13,000

I just noticed that a couple of days ago, this blog passed the 13,000 mark in posts.

How many blogs have that many posts, much less of this quality? Not many, if any.

I bought my first Internet-adaptable pc in the first week of January, 2000.

At first, in response to a solicitation by Amazon.com, I posted book and movie reviews at its Website. (To paraphrase, ‘Become famous through Amazon.com.’)

Although I quickly won a $50 gift certificate for a book review—some of Amazon’s readers were crazy about my writing—I just as quickly learned that its review pages were dominated by apparatchiki and commissars who hated me, and anyone like me. They went so far as to rob me of votes and delete book reviews, in order to push my ranking down, down, down, and eventually terminate my review accounts, so that I would keep having to start from scratch.

In the spring of 2000, I revved up my first Website, thanks to bcity.com. Things went swimmingly for about a year, until the tech bubble burst, and bcity.com’s owner, CNET, shut down the operation.

I then had a second Website, but that was over so quickly that I can’t even recall its name, or that of its owner. (It too was shut down for the same reason as bcity.com.)

All sorts of companies which had offered free Websites were shutting them down, or themselves going out of business.

I tried starting up a free Website at NBCi.com, but gave up after a few days. Apparently, the cluster of free Websites had been shut down, but NBC Universal had fired the entire staff, without telling them to announce that no more free sites were to be had.

In late 2001, I believe, I was able to get a free Website, A Different Drummer, through Yahoo’s Geocities, which lasted three or four years.

When Yahoo shut down Geocities, it did a nasty thing. A woman who worked for Yahoo warned us to back up our posts, I did so, only to learn that the saves didn’t take. One’s backup files were blank.

Instead of simply downloading each Web page, one had to copy and paste each page into a doc.

Fortunately for me, some Web archivists had saved mirror Websites of ADD.

Along the way, I also “self-syndicated” my work at about 18 different Websites, almost all of which have also since gone under.

And of course, whenever possible, I wrote for paper (Middle American News, RIP, (American Renaissance) and cyber (VDARE; The Social Contract is both hard copy and online) publications for commissions.

So here I am, after 11 years here, and who knows how many more, pounding away, with the support of family, friends, and my stable of reader-researchers, some of whom have geographical monikers (“A Texas Reader”), some of whom I identify as a “Friend” or a “Buddy,” some of whom are initials (“R.C.,” “A.L.”), and some of whom forbid me from using any identifying information. You can’t be too careful, nowadays.

I guestimate that I have over 3.6 million words in print.

You know how many courageous, tireless bloggers covering similar ground to me that I’ve seen start out like gang-busters, only to fold after a few years?

If I do say so myself, I’ve got legs! (Pats self on back.)

Please help me continue my work, by hitting the PayPal “Donate” button at the top of this page, and by making a generous donation—as generous as you can handle.

I thank you, and your posterity will, too.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Stix