Cabarrus Cheap Seats

This being the 300th post within this blog - I wanted to do something special.

Last year, I moved this blog from Blogger over to a Wordpress-based blog for several reasons. One of those was the flexibility that allows others to comment more freely and to post their own content.

A Small; but Significant Change

Even though it seems like I take the weekends off. I’m usually working on the “plumbing” of this site. I’m clearing out messages, managing add-ons, running backups, etc.My focus this week was improving how content from people other than me gets greater focus.

I call it the Y’All Concept.

It’s pretty simple - I’m going to incorporate as much input from y’all as opposed to what I write. Probably the most difficult thing that I’ve done for the past two years is write to people who have a greater familiarity with the area, its players, its history, etc. I’ve worked hard to do my homework, inquire of smart people, and try to write engaging content to get a bigger conversation going.

I’ve done a few things to more prominently feature input from y’all. First, I’ve reorganized the sidebar to your right and added a “Top Commentators” section. Also, every post now has a related posts listing AND a listing of posts that other people have viewed (kind of like Amazon’s “Other people who’ve bought X also bought Y”) - a sort of passive view so that you can see what others have been reading.

It’s not me being lazy - it’s just that I - and probably anyone else who visits this blog - is more interested in what y’all have to say than I would choose to blather on about. Which brings me to my second point…

Be Heard

About a month and a half ago, I offered a new feature to allow people to post content to this blog. So far, one person has taken me up on it - and that’s OK.Click on the Be Heard! link at the top of the page to find out more about getting an article on the Cheap Seats. It’s pretty simple - as long as I’m not going to get sued or arrested for posting it - I’ll put most anything anyone from the community would like to get out. Here are some ideas:

• An advertisement for a unique product or service local readers would be interested in
• A review of a local resturant, a movie, or another business
• Your thoughts on an article that was in the local paper
• A rebuttal to something I’d written in the past
• If you’re a blogger or local media outlet - an excerpt to your content with a link to it
• A link to your photo album
• Local events like concerts, church revivals, bake sales, etc.

Seriously, I would get tired of just reading me after, at the very most, a day or two.

Your fellow Cheap Seats readers are so starved for local coverage that they’ve stumbled to this misbegotten corner of the Interweb hoping that someday someone would just once offer them something useful, entertaining, or both - you can make their day by clicking on “Be Heard!” and following the instructions.