The State of the Site.

§ March 12th, 2018 § Filed under blogging about blogging is a sin § 7 Comments

Okay, just to allay any fears (or, on the other hand, dash any hopes), given the semi-ominous title of this post, I’m not going anywhere. I just wanted to go over a few things.

First, and most importantly, regarding my my Patreon: yeah, that didn’t work out the way I was hoping. No, not you folks who contributed, I appreciate that like you wouldn’t believe. I mean specifically the idea to do a biweekly Swamp Thing comic review post…that was the weak part of this particular plan since, as it turns out, ha ha, that takes a lot of time. Time, I quickly discovered, I really did not have. I was trying to find a balance between my usual blog voice here and something, well, not formal as such, but “look, people are paying a buck to see these things, I need to get it together a little more than I tend to do.” I’m still trying to figure out an approach to these that doesn’t eat up every extra moment I have but still satisfies everyone’s Swampy cravings.

In the meantime…those Patreon contributions are helping me out quite a bit, in the original intention of me setting up the thing in the first place to subsidize my time spent on the site a little bit should anyone decide to chip in. Thank you to everyone who’s done so…my Early-Release-to-Patreon-Supporters Swamp Thing postings were my attempt at giving folks a little bit of an extra incentive to contribute, but clearly I need to rework my plans so that I can actually present an incentive I can continue to do.

Believe it or not, my other idea was a podcast, because sure, those take hardly any time at all to do, right? Blogging sister Tegan was doing a short form Star Wars podcast for her Patreon that I quite liked, and inspired me to think about my own. Part of the problem is that I’m not a very good extemporaneous speaker, which would require creating some kind of script (or even an outline) prior to recording, and I can already see that creating the very same time crunch the Swamp Thing posts were, even for the very short recordings I was planning. Well, at some point I would like to make some kind of audio file to inflict upon your ears, so we’ll see what I can do there.

As for the actual site here: yes, my decreasing amount of comic book computer fun time does impact this site as well. Like I said at the beginning, I’m not going anywhere. My intent is to continue posting every Monday/Wednesday/Friday and the occasional Saturday when I remember to do a “Sluggo Saturday” or “_____ Saturday” post. (Good Lord, I haven’t done one of the latter since 2013!) There may be (and have been!) weeks were I only posted Tuesday and Thursday. We’re a long way away from those halcyon days of me posting every single day like a crazy person, but this reduced schedule leaves me more time to take care of other responsibilities, AND really does give me more opportunities to create a little more lengthy, in-depth posts that won’t necessarily get lost in the day-to-day nonstop onslaught of More! Content! being posted here every day. But I apologize in advance for my shorter, Low Content Mode weeks…sometimes it just can’t be helped.

Speaking of which, one of my longterm plans for this site is to finally get all the posts on this site tagged and (eep) titled, to make it easier to find particular subjects here. In the early Blogger days of this site, you didn’t need subject lines, really…a post link was generated with, I think, the time and date of the posting, so you could just click on that to get to the exact post. Well, when I switched over to WordPress, that was no longer the case, and the actual subject line was the post’s direct link. So, there are a bunch of posts on this site still without titles, especially very early on, and I am slowly going through and trying to fix those. What’s slowing me up is I’m also trying simultaneously to fix dead links in old posts, which can be a lot of links, sometimes. I think my new strategy here is to get those content tags and post titles taken care of first, and fix links in the bodies of the posts later.

One of the things I miss about the old version of the site is having direct links to several posts of note in the sidebar. Replacing that with a sidebar function where you can search by tags is okay, and something I’ll do soon, but I still have specific posts that I’d like to not be forgotten, or removed from discourse (whatever discourse blogs may still influence today, what with your InstaSnaps and your Toomblurs). Perhaps a separate page on this site you can look at, with a list of “Hey, Read These Posts of Mine, Why Don’cha?” That seems like something that’s doable, eventually.

The one feature I do want to make sure continues unabated is The End of Civilization, which I promised myself, after the suspension of the feature while opening my store, and especially after starting my Patreon, I wouldn’t skip out on again. And, well, I missed it one month, but otherwise I’ve kept doing them, and will continue to do them as long as I keep getting Diamond Previews catalogs. People still seem to like them, and I still enjoy doing them.

Another type of post I haven’t done here in a while is my occasional overview of some of the weekly comics. Not that I haven’t wanted to, or haven’t had the blogging time to do a little something on the subject, but lately I’ve been behind on my reading. Part of the problem is that the actual tag I have for this topic specifically says “this week’s comics,” so I feel sort of obligated to review that week’s comics during the week they actually came out. Yes, I know that’s dumb, and easily fixed by changing the tag to “comic reviews” or something. I mean, it’s my site, I can do what I want, but that’s a weird little psychological barrier nonetheless. (Says the guy who just straight up reviews Jimmy Olsen comics from 1968, like, whenever.)

And of course I will absolutely continue the reader participation posts, such as taking your questions or asking for predictions. I have been very fortunate to have some great comment sections on this site, particularly in an internet era where reader comments are generally feared and despised. You folks have always had good and interesting things to say, and I am very grateful. Yes, there’s the occasional…problem, but that is definitely the exception. I know I usually don’t tend to post in the comments section themselves, but if it’s something I feel the need to respond to, you may have noticed I’m not shy about doing so in the main blog (like this recent example). So again, thanks to all of you for your continued readership and involvement.

Oh, and I’m sure this kind of post will come back eventually too.

So this has been pretty much the “blogging about blogging is a sin”-est post I’ve ever posted. Some of that was for you, to let you know where things stand as far as my ability to keep the blog going, and some of it was for me, to work out in my own head what parts of this site are important at least to me. I hope to keep things going here for a good, long time, and I certainly would like all of you to stick around. I know this kind of “blogging” is kind of a passé thing now, but I like writing, this format still works for me, and I hope it still works for you. I mean, if I have to go all “PROGRESSIVE RUIN – THE INSTAGRAM,” I guess I’ll have to, but I’m happy right here.

Talk to you all again soon.

7 Responses to “The State of the Site.”

  • Thelonious_Nick says:

    “Well, at some point I would like to make some kind of audio file to inflict upon your ears, so we’ll see what I can do there.”

    Something like this?
    http://gobacktothepast.com/fabulous-find-17-the-voices-of-marvel-record/

    BTW, it doesn’t bother me if you take days here and there off. You deserve it! You’ve provided so much great material over the years. Take a break whenever you need, we’ll still be reading.

  • Thom H. says:

    I agree with Thelonious_Nick 100%. I’m just jazzed that you’re still so into blogging. This is one of the few sites that truly brings me joy every time I see a new update. Thanks for all that you do, and please take off whatever time you need (as long as you always come back). :)

  • Zoot Koomie says:

    As a Patreon supporter, the Swamp Thing reviews were less an incentive than just being able to support you writing a blog I’ve enjoyed reading for years.

    Maybe you could replace the reviews with a system where supporters can suggest topics for you to write about or send you questions to answer. That way there is some extra value given back without adding to your blogging workload.

  • philip says:

    Happy to contribute with or without any incentives. Ye Olde Progressive Ruin remains one of my favorite internet destinations.

  • Chris Gumprich says:

    The only thing I miss about my pull-list days was going through the entire PREVIEWS catalog and trying to guess which entries were going to make it into the “End of Civilization” posts.

  • ArghSims says:

    Man, I think anyone who was contributing through Patreon agrees with Nick. We love seeing your stuff when you can do it, and don’t begrudge your health (physical, financial and otherwise) required breaks.

    My Patreon contribution isn’t going anywhere, and I’ll keep reading.

  • Tegan O’Neil says:

    You are far too kind not to mention that I stole the idea of a bite-size podcast from you lock stock and barrel.

    I would like to go back and do more, but my living situation isn’t conducive to a lot of quiet recording. I’ve been thinking about it though, so I may end up trying to make it work anyway.