Comments on: Unemployment Increases

By: Un-Fabulous — Dean’s World

Un-Fabulous — Dean’s World — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:58:51 +0000

[...] much… so very, very much… that is so stupid, so nuts, so God – help – Michigan about this. Where to begin? How to say [...]

By: Un-fabulous « Likelihood of Success

Un-fabulous « Likelihood of Success — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:55:42 +0000

[...] much… so very, very much… that is so stupid, so nuts, so God – help – Michigan about this. Where to begin? How to say [...]

By: jaymaster

jaymaster — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:34:02 +0000

Dean,

Yes. Yes. Yes.

And me,Â Â I like reading the personal stuff.Â

Painful or ugly as it may be, it makes everything seem, well, Â kind of personal.Â Â

By: Dean Esmay

Dean Esmay — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:55:02 +0000

Traffic’s about what it was before the move. Comments are down. But as I’ve always maintained, there’s no real link between comment traffic and reader traffic. Although I’m pretty sure that without the excellent commenters we generally have, we’d have fewer readers long-term.

I don’t know how anyone can even stand reading your average online forum with countless branching threads and/or hundreds of comments in response to a random posting. I know I can’t stand it. I’d rather have 20 thoughtful, informed commenters than any random 500 from, say, LGF or DKos. (And yes, there are good people and good commenters on those sites, I just don’t know how anyone can find the patience to find them from the front page alone.)

By: Aziz Poonawalla

Aziz Poonawalla — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:15:48 +0000

martin, to be honest apart from the single front page post six months ago, itself only 8 words long, there hant been much personal drama from dean here at all. most of it came from jerry, and hes banned now.

dean i amm curious though whether site traffic after the move is still constant or not.

By: Dean Esmay

Dean Esmay — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:09:01 +0000

Well, there’s surprisingly little of the "personal crap" if you look at it, and, honestly, when I started blogging I always said I’d write about whatever I wanted to write about without worrying about it. My one concession on that has been to avoid swearing on the front page, and, I’ve studiously avoided posting much of anything about the divorce, which, I think you’ll have to agree, has mostly been the case.

Commenting dropped off very sharply when we switched systems. My gut says it’s just because people didn’t want to re-register. That’s building back up.

I’m not gonna change who I am to blog. I’ve said that many times over the years when someone suggested I change. I resist, because while this is a business, if it becomes too much of a business (it already takes away my time) I won’t want to do it anymore.

Have faith, padawan, I’m sure things’ll be fine. :-)

By: Martin L. Shoemaker

Martin L. Shoemaker — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:50:42 +0000

Dean, respectfully, that means you have to ruthlessly purge all this personal crap from the site. I’m convinced it’s driving away readers, and that’s no way to make a money-making site.

Open threads used to be a regular carnival around here. Now it’s me and Jan and McK and Sandi and maybe a couple others talking past each other. That looks to me like you’ve lost readers.

By: Dean Esmay

Dean Esmay — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:31:13 +0000

Yeah, well, the kids need insurance, so I need a day job to get that. Unless we finally get sensible medical insurance reform, anyway.

I’ve run my own business before and it failed, so I’m not that great a businessman, although I’m working on making this blog a money-making enterprise like it used to be so I can at least get that.

By: urthshu

urthshu — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:17:59 +0000

>>can leave him for any reason, take his daughter with her, reject any efforts at any kind of reconciliation, have absolute control over when and where he can or canâ€™t see her, and oh, by the way, take away half his income in child support and alimony.

Yeeaah. I’m all like "F**K MARRIAGE!!1!" these days. Not out of any phobic non-committal crap, either. Just ain’t worth the hassle.

Sorry all this happened online, Dean. Way I see it, you’re either gonna have to move or get a business rolling. Maybe talk with Arnold about the latter…. He’s ornery, sure, but he’s full of advice about that stuff.

By: Dean Esmay

Dean Esmay — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:37:16 +0000

I went to an AA meeting yesterday because, while I don’t normally go on Sundays I was missing my kids so badly, and the pain was so intense, I needed to talk to someone who understood. While there, mentioning my frustration, and my efforts not to nurse or hold onto anger or resentment at others who are being mean to me, I heard a great line.:

"Why are you letting these mean people take up space rent-free in your head?"

Heh. Good one. I’ll try to remember it.

(AA meetings are always good for pithy lines like that.)