One of our most impor­tant projects, which we’ve been invest­ing a lot of ener­gy into late­ly, is turn­ing sev­en today: Pacif­ic NW Por­tal, first launched on Jan­u­ary 31st, 2005, has now been online for a grand total of eighty four months. Since the day it launched, it’s helped to bring the net­roots of Wash­ing­ton, Ore­gon, and Ida­ho togeth­er, and it’s made fol­low­ing polit­i­cal news from around the region much easier.

A month and a week ago, the Por­tal received a huge makeover with the unveil­ing of Ver­sion 5.0, code­named New­port. (Por­tal releas­es are named after cities and towns on the Ore­gon coast). New­port was sev­er­al years in the mak­ing, and we’re very hap­py with the recep­tion it has received.

We are con­tin­u­ing to make improve­ments to Pacif­ic NW Por­tal — just last week, we released Ver­sion 5.1, a minor update to New­port, code­named Agate Beach. And pre­lim­i­nary work is already under way on Ver­sion 6.0, dri­ven by your ideas.

In hon­or of Pacif­ic NW Por­tal’s sev­enth birth­day, here is a roundup, or com­pi­la­tion, of com­ments we’ve received over the years from NPI read­ers and fel­low blog­gers about the project and what it means to them.

From the day it was launched, Pacif­ic North­west Por­tal instant­ly became a must-have book­mark for any­body inter­est­ed in perus­ing pro­gres­sive news and views from the Pacif­ic North­west.

— David Goldstein

An ambi­tious blog of blogs for the pro­gres­sive Pacif­ic North­west plus news and weath­er. An indis­pens­able resource.

— Michael Hood

Of course, the need for a handy online fix of pro­gres­sive polit­i­cal news is even more acute in places like Ida­ho. Red State Rebels is hon­ored to be part of the Pacif­ic NW Por­tal mix.

— Julie Fanselow

I can imag­ine the amount of work that goes into doing all this.  Your site pro­vides a great resource to the NW Blo­gos­phere. Resources like this and the PNW Top­ic Hotlist pro­vide Pacif­ic North­west­ern­ers with unique tools for the ben­e­fit of pro­gres­sives. Oth­er regions of the coun­try should be jealous!

— Daniel Kirkdorffer

It’s always good to see you guys on top of things, I know that for at least me you are a huge asset to Ida­ho blog­gers and the politi­cians we support.

— Chris Oates

<3 Pacif­ic NW Por­tal is my home­page. Rock on.

— NPI read­er Sandals

It looks great — and is much improved. I like the high­lights of NW blog­gers a lot. I just reg­is­tered with the site and book­marked it, which I did­n’t do the last time I vis­it­ed before the changes.

— Tom Kertes

On behalf of the Ore­gon House Democ­rats, thanks for this crit­i­cal work.

— Ore­gon State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chip Shields

I am a Cor­val­lis, Ore­gon pro­gres­sive and occas­sion­al blog­ger. I have been keep­ing my eye out for NW-relat­ed sites, so I will make sure to head over to Pacif­ic NW Por­tal right away. I have been mean­ing to begin writ­ing more reg­u­lar­ly, so I am hap­py to see that oth­er NWers will have a chance to see my writing!

— Robin Ozretich

Lib­er­als in the North­west have been behind the game in get­ting their mutu­al-sup­port act togeth­er (yours tru­ly is notably slow on this par­tic­u­lar uptake), but the appear­ance of Pacif­ic NW Por­tal is decid­ed­ly a step in the right, er, left direction.

— David Neiwert

The North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute has a nice link for Pacif­ic NW Por­tal. I’m still look­ing around but it’s got good info, and is well organized. 

— Carl Ballard

Pacif­ic NW Por­tal is tru­ly a “por­tal” into pol­i­tics and polit­i­cal blog­ging in the Pacif­ic North­west. It is a fount of infor­ma­tion and con­nec­tion to pro­gres­sive groups and thinkers.

— Rowan Wolf

To every­one who has sup­port­ed Pacif­ic NW Por­tal over the years — whether by send­ing in sug­ges­tions for improve­ment, report­ing bugs, spread­ing the word about the site, or just vis­it­ing it and using it — thank you, from all of us at NPI.