As living beings, we all come into this world in the process of dying. It’s just that early in life, the cells and parts of us that are being reborn and replenished outnumber the ones dying off.
The same holds true for enterprises like this blog, which started as a basis for social exchange for escapees from The Dispatch’s comment section, and then morphed into an almost daily exercise in journaling about something going on somewhere—at least on the front page. The blogging part has had as its purpose to provide something to talk about in comments if nothing else came to mind.
To be clear, I have no plans to ditch this or give it up or end the open comments, but I understand that a social gathering place requires a minimum of participation to be interesting, and thus relevant and viable. So if people stop coming around, it’ll be because people have stopped coming around, in a good old-fashioned combination of circular-reasoning and truism.
For things to have evolved this way is not offensive or insulting to me. I thought it more likely to fade—I’d guessed long before now, honestly. Or something here could strike the right spark and cause it to become hot for a bit at least. But in order to try for that, I—we—would have tried to be more intentionally inflammatory and controversial, since that is the coin of internet popularity and virality. That’s never been part of our purpose. We’ve all come here just to gab and socialize, not to pursue the thrill of passionate online fighting.
For something like this to enjoy a runaway success with lots of participants would require the right spark of the right idea appealing to a large number of people at the right time such that new participants exceed those who’ve lost interest balance. Virginia Postrel had an interesting post recently about how that works in the publishing industry. That post was summed up in the phrase “No amount of planning beats dumb luck.”
And this blog wasn’t even planned, much less planned well.
At any rate, everyone’s participation so far has kept coaxing me along to the point where I have learned I can keep on with daily postings as a side hobby, as part of a daily routine. I am grateful to my readers and commenters for that, past and present. But network dynamics have always worked against the comment section: Similarly, there’s no simple formula that tells you why Facebook becomes a runaway success and MySpace or dozens of other efforts fail. At least, the explanations that exist sound more like Yogi Berra quips: Nothing succeeds like success, people stayed away in droves, and so on. They’re all just simple reasons given after the fact. They contain no simple roadmap to broader popularity, much less virality.
Therefore: please continue to visit here to your heart’s content, and comment on whatever moves you. If you’re like me, you enjoy the interaction because you like the people, because you enjoy the badinage. But if you stay away because the comment section is too sparsely attended, I completely understand. If you want camaraderie, there’s nothing worse than a space devoid of people.
I’m merely putting this out there, since it seemed worth addressing directly. I didn’t want anyone to think it was a sensitive or taboo topic, either.
If anyone has any ideas for people to invite, by all means please do. Or if anyone has any ideas for content or changes, please elaborate.
Chuckle. Just learned that Nikki Haley appeared on Saturday Nignt Live. Associated Press has the story:
https://apnews.com/article/snl-skit-haley-trump-civil-war-slavery-68486ae15a1f92dc25dddb353bfa428d
I don't think this space would do well with a very large number of people. I don't think it can or should compete with the Dispatch comments. For me the two are different and complementary. But if you think it could use more, please go ahead and selectively invite commenters who seem to you to be interested in interaction and badinage and sharing on a personal level but not interested in serious conflict for fun.
But please understand that while I continue to actively post in Dispatch comments, I don't do so for "fighting" nor do I consider this place a refuge from fighting. (If I do encounter fighting by others, I just try to keep away from it and turn my attention elsewhere.) When I post in Dispatch comments, the emphasis is not on personal gabbing, but more amateur punditry and discussion. When I post here, it's to keep in touch and offer replies to what othes have said; it can also be share news, theories, or "reports" that may not have a place in the Dispatch comments.