it's been a long day. Here's a short explanation.

All day, loading The Kansan's Web site has been slow. That might continue a little bit more for a few more hours.

The email was down all afternoon, so I dedicated a majority of my time dealing with those issues.

Tonight, there'll be a few more updates. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

Multiple times over the past month or so, I've deleted comments that I considered to be over the line in terms of personally attacking someone, whether it be a fellow reader, Unified Government Mayor/CEO Joe Reardon or various other people in Wyandotte County.

These comments are unacceptable and will be deleted as soon as I see them.

This policy will upset some and readers may consider me "hiding the truth" or trying to "cover-up corruption."

Far from it.

I've allowed MANY comments criticizing the Unified Government, school districts and other governing bodies in Wyandotte County. See the school district outsourcing stories and the school cancellation stories for that.

Disagreement is allowed. In fact, it's encouraged. You are a bad Wyandotte Countian ( or Dotte) and a bad American if you never criticize something from your government.

But do it in a civil nature. Personal attacks take away from the fair criticism levied and personal attacks are not necessary.

Readers, since I'm out and about covering news and sports, I will not be near the Web site all the time. If there's a comment that might be "over the line," email me at nicks@kansascitykansan.com or NJSloan212@gmail.com.

Or perhaps, I could give one or two readers some authority in deleting any personal attacks if I'm not around. If interested, contact me at the same email addresses.

If me not allowing these comments turns you off from The Kansan, so be it.

But no more personal attacks. If that's your thing, find another Web site.

More links have been added to the "Links" section of The Kansan's Web site.

As far as I can tell, all links have been fixed as well.

Again, if you want your link added to the page, email nicks@kansascitykansan.com or NJSloan212@gmail.com.

Feel free to keep any photos you see of your favorite high school team you see on The Kansas City Kansan. No charge or no worry over a copyright infringement.

All I ask is your continued support and interest in The Kansan.

And a reminder – if you have any photos or information you would like to share, feel free to email me at nicks@kansascitykansan.com. It's difficult for me to make to a lot of games since I'm a one man show, but I want to promote Wyandotte County sports as much as possible.

Thanks.

Readers will hopefully notice a new menu "button" on the top strip entitled "Links."

It's The Kansan's new section. Inside "Links," you can find the following:

• Links to agendas for most governing bodies in Wyandotte County, such as the UG Board of Commissioners, the boards of education in the county and other agendas.

• Links to various emergency services in KCK, Bonner Springs and Edwardsville.

• Links to court pages, where dockets are available.

• Links to the pages of school districts and private schools.

• Links to neighborhood organizations and groups, such as CABA, the LRA and so on.

Of course, the initial list doesn't scratch the service of all the links in Wyandotte County. And if your link didn't make it, the omission was not intentional.

If you are from an organization that's not a business, email your pages and links to nicks@kansascitykansan.com and they'll be included free of charge.

If you register to the Web site, you can place Buy/Sell/Trade, Job and House postings for free.

All it takes is a few minutes to register and you can post as many as you want. Looking at traffic numbers each month, more and more visitors are visiting these pages. There is interest and it's worth the two minutes to sign up and make the posting.

With this week generally being among the slowest of the year, there will be some new additions this week.

• A new obituaries page will be created. Until the page is set up, obituaries will appear on the front page. Apologies for the inconvenience, but that's the only place they'll fit.

• From here on out, 80 percent of the sports stories will only appear in the Sports section. This doesn't mean I'll be cutting down coverage. It'll be enhanced, but it'll be placed in that section. Feature stories and games I cover (usually two days a week) will still appear on the front.

A few minor tweaks will be made during the week. More later and thanks for continuing to read The Kansan.

If you have a Facebook profile, you can now be a fan of The Kansas City Kansan.

The new page can be viewed here. We previously set up a Kansan Facebook page, but it has since become outdated.

Beginning today, there is a new minor feature to The Kansan's Web site.

Along the right side of the Web site, there is a section called Regional Headlines. This has been there since this format was relaunched back in September, but I haven't done too much with it.

That changes today.

Expect 12-16 new headlines throughout the day concerning events across the state line and throughout the Kansas City metro area. Stories from Topeka and Lawrence will occasionally be posted as well.

Traditional news sources will be linked, but I'll also link some of Kansas City's best blogs as well.

So, if you are interested in events outside of Wyandotte County, check out the Regional Headlines section.

Beginning this week The Kansas City Kansan will have a few new features.

The first: Forums. The new "Forums" section is located to the right of People and to the left of Buy/Sell/Trade on the top row.

While reporting the news of Wyandotte County is the most important function of the new Kansan, another important part is increasing discussion among its residents and those who are interested in the county's affairs.

Considering I'm a libertarian on most issues, I only have three rules:

• Be respectful: Everyone here has done a great job of debating without any personal attacks. Keep it up.

• No nastiness: No racist attacks or anything in that regard. Basically, using common sense and courtesy would be awesome.

• You have to register to the Web site: No "anonymous" comments are allowed in the Forums. Registering is free and takes no more than two or three minutes.

Right now, there are four forums:

• Wyandotte County: Any issue related to Wyandotte County you want to discuss? It goes here. Whether it involves education, food, business, history, politics or entertainment, anything related to the county goes here.

• Kansas City: Interested in discussing issues across the state line or across county lines in Kansas? Go here.

• Politics: Some of the biggest debates so far here have involved issues of politics. Hence, a political forum was created.

• Sports: All discussion of high school athletics, Kansas City Royals, Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State Wildcats or my beloved Missouri Tigers goes here.

Thanks so much for visiting and reading The Kansan. Traffic numbers have been outstanding (two record months in a row) so far since I took over sole ownership.

More soon. I fully expect that the Forums section will remain low on activity for the first few weeks. But once more traffic hits and more readers register, it will hopefully become the place to go for Wyandotte County discussion.

The reason the site hasn't been updated for a couple hours can be explained by the pictures below:

My tire popped on Interstate 70 this afternoon and I was stranded for over an hour.

With that in mind, I'm probably going to change my entire set of tires over the next week or so.

Is there any place – preferably local – readers would recommend for me to get this done?

Tonight The Kansas City Kansan will be upgrading its Web security. At around 6 or 7 p.m. this evening, the site will be down momentarily as these upgrades are made.

The site should be only down a minimal amount of time.

Thanks.

I've received great feedback from those interested in blogging. I've collected email addresses and will be sending out one mass email to everyone this weekend detailing the process.

Again, if interested, contact me at nicks@kansascitykansan.com or at NJSloan212@gmail.com

Thanks.

Part of my mission with The Kansas City Kansan (along with reporting the news) is turning the Web site into a place of daily conversation and to increase debate on important topics in Wyandotte County or those that affect Wyandotte Countians, or "Dottes."

With that mind, I would encourage any Wyandotte County resident or someone involved with Wyandotte County to become either a community correspondent or a regular blogger for The Kansan.

The bad news – no pay – yet.

The good news is the exposure you could give to your neighborhood in Wyandotte County, an organization in Wyandotte County and quite frankly, yourself.

Also, you don't have report the news, as that's my duty. You could do 100 percent of the work from home at your convenience.

If interested, please call me at (913) 461-5630 or email me at nicks@kansascitykansan.com or my personal email at NJSloan212@gmail.com.

No experience needed – only a passion for your subject matter and community.
 

Beginning today, The Kansas City Kansan will return to the blog format.

While the decision will probably upset some readers, we'll be introducing new features on the Web site that will help readers navigate their way around the site.

The idea of user generated content will be re-introduced. The Kansan would love readers to register, comment and post their own material. If it's about Wyandotte County or a hot topic, it will most likely be "promoted" to the front page. Readers can either prepare posts on their own or submit stories by clicking the "Send us news" tab. 

Unfortunately, readers will have to register one more time. It should take no longer than two minutes. For those who registered when The Kansan was in a blog earlier, the process is identical.

Thanks for checking out The Kansan.