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Friday, December 28, 2007
9:08:00 PM EST
Hearing Nothing at the moment
As next Monday will be my last day on the job here and at Ficlets (for those of you who missed the announcement about that, it's here), I know some of you have wondered where I will be from here on out. The answer is simple: I'll be at my own personal blog, called Whatever, from which I have been blogging since 1998 -- that's right, going on ten years now. I realize at least some of you are aware that Whatever exists, because I've seen you link to it, or you've popped up in comments over there, but it's also true that I've kept the two blog spheres fairly separate, so the existence of Whatever may be news to some of you.
I had two reasons for keeping the two largely separate. First, early on, it was agreed that I wouldn't link to it basically to keep the focus on what was going on here at AOL Journals rather than anything I was doing on my own site -- this was work, and over there at Whatever was another thing entirely. I didn't have any problem with that; indeed, I agreed that when I was over here, I was supposed to be on the clock for AOL. Work is work.
Second, related to the "work is work" theme, is that my tone here at By The Way is markedly different than it is over at Whatever. Here at By The Way I have responsibilities to AOL and responsibilities to you folks in the AOL Journals community; I'm supposed to be helpful and useful and friendly, and to keep things here on a generally light and even keel, and to keep you folks busy with Weekend Assignments and Photo Shoots and such. To be sure, this was not a burden, nor have I been fake over here. I've enjoyed being helpful and useful and friendly. I've had fun.
Over on Whatever, however, I'm not under the same set of engagement rules, and what that means is that the tone can be quite a bit different. Some of the major differences:
1. I write about a wider range of political and social topics than I do here and am not shy about expressing my opinions there, whereas here I've kept them pretty much to myself;
2. I use much stronger language there than I do here (AOL had perfectly reasonable expectations on my language, which I was happy to follow), and am generally somewhat more sarcastic and cynical than I am here;
3. I engage readers and commenters quite a bit differently, which is to say I am very often combative in discussion, and when I think the occasion warrants it, I am occasionally actively rude. Most discussion, to be clear, is civil and wide-ranging and (in my opinion) very interesting; I have a great set of commenters there. But from time to time things get intense.
Again, none this means I am or was being fake here, or that Whatever shows the "real" me. What is more accurate to say is that both sites are me as I really am, just not all of what I really am. I can be helpful and friendly; I can be sarcastic and combative. I can express my opinions; I can keep my opinions to myself. And so on.
That said, one of the things I am very conscious and concerned about is that people who have largely experienced me as the By The Way helpful guy will wander over to Whatever and experience a bit of a shock that I'm not presenting myself in exactly the same way over there. To be sure, it works the other way around as well -- people who know me primarily from Whatever will come over here and scratch their heads about what's going on here. But going from there to here is not so much a shock as in going from here to there.
The point I'm trying to make is: After Monday, I'll still be online, just on my own blog and on my time, and if you decide to visit, I want to make sure it comes as no surprise to you that my tone and presentation are substantially different there than here. You are absolutely welcome to visit and explore and comment and become part of the community there. Some of you already have. But if you come and visit and decide that the flavor of that site is not to your liking, I won't be offended.
For those of you who have not already visited there and are curious what the tone is there, probably the best way to get a feeling is to look through my Best of 2007 entry, which links to 20 of my more memorable Whatever entries this year. In these entries you'll see examples of each of the points I enumerated above. Again: Very different tone and feel. Be ready for that. But I think it'll help you decide whether Whatever will be for you.
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9:08:00 PM EST
Hearing Nothing at the moment
Where I Will Be From Now On
As next Monday will be my last day on the job here and at Ficlets (for those of you who missed the announcement about that, it's here), I know some of you have wondered where I will be from here on out. The answer is simple: I'll be at my own personal blog, called Whatever, from which I have been blogging since 1998 -- that's right, going on ten years now. I realize at least some of you are aware that Whatever exists, because I've seen you link to it, or you've popped up in comments over there, but it's also true that I've kept the two blog spheres fairly separate, so the existence of Whatever may be news to some of you.
I had two reasons for keeping the two largely separate. First, early on, it was agreed that I wouldn't link to it basically to keep the focus on what was going on here at AOL Journals rather than anything I was doing on my own site -- this was work, and over there at Whatever was another thing entirely. I didn't have any problem with that; indeed, I agreed that when I was over here, I was supposed to be on the clock for AOL. Work is work.
Second, related to the "work is work" theme, is that my tone here at By The Way is markedly different than it is over at Whatever. Here at By The Way I have responsibilities to AOL and responsibilities to you folks in the AOL Journals community; I'm supposed to be helpful and useful and friendly, and to keep things here on a generally light and even keel, and to keep you folks busy with Weekend Assignments and Photo Shoots and such. To be sure, this was not a burden, nor have I been fake over here. I've enjoyed being helpful and useful and friendly. I've had fun.
Over on Whatever, however, I'm not under the same set of engagement rules, and what that means is that the tone can be quite a bit different. Some of the major differences:
1. I write about a wider range of political and social topics than I do here and am not shy about expressing my opinions there, whereas here I've kept them pretty much to myself;
2. I use much stronger language there than I do here (AOL had perfectly reasonable expectations on my language, which I was happy to follow), and am generally somewhat more sarcastic and cynical than I am here;
3. I engage readers and commenters quite a bit differently, which is to say I am very often combative in discussion, and when I think the occasion warrants it, I am occasionally actively rude. Most discussion, to be clear, is civil and wide-ranging and (in my opinion) very interesting; I have a great set of commenters there. But from time to time things get intense.
Again, none this means I am or was being fake here, or that Whatever shows the "real" me. What is more accurate to say is that both sites are me as I really am, just not all of what I really am. I can be helpful and friendly; I can be sarcastic and combative. I can express my opinions; I can keep my opinions to myself. And so on.
That said, one of the things I am very conscious and concerned about is that people who have largely experienced me as the By The Way helpful guy will wander over to Whatever and experience a bit of a shock that I'm not presenting myself in exactly the same way over there. To be sure, it works the other way around as well -- people who know me primarily from Whatever will come over here and scratch their heads about what's going on here. But going from there to here is not so much a shock as in going from here to there.
The point I'm trying to make is: After Monday, I'll still be online, just on my own blog and on my time, and if you decide to visit, I want to make sure it comes as no surprise to you that my tone and presentation are substantially different there than here. You are absolutely welcome to visit and explore and comment and become part of the community there. Some of you already have. But if you come and visit and decide that the flavor of that site is not to your liking, I won't be offended.
For those of you who have not already visited there and are curious what the tone is there, probably the best way to get a feeling is to look through my Best of 2007 entry, which links to 20 of my more memorable Whatever entries this year. In these entries you'll see examples of each of the points I enumerated above. Again: Very different tone and feel. Be ready for that. But I think it'll help you decide whether Whatever will be for you.
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This entry has 15 comments: (Add your own)
-
Well, which ever TONE you will be using, you will still be JOHN.....
And thats alright in my book...
Your a talented guy and I look forward to reading the new blogg..
Take Care
Best Wishes for you and your family in 2008... -
Glad you put the heads up here John -- I look forward to exploring the other side of you!
-
Wishing the best in the New Year to you and your family, John! Glad there is a place to still get my "fix" of your blogging. Take care, John. Hugs, Val xox
http://journals.aol.com/valphish/ThereisaSeason -
Awwww... I've been reading over at the Whatever -almost- as long as I've been reading you here, and face it your a nice guy at both places.
12/29/07 7:28 PM
It was justified.