Five years of BlueOregon.

Kari Chisholm

With a modest post about vote-by-mail, BlueOregon was born five years ago today.

Since then, we've had 74 contributors, including five editors and two fellows. We've had 6970 posts that generated over 167,000 comments and 9.1 million pageviews.

But more important than the metrics is the community that we've helped bring closer. I don't say "created" because the Oregon progressive political community was always there - but BlueOregon has been the water cooler around which we've gathered to chat, argue, gossip, and talk trash.

On a personal note, as much work as BlueOregon has been - and as harsh as the criticism is sometimes - it's been an infinitely rewarding experience.

But none of this would matter without our readers. To the thousands of you that read every week, every day, or every hour, thank you. Thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for telling your friends when you find something that's compelling.

Thanks are due also to our many contributors - especially those who've stuck with it, posting when they're inspired, whether it's regularly or irregularly.

And most of all, thanks to my fellow co-founders - Jeff Alworth and Jesse Cornett; to the co-editors that joined us since - Charlie Burr and Karol Collymore; and to the fellows that each made a huge difference over the last couple of years - Nick Wirth and Carla Axtman.

Thank you.

By Kari Chisholm July 17, 2009