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It seems like a good idea to reiterate our comment policy, especially since some things might not be apparent since we now use Facebook's comment plug-in to manage comments: 

• Even with Facebook registration, we still require real names. If we see a name we suspect is fictitious, we will check it against public databases. With Facebook, however, we also can now look at your profile. Fake accounts are usually easy to spot. We ban people from making comments with names we do not believe are the person's true identity. Interestingly, the way it works with Facebook, the person doesn't even appear to know they've been banned. I can still see their comments in our comment moderation tool even though the comments are not appearing on the website.
• Attacks on public officials are a special case. The higher up in office, and the less directly connected to our local community, the more leeway is allowed, but name-calling and personal attacks rarely illuminate or add to a worthwhile discussion. We reserve the right in our sole judgment to hide comments that we find offensive or inappropriate.
• Racism is never tolerated. 
• We still do not allow personal insults. Some insults are obvious, others are more subtle, and we don't always catch them. Any comment we suspect of containing a personal insult, we hide. Only the person who made the comment and their Facebook-connected friends will see the comment. 
• We don't allow profanity.  
• We expect civil discourse and obvious trolls get their comments hidden and are subject to potential bans.
• Comments that stray off topic are also subject to being hidden.

No comment is ever hidden because of the content of the comment. All opinions are welcome so long as the comments are within our guidelines.

It takes a lot of work to cover the news of Genesee County but we would like to do more of it and do it better. That's where you come in: We need your financial support of The Batavian so we can keep doing what we've been doing for more than a decade.

We've signed on the Press Patron, an organization that handles the transactions of patronage for local news organizations. We're asking that you please support our effort to do the work of covering the news by clicking the "Support" button at the bottom of this post.

Thousands of people will see this post. It would take only 400 supporters at $5 a month to enable us to hire an additional staff member.  

An alternative to Press Patron is to subscribe through Facebook. Click Here.

Billie are taking the rest of the day and most of tomorrow off. We'll be out of town.

Happy New Year! And thank you for being part of The Batavian Community.

There will be some coverage posted while we're gone and we have people who can help us if anything comes up while we're gone.

But one thing that would help us in the future maintain coverage when we go away is your financial support.  Please click the "Support" button below and help us get to a position where we can hire more help.  Local news can't survive without reader support so we're asking for you to support The Batavian.

In the fall of 2018, I made the decision to take video seriously as an online-publishing medium and began working at learning how to make better videos and upgrading the equipment we needed to do it.

This year was our first full year of producing video at a serious pace. We published nearly 500 videos in 2019. Here are five favorites.

When David Bellavia asked me to travel to Washington, D.C., in June to attend a ceremony at the White House where he would receive the Medal of Honor, I was stunned by the invitation. This was the greatest honor of my journalism career.

I was the only working media from Genesee County on the guest list and was the only photojournalist present when Bellavia received a private tour of the Lincoln Memorial and the only photojournalist in the East Room after the ceremony. These are days I'll never forget. I think the video came out pretty well, too.

One morning in August, a friend told me about this event involving hot rods in Le Roy and since I was going to be in Le Roy anyway that I day, I decided to stop by. I had no idea what I was in for. For years, the Hardcore Happening has been one of the hidden jewels of Genesee County. It was fun to be there and it was fun to make this video.

"For the Loved and Loving: The Story of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument" was my first true effort at making a documentary. It was truly a labor of love and took months. To me, it's The Batavian's gift to the community, a document of a key part of local history.

I always enjoy meeting the members of the Batavia Muckdogs. They're often great guys but Milton Smith was something special. He's "Tony Gwynn nice" and was a joy to interview. I hope he has a long and successful career.

We published dozens of music videos in 2019. The performance at the Smokin' Eagle of Deep Blue playing "Born in Chicago" is one of the ones where everything worked -- clean audio and good visuals.

Thank you for your support of The Batavian in 2019 but there's one thing more you can do for us to help us bring you more news and more video. Become a supporter by clicking the button below.

Click the links below to view the following other Top 10 videos of 2019:

• Fatal accident, Pembroke, NY
• End of the standoff on Liberty Street Batavia
• Standoff on Liberty Street Batavia Part I
• Stabbing on Ross Street Batavia
• Recalling Michael Paladino
• House Fire, 109 Evans St., Batavia, NY
• Over the Border Mexican Food Truck opens in Batavia
• Press conference with David Bellavia Medal of Honor nominee
• Memorial for Corrections Officer Nick Bender

This was a our first full year of producing video on a regular basis. In total, our videos received 185,293 views.

Here are The Batavian's most-viewed stories for 2019:

• Search and rescue team deployed to find missing man in Indian Falls, by Billie Owens
• Tying balloons to deer carcasses is apparently a thing
• The time is near, Genesee County resident, when your house will be on fire and there's nobody available to respond
• Missing man Mark Dibble is found alive in Basom, by Billie Owens
• Batavia man killed while trying to assist woman being attacked on Ross Street
• Michelle G. Buckenmeyer, Obituary
• Home-invasion robbery suspect shot by homeowner in Stafford
• Mother and adult son killed in crash on snow-covered Route 98 in Elba
• Man who allegedly ran over his ex-wife with his truck could be in Batavia area, reward offered
• Hawley is asking residents statewide if they'd prefer 'Two New Yorks', Press Release

There were 1,217,743 visitors to The Batavian in 2019, a new site record.

This morning, both Billie and I are flying to Chicago for a local news conference sponsored by Google.

Google is flying in local publishers from all over the country to talk about local news, both how technology is shaping the way news is covered and what tools are available to help with revenue.  

We return on Thursday.

Our evenings will be free and since I've been to Chicago a few times, I'm looking forward to taking Billie to some of my favorite restaurants and bars.

We have coverage lined up for while we're gone and of course, we'll have computers with us so you can still expect to find local news on the site while we're traveling.

Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION), a trade organization I helped found eight years ago, is holding its annual conference in Nashville this year (first time it's not in Chicago).  

I'm leaving town today to attend that conference and hit a few honky-tonks. I will be giving a presentation on photojournalism for local news publishers.

We've got things covered while I'm gone but as we usually do, we like to let readers know things will be a bit different in how we do coverage.

In 1919 Arthur and Alma Davis, with their baby daughter Leoma, traveling by covered wagon from Nebraska to Southeast Colorado, staked a claim to a piece of land outside of Walsenburg.

One hundred years later, the Davis family still runs the ranch and will receive a Centennial Farm award from the State of Colorado at the State Fair in Pueblo on Friday.

Leoma was my grandmother so I will be at the State Fair with my father.

I fly to Denver today, where I will spend a couple of days visiting with my brother, two nieces, and a cousin, then my dad and I will drive down to Walsenburg.

While in Huerfano County, my dad and I will also visit La Veta, where my grandfather was born. My dad and I haven't been to Walsenburg together since I was a teenager, though we've both been back there in the interim (when I worked for GateHouse Media, I arranged for a visit to the company's paper in La Junta so I could visit Walsenburg).  

As is our practice, I'm telling you all this because obviously, when I'm out of town, it affects news coverage.  

Billie is remaining in Batavia. We've made sure the people who normally help us with coverage -- Mike Pettinella, Alecia Kaus, Jim Burns, Steve Ognibene, and the fine folks at WBTA -- are all aware and available to help out while I'm gone.

My laptop finally got tired of the rigors of being my laptop last week and quit. Marc Johnson at Millennium Computers was kind enough to hook me up with a loaner so I won't be completely out of the loop. It's Windows but I can make do, I guess.

The popularity of videos from The Batavian increased in June, when we published 47 videos.

Video viewership was up 39 percent, to 31,200 total views in June, and total minutes viewed was up 106 percent, which means more people are watching our videos and for a longer amount of time.

Last month, I wanted to share the message that we're working hard to produce quality videos that are worth your time to watch. It looks like a lot of people tuned in and found out that is true.

Our average views per video increased from 497 to 663.

Our five most viewed videos:

David Bellavia Hall of Heros Induction Ceremony

Stabbing on Ross Street Batavia         

Recalling Michael Paladino         

Press conference with David Bellavia Medal of Honor nominee   

Over the Border Mexican Food Truck opens in Batavia

Here are four of my personal favorites:

LOCAL BUSINESS OWNERS: You can sponsor our videos. To find out more contact our sales rep Zach Lee at zach@thebatavian.com

This will be the first post on The Batavian where comments are powered by code from Facebook and tied to Facebook's registration system. To comment, you will need a Facebook account.

Starting with this post, the website will display the Facebook commenting system. Older posts have the old commenting system and will retain the old comments.

Why the change? 

Because Facebook has better moderation tools than are available through our old commenting system. Also, practically the whole universe has a Facebook account now and sites that use Facebook comments get more comments on stories.

Why not? Because it feels a little like giving into the Borg. "You will be assimilated."  

I think it's the right move now but we'll see.

Facebook has other projects in the works to help local publishers like me, mostly through the trade association I helped create, Local Independent Online News Publishers, that makes me a little less wary of Facebook.

So, we'll see. In business, if you're not trying new things, you're dying. So we try new things.

You may have noticed, since last fall, we've been ramping up our video production.

Last month, The Batavian published 46 videos.  

In the past week, I've received several favorable comments about our videos.  It's always helpful to get feedback so I appreciate hearing what people think.

I hope you've been enjoying them, though I know not all of you have been watching them, which is kind of the point of this post.

Longtime readers know I worked hard over the years to become a better photographer. I'm taking the same approach with video. I'm working hard to learn how to shoot and edit videos that don't waste your time, that are worth your time to watch.

My concern is that many people who consume online news have come across, over the years, a lot of poorly produced video from local news sites. My concern is that you associate local online news video with something that isn't worth your time so you don't even bother with it now.

I hope to convince you that the videos we're publishing on The Batavian are worth your time. And I do believe I've gotten better -- though I still have a lot to learn -- over the past several months; heck, even over just the past month.

So, please, if you haven't been inclined to watch our videos until now, give them a little time.  

Here are four videos from May that you might have missed.

Sometime after 2 p.m., we noticed the site was running slow. At a little before 4:30, I opened a ticket with our hosting service. That is pretty much the precise moment the site went completely offline.

Servers going down is part of the business and I wasn't too worried. They go down for a bit, get a swift kick from a tech, and start running again. After a couple of hours, I thought it really unusual that it wasn't up and running again but still expected we would be back online soon.

When we weren't back up after five hours, I was pretty unhappy and stopped dealing with support by email and got them on the phone. They got two senior engineers on the phone with me and I got my IT guy on the phone.  

The four of us were on the phone together for more than four hours. We can't find the problem. There are no errors in any of the logs. Individually, every component of the server is handling requests as expected.

We did notice that pages with a single story load immediately. Pages with just a few stories load slow but they load.

So we've cut The Batavian's home page back from 20 stories to just 10. The fact that you're seeing this post shows that, yes, you can once again get to the home page. But it does have only 10 stories on it. It's not possible, it seems, to use the "next" button at the bottom of the page to get past that point.

One of our most popular sections is obituaries and that section is loading just fine.

We're all going to bed and will work on this issue more in the morning.

UPDATE 9:30 a.m.: The issue appears to be resolved. It turns out there was an old, no-longer-used connection to facebook.com, that was timing out.  It's been disabled and everything seems back to expected performance.

Howard Owens, publisher of The Batavian, received three awards in the annual Better Newspaper Contest sponsored by the New York Press Association.

Owens won first place for spot news photography and education coverage and second place for elections/politics coverage.

The five stories submitted for education coverage where:

• Adoption of 'Norms' at Alexander Board of Education retreat may have violated state's Open Meetings Law
• Five school districts in Genesee County restrict speech for board members
• Group of Alexander parents express frustration at how school district is handling discipline, student safety
• NYSSBA deputy director addresses confusion about free speech rights of school board members
• Parents in Alexander express concern school district is double dipping with new use fees

The five stories submitted for elections/politics coverage were:

• Before Larry Piegza wore a MAGA hat, he attacked Trump's alleged ties to Putin
• Collins mum on substance of insider trading charges, refuses to take questions at press conference
• Collins says he's innocent and he may have narrow path to beat insider trading case
• Langworthy vows GOP will replace Collins with candidate who supports Trump's agenda
• Profile: Nate McMurray, Democratic capitalist, bucking the trend of his party

Mark Gutman, photographer for the Batavia Daily News, was also honored with two awards, including second place for photographer of the year. He also received third place for sports feature photo.

Mallory Diefenbach, staff writer with the Batavia Daily News, won second place for health coverage. Jessica Dillon received first place for agriculture coverage. John Anderson and Zach Lyman won first place for best use of video. John Anderson placed second for best column. John Anderson, Scott DeSmit, and Matt Leader received first place for in-depth reporting. 

The Batavian was judged in Division I. The Batavia Daily News in Division II.

Today we're excited to debut a new video series exclusive to Genesee County: Batavia's Best Businesses.

We are producing this series in partnership with WBTA AM/FM.

The series offers local businesses an opportunity to promote themselves through a short documentary-style video about their business hosted by Nici Johnson. Our goal is to make short videos about a business that both informs and entertains local viewers and further encourages them to support all of the great locally owned businesses we have in Genesee County.

The videos will be distributed on The Batavian, WBTA, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Twitter. Businesses owners can also download a copy of the video to distribute their own social media channels. Soon, we will also have a website dedicated to Batavia's Best Businesses (bataviasbestbusinesses.com, of course).

Local business owners interested in more information: Call Lorne Way or Jim Ernst at WBTA at (585) 344-1490. 

I'm catching a plane for Miami this morning. I'm attending a conference there related to my involvement with Local Independent Online News publishers.

I'll miss the big windstorm but we have people to help Billie with coverage of that event as well as other coverage while I'm out of town, plus I'll be checking in and doing what I can remotely.

Over the weekend we started using a new custom-made video player for The Batavian's videos. Here is an example.

We have video sponsor positions open for local businesses. If you would like more information about becoming a video sponsor, contact Lisa Ace at lisa@thebatavian.com.

In an effort to improve the response time of the server that hosts thebatavian.com, the host company performed a software upgrade overnight.

Instead of improving the response time, it's made matters worse.

Technicians think they've identified the problem and are working on it.

If they are unable to fix the problem, they will rollback the software to the previous version. I've instructed them to do that at any point today they've reached the conclusion that is necessary, which would take the site offline for an hour or so.

I'll update this post as needed.

UPDATE 10:53 a.m.: That problem appears to be resolved. 

UPDATE 12:20 p.m.: According to our tests, the server response time is now twice as fast as it was in similar tests a couple of days ago.

Most viewed stories of 2018:

• Tying balloons to deer carcasses is apparently a thing
• The DiSalvos' Christmas lights are back this year after 2017 hiatus, by Billie Owens
• UPDATE: Suspect in Thruway standoff taken into custody, by Billie Owens
• The bar formerly known as Billy Goats will close its doors for the last time Tuesday night
• Fully involved structure fire at Stumblin' Inn, Elba
• Apparent accidental self-inflicted fatal shooting under investigation
• Group of Alexander parents express frustration at how school district is handling discipline, student safety
• Four-foot alligator found in vacant building on Lehigh Avenue
• Man shot and killed after pointing handgun at deputy outside Log Cabin Restaurant
• Man in custody after domestic incident on Washington Avenue, suspected of setting house fire, by Billie Owens

Here are the 10 stories I wrote during 2018 that I like the best:

• Five school districts in Genesee County restrict speech for board members
• BPD officer who shot robber in 1977 says 'don't let others second guess you'
• The Batavian tours the Buffalo Detention Facility
• Muckdogs hire minor league groundskeeper with major league dreams
• In 2018, Muckdogs fans have watched perhaps the most intriguing player in the NYPL
• Batavia undone by key injury and great opposing QB in state championship game
• Collins says he's innocent and he may have narrow path to beat insider trading case
• Driver accused in fatal hit-and-run reportedly tried to talk deputy into letting her go during earlier DWI stop
• Adoption of 'Norms' at Alexander Board of Education retreat may have violated state's Open Meetings Law
• In effort to fight burglaries, County reviewing new regulation scheme for businesses that sell used merchandise

From all of us at The Batavian, Happy New Year. Thank you, readers and sponsors, for your support of our effort to provide news coverage of our community. Billie and I are grateful for the opportunity and pleasure of living here and being able to do what we love, which is local community news.

Billie and I will be away from the scanners for the next 24 hours.

We're driving down to Binghamton for Batavia High School's football state championship semi-final game.

The game is today at 3 p.m. and you can listen to it live on WBTA.