09/18/2026
Apparently, we need to address something we never imagined would be controversial:
Sharing LOCAL EVENTS with the LOCAL COMMUNITY.
Today, we received a phone call from the people behind Hello Roanoke (A Great Local Page) expressing their displeasure that some of the same public events they had listed also appeared in one of our local event roundups.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Vinton Voice periodically puts together lists of things happening throughout Vinton, Roanoke City, Roanoke County and the surrounding area.
We gather event information from MANY different places â business pages, Facebook event listings, community calendars, organizations, venues, submissions, websites and, yes, sometimes other local pages where we discover an event we hadn't seen yet.
We then compile those PUBLIC EVENTS into one convenient post so our followers can find something to do, support a local business, attend a fundraiser, visit a festival, hear some live music or simply get out and participate in the community.
And yes â while putting together one of those lists, we looked at Hello Roanoke's event listings, compared them with ours and found a few public events we hadn't seen yet.
We added the EVENTS.
We did not take their graphics.
We did not copy an article.
We did not copy and paste their original writing.
We did not represent their work as ours.
We simply shared basic information about publicly advertised community events alongside numerous other events we found through other sources.
That's called helping people find things to do.
What makes this especially disappointing is that the entire purpose of promoting a public event is presumably to GET PEOPLE TO ATTEND IT.
If another local page helps put more eyes on a festival, fundraiser, restaurant event, concert, market or community gathering, we would consider that a GOOD THING.
We're not interested in treating Southwest Virginia like a collection of little media kingdoms where somebody gets to plant a flag in a public event and declare:
âWe mentioned this first, so nobody else can.â
And apparently there may also be some confusion about the word VINTON in our name.
Vinton Voice has never pretended there is an invisible wall at the Vinton town limits.
We cover Vinton, Roanoke City, Roanoke County and surrounding communities because that's where our readers live, work, eat, shop, raise their families and spend their weekends.
Vinton is part of the greater Roanoke Valley community.
Our followers don't suddenly stop caring about an event because it's happening five or ten miles down the road.
Maybe we're simply looking at community media differently.
When another page shares an event happening at a local business, we don't think:
âHow dare they?â
We think:
GOOD. More people might show up.
When five different local pages tell people about the same charity fundraiser, we don't believe four of them should delete their posts.
We hope the fundraiser gets five times the exposure.
Local businesses, nonprofits, musicians, event organizers and community groups already work hard enough trying to get people's attention.
They shouldn't have to worry about which page supposedly has territorial rights to tell people their event exists.
We've actually followed and enjoyed Hello Roanoke for a long time, which is part of why the phone call was so disappointing.
We have absolutely no interest in some ridiculous local Facebook turf war.
But we're also not going to be bullied into believing that Vinton Voice should stop telling our followers about publicly advertised events in Roanoke simply because another page happened to mention them too.
Community information should help the community.
That's what we're going to continue doing.
If you're a local business, nonprofit, organization, musician, church, school, festival organizer or event host and you WANT Vinton Voice to help spread the word about something you're doing, send it to us.
We'd much rather spend our time helping fill your parking lots, seats and events than arguing about imaginary boundaries on Facebook.
And while we're at itâŚ
Go give Hello Roanoke a follow.
They've built a great local page, and we've followed and supported them ourselves.
Hopefully they can find it in their hearts to forgive us for committing the terrible offense ofâŚ
also telling people about local events. đ
There's plenty of room in the Roanoke Valley for multiple community pages helping local businesses, organizations and events succeed.
In fact, we'd argue that's exactly how it SHOULD be.
More exposure. More participation. More support for LOCAL.
Vinton is our name. The Roanoke Valley is our community.
â Vinton
