'Spider the News Guy'
Many people in the region – and across the country – knew Spider in a variety of ways, so I'm not going to try to write about him as publisher of Bradford-Online, administrator of Talk About Bradford, one of Bradford's best advocates or even as a friend, although I did consider him a friend.
I'm going to write about Spider the News Guy.
During the past few months we learned that we had similar visions not only for Bradford and the surrounding communities, but also for the way news is presented to those communities.
When this blog started taking off, he was one of the first people to encourage me to keep it going – and growing.
A big part of our vision was community involvement, which TAB and comments on this blog welcome. Our feelings were/are that there's more to news than just reading it or hearing it. Being able to voice your unfiltered (for the most part) opinions on the news as it's happening is a big part of news in the 21st century.
That's why he put links to this blog on Bradford-Online and why I link to TAB and sometimes link to certain threads. We agreed that the more chances we gave the community to be involved, the better.
Another part of our vision was including more pictures and videos in our news presentations. Although his were much better than mine ever will be, we shared videos and pictures with our Web site visitors so they could experience events they couldn't attend.
When he started taking video at Bradford City Council meetings, and others, I couldn't have been happier. What better way to give concerned citizens an unedited, unbiased look at what happens during meetings?
Why did he decide he wanted to be "Spider the News Guy?" It wasn't to compete with WESB or any other media outlet. It was because he cared about Bradford and knew he had a well-visited platform to present news and other information that he hoped would make other people care, too. And because he knew he couldn't cover everything, he partnered with me so we could get as much news and information to the community as two people can.
I'm sad because our vision had only just started to come to fruition. But I'm hoping that with the help of TABers, it'll live on. The potential is limitless, and I know he'd be happy to see that other people agree with us.
So, thanks Spider, for being my news partner and for sharing my visions. You're already missed.
I'm going to write about Spider the News Guy.
During the past few months we learned that we had similar visions not only for Bradford and the surrounding communities, but also for the way news is presented to those communities.
When this blog started taking off, he was one of the first people to encourage me to keep it going – and growing.
A big part of our vision was community involvement, which TAB and comments on this blog welcome. Our feelings were/are that there's more to news than just reading it or hearing it. Being able to voice your unfiltered (for the most part) opinions on the news as it's happening is a big part of news in the 21st century.
That's why he put links to this blog on Bradford-Online and why I link to TAB and sometimes link to certain threads. We agreed that the more chances we gave the community to be involved, the better.
Another part of our vision was including more pictures and videos in our news presentations. Although his were much better than mine ever will be, we shared videos and pictures with our Web site visitors so they could experience events they couldn't attend.
When he started taking video at Bradford City Council meetings, and others, I couldn't have been happier. What better way to give concerned citizens an unedited, unbiased look at what happens during meetings?
Why did he decide he wanted to be "Spider the News Guy?" It wasn't to compete with WESB or any other media outlet. It was because he cared about Bradford and knew he had a well-visited platform to present news and other information that he hoped would make other people care, too. And because he knew he couldn't cover everything, he partnered with me so we could get as much news and information to the community as two people can.
I'm sad because our vision had only just started to come to fruition. But I'm hoping that with the help of TABers, it'll live on. The potential is limitless, and I know he'd be happy to see that other people agree with us.
So, thanks Spider, for being my news partner and for sharing my visions. You're already missed.
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Comments
My Dad and I had some rough patches along the way, fighting as a father and son do...
...But by the time this happened, we had moved past it all, we were getting along again. I just wish we could have enjoyed it a little longer.
The thing that kills me is that what made him relax, what seemed to make him happiest, was working on Bradford-Online and Talk About Bradford. They almost became his life, and he spent countless hours working on them both.
It gave him such a thrill when he'd record a video to put on the site, and when he'd run it through the editing program and put it on the site and go "Hey, check out this cool video I put up!"
I only hope that Bradford-Online, and Talk About Bradford, his legacies can stay alive...
[/TheHardestPart]
Love you Dad,
Jeff
"PS...He'd a got a kick out of knowing he made the friggin news website!"
Phillygirl
I know he would have! One time I used a sound bite from him (from a Bradford Master Plan meeting) and, although he said he didn't like the sound of his voice on the radio (I wish I could remember the word he used to describe his voice. I remember it made me chuckle, though. :)) he was thrilled to think that I thought his comments were newsworthy. We had a long chat about the Master Plan that day. Very cool.