Thursday, November 09, 2006

Arizona Eighth Blog Announcement

Blogging takes a tremendous amount of time if done right, in many ways can be as demanding as a job. Because of this, we have taken some time to evaluate whether or not we would continue this blog after the election. There have been points where my business has suffered due to blogging constraints and I have not been able to spend as much time with my family as I otherwise would have. I know that TC has also felt pressure on his career and family.

That being said, I spoke to TC and my family about these constraints and whether continuing the blog is something we should do.

So the final decision was that "yes" this is something that we should do, and is important. That being said, we will be changing the format quite a bit as well as our scope. Hopefully, it will be a better site and allow even more discussion of the issues important to our area.

The only downside is that TC will not be able to contribute as he has in the past. He has made some recommendations of others who can fill in for him, however, and I hope to get those people as well as some others on board. Some of the people on the shortlist will be surprising and exciting for the future of the blog.

Most of all, I would like to thank the people who have been reading and commenting. I have no frame of reference for such things, but I hear that we have been rather successful for our limited audience universe. Hopefully we can expand that along with the depth and quality of our content. And that is not code for opening a "subscribers only" portal :).

Please look in frequently for changes to the blog, as well as further announcements as to the new directions we will be going.

Again, thank you for all of your support.

If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at arizonaeighth@yahoo.com

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You made a real contribution to the process and to the debate. Those who followed your postings were immensely better informed than those who did not.

Liza said...

Good luck with your new direction, Framer. I've been reading here for a couple of months and what I have noticed is that its the lefties who write the best comments. If they move on for awhile to focus on the new Democratic congress, your challenge will be attracting readers who can raise the discussion level above that of wingnut talk radio. I hope you're successful and you certainly are far better than Sonoran Alliance or Thinkrightarizona which appears to be more of a joke than a real blog.

Best of luck to you.

Art Jacobson said...

Framer...

As I commented to Matt, when he launched Sustainability...Etc, A blog can be a cruel mistress.

I'm glad to hear that you'll be keeping the site up.

Best to you

Art

Framer said...

Wow,

Hearing from Mike and Art sure means a lot to me.

Liza,

I tend to find that the greatest posters and minds do not like to post and live in an echo chamber and will find their way over here as well. My readership is holding up pretty well over the last couple of days even with many Republicans swearing off politics for the next couple of weeks. They will come back.

The good news is that us Right of Center bloggers now live in a very target rich environment. Bill Clinton made Rush Limbaugh. Finding fodder to blog indignantly about will certainly be a lot easier.

The Democratic takeover was bad for Republicans, good for us Rightie bloggers :)

Liza said...

Framer,
You're probably right. When you lose the election, there is nothing to do except to become perceptive, articulate, well-read, and get ready for the next election. Been there, done that.

x4mr said...

Framer,

Delighted to hear you will continue. I have a lot of respect for this blog and definitely believes it adds value.

I also echo your considerations regarding anonymity. I like my username and will probably always post with it, but my anonymity is virtually pseudo-anonymous in the sense that quite a few know, and if someone puts any effort into it (takes very little), they can find out.

I will keep x4mr, but probably pretty soon I am going to update my profile, and my real name will be there.

It won't make news.

Regarding visitors, not sure what you consider high volume, but I also will pay attention to this, and if it drops really low and stays there, I doubt I would continue, but I also consider who is visiting (not to worry, no fancy spyware and like I even remotely have the time). I see a basic location and url, so I know when washingtontimes or house.gov hits. For regular people, I only see what isp they are using (qwest, cox, comcast, etc).

It's a little creepy when those mil.gov people show up, which happened when I posted those fatality graphs.

My view of Cheney duly noted, I remain an independent and appreciate many of the views on the red side of things.

Best Wishes and keep up the good work. I will keep a link to your blog on my site and refer people here when our subjects "intersect."