As audiences go there's "small" as in sub-microscopic, and then there's small as in "clearly never going to give HotAir a run for its money." From some perspectives, HotAir and the Weekly Standard are quite "small."
At the same time also, a non-sectarian approach has a potential "market" extending broadly across all sects, with only committed sectarians excluded. You don't have to be absurdly overly optimistic about human nature to conclude that the upper limit on audience is far beyond anything a mere blog can reasonably aspire to. An active readership of a mere few hundred people and commentator-ship of a few tens would make this blog seem like Grand Central Station, and is quite attainable over time without great exertions.
You arrived at a fairly late point in the first phase (don't know how you found your way here). Looking at it purely from a personal perspective, it was the height of my very limited notoriety, when I was net-publicly dueling with the likes of Jonah Goldberg, Mark Steyn, and Allahpundit, getting quoted on rightwing radio, inspiring anti-CK hate groups among HA users, alienating co-bloggers and regulars, etc.
The voice of my "serious" posts is the voice of someone who believes he's talking to, or potentially talking to, a larger audience, fighting meaningful fights, "tilting at windmills" perhaps, but real windmills on a real planet at least. Without a larger, at least theoretically self-sustainable mission, it doesn't make sense to tilt that way. If I were co-blogging somewhere else or being published for real somewhere, it would make sense. But I'm not. Maybe down the line.
For now, a less formal, end-in-itself kind of approach makes more sense to me, for me. I also imagine over time forcing more of the "comment thread content" - that includes you guys - into "main/post content."
@ bob:
eh, I'm sure there's a lot of that, but "something happened here": A bit more than a year ago, I created this blog for refugees from the canceled comment threads at Contentions. The complement, including several initially enthusiastic co-authors, was overall quite conservative politically, but cosmopolitan and disproportionately Jewish. It had a positive trajectory in readership, participation, and I even had a good response when I once tried fundraising. We also had what seemed like a potentially fruitful tie-in relationship with HotAir through the Greenroom.
For better or for worse, however, there were problems beneath the surface. Some of it was familiarity breeding contempt. A lot of it was I'm sure growing dislike for me personally - or, since no one here knows me personally - for my style and attitude.
But I'd refer you back to the Was I wacked at HotAir post: There is a political subtext to this all.
A lot of people are comfortable only in an explicitly sectarian environment. Of course, even non-/anti-sectarianism becomes something of a sect. However you want to look at it, the blog is either reaching its natural (very small) audience, between audiences (or audience concepts), or between an audience and no audience.
There's something to be said for a small group of people who merely exchange ideas and discuss things honestly and thoroughly. We have much better discussions on this blog than most other blogs I'm aware of: I'd certainly pick our comment threads over the comment threads at HotAir, ThinkProgress, or some mainstream site. But it's a different audience concept for me to write for.
Writing while imagining that you just might be getting "somewhere" is a different motivation, a different intellectual environment calling for a different voice and leading to a different development, than writing as an end in itself with a small circle of correspondents.
@ narciso: @ Ill Papa Fuster:
Geez, guys, it wasn't a resignation note or End of the Blog note. I said I won't be writing essayistic posts for a while. Not sure how long the sabbatical will last - need to establish a little financial security: I strongly suspect that what that means for me would for most of you qualify as an emergency calling for close family members to be gathered together and begin wailing.
A sense of a larger, real world purpose wouldn't hurt either, but I'm not sure that any ideas I have along those lines are worth discussing. Anyway, don't see any reason to shut down the blog. Just taking a "vacation" from hardcore blogging.
As audiences go there's "small" as in sub-microscopic, and then there's small as in "clearly never going to give HotAir a run for its money." From some perspectives, HotAir and the Weekly Standard are quite "small."
At the same time also, a non-sectarian approach has a potential "market" extending broadly across all sects, with only committed sectarians excluded. You don't have to be absurdly overly optimistic about human nature to conclude that the upper limit on audience is far beyond anything a mere blog can reasonably aspire to. An active readership of a mere few hundred people and commentator-ship of a few tens would make this blog seem like Grand Central Station, and is quite attainable over time without great exertions.
You arrived at a fairly late point in the first phase (don't know how you found your way here). Looking at it purely from a personal perspective, it was the height of my very limited notoriety, when I was net-publicly dueling with the likes of Jonah Goldberg, Mark Steyn, and Allahpundit, getting quoted on rightwing radio, inspiring anti-CK hate groups among HA users, alienating co-bloggers and regulars, etc.
The voice of my "serious" posts is the voice of someone who believes he's talking to, or potentially talking to, a larger audience, fighting meaningful fights, "tilting at windmills" perhaps, but real windmills on a real planet at least. Without a larger, at least theoretically self-sustainable mission, it doesn't make sense to tilt that way. If I were co-blogging somewhere else or being published for real somewhere, it would make sense. But I'm not. Maybe down the line.
For now, a less formal, end-in-itself kind of approach makes more sense to me, for me. I also imagine over time forcing more of the "comment thread content" - that includes you guys - into "main/post content."
Unless you depart for greener pastures.
More later.
@ bob:
eh, I'm sure there's a lot of that, but "something happened here": A bit more than a year ago, I created this blog for refugees from the canceled comment threads at Contentions. The complement, including several initially enthusiastic co-authors, was overall quite conservative politically, but cosmopolitan and disproportionately Jewish. It had a positive trajectory in readership, participation, and I even had a good response when I once tried fundraising. We also had what seemed like a potentially fruitful tie-in relationship with HotAir through the Greenroom.
For better or for worse, however, there were problems beneath the surface. Some of it was familiarity breeding contempt. A lot of it was I'm sure growing dislike for me personally - or, since no one here knows me personally - for my style and attitude.
But I'd refer you back to the Was I wacked at HotAir post: There is a political subtext to this all.
A lot of people are comfortable only in an explicitly sectarian environment. Of course, even non-/anti-sectarianism becomes something of a sect. However you want to look at it, the blog is either reaching its natural (very small) audience, between audiences (or audience concepts), or between an audience and no audience.
There's something to be said for a small group of people who merely exchange ideas and discuss things honestly and thoroughly. We have much better discussions on this blog than most other blogs I'm aware of: I'd certainly pick our comment threads over the comment threads at HotAir, ThinkProgress, or some mainstream site. But it's a different audience concept for me to write for.
Writing while imagining that you just might be getting "somewhere" is a different motivation, a different intellectual environment calling for a different voice and leading to a different development, than writing as an end in itself with a small circle of correspondents.
@ narciso:
@ Ill Papa Fuster:
Geez, guys, it wasn't a resignation note or End of the Blog note. I said I won't be writing essayistic posts for a while. Not sure how long the sabbatical will last - need to establish a little financial security: I strongly suspect that what that means for me would for most of you qualify as an emergency calling for close family members to be gathered together and begin wailing.
A sense of a larger, real world purpose wouldn't hurt either, but I'm not sure that any ideas I have along those lines are worth discussing. Anyway, don't see any reason to shut down the blog. Just taking a "vacation" from hardcore blogging.