About a year ago, this small local site decided to move its operation exclusively to Facebook. It seemed a little gimmicky, yes, but it also promised new possibilities for social interaction with readers, extremely minimal operation costs, and it was a bold move that attracted nationwide coverage from media nerds like myself.

I thought I’d check in with the brave little news site, and lo and behold, I discovered they posted for the last time in October.

We view our move to Facebook as having been successful. We have appreciated the members of our community posting photos, questions and links on Rockville Central and seeing other people respond. We’ve also been pleased to have first-hand news accounts from the people with their cell phones. Our active users have increased by over 500%. We’ve gone from about 24,000 hits a month on the website to 100,000 post views a month on Facebook. A single post on Facebook typically gets over 2,000 views.

Even with all this interaction, comments have remained civil. People have participated with thoughtful and full opinions about the issues. We’ve been able to provide a place for public discussions about Rockville based on the many news sources in our region. All these outcomes are gratifying.

However, the simple fact is that it takes a great deal of energy and time to support the online community in the way we feel it deserves. We do not make money off of Rockville Central, and never intended to. It is a labor of love and devotion to Our Fair City. We don’t feel we can devote the kind of energy it deserves and so, rather than let it whither, we decided to make a clean end.

Brad Rourke, of Rockville Center, posted an entry regarding the shut-down last October on his blog.

I still think the Facebook-only thing could work — but there would definitely be some important challenges to overcome. Tumblr only? No problem.