Tag: blogging

1000

Kent emailed me last week with the observation that AMV was at 998 posts. I had noticed last June that we were inching closer to quadruple digits, but hadn’t thought about it since then. The pace around here has been languid of late. It snuck up on me.

1,000 posts is as good a milestone as any so I’ve decided to mark it, to honor it, to get it over with.

I last reported on the state of AMV back when we turned five. Although I didn’t say it at the time, it was apparent that blogs had peaked and were in decline. That has happened. Our monthly traffic has certainly dropped (about 45% from where we were in 2009). As has posting frequency and the number of active bloggers. Almost all of us have other online presences and pursuits now. And, naturally, Twitter and Facebook have captured much of the energy that used to be expended on blogs. Which reminds me: follow AMV on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

I worried about burn out in that anniversary post. At the time I thought it was imminent (although I committed to two years — two years that have since come and gone). I avoided that by slowing down the pace of my posting and expanding into other projects. It seems to be working. I (and I say “I” because even though I very much value the contributions of my co-bloggers, based on post count alone, it’s obvious that I’m the main person driving this thing [I account for 43% of the total posts]) find that I still have things to say.

In that post, I also mentioned more voices. That has not happened for two reasons:

1. I like and trust the people I’m with and don’t feel the pressing need to add more (although guest posts are welcome).

2. The kinds of voices that I would normally have recruited are now either posting at Dawning of a Brighter Day. Which is a very good thing.

So for the near future, expect the status quo (but remember our status quo is the radical middle).

And I want to reiterate what I wrote back in June of 2009:

“I’d say that the biggest success of AMV has been the creation of a community of contributors and commenters who enjoy the conversation.”

Yep. This is a good place to be. It will continue. Thanks, everybody.

Reading Until Dawn Update

Some exciting things have been happening with Reading Until Dawn over the past week (at least I think they’re exciting) as I’ve made some changes and tried to get this bird off the ground.

First off, Reading Until Dawn has evolved forms, from “journal” to open-ended “anthology.” Though this is basically just a semantic switch, it means at least two things: a) there will be no issues–although as volume warrants (yes, that’s optimism you smell), the essays may be split into volumes–and thus b) no hard deadlines. Instead, because we’re not dealing with a publisher and don’t have costs to keep down, submissions will be read, accepted, and published on an ongoing basis. For me, that’s part of the excitement of publishing something like this online: not only can it be more dynamic and open-ended than print publishing, but it has the potential (potentially) to reach a larger, more diverse audience.

Due to the foibles of human nature, however, this lack of deadlines may present certain difficulties, as in a decreased number of submissions. Hence the following–a soft deadline and an incentive: Continue reading “Reading Until Dawn Update”

Guest post: Theric Jepson on “The Sin of Saint Onan”

When I commissioned Thmazing Theric Jepson to write a guest post, I had no idea that he would work to undermine AMV’s very existence. Or that he would be tossing out words like coitus-interruptus, masturbation, icky and lucre. But since I am a man of my word, I’m going to go ahead and post this. Those sensitive to Old Testament references should probably shield their eyes. Those who can handle it, are welcome to rise up and defend AMV’s honor in the comments. ~Wm Morris

In our lovely Bible, canonized though it may be, we find any number of icky stories filled with stuff that isn’t good fodder for Sunday School. Gang rape and corpse mutilation, horny old men, drunken incest — I could go on. But I’m squeamish.

So let’s move on to Onan, who spilled his seed upon the ground. Now, most times I’ve heard this called masturbation; I hold more with the coitus-interruptus interpretation myself, but either way, the point is this: He didn’t put his seed where it belonged. He totally failed to make babies.

Which is why I pronounce Onan the patron saint of bloggers. Continue reading “Guest post: Theric Jepson on “The Sin of Saint Onan””