I'm Five Years Old!

Do you recall what it was like to be turning five years old?  You were still very young, full of energy, gaining independence, and building confidence to take on the world!

Well let’s see how that might compare to a blog site turning five years old. That’s right; the Angle Lake Shore Club Blog reaches a new milestone in celebrating a fifth year anniversary of existence this weekend.

Five years ago on December 7th, 2009, the Angle Lake Shore Club Blog was launched with the sole purpose of being the club's primary communication vehicle for sharing timely information among residents who live on or near the shores of Angle Lake in SeaTac, WA. The objective was to create a platform where Shore Club Members could become frequent visitors to the site, actively participate by submitting relevant human interest stories of life around the lake, contribute news and photos to the Blog Team via an established dedicated email address; and by freely posting comments regarding any of the published articles. 

Although the blog hasn’t nearly achieved the level of participation the board was hopeful for, I do have confidence that the blog has become a good source to refer to when members want to catch up on what’s happening in their neighborhood. While the information posted is intentionally limited to the immediate neighborhood, being an internet publication does not limit its exposure.

Recorded Vistor Locations

Our web statistics indicate that the blog has been viewed at one time or another from every content on earth with the exception of Antarctica! Total page views since inception are numbering over 68,500 to date – with the 2011 Angle Lake Fishing Derby post generating the most views at 14,164 (go figure). The blog can also boast having a total of 67 subscribers who receive posts automatically delivered to their inbox when stories are published.

Along the way new pages have been added and have remained – Crime Reports; Annual Events; Photo Albums; and MultiMedia Slide Shows – while other published pages had served their usefulness and eventually were removed from view – Fireworks Preparations; Lost-n-Found; Classifieds; and Forum. The intent is to always keep only what is recognized as beneficial to the community. 

New tools have also been introduced to accompany our blog – Facebook, Twitter, and Nextdoor.com have been implemented as popular alternative forums for which people appear to be more comfortable participating in and it seems that they have more so come to rely on the blog to be a source for receiving information than a platform to contribute to.   

Over the past five years the communication posted through the blog has aspired to be non-political, non-religious, and unbiased but I’m sure at times may have been controversial – but who would know?  Rarely does anyone every leave a comment!  Maybe this time you will?  

Please consider leaving a comment sharing your opinion about this blogs usefulness; suggest where improvements may be made; express how it may have benefited you; or offer any other encouragement to consider carrying on for another five years!

But for now, Happy Fifth Birthday to Us!