This Just In From HR
By Mitch Berg
The bad news: “Bogus Doug” Williams is shutting down Bogus Gold.
Which is a bit of a whack upside the local blog scene’s head. BoGo has always been a great place for high-quality writing that doesn’t always mine the same topics, over and over again.
He’s got the same reasons an awful lot of solobloggers have for backing out:
Surveying the scene now it’s a lot different than it was. It looks to me like the era of the small personality driven “boutique” blog, covering all the topics that may interest an individual blogger of no particular celebrity, is coming to an end.
This may not be an entirely bad thing. The ending of this particular blog era seems to stem from the availability of so many more options for doing that sort of thing than used to exist. You no longer need to set up your own personal blog to share all your interests and thoughts with the world. There’s Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other new social media which are better designed around individual personalities, and do a much better job connecting you to people who may care about what you have to say. I’ve tried them out myself, and while they don’t seem to suit me as well as a good old blog, I can definitely see their appeal and suitability for the things they’re made for.
This is a long way of saying I’ve decided to shut down this blog.
OK – the good news? Doug will be blogging here at Shot In The Dark. I made Doug the same offer I made Johnny Roosh about a year ago; “it’d be a shame to see you not blogging; do whatever you want at Shot, whenever you want. Once a month, once a day, whatever”. I’m happy to say Doug accepted.
I guess that means we need a staff meeting…
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:51 am
It’s a great hire, Mitch. Doug is aces.
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:05 am
Great. Now we’ll have flash complaining that “Mitch used to be ok until this” again for yet another writer.
So Mitch, is this another case where the progressives have led and conservatives follow? You used to complain about all the lefty group blogs, but now you’re following them 😉
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:18 am
I didn’t so much “complain” as “poked fun”. It seemed that there were twenty leftyblogs in town that all shared the same dozen or so writers (and “writers”).
I also noted almost two years ago, not joking, that it seemed a lot of smaller bloggers were amalgamating into some of the bigger group blogs. Anti-Strib, Freedom Dogs, Nihilist in Golf Pants and TvM absorbed a lot of smaller conservative bloggers; the same thing happened on the left, as Minnesota
Tragedy of Spyrochaetal Paresis“Progressive” Project, MNPublius and a few other seemed to amalgamate lots of leftybloggers.SITD will never be a “group blog”. It’ll be a blog with three writers. I’m not throwing SITD open to just anyone; the offers I’ve made were to writers who were shutting down solo blogs d/t the time demands, and whose talent I didn’t want to go to waste, but most importantly to writers whose styles I thought complemented mine well. I don’t want SITD to be a dog’s breakfast of different styles.
Fact is, I’d carry on as a solo; I don’t need co-bloggers. But it’s good to have ’em!
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:27 am
It seemed that there were twenty leftyblogs in town that all shared the same dozen or so writers (and “writers”).
And that’s a crucial distinction. Doug has a very distinctive voice; JR does too. The great herd of independent minds on the left? Not so much.
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:36 am
Speaking of distinctive voices; just wait until I decide to shut down my blog, and Mitch comes knocking. . .
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:54 am
Mitch implored: “I’m not throwing SITD open to just anyone; the offers I’ve made were to writers who were shutting down solo blogs d/t the time demands, and whose talent I didn’t want to go to waste”
Quit begging, would ya? Angryclown said No, and that’s final!
August 3rd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
“…a staff meeting…”
…or circle party… call it whatever you want… whatever turns your crank… floats your boat… just let AssClown have the center…
August 4th, 2009 at 12:10 am
Mitch says:
“Fact is, I’d carry on as a solo; I don’t need co-bloggers. But it’s good to have ‘em! ”
I enjoy reading Roosh, I’m sure that I will enjoy reading Doug… but you are and will remain the main draw Mitch. Good thing you still enjoy writing (I can understand the appeal).
August 4th, 2009 at 7:27 am
Inside the negotiating session . . .
[Angry Clown and Mitch are shooting at each other]
Mitch: Comrade! Comrade!
AC: What?
Mitch: Why don’t you just join the union, we’ll write together and kill off liberalism completely!
AC: This union, there’s gonna be meetings?
Mitch: Of course!
AC: No meetings.
[They continue shooting]
.