ETBLITZ BACK | Server went down, but it’s repaired and we are back

The website you’re reading this on, ETBlitz.com, has only been around a very short time, like a very, VERY short time. It went live on Friday, Oct. 20. And in that short time, we – mostly YOU – have made it a hot commodity.

We’ve been blessed enough that in just over a month since going live, as of Friday around noon, we’ve had over 7,000 visits to this site, I’m proud to say.

So, on Friday, I go out to walk our neighborhood early afternoon (I walk anywhere from three to six miles a day, because I’m a crazy person), and when I come back in, I look at the website to make sure my Kilgore College football preview is up and looks good before I get ready to go to Longview for the KHS-Chapel Hill game.

And…

ETBlitz is gone.

Like, gone.

It’s not there.

In its place is some white screen with black writing, not even a logo, that says “nursing and wellness company,” and a phone number. I try to log onto ETBlitz and my username and password – you guessed it. They don’t work.

I try everything, and nothing works. All of our work that we’ve been building for months isn’t exactly gone, because our stories are stored on my laptop. And I’ll be putting things back up over time.

But four hours before Kilgore’s biggest game of the season, I’m sitting there and there’s no ETBlitz.

Three, four days before I am scheduled to go make a few advertising appearances, and I have no data to back up my claims that ETBlitz has been really fantastic in its just-over-a-month existence.

I contact our associate editor, Clayton Fletcher, and he’s on it. Ben, who owns our servers, was already expecting the call, and he’s on it, too. And Clayton gets to work rebuilding the skeleton, the general look, of what you guys know as ETBlitz while I head to Lobo Stadium.

So, when you look at ETBlitz and it looks a little different this weekend, that’s why, but Fletch was absolutely phenomenal for not only rebuilding the site on short notice, but for being able to duplicate it fairly well on memory and off of one photo of the home page that I sent him. Clayton, publicly here, just want to recognize you, my friend – you are the man.

I’m no salesman, and I’m learning as I go with this website. I have good people around me – Clayton; my wife, Jenna, who handles business affairs; Ben handling our server; our sponsor, Energy Weldfab, and Mike Clements for believing in this site and Mike, I cannot thank you enough for that; Tyler Tamplin, who built our college and NFL site, thefootballbeat.com; Alex Nabor, Dennis Jacobs and Ronnie Sartors, three of the best photographers in this state, not just in the Kilgore area (look at their work – I’ll be back up soon and I can prove that statement); Joe Hale, my dear friend and an unbelievable writer; and my son, Jacob, who’s our videographer. You haven’t seen much of that yet, but it’s coming.

I just wanted to write this and let you guys know what happened Friday and why we were down briefly. Ben assures me everything is fine and there won’t be another incident, but I wanted to let you guys know the issue, exactly what happened and that you can trust us to be here when you want us. We are going to continue to bring y’all the VERY best in coverage of the Kilgore and Henderson area.

I hate that the playoffs are over for Kilgore (more on that in “What’s Causing All This” in a little while), but we shift gears to basketball and soccer, and folks in Henderson, Tatum, Arp, Troup, White Oak, Leverett’s Chapel, Overton, Gladewater, Sabine, we’re coming to see you. Drill team directors, cheer sponsors, band directors: we’re coming to see you, as well.

We’re thankful for all of y’all. We’re glad to have our issues fixed. We’re glad to be back!

And we won’t go away again.

Mitch