FIRST, THANKS: One year ago today was our first (and last) West Seattle Blog Pledge Day – we already knew thousands of people found value in visiting WSB each day, but we rather brazenly asked that day whether anybody cared enough to chip in a few $ so we could turn this into a business and cover more news for you. We are so grateful that many people did – it was the morning of the lunar eclipse (blurry photo at left is the only one we got), and while we were up watching it in the wee hours, the first pledges came in … the ensuing proceeds paid for the costs of setting up a business, plus a video camera to expand our coverage (we have 2 now), and most important of all, gave us more confidence that this just might fly as Seattle’s first true full-time all-online community-news business. A few months later, we started offering ad space. So we don’t need to ask you for $ — but PLEASE support our sponsors, all listed here (and in the right sidebar), PLUS if you are in a giving mood, PLEASE give some $ to your favorite West Seattle nonprofit (we don’t have a comprehensive list – gotta work on that – but you can use this site to search with terms such as “West Seattle” or “White Center”) – they all need extra help in these tougher times.

NOW THE HEADS-UP: As part of WSB’s continuing growth – this will be the third consecutive month with more than half a million pageviews – the site has outgrown another hosting service, and needs to make a change this weekend to increase capacity. Most of this process is invisible to you BUT last time we did it, last December, some readers’ providers (like a certain large aerospace company) did not pick up the change immediately because of “DNS caching,” and WSB updates didn’t go through on those systems for a while. We expect to make the change during the holiday weekend so that any glitches affect the fewest people possible. But if at any point around Labor Day you notice that you’re not getting updated WSB content any more – from early morning till late night, we seldom go more than a few hours without something new – please e-mail us; also note that we have a backup site at westseattleblog.wordpress.com (nothing there now – it’s just an emergency backup) in case this ever goes completely down

SIDE NOTE: Thanks to the folks from Cupcake Royale for letting a local magazine crew take over a corner of their Junction shop for a while this morning to photograph your editor here:

When it comes to West Seattle coffee, of course, our hearts belong to Hotwire Online Coffeehouse, WSB’s inaugural sponsor (about to celebrate an anniversary of its own – five years in West Seattle as of next Thursday!). But we weren’t in control of this one; we just got to smile at the camera. Or actually, at the laptop – WSB contributing photographer Christopher Boffoli got this shot of the magazine photographer shooting through the window (with their MacBook as a prop – ours is white), after they took some pix from inside:

We are somewhat sworn to secrecy re: the nature of the article/photo but we’ll mention it when it’s close to coming out this fall. And we don’t kid ourselves, it’s not really about us … WSB only gets citywide/regional/national notice because you have chosen to be our partner, by coming here to get 24/7 West Seattle news, to tell your stories, and to read and discuss what others choose to share. Thank you again, SO very much.