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| Miss ya, Bitchy... |
The only thing that seems to vitiate the nobody-showing-up rule is if **I** don't show up or even step out for minute to get my mail or a cup of coffee. Then we seem to enter a parallel office-hour universe where simply hordes of people show up just to see me, and I'm not there.
The Meat.
Then my assistant will go through 70 emails trying to schedule this person, between his apparently 4,000 classes a week, his 1,400 hours of work, his volleyball game, and his bunion-prevention exercises, and I will show up, on one of my normal, at-home writing days no less, during the only 30 minutes he has available in the next 72 years....only to have moss grow on me again while nobody shows up.
ReplyDeleteMagic. I really miss BB. Thanks, RGM.
Indeed. I especially love the moss-growing references. I know that feeling (but/and have learned not to schedule such appointments, and not only because I serve as my own assistant, and do not wish to write the 70 emails as well as drive in on a grading day -- I don't have writing days, at least not during the semester -- to no avail).
DeleteYes, Bitchy was the bomb! I miss her and so many others.
ReplyDeleteOn a note about the blog, I notice with sadness the Stat Porn update (sans graphic) in the sidebar. I don't understand what's happened. But I think back to things that Walter said a long ways back. The old RYS was much more fun! It was a lot more irreverent and at times our new site (because I still love this place) is just an alternate Crampicle forum. That's not what I was told this site was or would be.
I have really noticed since Fab took over how a lot of readers have posted their own stuff, and it's really a plus. But if the numbers are low and we're just a handful of people talking, then the site really isn't what it was.
Now, someone also said on this page that the page would be what it would be, and so maybe that's okay.
But I find myself cruising the RYS archive and the early days of the Misery oftentimes for the thrill I used to get. Maybe I'm just immune to it all. Maybe we're all just immune to it all. But it makes me sad all the same.
I blame myself.
DeleteOK, that's only partly true. I also blame spring break, and people checking out temporarily because they dropped by and found the lights off.
But I don't blame the many contributors (other than me) who are doing yoeperson duty in providing something new every day while not trampling on each other.
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ReplyDeleteDespite a long connection with these pages, I do not have a dog in the fight. Fab was the one who started this blog - of the people who came to me when I closed RYS, he was the one who I "knew" the best from correspondence and who made the best case for what a new version of that sort of blog could be. He can do what he likes with it.
ReplyDeleteI'm astonished at the stats. College Misery never really came close to the numbers at RYS, but it had rebounded nicely after the 2014 hiatus. I can't even conceive of the fact that yesterday there were only 1400 unique visitors. I don't know how to explain or what's to blame for it. I know I didn't look at the page yesterday, but what can you do?
I know from talking to Terry that he feel he fucked up a bit in his 6 month tenure, but I don't feel that way. I know Fab came back to run it because so many people told him how much the page meant to them. I know that everyone who has run the page has meant well. I know nearly everyone who contributes to the page means well.
So, just see what happens with it.
Makes sense to me. I've never paid much attention to the stats (and don't see them on the sidebar, so maybe they disappeared, which is fine with me), but it does seem odd that a 24-hour "lights out," especially during a period when many people were probably on spring break, would be enough to significantly change visitorship. Yes, the approach has changed a bit, but that happens every few months (if not every few weeks or days) anyway (if this blog is a phoenix, then it's phoenix that resurrects as a duck one time, a buzzard the next, and so on). Maybe spring/spring break has something to do with it.
DeleteOr maybe one of Terry's alters spent all hir time pushing the "reload" button. If so, it's no wonder he was exhausted and a bit delusional at the end. Sleep deprivation will do that to you.
But seriously, we're either dying or transmogrifying (yet again), and that seems to be the way it goes. I'm tremendously grateful to all those who do what they can to keep the lights on, whatever the exact nature of the illuminated activities at any particular time (and no matter who does or doesn't choose to peer in the windows, and how often, though I'd always be happy to see more window-peerers come in and join the fun, or the misery, or whatever, inside).
Curious to see what I could glean about changes in readership when CM went on hiatus about a year ago, I spent part of Friday trawling through AWC for stats on how long it took AWC to regain a steady readership. I did not find what I sought, but that might be simple failure to find on my part.
DeleteI think in some ways we're back to phase 2.
Phase 1: Start blog.
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Get lots of hits.
I do wish that Terry could disabuse himself of thinking he "fucked up." It's the academician's nature to want to do it better next time, but without a time machine, the things that work well in the future can't be tested under the conditions that existed in the past. And who's to say they'd have worked?
Probably everybody here has gone in and taught the hell out of something -- nailed it, did everything right that worked before and then some -- only to be met by unchanging, vapid stares from the mob. It makes you ponder just how much of the situation you can control. If my thoughts on the matter can count for anything, then I wish to be clear: you nailed it, Terry. Ran it like a boss.
Amen.
DeleteHi all. Just to answer a couple of emails publicly, I am not trying to sabotage the page or hold anyone ransom. I guess I've handled things poorly. Honestly I didn't think I'd be doing this again, so please forgive me. I was just dismayed and guess I shared that in a crappy way. As Cal said earlier, I can't believe how the visits have dropped off. Yes, it is spring break some places, and yes, Terry probably faked out some who thought the page had died - again - because, like, it's happened 2 times in 9 1/2 years - we're famous quitters.
ReplyDeleteBut I apologize to everyone. I would love if the page got enough visits to justify keeping it open. There are so many of you really active, and that's terrific. But we all know how that burns anyone out. Maybe there'll be enough of the active folks to keep things percolating.
Really, just answering some things that I thought maybe others needed to know. I loathe talking about this stuff, but I got caught up.
Let's drop it. New week. I see we have a couple of posts queued up. Let's just be miserable together, okay? Terry's not eating a revolver. I'm not pouting and petulant. Cal's a giant asshole still, but he likes it like that. Les, well I can't reach Les. I'm sure she's afraid I'll ask her to stop and bring in some K-Cups since we're completely out.
This fucking Oilmont is the worst place for groceries! It's 20 miles down to the Albertson's in Shelby. Toole County is a complete wasteland. (Except for beer. Man, there's a lot of beer. And speed.)
As long as there's beer, I'm in.
Delete