It has been two years since this web site was launched. Maintaining the site has required significant technology research and application, and I credit Keith Motyl for keeping the site up to date. My contribution has been generating the content, and all the reading and writing has been a good retirement project. I must think it is worthwhile, since I’ve added another web site.  FarmerIsland was launched to promote the book “Angry Pigs Organized Against Gerbils: The Farmer Island War.” The book was written based on the ideas of four grandchildren (listed as Creative Staff and Illustrators). Adults have been very complimentary and a third grade teacher who read the book to her class reports that the children enjoyed the “delightful book.”

There has been one major irritant. SiteBuilder has not provided us with a way to control comments that I call “graffiti.” The blog allows me to decide whether a comment is pertinent, and I can allow it to be posted or reject it as spam. The review and expression links on SiteBuilder do not give that option, and we have attracted hundreds or thousands of comments that seem to be directed at marketing luxury products and other items that have no connection with the content. We struggle with the daunting task of deleting all of this “graffiti” while leaving the legitimate comments that provide value.

What has the web site accomplished? When I began typing this posting the counter had registered 66,835 visits. Not exactly “viral,” but I think the recent rate of 293 visits per day the last two weeks is impressive. There have been over 3100 people who have visited the book link “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats:  Urban Myths Debunked.”  There have been several hundred books sold on Amazon as either a paperback or Kindle. We have also heard that the book have been downloaded and sent to many other readers, although we have no way of quantifying that.

There have been 101 book reviews posted. Kathy London has provided six reviews and Steve Ray one. I hope others join into providing “guest reviews,” because keeping up with reading and reviewing a book a week is the most daunting part of maintaining this site.  There have been 114 postings on this blog site, and Ken Calkins provided the one “guest blog.” There have been 121 postings on the expressions link. That is the easiest link to maintain, and the descriptions of the origins of many common expressions are often quite fascinating.

With that I’ll work on beginning my postings on the three links to begin the third year. As return readers may know, I try to do my postings each Wednesday with some occasional slips in schedule during vacations. I’m thinking of cutting back on the reviews. Time will tell.