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Thinking about changing the name of the site
01/11/2012 9:44 AM by John M
CHPN’s focus has alway’s been “on activities and events at the neighborhood level, and on larger events with direct impact on our community.” I’ve looked to give a voice to a broadly described community here in the area.
As time has gone by, I thought more than once that CHPN should have a more geographically encompassing name to better reflect this focus. Recent debates about what may or may not be Church Hill are part of this. Continued coverage of areas that are not Church Hill under any definition (like Fulton or Fairfield) are as well.
Towards that end, I’m considering changing the name of the site to something more inclusive. Ideas that come to mind are East End News, East RVA, or just East. What do y’all think?
I like those ideas, John! I say choose whatever you like, fearless leader.
East End may be a bit broad as a term because I’ve been told that Henrico people mean all of eastern Henrico when they use it. East RVA People’s News would be my best take at the moment. I’ll share others if I think of them.
partial to your current name….
Would the URL change? Then don’t do it. I love the URL. I realize “Church Hill” is a very limited area that this site covers, but you can’t deny that it’s so much easier to talk about something you saw on chpn than it is to say “East End News”. When I think of the East End I think of the county, not the city, so immediately you’d lose your focus.
Plus I love the fact that PEOPLE is in the title. None of those other regions have any sense of the community in their title, so why lose that? My vote is to dismiss the idea of changing it entirely.
With all due respect, please keep it as is. I realize there are continuing discussions about neighborhood boundaries, but how p.c. and inclusive must we be? Can we not keep an online site and online community dedicated to Church Hill? Come on, renaming the site just ‘East’? Our neighborhood gets it’s knocks quite a bit from altered perceptions and interesting media coverage. Can we not keep this site proudly titled Church Hill? Thank you.
I like to think we all one community composed of different neighborhoods, the Church Hill community that contains Union Hill, Fairmont, Chimborazo, etc. Leaving the name Church Hill off tends to seems to cut “Church Hill” out of the commmunity rather than broadening the community.
I really think we all are Church Hill and quibbling over the neighboorhood lines drawn between a few blocks is silly and tend to breaks up the community rather than unite..
Please keep the name Church Hill People’s News. We are a family.
I like the name of the site as is. The Washington Post doesn’t only cover DC it covers the surrounding areas…. Same with CHPN.
“East side, peace side” as Mary Lou Decossaux liked to say. I love the idea of broadening our sense of community. I love Church Hill, but I’m proud to be an “Eastender.” You can’t have a true understanding of Church Hill’s strengths and weaknesses without an appreciation of entire East End’s challenges.
People who live in the areas you mentioned in your reason for changing the name also refer to themselves as living in or being from Church Hill.
Any thoughts, if “Church Hill” is actually relegated to a small section, on why the term began to be used for the whole of the East End? Is it one of those things that just happened?
Regardless, it’s been weird to think now that I am not a part of “Church Hill.” I used to say I live and work there, but neither place is technically within those blocks.
I feel your scope of news, regardless of the name, is excellent. Though not a bad idea, I don’t like the thought of each neighborhood having their own site, because 1) while my neighborhood is most impacting to me, what is happening two, five, or 10 blocks away is equally impacting, 2) I don’t have time to check all those sites, and 3) is there enough happening within each “neighborhood” to provide enough content?
With that said, your content should remain the same, but I agree with those saying there is not a NEED to change the name. Though it makes sense in the context of recent conversations, the truth remains that, regardless of what things started as, “Church Hill” now represents more than just a section. But, at the very least, I concur with the “base of operations” points.
I think I like it just like it is. It’s been around for awhile like this, and while I agree that I’d like the media to differentiate the different areas (see also John’s open letter to RVA media), I prefer to keep this chpn. I have to agree with some of the comments here that say it might make it sound like it’s out by the airport if you changed it to East or East RVA. Agree also with those who wrote in about the Times Dispatch covering statewide, and Wash Post covering more than just the district. Actually, the Wash Post has sub-sections covering news for places in Maryland and N. Va., too, as well as coverage for the District, plus national and world news.
chpn is just your base of operations, John. Please don’t change the name!
As credible and popular as this blog is, I don’t know about changing the name. Perhaps you could find a way to incorporate CHPN into the new name with something like, “Church Hill People’s (And Our Neighbors’) News”. By using a phrase in parenthesis, you can get the point across that there is a broader audience without really changing the name.
I’m with the majority here… keep it just as it is.
We need to help others understand that CHPN encompasses communities, nighborhoods and issues that have no boundaries. Additonally while we (CHPN) do have a general geography we at the same time also have independent attitudes, issues and needs. One size does and cannot not fit or sever all … but fracturing its connectivity to improving the lives of all of its inhabitants will have the effect of watering down any leverage and/or impact it has with the City . Keep it the same.
One word: Stet.
It’s kinda like changing the name of the Beatles, John.
#10, you’re right. We are a family in a way. Sure, more like the dysfunctional bickering over the Thanksgiving holidays, with a grand cast of characters, kinda family but still family united by and because of where we choose to call home.
This site, and it’s nom de plume, are as unique as the urban hamlet itself.
Keep.
Please keep CHPN. The name is perfect. I am not a fan of name changing at all. Most people know this as an East End news site. To simply call it “East End News” is generic it takes away from the roots and character of the website.
I like it as it is. If I saw East End I wouldn’t click on it because I’m not nearly as interested in what is happening in Sandston and Highland Springs, and that is logically to me what such a blog would be about.
#21, well said – “This site, and it’s nom de plume, are as unique as the urban hamlet itself.”
Ain’t broke. Don’t fix it.
I understand thinking of a name change, but none of the blogs in Richmond deal with just one neighborhood. Oregon Hill is probably the only exception. If you want, maybe Greater Church Hill News? East End Citizen’s News? East End News Daily (or Dispatch… get it? East E.N.D.)?
Ok.. I changed my mind. After the great words Mark Holmberg had about the site, giving you name recognition in the city, I’ll have to agree with him.
Interesting idea. I like East End News if there needs to be a change. Or “Near East End” 😉
Keep the name.
Please don’t change the name.
I, and everyone else I know, love the name as it stands. Why fix something that isn’t broken? Broadening the neighborhood perspective to include surrounding areas is a good step to take however, changing the actual name of the site, which has been uniting all of us for quite some time now, would be a step-back!
Ideally, links for the surrounding neighborhoods would be added to the CHPN website, but without affecting its current composure.
Loud and clear, y’all – I think that’s at least 9-1 against changing this 🙂
pretty funny john………
THANK YOU JOHN!!!!!
I dunno how you got to 9-1 but I don’t care, just don’t change it!
Perhaps… East End Peoples News Not Including the Airport or Anything in the County, or Rocketts but Fulton Bottom Counts Just Not Fulton Hill. And we’re in luck, the EEPNNIAACRFBCJNFH.net URL is not yet taken.
I was hoping you could call it, “Country Style Donuts”. Everyone would love you then
John, keep chpn. Whenever I find myself talking to people (especially those over the age of 40,) who live/used to live/parents or grandparents used to live in our area, they always call the neighborhood Church Hill. That’s regardless of whether the family home actually is situated in Fairmount, Fairfield, Oakwood, or what we now call Union Hill or Church Hill North.
Even tho I personally prefer the use of the smaller neighborhood names (and they’re especially relevant for historic district designations,) I love the sweet feeling that I live and work in a larger community. For me, greater Church Hill is like a hand-made crazy quilt that is pieced together with oddly shaped, brightly colored swatches of fabric. Sewed together, the individual pieces (i.e. smaller neighborhoods) become part of one larger defining blanket: Church Hill.
@27 (Pierce) – Mmmmmmm, Donuts! LOVE Country Style.
John, I agree that the CHPN name is immediately recognizable, and that it’s a bad idea to change the URL, but I also appreciate your point about geographic specificity. You could go the route of a lot of organizations whose mission grows beyond their names and just call CHPN by the acronym, and/or you could add a tagline about CHPN being for the people of all of Richmond’s East End. Or you could do neither, or something entirely different.
Pierce…. I love you man. Glad I wasn’t sipping my coffee when I scrolled down on that one.
Keep it as it is.