EckerNet.Com

Between being gone on a hunting trip, and the RNC starting this week, it completely slipped my mind that one year ago this last Monday, True North went online. As cliche as it sounds, it seems like only yesterday. In fact, I specifically remember what I was doing when we went online. But getting there was quite a bit of work.

I remember when the idea was pitched to me. It was over a few beers at another local blogger’s house. Chief of Freedom Dogs and Andy of Residual Forces were both there, going over the idea with me. Consolidating the best of Minnesota’s bloggers all in one place. They did me the honor of insisting that included me and wondering if I would help form the site. Of course, I appreciated their lie, and while they may continue to insist otherwise I knew the real reason.

Oddly enough, even in the intertubes-savvy community of bloggers, there are relatively few computer nerds. Being one, I often get pitches like this. And while I liked the idea, I was pretty skeptical. Projects like this take more than a good idea. Once the novelty wears off, it’s just a lot of hard work and the enthusiasm dies off eventually. But I figured, if anyone could pull it off it was this bunch.

There was Mitch Berg, whose colorful commentary and quick mind is easy to admire. Chief, who appears completely incapable of moderating his energy level. Andy, who spends entirely too much time thinking about politics. Lady Logician, who fits her nickname to a tee. Lassie, whose an old hand at political advocacy and organizing motley crews like ours. Matt Abe, who I had never worked with but seemed a solid guy. And Dr. Jonz, who I knew quite well, mostly because he had been trying to get me to marry his daughter for the past year or so.

The next few months were filled with lots of work. Dr. Jonz already had a big jumpstart on the design of the website, and Chief was perpetually adding new colorful graphics everywhere. However, between Dr. Jonz, Matt Abe, and myself, we spent untold numbers of late hours trying to debug Joomla and get the site to behave how we wanted it to.

Then came the launch on Labor Day. Mitch was to pimp our new site on his radio program, and several of our crew were to be there to help him do that. Myself and Dr Jonz were to babysit the website and make sure it stayed up during our launch. I remember the rather comical arrangement I had. I was finishing up laying brick for my patio that day. So I was standing in sand laying brick, while also dragging a laptop around with me so I could keep an eye on the website, and listening to the radio as they pimped what I was really starting to hope would work.

And so it has. It’s surpassed my expectations. Sure it’s had it’s growing pains. Teaching bloggers to post their own material via the Joomla interface seems to be a never ending process. Then there is the continual expansion of the website as we add more and more to it. It’s been a constant evolutionary process and I expect it always will be.

It’s been fun. It’s been interesting. It’s even been frustrating at times. But it’s also been a way to get to know some great people even better. And it’s been a good time. Here’s to another great year.