After months of deliberation I have decided to go ahead and close down this site. I would like everyone to know that this was a very tough decision to make, and certainly not one that I am happy to have to make. There are a number of reasons which have forced me to do this, but the primary reason is that I simply do not have time to maintain the site with everything else I have going on in my life. I have attempted to find people willing to contribute here many times during the last two years, but my requests for a contributor have always gone unanswered. This has been a major source of disappointment for me during this time. It has always confused me as to how some blog admins are able to find dozens of contributors, and yet I have been not able to find one individual willing to help keep this place alive despite the tens of thousands of visitors I receive every month.
I have had very little free time on my hands during the time I have been running this site, and my circumstances won't be changing any time soon. For the past year I have been putting in close to 75 hours a week between working and going to school full time, running this site and my regular music blog, and trying to maintain some resemblance of a personal life. All of this has proven to be too much for me to handle, and I have finally decided to stop being so stubborn and accept the inevitable. Whenever I tackle anything in life I try to do it to the best of my ability, and it has become increasingly obvious that I've been doing a piss-poor job of running this site as of late. I have tried to prevent the site from becoming obsolete, but there are a number of other sites which are doing what I do, and doing a much better job of it.
I would like to thank everyone who has visited this site and all who have linked to it over the years. I'm happy that I was able to help more than 600,000 people discover quality music blogs that they might not found on their own. I have decided that rather than spreading myself too thin I am simply going to focus on the Digital Meltd0wn music blog, and run it to the very best of my ability. To all those who currently have a link to this site on your blog, I would like to ask you to please link to my music blog instead. The address is: http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com
I still haven't decided whether I want to take this site offline, or leave it up until it has obviously run its course. I would prefer to "go out on top" though, rather than let the site continue to die a slow and miserable death. If anyone would like for me to send them the source code for the blogroll, or create a text file with all the links to the blogs listed here, I would be happy to do so. For those interested, I will still be maintaining the aggregated RSS feed for all the sites that are listed here for my own personal reasons on my Google Reader account. You can find the address to it here: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/02628427451354667243/label/Shared%20Items
My e-mail address is in my profile if any of you would like to contact me for any reason. I would still be willing to keep this site alive if I could find someone willing to contribute, but unless that happens this is the end of the line. Once again, thank you everyone. It was fun while it lasted. :(
I have had very little free time on my hands during the time I have been running this site, and my circumstances won't be changing any time soon. For the past year I have been putting in close to 75 hours a week between working and going to school full time, running this site and my regular music blog, and trying to maintain some resemblance of a personal life. All of this has proven to be too much for me to handle, and I have finally decided to stop being so stubborn and accept the inevitable. Whenever I tackle anything in life I try to do it to the best of my ability, and it has become increasingly obvious that I've been doing a piss-poor job of running this site as of late. I have tried to prevent the site from becoming obsolete, but there are a number of other sites which are doing what I do, and doing a much better job of it.
I would like to thank everyone who has visited this site and all who have linked to it over the years. I'm happy that I was able to help more than 600,000 people discover quality music blogs that they might not found on their own. I have decided that rather than spreading myself too thin I am simply going to focus on the Digital Meltd0wn music blog, and run it to the very best of my ability. To all those who currently have a link to this site on your blog, I would like to ask you to please link to my music blog instead. The address is: http://digitalmeltd0wn.blogspot.com
I still haven't decided whether I want to take this site offline, or leave it up until it has obviously run its course. I would prefer to "go out on top" though, rather than let the site continue to die a slow and miserable death. If anyone would like for me to send them the source code for the blogroll, or create a text file with all the links to the blogs listed here, I would be happy to do so. For those interested, I will still be maintaining the aggregated RSS feed for all the sites that are listed here for my own personal reasons on my Google Reader account. You can find the address to it here: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/02628427451354667243/label/Shared%20Items
My e-mail address is in my profile if any of you would like to contact me for any reason. I would still be willing to keep this site alive if I could find someone willing to contribute, but unless that happens this is the end of the line. Once again, thank you everyone. It was fun while it lasted. :(
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23 comments:
Please do not close this site down Zer0! This is the only site through which me, and I am sure thousands of other people, can find the music they want. I entreat you to not close this site down. But if you absolutely have to, please don't take it offline. It will be a great loss to us.
don´t go! that would be childish - and bad for us! thissite was, is and will be a mekka fpr music-lovers. don´t throw it away - even if you not much time.
@NiK: Again, I don't want to have to close the site down. Music plays a huge role in my life, and I wouldn't have started this site if I didn't absolutely love it, as well as the blogs that introduce so many of us to new music. At this point the only way that I'm going to be able to keep the site going is if a couple of contributors step forward. The areas I need assistance in don't require a great deal of technical knowledge. It's just that they are very time consuming. I had planned to launch my own record label within a year or two. I'm simply not going to have time to run my music blog, this site, a record label, work, go to school, maintain a healthy relationship with my son and my girlfriend etc. It just isn't humanly possible. I will leave the site up so that people such as yourself can use it, but I receive hundreds of comments from people requesting for me to add their blog to the site, and I simply don't have the time to check all of these sites.
@Anonymous: I'm not being childish my friend. I have a lot of real world responsibilities to take care of and important people in my life who rely on me to be able to do so. I refuse to disappoint those people for the sake of a website. Again, I would love nothing more than to be able to keep this site going, but I simply can't continue to do it without some assistance. This site won't be a mecca for music lovers if I don't have the time to update it, as it will only be a matter of time before the blogs I have listed at the present time slowly disappear. One by one they will decide to shut down, get forcibly removed, or decide to call it quits. If I'm not able to update this blog then it will eventually just become a list of dead links, which would make it obsolete. I would prefer to simply shut it down before it reaches that point, because it would pain me to see this place reach such a low.
thanks a bunch mate! i walked into this place around march or so and i can say that it truly changed my life in some way. corny but true. my life has been made richer and i offer my gratitude. good luck in all your endeavors.
Yes, I agree, it is not possible to juggle all these things. And I thank you for doing it for so long. If it is just a question of putting up new blogs and deleting shut down/abandoned ones, I can do it. But I am not at all familiar with the technical stuff. Again, even I cannot be regular at it since I too attend full-time college and do part-time work. But I can give one hour everyday to this.
Very sad to see it go. Yours was the site I'd go to looking for links to the Instrumental, Space Age Pop, Library sites to put up over at my site. Good luck in your endeavors. Could you put the Blogroll link over at your other site? That way if you see a new one you like, we'll still see what you found that way.
Your Pal,
Doug
Best wishes and thanks for all the hard work you have put in. The bloggers life is a lonely one!
Schade, that you close this site.
Best wishes for your Life
from Germany
you said you would be willing to keep the site open if you had a collaboration? What does that entail?
Just curious...
Sorry to hear that you're shutting down, but I understand how difficult it is to balance life online & offline.
I learned of many great blogs from this site. Most aggregators just collect links and never take the time to categorize and present them in a rational manner. With you gone, the only alternative I know of is Mega Super Mammoth and that's been all but dead for two years. You've always been better.
Thank you for your help in promoting my blogs and I hope I can drive some traffic to your other blog.
@NiK & Eli: To answer the questions about what contributing would entail. The most difficult thing for me is keeping up with all of the comments. I have never been one to just throw up links, so I always took the time to check each blog to make sure they fit my criteria. 75% of the people who requested to be added didn't seem to understand what I was attempting to do here. A lot of the links I checked were blogs that simply posted reviews, and failed to provide any type of downloads, while others only posted mainstream music that was released in 2010. Some I rejected based on poor design, poor taste, etc.
As for the technical side of things, I can handle that. The foundation for the site is already in place, so all I have to do is simply add new links or remove the old ones. I have a program that allows me to check the list for dead links. I only wish it could filter out blogs which haven't updated in a long time. Fortunately some of the changes that were introduced to the Google Reader service has made these much easier to spot though.
So basically I need people to help me check the links that are posted, and occasionally check the existing links. If someone was willing to help, I could either give them permission to post on the blog. Another option would be simply to pass on the list of blogs which need to be checked, which could then be returned to me with the links that are worth adding to the blogroll.
Again, I would love to be able to keep this place going, but I'm not going to do it unless I have some reliable help. As much as I do appreciate them, it has been difficult for me to read all of the goodbyes and well wishes. If any of you think you are up to the task of contributing here please send me an e-mail: shockw4ve_x at hotmail dot com
One thing I forgot to mention is that I would also need the contributors to be able to decide which category the blog would best fit under, and which tags to use to subcategorize it.
So sad to see you go, but I understand. Thanks so much for all of your hard work and all the joy you have given me. I wish you all the best. Kbell
don't be upset that so many of us have taken this site for granted...it is a sure sign that this blog and blogger was a 100% success. We will be poorer without you, best of luck with everything you do.
How can I contribute?
What can I do to contribute?
It appears that we need a group of "consultants". Five to ten people assigned to genres like rock, classic rock/psychedelia, jazz, world, club, blues and other. Most blogs only loosely adhere to one genre of music so you can't make the categories too specific. Ideally, I'd like to see at least 25 reporters for each genre but few are willing to surrender their time.
A weekly e-mail goes out to each group with all the new listings and the group judges them. Make it easy. Yes (3 points), No (1 point) and Maybe for inclusion. After the group has weighed in, any blog with an average score over 2.25 is added to the blogroll.
Blogs are resubmitted each week until everyone has given their opinion.
An weekly online poll for all visitors would be an easier way to vote in new blogs but it would be vulnerable to manipulation by the blogger's friends. There are also trolls who would veto everything.
By the same token, a list of 50 blogs can go out to all consultants every week with a request to report back on whether they are active and when the last post was.
If these requests and replies are in a standard format, say Excel spreadsheet, they can be quickly categorized and sorted.
Just some free association on the problem. Take it or leave it.
hi mike how you been ???
i hope you are doing well i am bussy doing new things feel free to meet me on msn or lets get in touch through email
peace raysun
neonxq
If you are willing to contribute, even in a small way, please contact me at shockw4ve_x at hotmail dot com
@Don: I appreciate your ideas. While I don't believe a poll would work, some of the other ideas have potential. As you mentioned though, it is highly unlikely that I will ever find five to ten consultants considering I can't even find one at the moment. So far no one has contacted me via e-mail in regard to contributing. If you would be interested, and would like to discuss some of these ideas in further detail please send me an e-mail (check my comment above for the address). Thank you once again and take care.
Hi!!!
I'll help! I loved getting the Creepy and Eerie collections!! Thanks so much! And of course HP is a god (but not a benevolent one!)
Let me know what I can do to help.
Velevtbob2@yahoo.com
Chewbone is down, apparently. This is what I get when I click on his music search site:
This blog is in violation of Blogger's Terms of Service and is open to authors only
http://chewbone.blogspot.com/
@velvetbob2: I'm glad that you are enjoying the items I have been posting on my blog. Thank you for taking the time to comment. You can expect to see some more vintage horror comics soon.
I'm really sorry to hear the news about chewbone being taken down. I know Rick had put a whole lot of work into that site. I'm willing to bet that he had a backup though, or at least I hope so. Let's hope he pops up somewhere else soon. Rick if you happen to see this, or if anyone who knows how to get in contact with him does, please tell him to get in contact with me. Mephisto from the Totally Fuzzy agggregator(http://totallyfuzzy.blogspot.com) posted a warning about Google preparing to really crack down hard on bloggers sharing music. I hope they are able to properly distinguish between the blogs that are sharing out of print music and independent artists from those that are posting commercially available material. I've been exploring a few alternatives to blogger/blogspot, largely due to these type of takedowns, which I view as unwarranted in many cases.
Bob, I sent you a e-mail in regard to the offer to help out here. I hope that we can make some type of arrangement, even if it is on a small scale. Thank you for the offer and take care.
I really appreciate your post and you explain each and every point very well.Thanks for sharing this information.And I’ll love to read your next post too.
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