We’re trying to bring this blog in for a landing and refuel it. Posting three and four times per day for months on end sets certain expectations. It’s not the sort of thing you want to just stop doing precipitously. I don’t want anyone to get the idea we’re retreating, because we’re not. If we were, I’d just tell you. The Sourcerer crew are people just like everyone else in the blogosphere. Content takes time to produce if you want it to be good. And it takes time to load. Our blogging is subject to work schedules, family obligations, and all the other exigencies of life. I’m sure you’re familiar 🙂
It’s clear that our peak blogging season is January-July, and the best use of our energy from August-December is to persuade all you cool people to stick with us, improve the quality of our blogs, and strenghen our social media relationships. Here’s an update on the features I am sure about at this point, because I think the best way to convince you to stick with us is to let you know what we’re up to. Things will become more clear over the next couple of weeks, but I’m posting this today because keeping you informed is one of my jobs.
Will’s been writing about Doctor Who here off and on for months. I’ve got two posts from him to run this week, and he’s blogging the new season. Will and I have behind-the-scenes conversations about Doctor Who quite often, so this is not something you want to miss. We’re still working out the schedule. More to come.
Returning soon. We’re working on setting up the next round of these. This is not something we’re willing to take a break from for very long, but Sourcerer is out of the social commentary business (aside from tweeting links) so the updates and coordinating posts will be published either at Part Time Monster or at Just Gene’O in the future. I am not sure which yet, as I haven’t actually discussed that part of it with Diana.
Will be back soon, but Jeremy’s taking a break from Batman after a mightily impressive run. We’ll either have a Batman finale or an announcement about Wednesdays in the next week or so. I’m working on filling that slot, and I’m capable of doing it myself if necessary. David and I are discussing this one, but not to worry. The comics aren’t going away.
Listening to Music without Understanding It
Also taking a break, as David indicated in his post last week, but at the moment there are no plans to end it permanently. If you’ve enjoyed that series as much as I have, you should stand up and yell “ENCORE!!”
I’ll do these on Sundays or Mondays when I have something to share. This feature is dependent upon me learning new tricks and finding interesting connections between networks or in the numbers, so popularity really doesn’t come into it. Unless I have something useful for you, I have no social media post. I may move the social media blogging to Just Gene’O. I’m not sure yet. It’s very much alive, but probably not a weekly thing for the next little while.
This is a fixture. It’s the first consistent thing I did on this blog. There’s no way I’m stopping it. It’s fun and easy and I know how many of you love it.
Will also continue here. I’m wondering whether the “Wordless” posts are the best use of my photos. I have a ton of photos, but not an infinite supply, and it does 
take time to crop and tag them. I’m just thinking about this at the moment, but whatever I decide, the photoblogging will continue. Even though they don’t typically generate comments you are telling me with your likes and by actually visiting the photo posts that these are the most popular thing I, personally, am doing.
Will continue only when I don’t have anything else to run on Friday. On weeks when I can squeeze in a Follow Friday post or find a nice reblog, I’ll do that instead. I like to have open threads because you never know who might wander by and start up a conversation. I also like to give space to bloggers to come and ask questions about WordPress or give me feedback. But I can’t have very many open threads with zero comments. It makes me look like I’m not good at engagement, and *cough* we all know that isn’t true. I may still do conversation threads on Fridays, but most of them will not be completely open.
Thanks!
Of course there are features here that are not mentioned at all. That’s because I’m not sure where they are at the moment. As soon as I know, you’ll know. Thanks for the reads, comments, likes, stop-bys and conversations on other social media. This blog would not be what it is without your support.
I must say, that’s a damn long list of features 🙂
Priorities
We all know I generate way more ideas than I can actualize. But I am really a very down-to-earth guy. I’m a realist at heart, even though I don’t show it in public very often. If I can only do three things between now and January, those three things will be:
- Coordinate and promote another round of Feminist Friday discussions,
- Blog the new season of Doctor Who Part Time Monster, and
- Publish one good post a week at Just Gene’O.
If the price of me doing those three things is posting a “closed for the season” sign here and coming back in January, I’ll do it. But I think that will not happen. I trust the contributors. I expect we’ll be able to keep all the balls in the air. Because that’s what we do here. We juggle.
All the bloggers I interact with are understanding people, and none of them actually expect a post a day from the blogs they follow, so I believe that will be enough. I’m thinking about redesigning this blog later in the year, and I am also looking for a blogging challenge to join in January. I’m planning to blog at the same pace next year as I have this year, only slow it down a couple of weeks earlier. This blog follows the same sort of rhythm as tv series and professional sports 😉
Sourcerer 