Kyle Thomas

The Website of Kyle Thomas (KyleWith)

Sorry Wrong Number Yellowknife

Lately I have been getting a lot of calls for people around Yellowknife asking me questions about what is going on around town. I love this, because I love sharing it. I mean it is the whole point of YkOnline, to share what is happening. Anyways along with those calls I have gotten some calls from, for lack of better words, confused people. Three calls really stick out in my mind and I will share them with you. By the way I never answer my phone by saying anything about YkOnline, it is just normally “Hello, Kyle speaking”.

1) I received a call from a lady who wanted to pay a bill. I asked with “Hello” and she said “Hi, I would like to pay my hydro bill”. I was then confused and said “excuse me” which led the woman to say again “I would like to pay my hydro bill”. At that point I knew she had the wrong number and asked her who she thought she was talking to. She replied with “Isn’t this the City if Yellowknife” and I semi chuckled and said “No”. She then hung up without saying anything.

2) A man from southern Alberta call me asking for a Newspaper. That really confused me, I thought why would I have a newspaper. He explained that his friend had won a gold medal and he wanted a newspaper from every capital in Canada.  As I told him I didn’t have any, he questioned why a newspaper company wouldn’t keep any. At that point I was shaking my head, I then explained to him what YkOnline was. He told me I was the first website he landed on when he searched Yellowknife Newspaper. I thought I would help him out so I tried to find the number for the newspaper on their website, but couldn’t so I frantically rummaged around to find a two month old paper with a phone number in it and sent him on his way. I wonder if he actually got that paper?

3) The Final call was just this morning. A lady called me about the Snow castle, I thought okay, whatever, I’ll help her with the information I know but apparently that wasn’t good enough for her. She wanted to know how much snow was used to build the castle, and I had no idea. I said that and tried to explain how it was built, but she wanted to know. She told me that this is the kind of thing someone helping build the castle should know. That confused me and I apologized but explained that I really have nothing to do with the Castle or Festival except that I have been there. She replied well this is stupid, it said to call you for details. Now I was really confused, but I don’t know where she would have gotten the idea to call my number for details about the Snow Castle. In the video I said check YkOnline or the Snowking website for the schedule, but nothing else. I told her the best place to get a hold of someone would be the Snowking website, but she hung up on me mid sentence.

I’m wondering if maybe I’m not clear about YkOnline and who actually operates the site. I’m a life-long resident just like anyone else. I have a passion for Yellowknife and want to share it with everyone. I have a large knowledge of the city but am not really affiliated with any group or organization. I am also not part of the City of Yellowknife. I’m happy to see that the site is gaining ground and more than willing to answer questions about the city and what is going on but am wondering if I should explain who I am a little better. What does everyone else think?

Clarification of the Issue

I was surprised to hear feedback, to the podcast I just published, so quickly. It just reassures me that bloggers stand beside each other. Because I got some much feedback I have decided to fill in everyone on the details about the situation that I didn’t mention in the podcast. Although I will be leaving out names.

Upon reading a Facebook status that a fellow bloggers posted about how they would be in the Wednesdays edition of the local paper with their blog, I left he/she the comment “neat”. I love it when any NWT/Yk blogger gets traditional media attention, to me it says “we’re not totally ignoring you” or so I thought.

After I had made the comment I received a message from said person. They explained to me why they had been contacted, which was because of the NWT Blog Awards. I thought great but that wasn’t all. They proceeded to tell me how they suggested to the local paper to call me because I am the one with the. passion for blogging and the north. Which makes sense, although I don’t want to be to big headed, because as a journalist are you not suppose to try and find the person with the most information? Anyways the reporter replied with no, they’re not allowed. Their reasoning is because one of my other blog is media related and as this paper is also media, they do not want to promote the competition. Which again makes sense to me, if we were more comparable. I certainly compare my blog to them. I rarely report any facts and when I do it is not very detailed at all. I find it funny that a company that is well established and has many staff working all the time, sees a blog by one person who is not very old a threat.

Before this paper gets offended that I wrote about this, I want them to know that I respect them. I read the paper every time it comes out and I get information from it. I use it as a resource on occasion. Keep in mind that this blog of mine is not some much about reporting the facts but more creating the discussion around the issue. It about promoting Yellowknife and spreading the work about what is going on,

UPDATE: Read what Jason and Megan have said so far.

UPDATE: I have written a follow up post, please check it out.

Note* I will be back to edit and add more to this post later. Need to clear my head.