Editorial comments
December 25th
Read our review of the website's operation over the 2011 year here »
October 19th
First up, a big word of appreciation for the newest sponsor of this website - House of Travel - for the next six months and hopefully beyond. This in addition to Nelson Business Society which signed up earlier this year and has renewed. Along with the longer standing sponsors Parkes Automotive, Motueka Floral Studio and Ray White, this group are helping to ensure that Motueka Online continues into the future.
I'm also grateful to the Motueka Community Board who voted unanimously at the October meeting to pay for the site's annual domain name and hosting fees, out of its Discretionary Fund. It's great to know that the board supports what this website is trying to achieve. Not so the Tasman District Council, however, which turned down a request for some funding from the Grants from Rates scheme.
Another small disappointment was my decision to drop the "Citizen Journalism" scheme, whereby two people each month submitting articles to Motueka Online received prizes from Take Note. It started off with a hiss and a roar, prompting several very worthwhile articles for a few months, but more recently there were not enough submissions to consider for prizes so, despite Take Note being happy to continue its support, I decided it wasn't worth the effort. Better luck next time!
David Armstrong
Editor / Administrator
September 18th
This website is increasingly becoming a common point of contact from people wanting to get in touch with community groups. Sometimes it can be a bit confusing to get a phone call asking for more details about our craft classes, how to do voluntary work at our school, or when our next art exhibition is running. It takes a few moments to realise that they have seen some information on this website but used "Contact us" in the menu to get my phone number. For now, I'll take it as a compliment rather than an irritation.
Some of the questions I've received through the site's contact email address have been quite interesting, though. One received this month ran as follows:
"I live in Bristol in England. We have a wonderful brewery here - I won't mention the name in case you think I'm advertising - but I don't think it's likely that the beer is available in New Zealand anyway! It makes a collection of single hop beers, one of which is called Motueka and I imagine it is named after the hop which comes from your town. It's great beer, but everyone struggles to pronounce the name. Could you tell me how to pronounce it properly please?"
David Armstrong
Editor / Administrator
August 18th
August has been a quiet month in town, with not a lot of events to report on. But the unsettled future associated with the possibility of a Nelson - Tasman union and the effect it would have on our community board has been worth watching and reporting on, including the board's thoughts on extra delegated powers they may get.
It is pleasing that the amalgamation debate discussion forum we've been running is clearly being used by many people as the most extensive non-official, non-partisan source of information on the issue and a way of expressing any and all opinions. I've been careful to keep my own opinions out of it and to publish every comment sent in.
This discussion forum has been viewed a total of 723 times up to yesterday, over the eight weeks it has been running so far. This has doubtless helped the gross visit count for the site as a whole last month to run well past the 10,000 mark for the first time, with almost 3,200 "unique" visitors. (Some visitors make multiple visits.) The total number of pages viewed is now about 33,000 per month.
To end on a commercial note, these statistics are good news for sponsors (and potential sponsors) of the site, with a growing number of viewers becoming aware of the support these firms give to this community asset. I'm talking with two other businesses which are expressing an interest in sponsoring, and hope for news on that soon.
David Armstrong
Editor / Administrator
July 15th
Please pardon my excitement, but I've been looking at the website visitor statistics (yes, again!) for this month so far and seen an even larger increase than reported last month. After averaging about 220 visitors a day for the previous six months or so, this has jumped to well over 300 averaged for the past month, with 500 in one day on Wednesday this week after two 400-pluses during the weekend.
Many of these numbers are multiple visits by individuals, but the stats also show that the number of individuals that have visited the site, if continued to the end of July, will probably top about 3300 - that's approaching one-half the population of Motueka.
Is it the wet weather we've suffered recently, giving readers time on their hands and nothing else to do but browse the web? Is it the fact that word of mouth is starting to have a snowballing effect as more people become aware of the site?
One factor is probably the amalgamation debate we've been running, which has been viewed 220 times over the past two weeks. This, I believe, is showing one of the true benefits of a publishing medium like this, where the "letters to the editor" contributions can, within reason, be of any length and any quality of writing, and are retained for easy viewing throughout and after the time of the debate.
David Armstrong
Editor / Administrator
June 17th
This past month has seen an interesting and, I hope, very worthwhile step up for Motueka Online as we venture tentatively into the use of social networking. Whenever we publish a news item which we think is of broad commercial or political interest to our town leaders, we place a link to it on the Facebook page of Our Town Motueka (and sometimes on Grey Power's as well).
This means that the growing number of people using OTM's Facebook page to network will get these news items quickly. One pleasing result for me has been an approximately 10-15% rise in the number of website visitors, probably those spotting our news alerts on Facebook pages.
This week I reported on the June meeting of the Community Board, and noted with some dismay the apparent lack of activity by board members (the chairman excepted). The quorum light-heartedly voted in a serious suggestion that each member should provide a brief report to each meeting regarding their recent community work. Motueka Online intends to publish those reports each month so ratepayers can see who is taking their paid work as elected members seriously.
Sadly one of our sponsors, Countdown, will finish its support for Motueka Online at the end of this month. That means we're down to four sponsoring firms, making the financial basis for the website even more marginal. Any other businesses who want to support this community asset and ensure its longevity for a small monthly sum would be most welcome. Read here for details.
Observant readers may have noticed a couple of new page banners of late (the graphic at the top left corner of all pages). We have six banners now which are rotated weekly to retain a fresh appearance; four were produced by High School graphics design students last year and now two more from the 2011 class - by Elanor Clark and Matt Sandlant - are part of the mix. Both involve the use of local photography. Thanks guys!
David Armstrong
Editor / Administrator
May 15th
This website has inadvertently hosted a bit of a scrap about the running (or in fact the non-running this year) of the Festival of Lights. The fact of its cancellation was kept quiet until it emerged as a sidebar when we reported that the SeniorNet photographic competition was going ahead regardless. It is healthy for our community that people express their views about who should run the event and what ideas should be included.
I'm pleased to announce another sponsor for this website. Nelson Building Society is another local business that recognises and appreciates how Motueka Online adds to our community life, and is putting some of its money where its mouth is. Our thanks to Howie and the NBS team.
We've taken a small step into social networking technology with the addition of Facebook "Like" buttons on several key pages (such as the one at the top of this current page). This is merely a way for readers of this site to recommend pages to their Facebook friends, thereby spreading the word about what we have here. People who do not have Facebook accounts need not worry and can just ignore the buttons.
This month we've passed another big milestone - there are now just over 1000 pages of information on this site. The number has accumulated over the 15 months of operation, and it shows just how substantial an information resource can become if you just stick at it and build incrementally. Another statistic I've found very encouraging is that now there are almost 3000 different people visiting the site each month, many of them several times each month. They are mainly local or from the Tasman region, but quite a few are international.
David Armstrong
Editor / Administrator
April 15th
Another solid month with yet again a small increase in website visitor numbers, now consistently well over 7000 a month. One new development has been the use of Motueka Online by one sports group - Motueka Dressage - to run their winter dressage series. The organisers of the group are savvy about using the web and have posted all their entry forms, programmes and results only on this site - all for free. Its members and participants have already become used to using the site as their prime communications medium for their events. Other groups should consider doing the same, as it can often cut down on printing, postage and other costs.
I was pleased to announce a couple of weeks ago that, as hinted at last month, Take Note has agreed to providing two $20 prizes each month to the best contributed articles to this site. Amateur journalists out there can now not only see their work published and archived but also receive a small payment for it. Hopefully this may see a bit more "citizen journalism" in the community and help this website to remain sustainable.
This late autumn is proving a busy time for those in our community who are keen to see well-planned and funded local developments from our district council. As noted on this site, several key issues are up for further public discussion and consultation. One of the goals of this website is to provide, better than any print newspaper can, an easily accessible record of the background to the key issues including our water supply, flood protection and town planning development. In case you haven't seen these pages before, you can find them under the Community Board's "Current Projects" tab.
David Armstrong
Editor / Administrator
March 16th
Last month I commented on the increase in website visitor numbers during the core holiday period. Just as the graph was starting to ease back again into mid-February, along came that horrible Christchurch earthquake and the influx to Motueka of residents seeking some form of relief from the shakes and the mess, however temporary. Again the website became a major source of information about the town, with page views of schools and other community facilities jumping.
Meanwhile I did my best to ensure current information on what Motueka was doing to help was up to date and useful. Reporting on some of the fund-raising efforts as well as the mammoth and professional work out at the Marae was indeed heart-warming.
I can report three very positive initiatives under way that will help make this website even better known and better reflecting the views and experiences of the community. First, as a way of promoting the site, State Cinema has begun screening a pre-film advertisement to help send out the message that the site exists and is useful.
Second, the High School's Year 13 graphics design class is working on three page banners (the strip you see on your screen across the top of this page) to add to the four created by last year's class. They will also be preparing a poster for shop windows to raise the awareness that Motueka Online has been running for one year now. These activities are part of their curriculum, with the website acting as a real-life customer for their design and marketing skills.
Third, Luke Williams, the High School's media studies teacher, is starting a journalism club for students interested in journalism. Part of their activities will be writing news and other articles for Motueka Online. I'm presently discussing with one sponsor the intention of offering a small monetary prize for the best two stories each month. More about that if and when it's running. We are also looking at creating a parallel Facebook site for Motueka Online for those who prefer to read and interact with the site in that format.
David Armstrong
Editor / Administrator
February 21st
Following on from my comment for January (below), I'm now in a better position to assess website visitor patterns for the past two months. It's nice to see that visitor numbers have not dropped back to pre-December figures but rather stayed at an average of around 240 visits a day - that's still about 20% up on the numbers for the later part of 2010.
My task now is to ensure that the website builds on this enlarged platform to provide even more community news and information and encourage more community voices to take part. As always, I'm totally open to ideas about how the site can better address community needs and provide more facilities that help people to connect with each other, so if you have anything to contribute - ideas or material - then please contact me here.
It's coming up to our first anniversary of the website. Although it was officially launched at the end of March 2010, the site began growing from scratch a couple of months earlier. In my March editorial I'll explain some of the areas I'm working to cater for a broader audience, such as more involvement of young people.
One encouraging development last year was the introduction of contributions by some High School classes. The first significant input was from the four 2010 Year 13 graphic design students who created the website banners (at the top of each page) and shop window posters and promotional bookmarks. This contribution will continue this year as the three in this year's class will add their similar expertise.
Also of great value to the website has been the reports produced and published here by Bruce Reid's Year 11 Community Issues classes, which have become much valued by our community leaders. These will continue this year. Work is also under way to encourage English and media students to write articles for the site, and for a Facebook page to be developed to parallel the main site and encourage more participation and community voices.
David Armstrong
Editor / Administrator
January 17th, 2011
I had expected that the use of this website would have slackened off over the holiday period. Certainly the amount of information sent to me by locals about events has slowed to a dribble (from the usual trickle), but what has surprised me majorly has been the amount of use by the site of people browsing the Web looking for information about Motueka and holiday events here.
By December (see below) we had just passed the figure of 6000 site visits a month (203 a day averaged over the month, to be exact) and I expected that to drop. Instead it would appear that Motueka Online may fit into that category of "tourism business" which is much busier over the holiday than otherwise. For the first 16 days of January the site has hosted a total of 4162 visits (average 260 per day) - that's a nearly 30% increase!
Truly interesting (to me anyway!) and rather instructive is that among the pages most visited were ones to do with holiday activities. The events calendar - normally about the 6th most visited page - has been the most visited after the home page.
And both the page visits and the log of search terms typed into Google to find Motueka information showed the extra amount of information sought about things like the Recreation Centre, Miss Kaiteriteri, the Sunday market, police activity, churches (such as searches for "mass times in Motueka"), "things to do" including walks (and specially the page about the Riwaka Resurgence), and sports.
My main conclusion is that unlike many Motuekans, most of our visitors are totally used to finding their information first and foremost via the internet. They're preparing to visit, or are already here, and they type something to do with "Motueka" into Google - and up there after i-SITE comes numerous pages of this website. In particular, because Motueka Online maintains its events calendar up to date daily, it's the only real place for outsiders to find out what's going on, where and when. Personally, I find that pretty satisfying.
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