Okay, this has been killing us all afternoon. So we were checking out the pictures from Gavin Newsom's reelection campaign kickoff rally from Sunday on his campaign website's "Brian Blogs," and it looks like they decorated the office with lots and lots of signs featuring the names of different SF neighborhoods. Sure, cool, no prob. But.... what's the neighborhood in the sign at the very right of that picture? The Om---? What SF neighborhood......

Next up in our SF school board candidates interview series -- Mr. Omar Khalif! Omar's got a MySpace page, and he's a Scorpio. Khalif's also been endorsed by Gavin Newsom, and is running on a platform promoting neighborhood schools in the Bayview-Hunters Point, and charter schools. Introduce yourself, and tell us what you currently do. For the last seven years, I have been an independent contractor with the City and County of San Francisco Juvenile......

The last time you heard from us here at the Office of the SFist Ombudsman, we noted our report was "largely uninteresting. . . . The site coughs up cool new stuff; our readers respond with wit, insight, sometimes a little love, and the occasional correction." What's become impossible to ignore over time is that this is pretty much the story every month. Which is probably as it should be, perhaps a bit to......

SFist Mary-Lynn gives us all the lowdown on Blogher, and SFist Rain gets the 'get' with Paula Kamen. There are places you can go for unverified rumors, anonymous vitriol and mysteriously funded local political news -- but only SFist offers you the vain popularity contests that you crave! Speaking of cravings, SFist Derrick shows us that money can't buy you good taste. The Office of the Ombudsman is closed until fall, but he leaves......

There's a story -- a funny accident of history, actually -- that explains why there is always a copy of the latest New York Review of Books on the shelf next to the commode here at the Office of the SFist Ombudsman, but we focus instead a bit of text that appears on the contents page of every Review (one of the most earnest content engines in the country). The text reads: "Published 20......

Last things first: When we signed off with a hearty "Happy SFisting" last month, we didn't think we were conjuring up a column, but it looks like that's what's happened. We're feeling a little amazed by our own power, and wondering if we could pull off the same trick twice... Now, what to say between here and the magical final words? Things have grown a bit dimmer here in the Office of the SFist......

Ombudding: Behind your back, it's become a trend. With all the hoo-haw lately about the mainstream media running with shaky stories, it seems that even ESPN has decided they need an ombudsman on-hand for when the fecal material contacts the rotating blades. Meanwhile, over at the New York Times, their first "Public Editor" (an ombudsman in disguise) has just hit his term limit of 18 months, and decided to go out with a bang,......

It is with a sigh and a fair bit of surprise that the Office of the SFist Ombudsman reports the following: Our site has grown predictable. April was yet another month in which a MUNI post generated the most comments. April saw the continued explosion of food-related posts, reflecting our Area's preoccupation with things that go in our mouths. April brought the return of a high frequency of baseball posts. And April saw us......

Another month has come and gone, so it's time for another navel-gazing dispatch from the Office of the SFist Ombudsman. Our contributors continue to keep our job pretty simple: None of them have posted anything that's incurred serious wrath from the readership. (We dream of the day when the Ombudsman alarm sounds because we've inadvertently managed to enrage one of our fair city's various communities -- perhaps the Chinese-American community, or the LGBT community, or......

February saw a hell of a lot of hoo-haw in the newly relabeled and newly sticking-up-for-itself "mainstream media" about blogs and bloggers. The thing that struck us most here at the Office of the SFist Ombudsman is how much of the public conversation was (and continues to be) centered around blogs' intrinsic weaknesses, and whether those weaknesses are actually weaknesses. That's one way to frame the conversation, but ain't it more interesting to talk......

Here at the Office of the SFist Ombudsman, we keep charge of our readers' trust. (Stop by and we'll show you the little newspaper-lined cage we've got it in.) Thus it falls to us, when circumstances warrant, to call bullshit on one of our site contributors. And so this past weekend, following the dissolution of the first-ever SFist (Almost)-All-Staff Throwdown, we cornered the Essefficist, who spent many weeks away from his post, only to......

Since SFist last stopped to take stock of itself, we took a look at our server logs, discovering that we have at least 47 regular readers. What vexes us so is that we have no idea whether they're visiting us each day expecting great stuff, or showing up to point and giggle and wonder "What are these people thinking?" (More on what we're thinking--and how well it comes across--after the jump...)......

Hey, did you notice that banner up there? The one with the humorous witticisms (thank you, we'll be here all week) and pictures of merchandise? That banner is to notify you that our Cafepress store is officially open for business, and there's no better way to pay your hard earned money in order to advertise for us. So what are you waiting for -- buy some SFist brand schwag! Wow, what a crazy week,......

SFist would like to introduce something we think is a very, very first. A while back, we asked for an ombudsman (or public editor, if you will). And boy, did we get one. After dissing the poor guy, we realized he was a careful reader, and we decided that someone who cared enough to spend the time complaining was probably someone we wanted to have around. So we offer Matthew Newton to you as someone......

Weekly wrap-up....

Where we discuss the results of the poll and our drive to maintain a healthy relationship with our beloved readers....