Showbits

A year ago today — one week after the closure of Syndicomm Online — I was exchanging emails with Peter Watson. Peter and I had both been regulars of that community, and I had lamented to him the personal impact of the shuttering of my film and movie forum:

"The toughest part for me is changing my thinking habits. Every time I see a movie or read a book, a part of my mind is dedicated to relating what I'm experiencing to someone else in the form of a message or email. Now, without that audience, I have nowhere to express those messages — so it seems pointless to be mentally composing them."

Peter's inspirational response:

"Maybe you'll just have to start a blog. You know, there's no blog I read regularly at present, but yours I think I would. I really did look forward to Showbits each day — even when I didn't really have time to read it!"

Thus did Peter flip my mental switch. The next week was a flurry of activity, and on December 15th, Showbits.net had a soft launch in the form of an email sent to a small number of Syndicomm Online refugees. After two weeks of their feedback, the site officially went live on January 1st. So though the actual one-year anniversary is not for another three weeks, today marks the genesis of a year of activity, community, and writing — 184 posts so far, or nearly one every other day.

Today also marks the one-week anniversary of the relaunch of Gamebits.net. That site maintained an almost identical structure and style since its creation seven years ago, remaining immobile while the Web around it changed. The lessons learned in creating and finetuning Showbits has afforded me the opportunity to recreate Gamebits while preserving its 700 pages of content. And there are more 'bits to come, too, which you'll hear about as they go public.

So thanks again to my first reader, Peter — and to everyone else who ensured he wasn't the last!