It's been a fun ride - more than 2000 posts and 10,000 comments over a 12-year period - but there doesn't seem to be much recent activity other than periodically being hit by lurkers in Russia and the occasional comments offering escort services in India. I've long been curious who these Russian lurkers are. They leave no comments, but they pop up fairly regularly, suggesting that my blog is on someone's radar screen. I delete the Indian escort services.
I never intended for this to become my blog. It was initially imagined as a forum for American history readers after the old New York Times Reading forums were shut down in the mid 2000s, so I created a haven for the handful of history buffs who enjoyed doing a group read from time to time. That group thinned out over the years, with the readers reduced to two -- Trippler and me. I began posting more and more personal observations, eventually becoming obsessed with the Trump administration, which appeared to scare the old guard off completely. Haven't heard a peep from Avrds, Marti, Rick and JAbel in years, although I keep in contact with Marti and John on facebook.
Part of the problem was that hackers managed to dirty up the blog, so that former readers were complaining they were getting hit with virus alerts by visiting the site. I tried to clean it up, give it a new look, purge as much of the unwanted content as I could, but the damage was done. They didn't want to take a chance on mucking up their computers with viruses. Thanks whoever you are who did this to my blog.
At its peak this blog didn't get more than 5000 hits per month, so I don't know why these hackers bothered. I suppose it was the sport of it, or maybe I pissed off some Trumpers. Whatever the case, it wasn't like I ever reached more than a handful of people. I could hardly call myself an "influencer."
Attempts to contact Blogger went for naught. The creators were now pushing other blog sites like Medium, leaving Blogger to slowly die on the vine. Youtube opened up a whole new world of vlogging, where enterprising persons could take their punditry to the tiny screen, or provide the latest in gaming and fashion tips. The literary forum was all but dead, reduced to posting comments on book reviews in the New York Times or The Guardian, largely through facebook. Hard to believe there were actually book reading forums sponsored by Barnes and Noble at one time, where I once got into a heady discussion about Laurie Robertson-Lorant's biography of Herman Melville.
Those were the days when I was able to order a book from the US without paying a premium in shipping and customs charges. I filled up my basement with books at relatively low prices, now I consider unloading them through amazon marketplace if I can fetch a decent price for them. Not much call for English language books in Lithuania.
It's clear that I need to make a clean break. Search for something new to write about. I have been reading again, mostly books about late 19th century America, as I try to form a picture of the world my great grandfather lived on. I've been toying with the idea of writing a book for years on this subject. Haven't gotten beyond a few notes, but who knows this may finally be the year I put it all together.
Whatever the case, I've enjoyed the discussions that have taken part on this blog and hope those still around are in good health should you check in. I won't delete the blog. We had some good group reads that still appear to draw some attention. I like to look back at the old posts and discussions myself.
Make 2021 a great year! If you feel like dropping me a line you can do so at dzimas61@gmail.com. Please no spam.
I've always appreciated your blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nebris.
DeleteI do not have the words to tell you how much I miss our discussions about American History. In fact, venturing into literature was often more fun ~ no surprise given that my college major was English/American literature.
ReplyDeleteWish it was possible to put together all of my posts here on the subject of Am-History. Could well earn a B.A. in the subject and a few post graduate credits as well. Fehrenbacher's "Slavery, Law, and Politics - Dred Scott Case" and McGarvie's "One Nation Under Law" were graduate level reading. Bob Whelan and I had a good exchange on those subjects as we both are law school graduates.
Will look over the YouTube Channel. Don't have Instagram but that channel looks really good as well.
It is too bad the forum dried up. Everyone went their separate ways, but that's to be expected. No hard feelings. What was odd was that all the views there were so few comments. I imagine it was another technical glitch on the part of blogger, as I had persons say they tried to post comments but they didn't appear on screen. After awhile, they just give up, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see Juneteenth made into a National Holiday.
ReplyDeleteSome right wing delusionals are p!ssed at it. I guess they prefer that their hero Benedict Arnold's birthday be celebrated on his birthday June 14.