SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

We hope you had a great holiday weekend, and are revved up for 2010. (Afterall, it can’t be as bad as 2009, can it? Really?)

To help usher in the New Year, we’re kicking off a month of new feature launches on Sheepshead Bites. Most of the features revolve around the software and technology of the site itself, but we’re also planning to announce a new content feature by the end of the month.

First up – and already installed – is our new commenting system. Powered by Disqus software, there are a slew of new features that you’ll love, and will help you get to know your fellow readers better.

With our new comment system you can sign in from several other services, or continue to remain anonymous

Perhaps the biggest change is that you can now connect your comments to other social media sites. By clicking the Facebook Connect, Twitter, or Yahoo buttons above the comment field, Sheepshead Bites will fill in your name and grab your profile photo – not to mention provide a link back to your account so the friends you make here can find you. Using this same service, you can automatically post your comment to your Facebook and Twitter accounts with a link back to Sheepshead Bites.

But wait, there’s more!

We’d like to wish everyone a happy, healthy New Years. We hope good things for you, your family, and your friends. Thank you, once again, for making Sheepshead Bay what it is with your clicks, tips, and comments, and we look forward to sharing 2010 with you.

Sheepshead Bites is taking off until Monday, January 4. Don’t fret though – we’ve left you with our New Years package below so you can flip through some of the biggest stories of 2009, and catch up with what we think is coming in 2010. And with nearly one thousand posts archived on our site, be sure to flip back through the pages and find things you’ve missed!

Again: a happy, healthy New Years to you and yours.

New Years Posts:
Best of 2009: Sex, Violence, and Russians
Five Stories To Expect In 2010
Five Things We’d Love To See In 2010

This year's biggest story on Sheepshead Bites was a rumored hostage situation in Brighton Beach

It’s that time of year when media folks of all walks are publishing their look back at 2009, full of airy prose and wistful reminiscing. Sheepshead Bites is no different, and for us and our readers, this year was an explosive year.

The big national stories we all know. Nobody shuts up about them. The city, state, and national governments worked to reawaken a defeated economy. The first term of the country’s first black president was met with hardship, with two wars that questioned our national security, our military efficiency, and our moral resolve. Swine flu pandemic gripped the world. Oh, and Michael Jackson died.

But here at Sheepshead Bites, our 10 biggest stories – determined by the number of times they’ve been viewed and not by importance or influence – were largely centered around violence, sex, and rising influence of Eastern Europeans in Sheepshead Bay.

In hindsight they tell us a few things about the neighborhood and ourselves. Without question, they confirm the old media maxim that “If it bleeds, it leads,” with scandalous stories of shootings and crime, and sexy teachers allegedly getting it on, topping the list. It also tells us that, despite two decades of rising tides of Russian influence, the community is still grappling with challenges to its identity. Other stories, and their comments, show that there’s still strong interest in the goings-on of area businesses, and that a faltering transit system is raising alarm within our commuter community.

Without further ado, here’s our top 10 list for biggest Sheepshead Bites stories of 2009:

Continue Reading »

Last week we got some great feedback that helped us form a policy for removing posts. What we decided on is as follows:

Sheepshead Bites shall not remove any posts from its archives at the request of a source, business partner, or subject if the material in that post is deemed factual. In the cases that information is not accurate, a correction will be made with a disclaimer noting the update. If inaccuracies are judged by Sheepshead Bites’ editors to cause the article’s subject continuing damages, the posts will be changed AND a new post will be added to draw attention to the facts at hand. Finally, if for some reason not covered here, we deem it necessary to remove a post in its entirety, a stub will be left at that address noting the change and offering any explanation available.

That’s a promise to you, our readers, and we appreciate your help in drawing it up.

Since it went so well, we thought we’d hit you up for thoughts on another section of policy: comments.

So far Sheepshead Bites’ comments section has been self policing. You, the users, have done a good job of determining for yourself what’s permissible, and even help keep those who stray out of bounds back into line. It’s actually been pretty impressive, and we’ve done almost nothing to guide your hand.

But there have been times where we’ve disagreed. By “we” I mean those of us running the site. For example, Ray and I have huge disagreements about cursing in the comments. I happen to think swearing is an acceptable means of expression. Ray disagrees, and thinks it’s opening the door for flame-wars and incivility, and may also turn off many readers. In the same vein, I don’t mind leaving up some of the ruder criticisms of our work, even if they are sometimes hurtful. Ray thinks I ought to remove them if they, say, call us idiots for a perceived error. One point where we both agree is that hate speech is entirely intolerable. Thankfully I’ve only ever removed one comment that fell under that category.

So… what are your thoughts? How do you think we should handle rude or foul-mouthed commenters?

When Sheepshead Bites first launched in May 2008, it started on a lark. After freelancing for the community papers after college, Ned Berke went into stale world of trade journalism. So he started this site on the side to continue doing what he loved most: reporting on the community he was born and raised in. He never expected an audience to listen.

But now – nearly a year and a half later - Sheepshead Bites has a lot to be thankful for. Because of our amazing readers, our tireless writers, and our (sometimes) supportive sources, we’re blazing a trail to build community ties and raise the profile of Sheepshead Bay. Continue Reading »

Today is Friday. Yesterday was Thursday. Did anyone notice something missing?

For those of you who are not fond of the Shopping Cart Series (is there even such a person?), you would not have noticed that there wasn’t a post, yesterday, to annoy you.  For the regular followers of the now infamous characters tooling around Sheepshead Bay and roundabouts, you might have been wondering why there wasn’t a post to delight you.

Were shopping carts sent rolling away by the heavy winds in yesterday’s severe weather? That may have been the case, but since the shopping carts’ alter ego was under the weather, this activity could not be recorded.

There are enough shopping carts in compromising, yet reflective, positions for us to post near endlessly . So, loyal followers, never fear — your friendly,”morbid“, hardworking, intellectual shopping carts will be back next week to wax poetic (let’s hope not with a vengeance).

For you haters out there, never fear: one day the Shopping Cart Series will end. Just know that when that day happens, you’ll have to contend with their ghosts.

Usually, when a 1-year-old celebrates his or her first birthday, the parents mark the occasion by a big party with loved ones and a bunch of other kids running around. Everyone gathers around the cake and unfurls the noisemakers by blowing into the birthday kid’s face as she smiles at the burning candles, not knowing what it means to make a wish. There’s usually music, food, pin-the-tail-on-donkey, and tons of fun.

But, alas, this is is my birthday, and it’s not the first ever in my life. This birthday is to mark my first full year as a blogger. My parent, Ned (hey, I’m only one year old. I can barely write much less speak and Ned sounds like Dad), being the harried single father that he is — has forgotten it’s my birthday. Continue Reading »

If you’re reading this, then you can already see that Sheepshead Bites has a new look, and we hope you’re as pumped up about it as we are. Bold, elegant and classy – we call it bolelegassy – our new digs reflect where we plan to go in the coming months. The new site, based on different software, has a slew of new features. Check out that map to the right! And the twitter updates on the top! Oh, and what’s that? E-mail updates? Facebook profile? Less categories and the ability to browse by popular tabs?! Oh, my!

That’s right. This new look is about you. On one level it’s about connecting with you in new ways. Twitter updates will allow you to get fresh information by text message, and Facebook lets us learn more about who you are; daily e-mail updates give you the opportunity to read us in your inbox at your own pace.

On another level, it’s also about new means of navigating the site. Just like the old site, you can still browse our posts in chronological order with the latest news first. But we’ve added the flashy map so you can see where the news is happening, and click the markers to see the stuff we’re reporting on near your house, your workplace – heck, anywhere in the bay. And don’t forget the categories and tags. By reducing the categories we’ve made the sidebar easier to view the news that interests you. Meanwhile, the list of popular tags is automatically generated by the number of posts using those terms and the number of people reading them. So you can see exactly what topics are hot on our site as voted by other readers’ clicks. How cool is that?

Also, don’t miss the new features at the end of every post. Using the “Share This” button you can e-mail articles to friends and family, or post it to your favorite social bookmarking sites like Digg and Technorati. And “Print This” has added a printer-friendly functionality, allowing you to bring our digital bytes into real-world bits for the decidedly analog people you know.

But what about the fish? We know; we miss him, too. Unfortunately our mascot and namesake, the sheepshead fish that always appeared on the top of the site, is on hiatus until we can find the right designer for the job. We wouldn’t want you seeing old Sheepy before he’s ready for his closeup, but we promise we’re working on bringing him back as soon as possible.

He’s not the only thing coming soon. Over the next few weeks we’ll be rolling out even more features. We would hate to ruin the surprise, but we’ll just say this – they’ll all serve to help you interact in more meaningful and effective ways with us and each other. Afterall, getting to know our neighbors and cultivating a deeper, real-life community is what this site is all about.

One last word before we sign off: the site may still have a few kinks in it. Because of a sudden technical glitch in our old platform, we were forced to roll out our latest version sooner than intended. Therefore, as we go along we’ll be making little improvements here and there to both the design and functionality. (That includes a speed-boost, so we apologize if things are running a little slower than what you’re used to.) We could really use your help in this effort. If you encounter any problems or notice anything that doesn’t look quite right, be sure to use the contact button on the top – or my e-mail on the right – and let us know. We’ve been looking at this site for months, so your fresh eyes are our best weapon in the fight against boo-boos.

Sheepshead Bites: great new look, same great content!

For those of you living in a pasta-poor home — like the one our reader, Jim, grew up in — here’s an all-you-can-eat pasta night.

And if these are not the prices you would normally expect to pay for pasta, just remember that Benny’s Gourmet Pizza serves up Kosher food and you won’t have to travel to Midwood.

Your choice is to stay home and follow the recipe for Rich Pasta for the Poor Kitchen. But if you’re a “rotten cook” — also like Jim’s mom who had some difficulties in the kitchen — you can make your way over with an empty stomach to Benny’s, singing, “Pizza, Pasta, Salads & Wraps, Hoorah!”

Benny’s Gourmet
1730 Jerome Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11235
(corner of East 18th Street; between Ave Z & Voorhies Ave)
Tel: (347) 673-7340

As it says in the blurb to the right, Sheepshead Bites, the Bay’s first and only blog, will cover community meetings, development issues, local politics, interesting people, happenings and cool new places. But while that’s a mouthful, it’s not exactly saying much of substance. Which issues? What angle – if any – will we take on the meetings? Who are these so-called “interesting people”? What the heck is a “happening”?!

Well, dear readers, while we’ve got some ideas of our own, we’d much rather hear yours. So hit us up, and tell us exactly what you’d like us to cover and how you’d like us to cover it. Also, feel free to tell us about any neat-o features you’d like to see on the site, what you think of the site design, what community-related websites and papers you read, and where you think coverage is in short supply. Got nothing to say? Don’t fret! Feel free to just say hi and let us know who you are.

We can’t wait to hear from you, Sheepshead Bay!

[where: 11235]