Reflecting On One Year of Patch

It was exactly one year ago today that Oak Creek Patch began changing the world.

Or not. But today does mark our one-year anniversary. I don't want to spend a whole lot of time talking about this, because I think it's super lame when a media outlet waxes poetic about itself. But at the same time, I didn't want to let the day pass by without a few thoughts about both our past and future.

It has been a pretty awesome ride for me personally, building a website from the ground up. A lot of technical aspects were in put in place by Patch HQ in New York for all over the 850+ Patch sites across the country. But growing an audience from 0 up to a steady stream in the hundreds (and on big news days, thousands) each day has been incredible to see.

Patch is certainly more "unknown" than it is "known." But it's still crazy to go out into the community and talk to this many people who know what Oak Creek Patch is, when at this time last year, people had zero idea who I was or what on earth I was talking about. I even get recognized sometimes in Oak Creek as the "Patch guy," which makes me feel awesome because it means people really are reading.

I think we are in a pretty good place right now with a long way to go. In my view, the site is on its way to accomplishing my central mission - to make it the place where, if you want to know something about Oak Creek, you can find it here. We're getting there. We had a lot of good stories, and we had some hiccups along the way. All to be expected. I certainly wouldn't want to consider myself "finished" after just a year. I still have a ton of things I want to accomplish with the site.

Above all, today I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for reading, commenting, emailing, calling, liking Patch on Facebook, following Patch on Twitter. It sounds cliche, but it really is the readers that have driven this thing and will drive it throughout 2012. I think the next year is going to be exciting and Patch is only going to get better, so I hope you join us.

This also seems like a good time for you to tell me what you think. Love it? Hate it? What do you want to see more of? What is it you dislike and want me to trash? (Sorry...my mug at the top of the page can't be removed.)

Thanks again for reading, and hope everyone is having a good holiday.