The millionth comment countdown: We hit the milestone

By Staff     Sep 23, 2009

09-23-09 at 23:28:15.

That’s the moment when comment 1,000,000 was posted.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that in the end the 1,000,000th comment came so quickly.

I was watching the numbers spin by and then went to take a nap (it really was a long day today) with about 300 to go before we hit the milestone, only to get up 25 minutes later to celebrate the accomplishment.

Jayhawk1952, posting on KUsports.com, had the 1,000,000th comment. Appropriately enough, he was commenting on the commenting contest. How many of you predicted the milestone would come as people talked about the contest itself? I can think of a few.

I’ve got to be honest, I’m pretty relieved comment 1,000,000 didn’t have to be removed — and wasn’t posted by a banned user. I’m a bit disappointed though, that one of our most dedicated users didn’t have the honor.

In the end, along with breaking all kinds of traffic records today, we probably also had one of our biggest days for comments ever. More than 2500 comments were posted — most on LJWorld.com, a bunch on KUsports.com and some on lawrence.com — today, on topics ranging from the closing of Vermont Street BBQ to the latest rumblings between the KU basketball and football teams and even witty captions for a photo of Barack Obama with a light saber.

This 1,000,000th comment contest has been fun for me to watch and I hope it’s been fun for you to take part in. It was also gratifying to see the community come together and have fun around something like this.

In the morning, I’ll pull out the entries for the contest and figure out who wins the grab bag of goodies for predicting closest to the date and time the milestone occurred. I’ve also sent an e-mail to Jayhawk1952, hoping to learn a little about who he (or she) is.

I need to tip my hat to Christian Metts, who built the counter that made this so easy to track — and infinitely more fun.

Meanwhile, I want to thank all of you who make this online community a true community as well as everyone else who passes by our site and comments every day. You make this place work and I’m glad we could do something to celebrate a Lawrence milestone in online journalism.

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