Another Unofficial Blog Launched Under the Radar

Under the radar if not more stealthy than any semi-submersible our Coast Guard hunts and tracks so well.  Peter Stinson the founder of CGBlog launched a new Blog back in April shortly after Ryan Erickson announced he had been handed control of CGBlog.

We like what Stinson has done.  It’s refreshing and reminds us of the CGBlog that existed during its first year.  Welcome back Peter, welcome back.

Stinson’s inuagral post to his new Blog:

If you build it, will they come?

Who knows?

This is a little experiment.  I’m going to start this blog, and yet not tell anyone about it for a while. Just post.  I don’t think I’m going to do anything to promote it; perhaps I’ll add an RSS feed, or maybe I’ll cut off the RSS altogether.  My thinking is that this blog will be a little edgier, push the boundaries even further, than An Unofficial Blog. I have some things I want to say that I don’t want to say over at An Unofficial Blog or over at my Musings, and yet they are about… well, you know… I can’t actually write it, because I want to see if I can keep this out of the aggregaters and alerts.

Anyway, consider it an experiment in blogging under the radar.

If you swing by here please comment below; I’d love to hear how you stumbled upon here and if you are a regular reader of one of my other blogs.

Social Media Changes to Admiral Thad Allen’s Blog

A reader left a comment on our post Troubled CGBlog Finds a New Home that made a comment on a change to the Commandant of the Coast Guards Blog that had escaped us.

iCommandant has had a meager 5 comments since the change to the comment policy. And Master Chief Bowen’s blog disabled the comment feature completely since this weekend. I wonder if the MCPO-CG couldn’t handle the flood of negative comments regarding his change to the SWE point system. It looks like his legacy will be that of the MCPO-CG who screwed up the enlisted advancement system for years before it can be fixed again.

The Commandant turned off anonymous comments!  Admiral Allen has fancied himself the innovator among military service chiefs in the world of social media.  But what could be the goal of this shift in policy, the Commandant doesn’t do his own moderation so is this simply at tact to save CG-092 some time.

Coast Guard recently launched a new Blog  “Compass,” that wasn’t ready for prime time when launched.  It’s still off to a slow start and frankly it appears that the format and content lacked strategic vision and tactical implementation.

The Commandant’s new comment policy:

Anonymous comments have been disabled for this journal. It is preferred that you use your real name when posting a comment. WE WILL POST THE NAME YOU ENTER WHEN YOU SUBMIT YOUR COMMENT. Also, you are welcome to use Open ID or other user technologies that may be available.

Troubled CGBlog Finds a New Home

Click to Visit CGBlog

Ryan Erickson announced on Sunday that his site CGBlog.org has found a new home and a new publisher.  Last year CGBlog published a long and lengthy list of reader rules in its comment policy that caught the attention of some of its own readers.  The site then went thru a period of moderation before opening free text comments up again.  Given the stringent rules on comments in place and the Blogs well known distaste for anonymous and pseudonymous Blogging and comments, they then allowed a reader violate their comment policy for months.

At the time some speculated that the CGBlog reader “MrJacksonThomas,” (which is a play on this sites founder Mr. Thomas Jackson) was actually a CGBlog contributor.  We don’t support that theory here at Coast Guard Report, but our own traffic reports substantiate an increase in hits by 27 to 32% each time the MJT reader would attack this site on CGBlog’s comments.  This chapter in CGBlog’s history has never been explained, but alone does not in our opinion have anything to do with the current state of CGBlog.

The CGR team can attest to the incridble amount of time it takes to keep up with a site of this size and meet reader demand for news, information and investigative reports.

In March of this year Peter Stinson the founder of CGBlog turned over control of the site to Erickson.  Stinson reports that he had other projects he needed to focus on and lacked the time to keep up with the site.  On May 22nd, Erickson essentially noted the same reasons for his desire to move.  This is not unusual at all, last September Thomas Jackson began looking for someone to take on this site saying very much the same thing “he needed to work on other projects.”

CGBlog has a place in the Coast Guard Family of Blogs and we look forward to its continued home in Blogosphere.

Please recall that a few weeks ago I announced that the site was getting too hard to run by myself and I would slow my posting to it. Well, I’m sure I didn’t disappoint as I have lived up to this. I also put out my feelers via that post in an effort of finding someone who would be willing to either partner in running it or taking it over completely…. Well we’ve found a very generous individual in Dan Trimble out on the West Coast who understood the need, or rather want, to keep CGBlog going, and in a classy way.   Ryan Erickson

Coast Guard Report wishes Dan Trimble all the success in the word.

CNO Shore Activities Sailor of the Year Announced

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Rebekah Blowers, Chief of Naval Operations Public Affairs

WASHINGTON (NNS) — The chief of naval operations (CNO) announced the winners of the CNO Shore Activities Sailor of the Year (SOY) in a ceremony at the Pentagon May 29.

Adm. Gary Roughead, CNO, announced Hospital Corpsman 1st Class (SW/AW/FMF) James Nicholson, as the CNO Shore Activities SOY. Nicholson will be meritoriously advanced to chief petty officer and receive a Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medal in an official ceremony in July.

The other three candidates were Explosive Ordnance Disposal 1st Class (EWS/SW) Vincent Demakas, the Total Force SOY; Storekeeper 1st Class (EXW/AW) Kesha McKibben, the Vice CNO SOY; and Religious Program Specialist 1st Class (FMF) Chasity Morales, the Fleet Forces Command Shore SOY. Each of the candidates received a Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medal from the CNO during the ceremony.