Comments on: Governor budgets $10 million for ecosystems

By: Sharon O'Hara

Sharon O'Hara — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:18:00 +0000

Thanks…I’m looking forward to trying it. Right now.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:13:55 +0000

Your blog is now a pilot for Subscribe-to-Comments which allows users to subscribe to the comments on an individual entry. Let me know how it works.

B. Lewis ~ Kitsap Sun ~ Web Programmer

By: Sharon O'Hara

Sharon O'Hara — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:34:40 +0000

Chris, I haven’t used a WordPress widget for it, unless that is what Amazon uses on their comment notice.
Works really well.
Sharon O’Hara

By: cdunagan

cdunagan — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:00:04 +0000

After posting the previous comment late last night, I woke up this morning wondering if someone may have invented a way for a blog to send e-mail notifications of new comments. If so, we have never used such a thing at the Kitsap Sun.

I began searching the Internet for WordPress widgets related to comments. I may have found one that allows notification when new comments are posted.

If anyone has used this kind of WordPress widget, please send me a link to the blog (cdunagan@kitsapsun.com) or just add another comment here. I’d like to see how it works, and I will pursue this option.

Thanks again, John. I hope to be able to tell you soon that your will has helped me find a way.

By: cdunagan

cdunagan — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 07:48:46 +0000

Thanks, John, for your comments. I'm afraid there is no way to be notified every time a new comment is posted, at least as our system is configured now. This would be a nice feature, but most people do OK by checking once or twice a day. Since the list of “recent comments” is in reverse chronological order, it's fairly easy to spot which ones you've read. Let me take this opportunity to describe some of the features of this blog. If you want e-mail notification when now blog entries are posted, you can sign up in the right column. If you would rather keep track with a news reader, you may subscribe by RSS, which gives you notification options based on the particular reader you use. An outside service called Feed My Inbox allows you convert RSS feeds to e-mail notifications. Water Ways is now on Twitter, where I post a notice of all new blog entries plus a sizable number of items listed under “Water, Water Everywhere.” This is a feature at the top of the Water Ways page in which I list news stories, government announcements and research reports that may interest readers. Of course, one may search all the blog entries by entering words in the search engine or by picking from one of the categories.

By: John F. Williams

John F. Williams — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:28:43 +0000

Speaking of blog comment amenities, it would be nice to be able to choose to be informed by email when comments are made on specific blogs. Or is that available and I just don’t know about it? Without that ability, it takes an awful lot of time to stay connected with multiple discussions.

By: groovyjoker

groovyjoker — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:59:34 +0000

BlueLight, I am not seeing how taxes would help the DNR, which is not run by the Governor, but is run by a publicly elected official. I think Chris’ statement about the timber market being down makes a bit more sense. But you never know…maybe its a mix of both.

By: BlueLight

BlueLight — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:43:20 +0000

Joker, the closing of popular trail systems is in keeping with the “hit them where they live” strategy to get public “support” for tax increases. The ready statement – should they have chosen to fund these trails – would be, “the state encourages healthy pursuits”. But, no. Money trumps. Every time.

By: Colleen Smidt

Colleen Smidt — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:11:23 +0000

Chris, The two comments I posted, the one approved and the one not, were within 5 minutes of each other and from the same computer and I did not log out in between. So I am not sure what the hang up could be. I do miss the numbering of the posts from the old site. That way you could refer back to someone else’s comment by just referring to the number instead of having to re-type part of what they said.

I can see I need to bug Angela (Dice) about that again. The new “reply to comment” feature on the story comments have spoiled me. The lack of blog comment amenities feels like the Stone Age. Thanks for checking into it for me.

By: cdunagan

cdunagan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:17:16 +0000

groovyjoker,

I haven’t talked to anyone at the Department of Natural Resources about this yet, so others may wish to chime in. What I understand is that the DNR is losing revenues because lumber prices are down and the agency is deferring some timber sales.

Trail maintenance has been part of the DNR’s operating budget. I would say at this point that everything is up in the air on spending. I wrote a story for tomorrow’s Kitsap Sun about environmental priorities, and almost everyone in Olympia is focused on the budget.

I need to find out if our local trails may be affected.

Check out this explanation regarding the governor’s no-new-taxes budget (PDF 196 kb) for other cuts in natural resources. Tomorrow, she is scheduled to release another budget with new revenues included.

As for the closure of DNR trails, people can still walk on them. Maybe volunteers will do some work on them. I’m not sure about gate closures, but I’ll do some checking when I get a chance.