Dear Readers;

This month marks the third anniversary of the Yelm Community Blog.
I want to thank all of you for your interest and support.
This is the only Yelm community website that has all news stories archived for public view dating back 3 years.
Your support, RSS feeds and daily viewership have continually kept this site on the first page of Google in searching for Yelm and usually ahead of even the city’s official newspaper website, the Nisqually Valley News (NVN)

Speaking of the NVN, they have revamped their website AGAIN, for the 3rd time in as many years. This means that all previous links to their stories before last weekend no longer work and none of their links can be accessed through an archive search. You can still access excerpts of some NVN stories here on the Yelm Community Blog that were quoted the last three years.

NVN Editor/Publisher Keven Graves wrote me yesterday to say that they now require written permission to use any material from their “revised Web site”. You will note they are not even linked from this story, as this writer will be using less of their items.
The law says their links can be used by anyone without permission, as acknowledged on these sites:
CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE
CLICK HERE

While Mr. Graves has clearly made public his disdain for Blogs, and this Blogger in particular for these three years, restricting and enforcing access being circulated from his newspaper’s website makes no sense.
If this is some attempt to reprisal towards me, he just shot himself in the foot.
This Blog has been one of the major sites driving traffic to his links for three years, indeed one of the largest community-based websites to do so. In a world where newspapers are dwindling (San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle P-I may close and Denver’s Rocky Mt. News did shut down), newspaper’s websites are paying their bills with advertising dollars on their links driven by the number of views and viewers.
The Yelm Community Blog will now quote the NVN on a very limited basis.
With a third revision of their website, one would think they want more traffic there, not less.
This Blog has always quoted and given credit for the source of NVN excerpts, plus the link for the reader to access for themselves.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST AND CONTINUED SUPPORT.
THIS BLOG HAS NEVER TAKEN A CENT FROM ANYONE FOR ADVERTISING, NOR SOLD ANY MATERIAL.
THIS SITE IS PROVIDED AS A COMMUNITY SERVICE TO EXCHANGE IDEAS ON STORIES OF LOCAL INTEREST, PROVIDING AN ADDITIONAL RESOURCE OF YELM-AREA INFORMATION AND DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW.

UPDATE THURSDAY, MARCH 5 @ 2PM:
The local weekly newspaper’s Op-Ed piece this week says about the newspapers revamped website:
“Blogs are an interesting and dynamic facet of nay community, and we’ll include yours – if you are willing to exchange links. Shoot an e-mail and we’ll talk.”

WOW! Keven Graves saying this? Has this man REALLY changed his views about blogs since he has put them down for years?
HMMM!

I wrote to Mr. Graves on Tuesday, March 3rd requesting the Yelm Community Blog be linked under his newspaper’s Community Links. He responded that because the Yelm Community Blog is a non-profit, he will add the link.
Then, he asked for an NVN link to be placed on the Blog’s link page.
Anyone can see this blogger has no Links page, takes no money from anyone and is beholding to no one.

Graves responded, “If we’re to provide a free link to yelm.com, I would like a reciprocal link. I believe it’s a reasonable exchange.”

I wrote to him:
The Yelm Community Blog has never had a Links page, is non-profit as you previously stated and is beholding to no one. Other non-profits you have on your Community Links (i.e. Yelm Animal Alliance, Thurston County Humane Society) have no Links page either and you also have profits like Yelm Cinemas that has a Links page only for movie related sites, so yours is not there.

Can you share your thoughts as to why the Yelm Community Blog is to be excluded, when others are not that are in the same circumstances, & in particular, after your Op-Ed today inviting blogs to join your revamped site?

He refused without sharing links.

IS THIS BLOG A THREAT TO HIS NEWSPAPER?
HE BEHAVES AS IF SUCH IS THE CASE!