Things Are Changing

This has nothing to do with New Year resolutions, but I wanted to save it for my first real entry of 2013. After keeping this blog for 10 years, it's time to change things a bit. After all, everything around and in me has changed considerably through the decade; I think it's only fitting that my personal expression on the web should change, too.

When I first discovered blogging it excited me so much because I had already grown bored with "static" websites that seldom, if ever, changed. I knew something new was afoot and I'd already grown bored with website guest books and discussion boards, so I began to look into things. I loved what I found and I launched this blog. At first, I managed it through FrontPage, then I found Wordpress and, later, Blogger. Many of you have been with me through all of my myriad design changes, which was kind of fun, I think. I've never been afraid of change. In fact, I require it...

There wasn't so much concern about privacy in those days and I had no problem writing intimate details about my life and posting pictures of my family and friends. That changed when the internet cockroaches slimed out of the woodwork, however.

The first indication that people were no longer stopping by to read blog entries and take part in conversation was when the feedreaders showed up. I hated them because I knew they were the death knell of the blogging community, but I had no idea what was in store. I didn't foresee the social networks coming. Facebook made its debut with its social interaction and photo posting, its immediacy, and its ongoing drive toward security. (Whether they've succeeded or not is a subject I'll leave for other bloggers who enjoy writing about such things.) I got caught up with it too, and I still love it, warts and all. All of a sudden blogs that I'd bookmarked disappeared and those that survived had less frequent entries. Where I used to get tons of comments, I'm now lucky to get one per post. Let's face it, people would rather go to one place, leave one comment and have that go out to everyone they know in a second. Who has time to blog hop all morning? But look, if blogging is books, social networking is magazines. I'm not too happy about it, but will I leave Facebook? Not on your life. Not until the Next Big Thing comes along, that is. And it will. Quote me on that. It will.

The painful demise of the weblog phenomenon reminds me of the old DOS based AOL back in the early 1990's. Sure, it was expensive, but it was fun. It was a secret world we arrived at through the bleep, bloop, screech worm hole of the phone modem, and at last we were in. "Welcome! You've got mail!" Then, Windows 95 burst on the scene and the Internet, and those of us with older computers (mine was only two years old at the time) were shut out of AOL as they quickly made DOS obsolete. "AOL — The Dark Side" it was called. I still miss it sometimes.

So what has all of this to do with changes I'm making in my Internet existence?

1. I am not closing this blog, but I will be posting an entry only once or twice a week. Changes will appear in the sidebar, but I'm not sure what those are just yet; I'm still mulling things over.
2. Other blogs will be discontinued, some given to the people for whom I created them so that they can maintain them.
3. Due to copyright security concerns, all reading blogs will be taken down. These include Character Interviews and Enharmonic Intervals.
4. Alla Breve as a web design cooperative will change to an author assistance cooperative. I will be taking on no new commercial web design clients and those I'm currently serving will have to find someone else once their project is completed. I will only do web design for authors, and even those will be few. I'm going to get picky and work only for dedicated writers whose work in which I find a certain degree of excellence. That site will undergo a total change when I can get to it.

So why am I doing this? As I said, my life has changed and it's heading into new directions that already do not afford me the leisure time I've had in the past. Work beckons. Serious work. I am being offered opportunities that I cannot, shall not, miss. The nature of my entries won't change, just their frequency.

In many ways I have the Internet—and computers in general—to credit with teaching me how to roll with changes as they happen. From 1995 to today, everything about communication on our planet has changed. It will continue to change, and I along with it.

Have a great 2013. I look forward to sharing it with you!