I had just reached the point of feeling that I understood what I was doing with Userland, and then I found the various articles and pages discussing Salon's decision to cease supporting the blog community. It really never occurred to me that this was the reason so many long-time salon bloggers were jumping ship; I assumed that most of them had simply decided they wanted their own domains. None of them mentioned Salon's decision to shut down the community as a reason for the defection.
The note from Salon assured me that Radiouserland would continue to host my blog; but the joy is really going out of it at this point. What if everyone abandons ship? Would I be the only salon blogger left?
Furthermore, as someone pointed out, the salon url isn't wonderful; and the only reason to pay money to publish there is for its "cachet." Obviously if they are ceasing to expand or attempt to retain their blogging community, there is little cachet (if ever there was any). The Salon blogs are no longer listed on the website homepage and I seem to get few if any hits from Salon readers.
Since I'd built up a decent google ranking, this is all quite distressing. I am trying to tell myself that it's a fresh start. I began my Salon site when I had reached a sort of nadir; and some of my early writings have an unpleasantly shrill or strident tone that I would now prefer to eschew. At this stage, it's perhaps best to move on and begin building a new place for myself here at typepad. Most of the blogs I actually read are typepad, and it's clear that the famous "Salon community" is getting scattered to the four winds.
So: I'll retain my userland blog----it's good until next year---and try to start all over from scratch.
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