I have an inordinate amount of time to ponder my reasons for mining the manimal, especially centaurocentric, vein of manimals since 2002. When I first discovered online groups that allowed people to meet to discuss and appreciate different things I was thrilled that I might be able to gather together a community of like-minded men who loved centaurs as much as I did.
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since MSN Adult Groups hosted Centaurica, my first manimal-themed internet group. I have devoted hundreds of hours in this effort and have, honestly, a lot less to show for it then I had originally imagined I would attain.
The internet is a place of short attentions spans, a labyrinth of diversions and distractions, and a minefield of easy fixes and hyper-adolescent self-absorption. (Yes, I am completely focused and absorbed by this predilection so who am I to complain about others being so composed?) Using it can make you impatient, hard to satisfy, and it is very easy to have less regard for the proper perspectives of interpersonal relationships as well as respecting the hard time and work people put into art and sharing their work. A film or play takes many months to create and many individuals collaborate to make the finished product. Viewers consume it in three hours or less. A book can take years to write and be devoured in one evening. A Thanksgiving dinner takes tremendous effort, time, and expense to prepare and is gobbled up in a matter of minutes. Such is the nature of production and reception.
The transient nature of our new media world order can be very confusing and frustrating. A person has to recognize that even their best efforts might not have any lasting value or impact anyone on a real and tangibly difference-making level. Blogs are like croissants. They might be delicious and have subtle flavorful nuances but they are downed quickly and people move onto the next new taste sensation. (Much in the way the gay club scene would change when I was in my 20's.)
Blogs, like all communications and social media, are only as good as their latest offerings and only as viable as how they are edited and how the audience deems to respond to the editing. A blog is definitely a higher form of communication and, for me, a valuable adjunct to my interests and a fun effort to craft but, in the long run, just like the other groups I created and efforts I made to create a lasting manimal lovers community online, they are just exercises in frustration. Unless, an editor does as I am doing and recognizes that creation is its own reward and gaining encouraguing support from relative stranges is just a bit of gravy on the side.
(Mythulinity is my baby and I have the responsibility of it, but the control of it, too. If no one else were to read it, it wouldn't actually make any difference at this point in its early conception. Sure, I'd be disappointed, but it exists primarily to serve my needs and not the needs of others. It's great to hear praise or appreciation though garnering that isn't why I am doing this endeavor. I went that route in the past and reaped little benefit. With age and experience come the benefits of knowing that approval seeking is a sickness best left treated by stuffing the ego down and doing the damn thing with no need for critically positive rating or appreciation dependent on outside sources.)
We live in a society that consumes, disregards, disrespects, and discards in an alarming time frame. Best to use before the date expires, eh? This is a world of planned obsolescence. Even individuals reach their expiration dates. Trash tips are filled with technologies that were state-of-the-art merely a decade or less ago. With such shortened attention spans how can anyone
create anything that consistently attracts repeat readers, viewers, and contributors? Isn't there always something else to do? Aren't we unusually time-constrained and stressed to the max in this world of rapid fire communication? How can a lowly manimal oriented blog attract a loyal following?
The answer to that question is complicated. A blog can have thousands of readers and only a handful of really loyal contributors and followers. Finding those few devotees is a real blessing. It gives hope that there is a community in the blogosphere that shares one's appreciations.
A blog must serve a distinct purpose to attract any following at all. It must stand out as something worth exploring when there are so many other options to pursue. For some blog editors, the purpose of their blogs is commerce. I have avoided that with my efforts in MSN, Yahoo and Flickr Groups. I made a minor stab at it through Red Bubble and Cafe Press. I have posted work on Deviant Art and been banned (thankfully, it so happens) from Fur Affinity. Through all that work seeking sponsorship has never seemed like a viable option to me.
(I am not a business person at heart. I am frequently horrified by just how marketing and commerce-centered the media has become. Google is not a search engine of real value to anyone doing research. It is a vehicle used as a conduit to continuing this crazy and crass commercial venture called Life in America. Everything seems to spin on the financial axis and our connection to nature and our spiritual beings is left wanting. But hat is a discussion best left to other moderators on other blogs. the only politics I ever want to discuss here have to do with manners and mores in the greater gay and health-minded communities.)
But in the blogosphere where so many blogs are just glorified storefronts for drawing commercial gain it seems that the time is at hand for me to surrender to allowing advertisements of some sort and perhaps, through them, attracting a broader base of support for Mythulinity.
Yes, I am about at that point were selling my internet soul and body looks like a good option. The reward I have had in the past was satsfying my personal love of finding new discoveries in the manimal arena. Mythulinity gives me a venue where I can share that love and, though I seem constantly to be in search mode, I hope to discover a small coterie of kindred spirits and cohorts in this vast world of yearning masses. If it takes commercialism to make them aware that this blog exists, so be it.
Thanks to you who took the time to read this. I'd be glad to hear anything you have to say about what is working or not working so well on this blog. I will consider all constructive criticism.
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