On this day last year, April 11th, 2011, Home in Henderson re-opened to the public after a brief suspension while the previous owner arranged the transfer of passage to myself. If you want to go back and re-read some of our history, or if you are relatively new here and would like to check out the transition, check this link for our first few posts around that time.
homeinhenderson.com/2011/04/page/7/
At the bottom of the list you can click on Newer Posts to see more.
Three posts of interest you may want to check are:
The previous owner (Jason) farewell letter
We did a lot of work during the downtime to revamp the website, introducing a new registration, custom verified account system, and like and dislike comment features. I’m fairly proud to say that we really haven’t had to change that much since our launch in terms of functionality. The website was completely down for over about a week and a half during the transition, and we got a lot of complaints about that, but I needed to ensure that the systems we wanted working were doing so.
So, fast forward 1 year. And here starts our Anniversary Contest.
I need your feedback on our site, so our contest rules this time are: Comment on THIS article. All who make a comment on THIS article only will be entered to win, entrances start as soon as you see this article posted, and will end Friday, April 13th at 10:00am.
We will have 6 winners this contest.
What we’re giving away: 3 different $20.00 gift certificates to local restaurants. George’s, Pino’s, and one more… Ok so I don’t have the third one yet, but I hope to get one from Wimpys. If not I’ll get another. Each of the three winners can pick which one they’d like, so claim your favorite location before the others!
3 different PC video games. Dataforge has a stock of about 20 video games currently, each of the three winners can choose whichever game they like out of our stock. Each game is valued at $10.00
What are you going to comment about? We’re looking for feedback on Home in Henderson. Write what you want, but here’s some examples of things I’d like to hear:
How have we been doing? Although some were skeptical at first, what do you think of the changes we made (requiring accounts for instance).
What do you think we should be doing?
What, if anything, should the ‘leaders’ be doing regarding our site? (Ignoring it, complaining about it, actively engaging the community here?) And how would they do so?
What content would you like to see here that you aren’t currently seeing here?
How can we get more people to submit articles?
How can we get more people to make comments?
How do we compare to the ‘competition’?
What have you heard on the streets about our website?
Please write anything you think would be helpful, again I’ve only given examples above. Contest entrees will not be judged based on the comment content, just that you made a comment. Use this chance to complain about the site as well, what don’t you like?
And now it’s my turn to say something to all of you. Thank You. You may think that this is a thankless job because you don’t see that in the comments, but you have no idea how many people come to me and thank me for what we do here. I’ve run community sites for a long time, and just having the thanks given to me and seeing people use the service that we’ve created is all I’m really after.
Now, get to entering!
Home in Henderson has come a long way in the past year!!! One of the best changes in my opinion was clearing out the folks that were commenting on here just to try to flare up racial tensions that seems to be abundant in our community. This site i believe was started to have civil and open exchanges of ideas and suggestions from the folks in our community not to be another forum for the small percent of folks in our community that are always just trying to stir the pot.
I would like to see more articles on crime in our community because it is important to know what is going on in our neighborhoods and other news sources we have seem to not always be accurate in the reporting of crimes.
Phil, keep up the fantastic job. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
HiH is a much better place than it was before Phil and his staff took over the site. I agree Emcone, the original site was set up to do the same thing and was run as well or better than any of us could have done but it was lacking the necessary filters that are now in place. There seems to be a balanced presentation regarding our local news.
It is obvious that there needs to be more input on the site from our local leadership. They need to take this place more seriously as do the we, the participants. This is a place that can spur change if we just learn how to harness the power and direct our thoughts in the right way. A blog is a sign of the times and it jars criticism at a much faster pace than any other public medium. Perhaps that is why come local leaders are somewhat gun shy?
As for how this compares to the competition…..HiH is unique and certainly has a place in our local news arena. It does not need to change but it does need more participation from those who lead us, the citizens.
Congrats Phil on keeping the site going. I know alot has been cleaned up on the site; seems like all the riff-raff speading gossip went away. I’d liked to see more about the crime cases around the city/county. The local law enforcement do a wonderful job of catching the criminals but the courts don’t do their job.
I would love to see this site get information and dialogue from local leaders. But I understand why they might hesitate. People who posted before were relentlessly ridiculed and called some pretty rude names. And of course, there was that lawsuit.
I like the value of having informed discusions here, but more often than not, people get too personal, and their very STRONG opinions get in the way of facts.
It would be great if we had more folks with the time to cover meetings of various community groups, meetings, etc. and report here.
man it’s been a year? … time flies
on the subject of “How can we get more people to submit articles?”
I personally would submit more if they would get published to the site quicker. ….Maybe a moderator group to approve submissions is the thing to look at?
and I’d change the login section to be ssl’ed … not a fan of passwords going in the clear :)
I love HiH! The newspaper website is worthless unless you want to pay. You give information and news, as well as crime reports which I think are helpful, useful and important for our community. Thanks for all for all who submit articles, those who manage the site, and for continuing to keep the community up to date.
I think HiH is a great asset to our community. Phil is a great guy to meet and he does a job no one else will. When I spoke with Phil the other day I explained that I receive my community news from HiH and no where else. I read it more than once through the day. Breaking news briefs are a great idea to keep current. I know it is more work but it keeps you abreast of things. I just wish that the community leaders would give it a chance. I’m sorry if it seems negative sometimes but if negative is the truth then it is the truth. Don’t put a spin on things just to make it sound right. That’s main stream media at it’s best. Not all is bad with Henderson but neither is all good. There are some great things good about our town. Just seems that all the major stats are kept on the bad things. Emphasis should be put just as much on the good as the bad. Maybe, just maybe we can begin to improve the bad. Keep up the good work Phil. I don’t always post but I do read daily. I have heard both sides of the story about this site. What’s amazing is who it is coming from. People who really like it are the common folk and most negative talk is from our leaders. I associate with both. HiH is a very important part of my life in this here community!
First off Happy Anniversary!!
What I love about this site is not only do I hear about local news but you also tell us about local events going on. Even the ones in surrounding counties. For that I’m very greatful!!
Some of my thoughts to comments so far:
Numerous people have said they want to see more crime reports. No one has said they want to see less crime reports. Mudball mentioned a disparity in the ‘common folk’ and our ‘leaders’ on perception of the site. Seems the common folk want to see the crime reports and the leaders would rather see less. We currently have way less crime reports than the local newspaper. But the leaders don’t complain about the local paper. Is it because the paper will filter it’s comments and we will not? For me, the biggest story of the year is the revelation the paper removes unfavorable comments from their online articles.
So how, if possible, do we show more crime reports while still addressing the comments that the site is negative?
As much as people talk about how much I’ve cleaned up the site, it’s all about the procedure we have in place that prevents the riff raff as One Voice said. Maybe this will surprise you, but I have to my remembrance not once removed a comment on this website because of its content. I have removed some that were just plain spam, and some where people made duplicate comments accidentally. But I really think it says a lot about all of you that although there are disagreements in opinion, there’s also respect in the comments between everyone.
SS, I post submitted articles just about always the next day. If it’s something very urgent I get it up just as soon as I can. Otherwise, most user submissions get posted the the following day unless it’s a weekend or something. The main issue is that it takes time for me to format the article properly for inclusion to the site. Some people sent very broken sentences of information, I have to rewrite that into a readable paragraph. Some people just send a link and that’s it. So I have to write about what that is and choose text to quote in the article. I also have to ensure the original source is properly attributed. I want to be sure the articles presented here are of a consistent quality and style and not a hodge podge of whatever is submitted to us. The SSL issue, I understand what you’re saying, but it’s very rare for a blog or news site, or many sites requiring a login to have SSL enabled. That’s something usually reserved for financial information, like a bank or shopping site for example. This is something that we’ll consider during our next site redesign, but it will be low priority for right now.
That said, I would also like an easier and more obvious way for people to submit articles. Although I think simply emailing them to us (submit@homeinhenderson.com) is just as easy as any, there are other methods I have in mind as well, again something to look at during the next redesign.
Site redesign – I had seriously considered doing a complete redesign of this website and launch it for our 1st anniversary, but we’ve been busy with actual paying website customers making websites so we haven’t had the resources to allocate to it. But, sneak peak – yes I’ve (as always) got lots of ideas on how to revamp this place.
Breaking news gets posted as soon as I can do so, but also we are dependent for us to be sent the breaking news, which is rare that we get that. So put on some pressure to convince the different agencies to include us in their breaking news notifications.
AngelClay, Thank you for the note about surrounding counties. I do not go out of my way to find things in surrounding counties, but if we receive something in our submissions then I’ll post it. Should we try to be more active about things going on in surrounding counties? We are Home in Henderson, but there are many people that read this site that are not actually in Henderson. We’ve even received complaints from a surrounding website that we were infringing on their turf by posting the few articles we have posted about our neighbor city.
All, if you see a comment already posted about something you were going to say, please also say it as well. The more people that comment on something in particular will help us prioritize addressing that issue. So far it seems to get more crime information should be the top priority.
Thank you all for the comments so far. Our contest runs until Friday at 10am so there’s plenty of time to enter the contest!
This site is fun and an asset to Henderson. As said previously all is not bad in Henderson. We just need to take an honest look at what is bad and work together to improve.Thanks Phil for your good work
Happy birthday HiH
I do miss many of the riff-raff and their noise on HiH. I think Ira Gershwin is here except using a new handle. But so many are missing.
Speaking of crime where is Shanece Kearney’s mug shot? Any news on why Phil Lakernick was abruptly removed from his job?
Who IS Shanece Kearney? Yes, has anyone heard any more about LaKernick? The shadow knows.
Shanece Kearney Arrested in New Jersey. It’s on HiH yesterday not the newspaper.
If the shadow knows about Lakernick he is not talking out load. Someone is keeping a tight lid on that matter. All secrets eventually are leaked.
I read the EDC has chosen the leading edge as a slogan. The leading edge is a great slogan that fits our area very well. We are the leading edge in many areas: teen pregnancy, failure to graduate high school, teen STDs rates, criminal activity, chronic long term unemployment and percent of population living in government subsidized housing. Some might say we are certainly on the leading edge of decline. If that is viewed as a negative then those who promote and profit from our principle business, Section 8 housing, should be very proud indeed.
Happy birthday HiH, belatedly.
Seems like HiH in this format has been around much longer. I agree with earlier posters. I miss many of the posters from ‘the day’. Some were crude, insightful, ill informed, and humorous yet offering topics and issues that are not far below the surface in our fair community. I also agree that the elected officials and community leaders should post their thoughts, ideas, hopes, and aspiration on HiH. As one county commissioner is fond of says government needs to be more transparent; government is people and it is people who are posting to HiH.
Mudball, I encourage you to go back to Mr. Hart and have your pseudonym marked as verified; creating the first verified pseudonym. I have heard elected officials and community leaders say anyone unwilling to use their name in a posting is unworthy of public discourse. Our own American history is replete with prominent men and women who used pseudonyms effectively engaged in public discourse. In our modern Us vs Them political, social, and economic worlds any divergence from the strict dogma of the group is forbidden or strongly discouraged. Pseudonyms help mask one’s own variances to group thinking.
Happy Birthday to HiH and a thank you to Phil for making this all happen.
By a yet highly scientific and tiring method, by writing down the names of all the above entrances on equally small pieces of paper, then writing targets of Gift Card 1, 2, 3 and Game 1, 2 and 3 on equally sized larger pieces of paper, randomly arranging each target on the floor face up, gathering all of the entrances and throwing them above the targets to watch them spiral down until one or more lands on a target. If the target has only one land on it, then that entrance was the winner of that item and the target is removed. If the target has more than one land on it then those entrances get a run off by throwing those names up in the air and see which one lands face up first. The winner of that run off got the target prize and the target is removed. And if a target has no entrances land on it then it stays. At the end of each round, I pick up the entrances that are remaining (that did not win anything) and they go another round above until all of the targetst are assigned only one entrant. This process took about 15 rounds.
Restaurant Gift Card Winners:
Anonymous, mudball, Mr. Mojo Risin
PC Game Winners:
AngelClay, prudence and SS
Restaurant winners, we have up for your selection 3 $20.00 gift cards, that consist of 1 of George’s, Pino’s and Wimpy’s. All are great local restaurants. When someone comes to claim the prize, you can choose which ever one you’d like to have. So come early so you can get yours of choice.
Game winners, we have about 20 PC video games in stock at Dataforge, including Necrovision, The Movies, Maelstrom, Kane & Lynch, Legendary, Atlantis, CSI, Blood Bowl, Rise of the Argonauts, Raven Squad, East India Company, Roogoo, Neopets, RF Online, Trine, Operation Mania, Stronghold Legends, Tomb Raider, Guild Wars EOTN Expansion, Lord Of The Rings Online, and SimCity Society.
Claim your prize and pick whichever game you’d like to have.
I’ll be sending each of you emails with instructions on how you can claim prizes. Give me some time to type them all up
Thank you everyone for the valuable feedback, it sounds like more crime reports is the #1 thing people want to read here so we’re going to look at our options on that asap.
Thank you for the winning. Anonymous will not be picking up the winning ticket. If you can re-draw a winner.
Understood Anonymous, will redraw your spot, thank you!
Ok, after about 10 more rounds of the above method, i finally got one to land on target. Congratulations to teachertalk!
The Georges gift card has already been picked up, leaving Wimpys and Pinos.
It was nice to be chosen for the video–. Please redraw –let’s give someone who hasn’t won an opportunity to share.
While I am on here–let me say that it is no surprise to me that those who rent and make a profit haven’t got the point that rentals in such a high percentage of the housing in Henderson make prospective companies wince.
Pride in home OWNERSHIP is high on the list for companies.
prudence, how nice of you to share! At this rate, everyone will be a winner aha!
So, redraw has commenced, and the winner for a PC video game is: mingo
Mingo, will be emailing you instructions shortly!
Thanks once again Phil!
Thank you, Phil and HiH!