Group News Blog: Year One

LOLcats: Elephant “JOY”. Courtesy of Maggie Jochild's Meta Watershed.

This Gig ROCKS

One year ago Group News Blog opened.

There's an expectation at ends of years, birthdays and anniversaries, that we writers will be able to bring something special, over and above our normal stuff.

Yeah... Well, sometimes we choke.

Right this minute one year ago -- it's 11 pm Pacific time as I type right now; this post is due in one hour and one minute -- and one year ago with 61 minutes to go we were choking HUGE.

Hubris was fixing a computer glitch. LM was massaging the title graphic. I was changing words and commas in my first post EVER while going insane as the minutes ticked down with everything not fracking ready.

Whatever. Problems, no problems...
At 12:01 AM I hit post and Group News Blog began.

At 12:01 AM today, this post goes live -- no, I'm not fracking ready (the sad part is, I'm not making a joke) -- and Year Two begins.

Our rankings -- Technorati of 9.5K, The Truth Laid Bear of 6.7K -- and being credentialed to the Democratic National Convention. It's all good (hell, it's fracking great!) but that's not the point. The point is, we pulled it off.

People were going to come check us out. It was a courtesy look. But no one was going to stay if the writing didn't cut it. (We were following Steve Gilliard for Christ's sake.) And there was NO time to get up to speed. We were either up to speed right now dammit or we lost our audience. The gig demanded professionalism and a massive work ethic from Day One.

Which people gave. LM, Hubris, Sara and yes, myself. Six months later we brought on The Littlest Gator and Evan; it's been a roller-coaster year.

We take what we do seriously because we take you seriously.

Not that we don't have fun, mostly. Sometimes. Yeah, okay, from time to time a few of us have a little bit of fun, okay? Alright, there's no fun. We slave, slave away in pits wearing unwashed rags eating gruel, trying to avoid pie fights. Pie? Oh Gods, what I would give for a bite of pie, something fresh to eat... We sacrifice our lives, the small bits of fun, free time, health and well-being we'll ever have, all so you, you there, the man wearing the Obama pin... yes you: we do it all for you. *sniffs*

No. No, none of that's true. Well, maybe it's true for the interns, but I don't really care about them. Oh, wait. There are no interns. They're on my agenda for Year Two. Ah, yes...

Year Two. *grins*

If you think Year One was cool, you haven't seen anything yet. Lots-a-coming.

Our first fundraising drive ever starts today and runs through July 15. There'll be a post, however please: be among the first to donate to support GNB.

Here's the bottom line on Year One for me...

This is the best gig, ever. I love what I'm doing. And you. (Truly.)

I work with amazing people, passionate about their work. Our readers take our writing seriously and hold us to high standards. GNB challenges me professionally; it calls on most of us (myself included) to actively use a lifetime of varied disciplines to take care of our readers and each other.

Thank you, and thank the GNB writers for an amazing first year. Stay tuned...

Year Two is going to ROCK.