Santa Barbara News, Views, & Hyperlocal Information
How do you describe Edhat.com, the one-time “Community Website” and aggregator of news which has digressed into a multi-community bulletin board? Craig Smith, famous local blogger who also writes about Santa Barbara for the Montecito Messenger, has this description… “the quirky website that links to news stories and lets readers ask for referrals and post gripes.” Not bad.
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates.
{ It's not a hair-splitting technicality to insist that the volunteer advisory committees are Santa Barbarans' oversight of the departments, not arms of the staff, not... } – May 25, 6:05 AM
{ Not sure why you need to split hairs on this - being on a citizens advisory commission to Parks and Rec can be seen as... } – May 24, 9:23 AM { What's the city department in which she is a volunteer? (Being on a commission is not being part of that department, although Wiscomb unfortunately seems... } – May 24, 7:32 AM { If I had to choose between Landecker and any of the other three pre-endorsed Democratic candidates - White - Hart - Alley - I would... } – May 23, 5:25 PM { Be sure to hold all the other candidates to the same fiscal scrutiny - proven track records managing business enterprises, and not leaving new management... } – May 23, 3:36 PM { Perfect description for the incredible Lorraine Cruz Carpenter - the highest return on investment value for effectiveness city employee we have. Yo Lorraine! You two... } – May 24, 3:08 PM { District elections would turn this city into squabbling turf wars and more dysfunction than it is when just politically partisan interests take over the council... } – May 24, 12:03 PM { So awesome! Yet another reason for district elections!!! } – May 24, 10:58 AM { One sincere, focused, credible and dedicated person can make a difference. May we all learn from Sharon Byrne's example and those who also agreed something... } – May 24, 10:07 AM
{ And thank you, Sharon, for your compassionate leadership and hard work. } – May 24, 10:01 AM { Fantastic!!!! And this is a new organization but already has a great track record. Sharon, you are too good for city council. Your good efforts... } – May 24, 3:04 PM { Cool! Second place in any of the competition's categories is a terrific accomplishment. } – May 24, 2:50 PM { Eric---Way to go! Keep it up!!! 
} – May 24, 10:40 AM { John, I had no idea you were going to write this! I guess I can't go back now, can I? --E.L. } – May 24, 7:30 AM { Love this story. Thanks, John. } – May 24, 5:34 AM
Upcoming Events: County Calendar
Whose City Is It, Anyway?
96 Comments
Why I Am Against Measure Y
92 Comments
Hot Topic Alert: Neighborhood Activism Goes Online
81 Comments
SEIU Units and Firefighters Joined with Mickey and Dick Flacks to Host Fund-Raising Party for Cathy Murillo
73 Comments
Homeless Inc.
65 Comments
Regarding the Homeless: Santa Barbara’s Loss, La Jolla’s Gain
62 Comments
A colorful place for old ladies to discuss things they disapprove of while taking a break from staring through their blinds.
A place that sponsors articles saying `visitors to Rincon Beach public beach should not trespass into the `locals only’ area portion of that public beach’, and then censors polite comments that point out that public beaches are paid for by the public, and should be available to everyone in the public.
That goes along with the “community” website that deletes comments discussing the “community’s” editorial policies.
Edhat is similar to a community bulletin board — nothing wrong with that. I don’t find the Edhat comments any more disturbing than the snarky know-it-all ones that I find on this web site. I actually like the community photos on Edhat more than the professional ones on this site, which seem too polished and artificial looking (to me). The internets are big enough for both SB View and Edhat: No need to disparage the other site. (I don’t see Edhat as competition to SB View, just fills a different niche.)
I’d describe it as a community bulletin board, yes, but also as a place for breaking news via citizen reports, and also as a valuable community resource, both for the immediate happenings as well as its referrals and also to give a sense of the community. It may not be a community I like that much sometimes, but communities extend outside of one’s own parameters. Edhat provides a huge service.
I agree with Westsider about there being room for all. And snarkiness knows no bounds. (Rather than having comments simply vanish, as here, I like that edhat puts the deleted in a separate category – never seen that before! …They probably also delete, but who knows what.)
What’s Up?
Thanks for the brief post about Edhat. Think I’ll visit.
It certainly has its value as a bulletin board, and an effective source of moment-by-moment communication during emergencies, like the multiple fires. But when residents begin to get lulled into thinking that their needs as citizens of this community are fulfilled journalistically by edhat alone, SB is in trouble. Its ever-changing rule book and refusal to link to stories on certain sites (this one among them), when it regularly aggregates from others, makes it difficult to consider it a comprehensive site for local news and information.
I wish all our sites well! Thanks for what you do!!!
Edhat = liberal screed
Edhat is dominated by the Hate the Rich, class envy crowd. Yet they all are looking for bargains to rip off when it comes to paying out their own money. Hard to believe they can retain advertisers because this is not a high-discretionary income crowd. You would think instead of sitting around all day posting about how much they Hate the Rich in this town, they would get a second job and try to join them, or at least have something productive to show for the number of hours they spend their complaining about “not being able to afford living in Santa Barbara” and someone is supposed to give me things for free. Or else you get played the “compassionate guilt” card quickly dealt out by their vast majority of subscribers. Methinks edhat is where public employees go during their working hours when they are invariably “not at their desk”.
Cant imagine what they can cover in Sonoma from here and where exactly in Mid Peninsula? The market selection is questionable
At times, I think of Edhat as my own webpage. I use it post my photos without having to moderate comments. As others have said, it also has up to date information on any number of stories. More up to date than “real” news sites like the News Press or KEYT.
I enjoy SBView as much as Edhat, but if I could change one thing about both sites it would be the end of anonymity. Just yesterday Randi Zuckerberg of Facebook urged the same. I read the comments here and there and I think, “You’re all wearing burkas.”
Who are you people?
That’s a pretty funny comment considering edhat won’t even let you have a name unless you pay up (which I would never do as long as the rules change weekly and comments of paying members are being deleted). Anonymity is a two way street. If you’re going to require real names, you also need to have an open and freely discussed moderation policy, not just “email ed@edhat.com“.
Regarding their other sites, you can see the comment count is minimal and subscriber number is conspicuously absent. Edhat only works in a media vacuum populated by elitist busybody NiMBYs.
On a final note, since my comments are virtually banned over there, anyone know a good podiatrist who is reasonable, discrete and is an expert on advanced cases of toenail fungus?
Good comment, Dano. I think I agree. I must be poor and elitist, because the comments on SB View are quite irritating to me. I guess I’ll crawl back to my backyard, resume complaining about the rich, look at some photos of dogs with toenail polish, and quit peaking over the fence trying to get a view.
Thanks Pat.
El Smurfo, if you posted with less vitriol then you might still be posting on Edhat. Are you on Facebook? It’s free to anyone who posts with their real name, and they change policy much more often than Edhat. Next complaint?
Funny, the folks at Edhat don’t spend their time trashing the Santa Barbara View or its readers. I guess they’re too busy being “elitist busybody NIMBYS.”
Just a thought: LOL! — perhaps one reason you don’t see any trashing of the SBV is that you don’t see on edhat any items headlined about SBView on to which to comment. I suspect just about everyone who reads/writes here visits edhat; I don’t think it’s reciprocal.
When you present yourself as a community resource you open yourself to critiques of your anti community behavior. Sbview has many fewer articles on edhat than edhat does about the News Press. The ironic thing is that edhat’s arbitrary editing and refusal to openly discuss their policies are the exact same gripes its readers have against the News Press. I think a lot of folks are disappointed in the current state of edhat given the potential it shows in times of need.
Good point about the newspress. They has such thin skin and will probably unlink all Craig Smith posts.
I read both sites regularly and have noticed that edhat has never linked to a story or a column in SantaBarbaraView, not even when important pieces are directly sent to them (and I’ve sent them links). Don’t understand why.
They are proud of their thin skin. Even today, they link to a Craig Smith article about edhat which state proudly that edhat is a “set of rules”…of course these rules only apply to others. If that doesn’t describe Santa Barbara busybody culture, nothing does.
Thanks for posting the Edhat Web site. I’ll have to check it out. Always enjoy discovering new blogs about the community.
Why would I vote for Sbview as best local website when you close comments to the story?
Another hilarious Seibertism, coming from a site that doesn’t even allow discussion of it’s editorial policies. My last comment on their increasing list of rules was totally deleted…not something they tell you about in that huge list (BTW, take a look at edhat from 2 years ago at the Internet Time Machine and you will see they are not being honest about how out of control their censorship rules have become). They are even deleting scientific citations from Grandmothers because they are “too mean”…sheesh.
P.S. If you want folks on the Internet to use their real names, start at your home site where all of the moderators hide behind the name edone while censoring others.