Welcome New Users!

So it’s the 4th Anniversary of The Stars Hollow Gazette going live which in blog years is a lifetime since so many go dark so soon.  I regret and mourn that since I’m not the ogre people paint me.

I came to blogging about 9 and a half years ago because I was looking for a place where I could interact with people without being ashamed to admit I was a Democrat.  What goes around comes around and now I am the one ashamed, not of my work or my principles which haven’t changed a bit, but of my faith in an institution so corrupt, capricious, and besotted with power and priviledge.

As my Cliffs Notes will inform you my character is static, shallow, and one dimensional.  I’m also cynical, insolent, and flippant.

Everything has an origin story and the question is how far back you start.

I choose to start here.  In late August of 2007 my reputation as a meta blogger was already established.  I don’t want you to think I’m making a big deal out of it, to me it’s perfectly ordinary.  I observed and reported and some of what I saw frightened me.  I consulted my mentor pyrrho and his attitude was publish and be damned, but he did also put me in contact with pacified who was creating a scoop blogging platform analog in Java.

The site was named jscoop at the time I joined (2005) but was renamed Soapblox when pacified chose to go commercial and by commercial I mean offer to host websites using his software at very, very reasonable rates.

So when buhdydharma saw that the primary season of 2008 was likely to create a large class of refugees and decided to create a site to serve them I was flattered and honored, but not surprised, to be asked to be part of that effort.  Number 9, last of the single digits.

And I think no one will contradict me that I was as influential as anyone in creating the structure of DocuDharma from the theme (relentless winter) to the still extant but currently unused mechanisms for scheduling and discipline (ask me about it, I dare you).

Which I have in spades as my regular readers know, so much so that I hardly even noticed the unexpected abscence that was caused by my insistence that those who ignored the reality of United States torture in Abu Ghraib were no better than the Good Germans who ignored the reality of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

No, what really hurt was when buhdy dumped me.

The proximate cause was that I enforced our clear rule (which still stands btw)- No discussion of Israel/Palistine without prior clearance.  To be fair, buhdy did approve to original piece, but it resulted (as I predicted) in a cascade of unapproved essays.

So I wrote a meta essay that said- stop.

I’ve never been afraid of playing the bad cop because I mostly don’t care what people think about me, but one of buhdy’s pets got persistently belligerent and I suspended them per protocol.

Well, I guess to some people principles matter and others not so much.  As I said, it hurt.

And now I want to talk about TheMomCat. Now I’m not quite sure how she would describe herself, but she’s one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever known and while The Stars Hollow Gazette would exist in one form or another because I’m also stubborn and can easily afford to self publish, it would not at all be the same place you’ve come to know and love.

Shortly after my really unexpected abscence she called me and said, ‘so we should set up a site.’

I’m on it.

‘Well, I’ve been in touch with GoDaddy and have a URL and I’m waiting on Soapblox for confirmation.’

That was quick.

Anyway it took about a month to get operational (including rejected theme- earth tones) and we started flooding the site with content- 8 and 10 am, noon, 2 and 4 pm.  buhdy could not keep up and in November of 2010 announced his intention to stop blogging and close the site.

While I like to attribute this to his proximate competition what I did not know (and was not interested in at the time) was his activities on other sites had alienated many people.

Well, so have mine.

It irks me a bit that when I offered to purchase DocuDharma on my own hook buhdy flat rejected me out of pique.  Frankly, my offer was much more generous than the one he ultimately accepted.  I’m arrogant you know, in that I don’t pretend that ignorant ideas morph gradually into the truth- you want a friend, buy a dog.

And it was a deep dig into the affections of TheMomCat who maintains the site mostly out of loyalty to me.

Sigh.  I don’t know what I’ve possibly done to deserve this, but I’m very grateful.

Now I’m Managing Editor of both sites.  What does that mean?

Well, for my enemies (whom are legion), it means I’m untouchable.  Even if you convince TMC I have a first purchase, I can exercise my option to buy for $30.  Too bad, so sad, yes I am gloating (and arrogant, let’s not forget that).

Surprisingly I am at once the good and bad cop.  Bad in the sense that I administer the thump and I’m not ashamed to sign my name and instead hide behind shadowy action at a distance or socks like Moderator 1 (kos) and Moderator 2 (Meteor Blades) who are both welcome to confront me on even ground but won’t because they’re cowards.

C’mon MB, you have an account, you can’t hide it from me- I double dog dare you.

Good for you dear reader in that I’m amazingly tolerant of vigorous debate, ask Armando.  Indeed I frequently find myself on the ‘troll hugger’ side in my discussions with TMC which I find mildly disquieting.

Our rules (the few we have) are clear and equitably enforced and that means of course that they bear no relationship at all to the ones I articulated in dkosopedia (one of the reasons they hate me is that I documented them.  Ready for that debate now MB?  I’ve called you a coward AND a liar.  And you sold my private email for spam.).

So on one level The Stars Hollow Gazette and DocuDharma are reactionary reflections of my pique and anger indulged by my friends and family.

I’m just being honest with you.  That’s one of the virtues of therapy and I am diagnosed as chronically depressed and anxious.  While I’ve been offered medications I’ve seen the side effects and rejected them.

But I also have a positive side that I hope is contained in my work which I take very seriously even though most of it is trivial trash.  You see, the important part is showing up.

I have strong feelings about scheduling.  If you look at any successful site what you find is that they change often enough to require repeated visitation OR they highlight an author of such reputation that their every utterance is to be cherished and savored.

Well, in honesty, I ain’t all that so I make up in volume where I fail in inspiration.

If you claim to run a daily blog you need to publish daily.  If you claim to run a ‘community’ blog you need to publish morning, noon, and night.

So I write tons of crap, which doesn’t bother me a bit since I’ve written a million (no joke here folks) lines of poetry for machines and thousands of newsletters, brochures, and flyers.

My other gig is making sure that you have the platform and prominence you deserve and I do the best I can.  The Stars Hollow Gazette and DocuDharma are frames for your work, not mine.

I’m the quirky sports writer, the Betty Boop and Jon and Stephen fan.  The instant I am finished I look back and can hardly believe the damage, but there’s always another deadline so I don’t linger long.

Twee…

Happy anniversary

Total number of posts: 10304 (7 a day)

• TMC- 5361
• ek hornbeck- 3081 (obviously I have some catching up to do, game on)
• mishima- 580 (beyond reliable, a friend I may never meet so I salute from a distance)
• Translator, aka Dr. David W. Smith- 347 (RIP, a staunch supporter and a blow, he had his own demons)
• BruceMcF-  117 (it’s not really about trains, it’s about economics)
• Edger-  112 (site editor, you should hire him)
• davidseth- 111 (el Bloguero)
• Anti-Capitalist Meetup- 84 (the second most underated diary franchise)
• RiaD 74- (RIP, you underestimated yourself)
• priceman- 64 (who knows where the good parties are at?  We do.)

Total number of comments: 45361 (31 a day)

But that is every day and spread across 7 diaries some of which get hundreds and others get nothing.  It’s different from what you’re used to (but is rapidly approaching the norm).

• ek hornbeck- 21129 (ahah! I told you I was mutual!)
• TMC- 17105 (thbbbbbpt!)
• BobbyK- 1675 (I’m going to stop characterizing people other than to say that while you may not know him, I do and he is utterly reliable)
• Translator, aka Dr. David W. Smith- 958
• seakit- 355
• Edger- 303
• BruceMcF- 300
• RiaD- 290
• Eddie C- 267
• joanneleon- 232

So 4 years,

Better spent I think than the 5 that preceded it.