From the category archives:

Site Announcements

Introducing Whisper Feature

by Joe Vandal October 22, 2006

We have launched a new feature on IdahoFallz.com called “Whisper”.
This feature enables registered site users to leave comments for specific other registered site users, and prevents the general population from reading those comments. Hence, one user may “whisper” to another user without anyone else reading it.

Users may whisper to each other by leaving a comment [...]

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Celebrating One Year Online in Idaho Falls

by Joe Vandal October 18, 2006

It was one year ago today that I made the first post on the first Idaho Falls blog, writing simply “It is dawn in IdahoFallz. Let’s see what the new day brings.” I had only a vague idea then of the direction I wanted to take for the site, and certainly had no idea if [...]

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Announcing the 2006 Voter/Candidate Discussion Forums

by Joe Vandal October 3, 2006

IdahoFallz.com successfully hosted mayoral voter/candidate discussion forums last year. Since then our discussion model has proven popular on a variety of local issues, and many more locals visit to engage in those discussions.
IdahoFallz.com is hosting our 2006 Voter/Candidate Discussion Forums, and the races under discussion have expanded to include statewide offices that are of interest [...]

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October 1, 2006 State of the City Blog

by Joe Vandal October 1, 2006

IdahoFallz.com publishes monthly updated visitor counts and highlights some of the best-written stories in the past month.
We do this in the interest of conducting open and honest business, and to update our stakeholders. IdahoFallz.com stakeholders include Idaho Falls residents, anyone concerned with positive improvements the Idaho Falls area, and businesses seeking to target the Idaho [...]

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How to Write Articles: Advanced Information

by Joe Vandal September 25, 2006

This online community is designed to be a reflection of our Idaho Falls community. We host lots of discussion activity via the chatbox and comment responses to articles. This series will help more people make the transition from reacting to published stories to writing stories themselves (which then generate comment responses).
The more people who write [...]

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How to Write Articles: Intermediate Information

by Joe Vandal September 8, 2006

This online community is designed to be a reflection of our Idaho Falls community. We get lots of discussion activity via the chatbox and comment responses to articles. This series will help more people make the transition from reacting to published stories to writing stories themselves.
The more people who write about local topics, the [...]

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September 1, 2006 State of the City Blog

by Joe Vandal September 1, 2006

IdahoFallz.com publishes monthly updated visitor counts and highlights some of the best-written stories in the past month.
We do this in the interest of conducting open and honest business, and to update our stakeholders. IdahoFallz.com stakeholders include Idaho Falls residents, anyone concerned with positive improvements the Idaho Falls area, and businesses seeking to target the [...]

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Rules for the Chatbox

by Skitterkat September 1, 2006

Due to recent events it seems necessary to educate or remind people of what is and is not acceptable behavior for the chatbox. Keep in mind that there are members who have the ability to block you from posting if you decide to break “the rules”.
This is taken directly from the link IN OUR CHATBOX [...]

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How to Write Articles: Beginner Information

by Joe Vandal August 30, 2006

This online community is designed to be a reflection of our Idaho Falls community. We get lots of discussion activity via the chatbox and comment responses to articles. This series will help more people make the transition from reacting to published stories to writing stories themselves.
The more people who write about local topics, the [...]

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You can edit your comments now

by Joe Vandal August 24, 2006

You kvetched and I heard. Comments are now editable by users for five minutes after you submit them.
After you submit your comment, you’ll notice a red bar and a countdown timer by your comment, indicating the number of seconds remaining in your ‘edit window’. This gives you time to quickly review your grammar, spelling, [...]

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Follow-up thoughts from KIDK interview

by Joe Vandal August 10, 2006

I appreciated KIDK and Teresa Priolo respecting my privacy concerns and still going ahead with reporting on this website.
I want to follow up with a few points that were not aired. I do not mean to criticize Teresa or KIDK in the least. I understand they have to boil down our hour-long conversation to [...]

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Attack of the Debates!

by Joe Vandal August 6, 2006

The roller coaster is about to start again. Stick your hands and feet out where they’ll catch on something, please.
I created the religion discussion article a few months ago to channel that topic into an area that I wouldn’t have to read about it, because I’m not passionate about it either way. I was getting [...]

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Fork in the IdahoFallz.com road

by Joe Vandal August 6, 2006

To quote Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
One prominent question asked about IdahoFallz.com is our future direction. What do we want it to become? What role does it play [...]

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August 1 2006 State of the Blog

by Joe Vandal August 1, 2006

We publish a short update on the first of each month regarding IdahoFallz.com visits, updates, and highlighting some of the best-written stories in the past month. We do this in the interest of conducting open and honest business, and to update our stakeholders. We consider IdahoFallz.com stakeholders to be not just business advertisers, but Idaho [...]

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Steering the ship slightly

by Joe Vandal July 29, 2006

Anyone remember that episode of Frasier where him and Niles open a piano bar and have grandiose visions for what their experience will be, but then it turns out to be a gay bar?
I would be pretty bummed too if IdahoFallz.com became a gay-centric website. Nothing against gays, just not my thing. I’d also [...]

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Free Business Directory Listings

by Joe Vandal July 28, 2006

We are publishing a free local business directory as a free service to the Idaho Falls business community.
We hate most “business directories” because it’s only a list of who paid. We want IdahoFallz.com to become the absolute best city-based business directory, with more information than even the phone book has.
IdahoFallz.com users will know [...]

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4th of July Contest Winner

by Joe Vandal July 13, 2006

We picked a winner in our first-ever contest, last week’s 4th of July 2006 Contest that asked for five freedoms guaranteed in our First Amendment.
While the response was disappointing (only 29 entries), the winner was not disappointed! In the interest of proving it was all kept ‘top shelf’, I’ll describe the procedure to pick our [...]

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Mass Spammer in Idaho Falls

by Joe Vandal July 5, 2006

Yesterday we ran an unsuccessful promotion, and today it appears a local spammer has targeted IdahoFallz.com as a result.
One of our avid readers wanted to help us spread the word of this locally-focused website to the Idaho Falls area, so they generously donated a new Sony MP3 player. We designed a simple giveaway contest involving [...]

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4th of July Contest

by Joe Vandal July 4, 2006

UPDATE: Winner selected, view details here.
UPDATE: Contest is closed.
Happy Fourth of July, Idaho Falls. Either you wandered onto IdahoFallz.com naturally or you’re here as a result of our flier handouts at the parade. Either way, we welcome you to explore the site. You can see it’s all about Idaho Falls, from the pictures to [...]

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July 1 2006 State of the Blog

by Joe Vandal July 1, 2006

We will begin publishing a short update on the first of each month regarding IdahoFallz.com visits, updates, and highlighting some of the best-written stories in the past month. We do this in the interest of conducting open and honest business, and to update our stakeholders. We consider IdahoFallz.com stakeholders to be not just business advertisers, [...]

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Revealing Web 2.0 Strategy

by Joe Vandal June 27, 2006

Three common questions I get asked about IdahoFallz.com is if I work for the city/mass media, where I came up with the idea, and if I’m making any money on it.

My answers are no, several things converged in my mind, and I’m not overly concerned with that yet. I am concerned with creating a [...]

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IdahoFallz.com Moving Between Hosts

by zeth 1337 June 7, 2006

We are moving between hosts over the next few days. We are starting to get many visitors, and wish we did not have to do this now. However, better to get this chore over with sooner before even more visitors start arriving.
IdahoFallz.com is not changing, but the company our files are stored at is. Our [...]

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200 Posts and Counting

by Joe Vandal May 30, 2006

This is IdahoFallz.com’s 200th post. We’ve been publishing for seven months now since September 2005. That equals about 28 posts per month, though the first few months were more sporadic. I think I missed mentioning the 100th post milestone, but I won’t bring it up again until the 500th post. How long will we go? [...]

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Why IdahoFallz.com was created, part ii

by Joe Vandal April 30, 2006

IdahoFallz.com was also partly inspired by a string of unreported car burglaries around Ammon and the Grand Teton Mall shopping areas.
Some family members dined at a restaurant on a Friday evening, with their car parked right up to 17th street and under a streetlight. When they returned, their van’s passenger-side window had been smashed [...]

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Why IdahoFallz.com was created, part i

by Joe Vandal April 16, 2006

IdahoFallz.com was partly inspired by the infamous six-day report by the Post Register, Scout’s Honor
Oh man, I just had to bring it up, didn’t I?
Child molester Brad Stowell’s horrible story was one that absolutely needed to be told in the almost way the Post Register did. The Post Register did finally admit they had [...]

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