User talk:J.K.Herms/drft art on splmtoday

SPLMToday identifies itself as the “official New Sudan site” and the “official website for the SPLM & SPLA.” Around the time of South Sudan’s independence, the splmtoday.com site was receiving nearly half of all web traffic from search queries for “SPLM”.

History

The splmtoday.com domain name was registered by G.L. Loro, Amsterdam, on October 24, 2003.1 SPLMToday in its current form began publishing on March 25, 2004, identifying itself as the “official website for the SPLM & SPLA.”  The site it replaced had been “taken down by persons of malicious intent.”2

Editors’ names and credentials

An editor’s name is stated in the first issue: “The new [2004] website … hopefully shall be kept updated regularly by Lt. Col. Tulio Ayaho Odong of the SPLA.”3

Editorial policy

SPLMToday’s mission is to publish news related to “SPLM and GOSS” (Government of South Sudan) and to “connect [Sudanese] communities in [the] diaspora and at home.”4

Publisher or sponsoring organization

The SPLMToday copyright owner’s name is given as “Official SPLM Site.”5

Currency

SPLMToday’s home page undergoes continual updating, most often daily.

Popularity

Of all Web searches for “SPLM” during (approximately) June 2011, 48% led the user to SPLMToday; 13%, to Wikipedia; 9%, to Yahoo!.6

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Citations

1 SPLMToday.com Whois Domain Name Record (July 10, 2011), http://www.enom.com/whois/default.aspx?DomainName=splmtoday.com (“Created-Date: Oct 24, 2003 … splmtoday.com is a domain name registered by G.L. Loro.  The site is based in Amsterdam ….”).

2 SPLMToday Home Page (Dec. 10, 2003), http://web.archive.org/web/20031210223422/http://www.splmtoday.com/ (“Welcome to the New Sudan Official Website! Hello and welcome to the redesigned official website for the SPLM & SPLA.…  [S]ome … spelling … mistakes did unfortunately occur in the rush to get this website online and active to replace the old website that was taken down by persons of malicious intent.”).

3 SPLMToday Home Page (Mar. 25, 2004), http://web.archive.org/web/20040326174424/http://www.splmtoday.com/ (“Hello and welcome to the redesigned official website for the SPLM & SPLA. Although we have experienced numerous problems with our previous website we … have come back with a new and improved website featuring news and information … related to Sudan.  The new website … hopefully shall be kept updated regularly by Lt Col Tulio Ayaho Odong of the SPLA.…  [Some] mistakes did … occur in the rush to get this website online … to replace the old website that was taken down by persons of malicious intent.”).

4 SPLMToday Launches a Renewed Site, SPLMToday, Sept. 1, 2005, News sec., http://web.archive.org/web/20050908175704/http://splmtoday.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=2 (“[W]e, members of the SPLMToday web team, are proud to launch the new and improved official New Sudan site, SPLMToday.com …. SPLMToday hopes to filful some of the objectives it was original[ly] constructed to achieve.  Updating the site with fresh SPLM- and GOSS-related news as well as connecting our communities in diaspora and at home will be our priority.”).

5 SPLMToday Home Page (July 10, 2011), http://www.splmtoday.com/index.php (“SPLMToday.com … © 2011 Official SPLM Site”).

6 Alexa Internet: Splm Site Information (July 9, 2011), http://www.alexa.com/search?q=splm&p=rkey&r=site_siteinfo&s=splmtoday.com (“Search Analytics for splm. Sites Receiving the Most Traffic from This Query:  splmtoday.com 48.0%; wikipedia.org 12.6%; yahoo.com 8.6%; …  Updated Monthly”).