You’re probably used to seeing me blather at Nashville is Talking. If you are like some people , you’re probably glad to see me go.
I’m gonna resist the urge to quote that tired Mark Twain thing about death and great exaggeration. Kinda.
So what IS this new thing? Why did I quit writing for the old thing? What’s going on over there?
Let’s start with the last question and work our way backward, shall we?
What’s going on over there?
I can’t tell you, because I don’t know. I was never a true “insider”. I was not an employee. I was somebody who volunteered to fill in for my friend’s vacation days, but then had the terms of my volunteership extended as we all waited to hear the plans for the website. They thanked me for my patience. They appreciated my effort. I had fun.
Their long-term plans are still unknown to me.
Why did I quit writing for the old thing?
As I said above, I was a volunteer for the old thing. I don’t mind blogging for free. If I did I wouldn’t have been hanging out on the Internet writing in one form or another forever. I didn’t mind blogging for them for free. But as I discussed the future with one of the WKRN employees I realised that what I and others wanted would never entirely be what they wanted. That’s not a problem. It was their house and their rules.
As anyone who has been a surly teenager chafing against their parents’ curfew knows, there are two solutions to that dilemma. You can either put up and shut up or you can grow up and move out.
So what IS this new thing?
That’s what this site is. Our new home. We’ve grown up and moved out. I say “we” because this is very much a team effort, and very open to all who desire to be a part of our community’s new experiment. Ivy set the ball in motion. A dozen other people are already signed on as contributers–but I’m writing this at 4:30 in the morning and want to clear it with them before I start dropping their names all over the place. But trust me, it’s a good batch.
What you see here today is the beginning. The placeholder. The kickstart. In the next few weeks a few minor details will change as we slap on new coats of paint, hang curtains, design our logo. All of that, though, is window-dressing.
What will happen here is this. There will be a building and fostering of community. We will have political commentary from both sides of the fence. (Think “Crossfire” without the shouting and bowties.) In fact, we’re looking for some conservative partners. I’m more conservative than others, being that I’m a libertarian, but if you ask some conservatives they’ll tell you that Libertarians are nutcases who can’t be trusted. So if anyone is interested in being a non-nutcase conservative, drop us a line in the comments.
We plan to have an aggregator and a few other community-building tools as well.
We will have regular meet-ups to use real-world ties to reinforce our sense of online community. Although we get that most of you are shy and don’t want to come to those things.
In short, we are putting our money where our mouth is.
We welcome you all to our experiment. Thanks for coming and thanks for being here.
