hawkins

The Power of Photos

A Million Hits

You’ve all heard the old adage: A picture is worth a thousand words.

Nowhere is that more true than with our photos of the horrendous furniture store fire that claimed the lives of nine Charleston firefighters.

In the last week, photos of the fire and the emotional aftermath posted on Charleston.net have been accessed more than 1 million times. That’s an astounding number that reflects the worldwide interest in this story.

In selecting those photos, our editors have tried hard not to step over the line between telling a heart-rending story and sensationalizing a tragedy.

We have had a few letters accusing us of being insensitive, but they have been far outweighed by readers and fire department officials thanking us for our handling of the stories and photos.

I can tell you that the response has been gratifying.

 

Server Overload

Terrible timing

If you've had trouble accessing Charleston.net today, it is because we have been operating on a backup server, with half the capacity of our main unit.

As luck would have it, we had taken our main server down to work out some bugs that had been prompting it to reboot itself.

With the enormous traffic coming to our site because of the tragic fire, our backup unit cannot keep up.

We have stripped many of the features unrelated to the fire from Charleston.net and are minutes away from converting back to the main server.

We'll know soon if it will hold up.

Worth a Click

Cheap Gas
We continue to add new features to Charleston.net, and one that I think is a goldmine is a service that offers tips on where to find the cheapest gas in greater Charleston.

Those local gas prices are found under Worth a Click as you scroll down the right hand side of the home page.

Today we let readers know that they could pump a gallon of regular for $2.79 at the Shell station at Rivers and Otranto in North Charleston, or for an even cheaper $2.76 at Big T's in Goose Creek.

For those of us still shelling out (no pun intended) $2.89 or more, that's news you can use to keep money in your pocket.

Check it out.     

Goodloe-Johnson's Party

Smell Test

I’ve had a couple of e-mails questioning our Saturday story reporting that companies that do business with the Charleston County School District were asked to pony up $7,000 for a going away party for outgoing Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson. The gist of the e-mails is that we weren’t being fair to Goodloe-Johnson, as this was a practice that apparently started with the farewell party for her predecessor, Ron McWhirt.

We’re checking that out now and also trying to determine if this goes on in other school districts.

Regardless, it’s a lousy idea. SSC Service Solutions, which chipped in $6,000, has a $3.4 million six-year custodial contract with the district, which could be extended for four more years. So what do you think their options were when school officials asked them to contribute to the party? They couldn’t get their checkbook out fast enough.

School board member Arthur Ravenel Jr., put the deal in proper perspective when he said: “It doesn’t pass the smell test.”