Like A Bad Penny

You've probably noticed that things are picking up around here again.

There are a couple of reasons for that.

The first, and most important, is that someone else has volunteered to do most of the work and let me take all the glory, such as it is. I've had offers from people willing to take over the blog before, but this is the first time someone has convinced me they share my political beliefs, my disdain for both Utica and Oneida County's "leadership", and my sense of humor. In essence, I'll be the editor for someone elses reporting. Which, let me tell you, is one sweet gig- they'll be doing all the grunt work of finding interesting stories and links while I get to concentrate on slapping a thin veneer of prose on the result.

The second, and this is something I really, really regret, is that no one else seems to have stepped up to the plate. There are some awesome Utica/Oneida County blogs and forums listed over there on the left of the page, but that list has been cut in half from what it once was. Some have petered out after an initial burst of enthusiasm, some just stopped posting for reasons unknown, and some just vanished into the ether. Whatever the reason, there's just not much informed discussion of area politics anymore.

That's something I find extremely odd, since there's certainly a demand for it. I don't think my scribblings are particularly notable, but even when I cut down my posting to once a month the site was still getting a couple of dozen hits a day from search engines. If Google is any indication there's a huge hunger for information on "Tim Julian", "David Roefaro", "Mohawk Valley EDGE", "Mike Arcuri", "Oneida County sewage", "Frank Meola", and dozens of other subjects I've touched on.

Speaking of which, that's the third reason I'm going to try and keep things up to date again- traffic. Even in stasis the Snakepit was generating thousands of hits a month. Please don't take that as bragging, since I'm as surprised as anyone else at the numbers. About 70& of all those hits are unique addresses across central New York, while the rest are from various governmental and political organizations.

That's a lot of eyeballs, and to an intellectually vain person like myself it's an irresistible audience.