The David Allen Blog, as it’s dubbed, today marks four years of existence. Huzzah!

(The subject line above is a Dylan reference, for anyone scratching your head.)

I started blogging Sept. 12, 2007, a bit later than some but earlier than many, and I’m glad I did. The immediacy of a blog compared to print, the control over the material that a blog allows me (in print there may be a photo slated but no room to run it), the give and take with an audience, the compilation of a sort of oral history of the valley through your comments, all make this an enjoyable forum.

It’s always a treat, and an honor, really, when a Google search for some old Inland Valley business brings up one of my posts as nearly the only information online on the subject. We get a lot of new readers that way.

How are we doing? Numbers-wise, pretty good. This blog is neck and neck with the IE Courts blog to be No. 1 in readership among the Bulletin and Sun’s blogs: Some months it’s me, some months it’s Courts. (I would do a hyperlink to Courts but why help them beat me?) After that comes Upland Now and RC Now.

Speaking of numbers, we’ve published 1,370 posts and received 6,064 comments.

How are we doing creatively? That’s for you to say. I know this blog could be better. My newspaper column is my primary focus, obviously, and it takes virtually my entire work week to produce it. This blog is shoehorned in as I have time to work on it, an hour here, an hour there. Regrettable, but there you have it. That’s one reason there’s a lot of photos, frankly; time for original research is scarce.

Still, I hope you enjoy what I’m able to provide here. Any suggestions, comments, questions, criticism or other feedback, please post away. This is your forum too and I’m always curious what you think. And thank you for reading.