Rumors and Trumors heads to the boneyard; new blog takes its place

After a successful run that began in 1999, UTMB “Rumors or Trumors” web site has been respectfully laid to rest. The rumors and responses from the past several years have been archived but remain available.

Rumors or Trumors has been replaced with a new semi-official blog hosted by Pep Valdes, known to fans of the former trumors web site as “The Rumor Guy.” The new blog is called pep talk and is available at http://blog.utmb.edu/pvaldes.

“This format is fresh, it’s a lot easier to manage and I feel I can convey a wider and more interesting range of information,” said Valdes, a 10-year veteran of UTMB who works in the Office of University Advancement. “The tone is informal and there’s still a bit of the irreverence and humor that I think made rumors popular. But with shorter responses, a wider range of topics, and the ability to initiate a posting rather than just respond, the blog is more viable. Those long gaps between updates that became the bane of rumors readers are not part of the pep talk plan.”   

A blog is a web log, an Internet format that’s been growing in popularity and is supported by specialized publishing and content management software. The technology supporting pep talk is in place as part of a pilot program at UTMB supported by the Academic Resources’ Academic Computing area.

“For our die-hard rumors fans, there’s still a category on the blog where I’ll field some of those,” Valdes said. “I’d say the chances that we run completely out of rumors anytime soon is about one spaceship.”

• Visit pep talk at  http://blog.utmb.edu/pvaldes
• See the Rumors or Trumors archive at http://www.utmb.edu/rumor/archive_main.htm