A little about the All Things Sabine community page
I started All Things Sabine a few months ago, really as a means of sharing some older photographs I have amassed from my days at the newspaper and working on a project on the Many area for the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities many years ago. I’ve since added things such as articles and photos from old newspaper archives as well as allowed others to share photos. The success of All Things Sabine beat my expectations by far. I imagined a couple hundred or so likes at most. All Things Sabine now has over 3,100 likes, which is huge to me for a page which appeals largely to a fairly small and specific area (Sabine Parish).
I guess the impact of this page really struck me when I published a post a couple days ago about a missing dog, who was taken from the parking lot of Brookshire’s on July 1 and who was a pet, friend and all around companion of a friend of ours. Within minutes, literally, several hundred people had been reached (we get stats on the page). Within hours, over 6,000 people had been reached. Within 24 hours, almost 200 people had shared the post on their pages. It has moved me that this page can be used not only to share photos and stories, but also to help get the word out on matters of immediate concern, such as this missing dog and his heartbroken human. It has made me reevaluate my commitment to this page, in a good way. Before, I was basically posting things when I got a chance… might be a few things a day, or it might not be more than one or two posts a week. Knowing the interest in this page, I will try to be more consistent, as best as I can anyway. I really love the fact that this page is flourishing and I believe it has so much more potential.
For one, I have started hard keying in the names of those individuals featured in biographical articles or photographs that I post, so that they can be found on search engines. In doing this, you might see that I repost items I have already posted… I am trying to avoid this, but because there has been an awful lot posted without any previous “tagging” or the like, it is a bit disorganized and difficult to find things one might be interested in. So please bear with me while I try to put some rhyme and reason to the posts on this page. I will also “tag” places featured in articles, such as St. Joseph’s Catholic School or Spring Ridge Community, or Florien High School, Sabine High School, etc. Again, this will make it so that a lot of interesting photographs, articles and stories can be readily found on the Internet.
I have always hoped that others would contribute to the page as well, and have made it wide open so that others can do this. Photos and the like can be added and shared by anyone. I had a gentleman come into our office one day wanting us to scan a really old photograph he had of his great, great grandparents. He said he has a huge family and many of his family members had over the years asked him for a copy of the photo. He wanted several copies printed of the photo so he would have them available when asked about them. I told him about this page, and he was thrilled, so we scanned the photo and posted it and he later told us he knew of at least 50 family members from all over the country who capitalized on his share and were able to download the invaluable photograph. His story excited me about the opportunities for the page.
Since then, many neat things have happened, such as others bringing in old photos and I scan a copy for them so they have the photo digitally and they give me permission to share the photo. Also, people have brought in older yearbooks, which we scan and upload the entire book into an album so they can be preserved digitally and shared. People have asked me to post basketball photos from certain years, and I do what I can to oblige… though the basketball and sports photos published in The Index are mostly after 1972 and during some years there are plenty and other years photos are somewhat scarce.
I recently began sharing some of my own “today” photographs of the area on this page, and that has received far better response than I would have imagined. Some of these have received several hundred likes which I didn’t even think was possible! And more recently, I began sharing time lapses taken in the area, which are basically a series of photographs taken in succession and then merged into a video file. I hope I am not boring anyone with these, they are a lot of fun for me to take and sharing them makes the whole process all the more rewarding.
I have received many positive comments on All Things Sabine, some that have really moved me. People have expressed to me that they have relished older photos and stories of family members, friends and loved ones.. some times photos of their own family members they did not even know existed. I get comments such as these, which are always uplifting:
“I love your page. I check it often to see family, old classmates, and maybe my own or kids pictures. Just wanted to let yall know.”
“Keep the photos coming! Those were the good ole days!”
“I truly want to take this moment to say thank you so much for creating this page! Some of these pictures are so bitter sweet. Some people I remember well, some I don’t know, and some I forgot I knew. Once again, thank you, and it makes me want to get on Facebook daily to see the posts.”
And one of my favorites comments:
“I am not from Sabine Parish— and I have no family there — but I really enjoy seeing all of your posts. They all paint a picture of “community.” I like that!”
Anyway, I hope to keep growing this page. I appreciate all the comments and especially all of the shares others have contributed of their own photos and memories. I would love to see the sharing pick up some, so it can truly become a community page and sort of maintain itself during times I become very preoccupied with my kids, rest and relaxation, business, or general life! So if ever someone wants to share photos or articles or what not, but does not know how or encounters errors or issues in doing so, please contact me and I will gladly help with getting it posted. Anyone who has old pictures (old being very relative…the page may get as many likes on a photo as recent as the 1980s or 1990s as on a photo from the early 1900s) they want to share but these pictures are only on hard copy (not digitally), feel free to bring the photo(s) to my office at SatCom (across from The Sabine Theater in downtown Many) and any of us here can scan it for you. If you bring in a “thumb drive” (USB storage media, you can get them for as little as a few bucks at most stores), I will copy a high resolution image of your photo to your drive at no charge. To the degree that I am able, I can even help with optimizing the photo (increasing resolution, balancing levels, eliminating minor scratches or imperfections, etc).
We can help share yearbooks, brochures, programs, church directories, and the like. Just message me if you want to share something larger like this.
I have even thought about letting this be a community page where people can post upcoming events, and maybe even some local news. I do want All Things Sabine to remain a place where positive prevails. I was editor of the local newspaper during most of the 1990s and kicked off the first local online newspaper and community forum and through those endeavors, I well understand the general public interest in controversy… I really wish for All Things Sabine to be different though. I wish for it to be a page basically void of negativity… we see and hear enough of that anyway, online, on other’s Facebook pages, etc.
If anyone has ideas or suggestions for All Things Sabine, I am wide open. I’d love to hear ideas of additions, changes, or how to do things (I am hardly a Facebook expert… everything I have done with this page I have learned as I go and I am still learning), or ideas on how to generate more contributions from the public. Post them here in response on this post, or message me through the page.
Thank everyone for their interest and input : )
-Shannon