Like many of you, I'm now enjoying the Christmas and New Year festivities. This means the regularity of blogging will dip for a week or so, although it's already been operating at a reduced rate this month. I will try and review the Doctor Who Christmas special and a few notable shows, plus I have a 2013 retrospective that will be published sometime next week, but otherwise there won't be much else happening here.
On that note, thanks to everyone who still visits and gets involved in the comments here at Dan's Media Digest. I'm sure everyone knows this blog isn't as productive as it was during its "heyday" two years ago, when five posts a day wasn't unheard of, but life changes and things become more of a struggle to find time for. And in some ways my passion has dimmed as the airwaves fill with shows that, well, have entertainment value but don't always inspire me to write about them. I'm not putting the blame entirely on the quality of TV being made right now, as there's always a cooling period in any blog's lifespan.
I just hope the cooling doesn't turn to frigidity, as I have no intention of quitting blogging. I perhaps just need to settle on a new way of going about things. I've experimented a little bit in 2013—with only a few shows getting the 'weekly review' treatment, while others just get 'mid-year reports' or 'hiatus reports' when there's a break in broadcast – but it's unclear if this is working. Comments are certainly down on previous years; so I'm either writing about shows readers don't care about, talk too much about elsewhere, or I've been underestimating how much the inertia of weekly reviews has on reader involvement. Maybe the whole style of reviewing needs to change? Again, I was experimenting a little this year with pilot reviews done in a set 'Q&A' format, but it again wasn't clear if readers like that or not.
So yeah, as you can tell – I really do value feedback and perhaps need more, as I'm prone to just making snap decision with the assumption "no feedback" basically equals "bad feedback". If anyone wonders where my weekly X Files retrospective reviews went after four instalments, you can blame the lack of comments on that, too. It's really worth writing for hours (including the actual viewing time), just for the sake of hitting "publish" and just feeling nobody wanted that review anyway.
Okay, it now feels like I'm ragging on the very people reading this too much. I sincerely don't mean to. There would be no DMD without readers and a feeling of support, and I appreciate the many people who visit DMD every day—and particularly those who regularly comment. I just don't want people to underestimate the value I place on feedback—in terms of page-hits, of course, but primarily the feeling readers care enough to leave a quick comment or two. Page-hits can often be down to me choosing a cool picture, or a unique vidcap, let's be honest.
One or two of you have even donated some cash to DMD over the past few weeks, in the run-up to Christmas, and that has been truly humbling. It's a private act to send a few pennies my way, and I very much appreciate the thought. If anyone else wants to donate, as a token of how much they've enjoyed reading DMD over this past year, simply hit the PayPal button on the top of the blog's left sidebar.
So that's it. It's time to eat some mince pies, sing some carols, pull some crackers, roast some chestnuts, and mull some wine.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2014!
