iBrattleboro is 21 Years Old

by cgrotke | iBrattleboro | 581 Views

iBrattleboro.com has turned 21. That means the site can now drink in most states.

Brattleboro’s experiment in citizen journalism continues, and from my perspective there has been a bit of an uptick in use of the site over the last year.  Many seemed distracted by social media for a while, but people are returning and we’re seeing a bit more writing again. It’s heartening. Thanks!

A few reminders of iBrattleboro’s history, for those new to the area. 

  • The site was one of the first in the nation to allow ordinary folk like you to be trusted to cover your own news and write about where you live.
  • You can write about anything – a meeting, and organization, and event, a thought, a concern, an animal, your garden, and so on.
  • It has been much imitated, written about in research papers and books, and studied in college classrooms.
  • When we created iBrattleboro, there was no Facebook. No YouTube, Flickr, Yelp, or Gmail. No Twitter. No Firefox, Spotify, or Goodreads. Less than 60% of the U.S. was connected to the internet, and around here, most people used dial-up modems. The iPhone was years away.

You might even say Brattleboro was cutting edge for a moment.  : )

The site only works because people here use it, and for it to work for 21 years really says something about the community.  Get yourself some cake and ice cream and celebrate your citizen media birthday.

…..

ps. bold, italic and

a block quote…

All available when you post stories…

Comments | 7

  • Submitted by SK-B on February 20, 2024 at 11:53 am

    A bit different now from the original ibrattleboro.

    I miss being about to use bold, italics, and blockquotes.

    Nonetheless, I am grateful for the opportunity to reach an audience.

  • Submitted by fidel on February 20, 2024 at 4:20 pm

    Cheers

    Happy birthday, and many thanks for the service.

  • Submitted by spot on February 21, 2024 at 9:09 am

    Keep on keepin' on!

    I’m not a fan of social media in general, but have always loved iBrattleboro and still do. Thank you for hanging on during the slim times. May the renaissance continue! Happy B’day!

  • Submitted by annikee on February 21, 2024 at 4:22 pm

    Happy Birthday!

    Thank you guys. iBrattleboro has been instrumental in informing the town of everything for so long I can’t remember it not being around. Here’s to 21 more!

  • Submitted by hajm on February 22, 2024 at 1:34 pm

    Fast and Loose with established history

    Google “when was facebook” and “when was facebook created” is autocompleted
    you quickly find that TheFacebook preceded iBrattleboro by a few weeks

    • Submitted by cgrotke on February 23, 2024 at 9:36 am

      Really?

      I was going by Wikipedia, sorry:

      “Facebook is a social networking service originally launched as TheFacebook on February 4, 2004, before changing its name to simply Facebook in August 2005”

      We started in Feb. 2003!

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