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Etater time line?

Norman, with your expertise and devotion to history, would it be possible that you could create a time line or history of Etater.com? Now, please, put in every little thing pertinent to etater's history including moderators and administrators, when the originals began and when and why the new admin were installed. Also please include your reason for even creating etater and why you chose that name. You've done a lot of great work with this site but never really explained anything about etater. Thanks!

Re: Etater time line?

I like your proposition and I will begin a little at a time.

Etater began in 2006, December. I had learned a little about blogging and found a freeby site caled Bravenet. I later paid to turn it into a full site.

But a little pre-history. Several years ago I first ran across a blog called "Hometown U.S.A" It had bits and pieces about local communities contributed by local people. IT WAS VERY INTERESTING. But it disappeared shortly thereafter. It turns out that the domain was sold.

I didn't do anything thing at that time but I began to observe the Pocahontas Times. The "letters to the editor" were always interesting and exciting (with the exception of the King Fish's writings which I ignored) I even submitted some of my letters and got tremendous community response! So I began to realize that the local people wanted a chance to express themselves.

Of course, we all have our war stories about letters that the Times wouldn't print. I am the same. So I began to figure that there was a groundswell of interest in blogging. (Of course, we didn't call it that back then.)

And I was right! It was hard to get etater started initially but finally it hit. In January of 2007 things started to catch on and people started to write like crazy.

Some of the folks from the Durbin area were the most excited readers and writers. They could really get a buzz on (and they continue to do so) One time they tracked an ambulance from the northern end in almost real time on etater.

My good friend, Don Jennings, called me one time and told me that I should take a certain thread off because a civil war was erupting.

Anyway, we kept on blogging.

Our first step was to determine if the blog should be anonymous. Well, I instantly knew the answer to that--anonymous. (I'll add that story later) Now being anonymous was a departure from the norm. In the Times you had to provide a name. You could request anonymity but still had to provide your name.

But sometimes names get in the way and you find that people are responding to your writing on a personal basis rather than an issue one. But I want to be able to have a name that would be most expressive.

When I started the Commentator, I realized that they concept of a "tater" was the perfect nickname. If I took the suffix "well" I could do a lot of things with it. For example, we started with "Studwell" Tater. But my wife objected (Too horny for her tastes) I had a young fellow from the upper end make a shirt for me and he spelled Studwell--Spudwell. The latter sounded pretty cool and kept the wife happy. So Studwell died and Spudwell lived on in his place.

Then there was the part of me that loved to do pics so it was natural that Slidewell Tater be born. (as in photo slides) Smirkwell came along because I loved the jokes on the Internet and get a lot of kick about posing fun with other folks. Then came Stinkwell Tater. I lot of my writing centers around the antics of our local public officials. Never have I seen a place that has so many monkeys in one barrel and they are all dancing up a jig.

contact e-tater@hotmail.com

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