AuroraCitizen Continues Growth — Hits 7500 Comments
Posted by auroracitizen on April 26, 2011
On Sept 9, 2010, we celebrated our 300th posting on the Aurora Citizen. At that time we have surpassed 4,700 comments and believed our total visits to be around 250,000.
To commemorate this milestone we published the following post
This is officially our 300th post. We have also surpassed 4,700 comments.
We’ve had in excess of 150,000 visits since moving to the new WordPress platform in October 2009, which together with the almost 100,000 visits on the original site, means we have had almost 250,000 visitors since we started in August 2008.
We’ve been threatened twice by the town lawyers, yet here we are, still offering citizens of this great town the opportunity to provide commentary on what is happening in their community.
Councillor MacEachern asked for more balanced commentary, so we offered both her and Mayor Morris the opportunity to contribute. So far nothing — at least nothing that they have added their name to 🙂
We’ve been blitzed by supporters from both sides of issues and have used our best judgement to encourage dialogue versus diatribe.
We have numerous people regularly writing articles for the blog — some like Richard Johnson publish under their own names, others, desiring anonymity, offer their opinions for debate under the Aurora Citizen banner.
We also have a number of volunteers share the role of moderator duties to ensure that the comments — while somewhat direct and pointed — do not degenerate into diatribe, allegations and foul language.
This forum has become a platform for communicating with fellow Aurora Citizens. It has far surpassed expectations. We are glad to be part of the discussion and look forward to contributing long into the future.
We thought it appropriate to celebrate another milestone.
On April 26 at 3:22 pm, on the post Majority vs. Minority, the Aurora Citizen surpassed 7,500 comments on the website, which reflects a diverse and vocal group of readers. We thank you for your participation.
We have also published 430 posts — received from a variety of sources — and we have welcomed 400,000 visitors since Oct 2009, which together with over 100,000 visitors on the original platform tops out at over 500,000 visitors since we launched in August 2008.
Who would have thought.
Additionally, the former Mayor has sued us, together with a number of named citizens and unnamed commentors.
As a result of this lawsuit, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has intervened on behalf of all participants in online forums to protect their anonymity.
The new Council has declared they do not feel that the AuroraCitizen is a threat to the town of Aurora and has discontinued its support of the lawsuit. Further, the Town is amending their procedures to prevent future politicians from attacking citizens without transparency of their actions.
We thank you all for your unwavering support.
Aurora Citizen 
Daniel said
Congrats on 7,500 comments, Aurora Citizen! I wouldn’t even have known about this blog where it not for the lawsuit kerfuffle (a classic example of censors magnifying their own problems), and I look forward to the next 15,000 in the future.
Daniel said
And by “next 15,000”, I meant 15,000 comments, not 15,000 lawsuits. 🙂
Jytte k Gillies said
It’s great – THANK YOU – and how every town should have this kind of forum.
Augustinius said
You are to be congratulated for having provided to Aurora’s residents the opportunity of expressing themselves on a great host of issues. And they may do so anonymously if they so decide, an option that is generally unavailable in other media.
Some of us have come to know a number of our fellow citizens exclusively through your “pages” – people we might never otherwise meet in the shops or in the parks.
You have been a very positive force in our town, notwithstanding the slings and arrows that have been directed at you from some whose service is gratefully in the past.