4,600 posts, 13 million hits, over 150,000 comments.
In their raw nakedness these figures probably don’t mean a lot to the person reading them. To the writers and administration team at The AIMN they are of significant importance. The figures in their own way are a stamp of approval given by the readers of The AIMN.
The fact that people return every day to have a read of the articles we produce further indicates that there is a role for blogs like ours who are independent of the mainstream media.
“Why am I writing this?”, you might ask. Well you see the main editor, Michael Taylor, is so flat-chat doing all the editorial things that editors do so I took it upon myself to tell you all that yesterday was our 4th birthday. I was a little disappointed that we weren’t making a fuss because the important work we post is worthy of a little kudos as is the support we get from our readers, and those who take the time to comment. But I suspect Michael didn’t want to make a big fuss about it, preferring to quietly build on our growing reputation.
We are apt to forget at times the work Michael and his wife Carol put in and the nonsense they have to put up with from some commentators or the occasional aggressive person who send emails to The AIMN.
Mind you, the writers never shy away from authentic criticism, in fact we welcome it. It’s just that some of the comments they have to read and reject are beyond belief.
It’s hard to believe it is was almost four years ago when Michael saw a piece I had written titled “An Abbott in the Lodge. Never” and he invited me to write for The AIMN.
The AIMN was originally established by Michael, Carol, Kevin Rennie, Alex Schlotzer and Barry Tucker. Victoria Rollison joined a few days later.
One of our prolific writers, Kaye Lee, was a regular commentator and Michael and I knew from her comments that she had a rare talent for citizen journalism, and she was asked if she would like to be an author on The AIMN. Look at the success she has had. Later the blog was opened to other writers and more success came with a culture of the grassroots variety. Thanks to all our readers too who also play a major part in making us the success we are.
We look forward to continuing our high standard of citizen journalism into 2017.
For all the writers and in appreciation of the editor.
John Lord
