session from one particular browser, taking place all within thirty minutes. So if you read today and then tomorrow, that's two "unique visits."

Also, since you may be interested in knowing, the system does not count me or Cindy.]

Rockville Central Featured In National Civic Review

>We’re delighted to report that the National Civic Review, a well-respected journal on public issues published by the National Civic League, has an article about Rockville Central in the latest (Fall 2008) issue.

I was tickled when they asked me to write the article and it was quite gratifying to look back over the many months since we founded Rockville Central over Memorial Day weekend in 2007. During that time, we’ve been constantly amazed and thankful at the community support. That community support was at the forefront of my mind as I wrote.

You can go here to read the article (it’s a pdf).

Here’s a bit from the conclusion:

I learned that, with just a small amount of care, such an enterprise can be successful in a small way. I doubt the ability of something like this to be commercially viable on a large scale. Indeed, insofar as Rockville Central has provided a new space for people, it needs to remain on a human scale; growing too big would kill it.

However, I can honestly say that I hope for the model to proliferate. I’ve pursued Rockville Central specifically with the idea in mind that others could replicate it. Whenever there was a free way to do something, as opposed to an expensive way, I chose the free way.

While it is not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea to be a civic blogger, literally anyone could create something like Rockville Central. There are no special skills required and no training. It does not require access to capital or to fancy foundations. . . .

Rockville Central has been a remarkable journey, one which I hope others might take. It’s not the perfect example of a civic blog, but it has been gratifying and [I hope] has been a positive influence in its own community.

Thank you, Fair City!