Posts Tagged ‘Gate21.net’

As I mentioned the other day, any of you that have regularly read Gate 21 have probably notice the deafening sound of the silence here for the past month or so.  That silence was prelude to this post.  There is no better way to say it than to quote the words of the legendary John Ward:

It’s Time…

I started Gate 21 in 2007 not really knowing what I was getting myself into.  I really had no concept of what it was that I wanted to do with the site or, in fact, how I would do it.  I just decided one day that I could write a blog as well as the next guy and within 10 minutes, the original version of Gate 21 was live for all to see over at WordPress.com.  Within 2 months, I had over 10,000 visitors and had taken the site to a privately hosted (i.e. I had to pay for it) server and debuted the cartoonish looking site that hung around until mid-2009 when I overhauled the site once again.  You are looking at that version now.

Since that less-than-auspicious beginning in 2007 I have spent literally thousands of hours writing, designing, re-vamping, updating, and otherwise working on producing and publishing Gate 21.  Along the way I have had had the help of many, many, people.  These would include writers HomeSweetHome and VolAmbassador, who have both made major contributions to the site over the past several years.  Then there were others across the blogosphere who have both assisted and collaborated with me on articles, memes, roundtables, Power Polls, BlogPolls, and running jokes.  These would include folks like Ghost of Neyland, MoonDog, LSUFreek, Will, Hooper, and of course—the best of the best—Joel at Rocky Top Talk.  These are but a few of the many with whom I have interacted and with which I have had the pleasure to become acquainted.

Then there are those of you out there across the blogosphere and the wider arc of the internet that have visited my humble site and read a bit of what I had to say.  There are even those of you who have taken the time to leave a comment here and there.  To each and every one of you I offer my sincerest gratitude for more than 2 years of interaction across the divide that is the internet.  I have not always been right about things, I have not always been serious,  I have not always been couth, but I have always tried to be honest about my views and perspectives on the world around me and my love for the Tennessee Volunteers.  All I can say is that these last 2 1/2 years have truly been a pleasure.

All things, however, must come to an end…

Thus, while it pains me on many levels, this will likely be the last post on Gate 21, at least for the foreseeable future.  And, now it is time for the Gate to close.

The thousands of hours that I have spent on this site have been a labor of love, as blogging always is.  While I may have advertisements here on the Gate, the fact of the matter is that I have lost money on this endeavour from the outset.  The cost of hosting the site alone has been substantial.  Yet, this exploration of “Life, the Universe, and the Bounce of the Ball” (Thank you Douglas Adams) has been a welcome and wonderful creative outlet for me, and one which has been far more “therapeutic” than I ever imagined.  And to those of you who have visited and taken the time to comment all I will say is that you never know just how much a single sentence left in the comment box or via Twitter really means to folks like myself who are blogging their lives away.

There’s really nothing that makes a writer feel better than knowing what they wrote was interesting enough that someone felt compelled to respond…

Now, however, the demands of my “real” life are such that I simply cannot maintain the Gate in the way that I have in the past.  It is hard enough to run a site with substantial help and a bevy of free time.  It is next to impossible to do that alone while trying to maintain a job, a family, and some semblance of sanity.  As I have said before, the informational cycle on the blogosphere lasts approximately as long as the attention span of a hyperactive 4-year-old who just ate 5 bags of Skittles and washed them down with three cans of Red Bull, and I simply cannot keep up with that.  My lack of timely comment over the past football season stands as a testament to that reality and one which I simply can no longer ignore.

I know, Frank, shocking isn't it?

These sorts of conclusions are not always fun, but they are necessary.  I think Lieutenant Frank Drebin probably said it best:

Okay, enough of the depressing stuff, now for the good news…

For those of you who have enjoyed my writing—though I am certain there aren’t that many of you—take heart!  I am not abandoning my devotion to Tennessee athletics only to go gentle into that good night.  While I may not be able to justify continuing on here at the Gate, I fully intend to continue writing about the Vols.  Why?  Because, in the words of Clay Travis, I simply cannot imagine not doing it.

Thus, it is my distinct pleasure and honor to announce that, effective immediately, I will be joining on as a writer for the VolNation Blog.  Thus, any of you who wish continue to read my mindless prattling, I’ll still be around.  I cannot overstate how lucky I feel at having the chance to jump on board at VolNation, and I hope to see some of you over there in the near future.  While my time at Gate 21 is now at an end, I am extremely excited about what the future holds in store for me at VolNation.

In the meantime, the Gate will not be disappearing (though, after the next few days, I really won’t be monitoring comments any longer).  It will still be here and you will still be able to send me hate mail via the contact form here on the site, at the email address listed in the sidebar and on the Ushers page, or via Twitter.  For those of you who have subscribed to the RSS feed here at the Gate, you can now follow me via the feed at the VolNation Blog.  The Gate will now take its place among the so-called “dotsam and netsam” that floats across the web.  Everything will stay right where it is—most notably, my tribute to Sam and Andy’s.

As for me, I am on to a new home on the web and new challenges.

So, for the last time, I bid you farewell from Gate 21.  To each of you out there with whom I’ve come in contact as a result of my time publishing Gate 21 over the past 2 1/2 years, I say thank you for reading, best wishes, and Godspeed.  Now, more than ever, I suppose my signature “tagline” seems appropriate.  Thus, I will end this final post as I have ended those that came before it.

Until we meet again … Go Vols!

– So it goes …

For those of you who are regular readers around here, you have doubtless noticed that it’s been pretty quiet around here at Gate 21 lately.  The phrase “brisk as the tomb” comes to mind.  Part of that owes to the ebbs and flows of life in the 21st century, part from my laziness, and part from the fact that changes are afoot here at Gate 21, well at least in a manner of speaking.

All I can tell you at the moment is:

1. No, I am not dead;
2. No, I have not given up on the Vols in the wake of Lane Kiffin’s departure; and
3. Once again, there are about to be a bunch of changes here at the Gate—big changes—which I hope will be for the best.

At present, all I can tell you is that things are afoot and that I should have a big announcement later in the week or early next week.  Until then, it’s going to be a bit quiet around here.

For now, however, here is a little YouTubification of the Vols Winter workouts, courtesy of UTSports.com.

Video: Tennessee Football Winter Workouts: Day 1

HT / via: UTSports.com

In the meantime, thanks for understanding…

– So it goes …

Just in case you were wondering, I have not abandoned the Gate this week.  In fact, I have been working harder on this joint this week than I have in months.  Unfortunately, all of that work has been behind the scenes…

…for the moment.

Let’s just say that I am taking advantage of the current off-season lull to make a few changes around here and to do a bit of remodeling.  Let’s just call it “Gate 21 — 2.0.”  Hopefully, all of this work will not be for naught.  Hopefully, I’ll be done with this marathon soon.  Hopefully, there will still be more than three people around to read once I bring the changes live.  Who knew this whole “blogging thing” would be so much work?

In the meantime, I’ll just leave you with this little visual representation of where this ship is headed.  Trust me, this is but one very small part of what I have in store for everyone in the near future:

The Changing Face of the Gate…

November 2007	February 2008	?? July 2009 ?? (I sure hope so)

Hopefully, I will actually get a little chance to write a few things here this weekend which I have had to put off a bit.  Yeah, yeah … excuses, excuses.  At any rate, please bear with us—there are exciting things to come in the near future.

In the meantime, just try to remember that Gate 21 does exist, and check back with us soon…

– So it goes…

Aww, you shouldn’t have…

Yes, it’s true.  Despite the limits of good taste, the conventions of grammar, the call of life’s obligations, and a complete lack of quality and talent, Gate 21 is one year old.  As the birthday header makes clear, our mascot Gus is really excited.  (To see the Birthday header, click here.)

It’s hard to believe that it has been one whole year since the very first post here at Gate 21 was published—a post that was monumental in its complete lack of substance.  Well, at least it’s good to see that some things haven’t changed around here.

When I first typed those opening words: “Good Afternoon and Welcome to Neyland Stadium…” I really had no idea what I was getting myself into or what Gate 21 would become.  I didn’t even know what I was starting—but, as I am wont to do, I decided to jump on in with no concept of what I was about.

• The Words That Started it All:

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Those first few weeks of posts reflect that lack of direction…

Still, despite my cluelessness, here we are 12 months, over 300 posts, more than 86,000 visitors, countless wasted hours of my life, and endless examples of poor writing later and the Gate is still here—serving as the entry into my bizarre, inane, and orange tinted world.

Since starting out, I have learned a few things along the way:

Timing is Everything: The informational cycle in the blogosphere spanning from “cutting edge” to “washed-up and out-to-pasture” is just slightly shorter than the attention span of a 4 year old with ADHD who just consumed four bags of Skittles and washed them down with a Red Bull;

Know Your Audience: You can’t be everything to everybody, choose your niche and dedicate yourself to never failing to fail in that one area;

Never Take Yourself too Seriously: Always keep your tongue planted firmly in your cheek and show your willingness to fall on the sword (even if it is because you tripped over it); and

When All Else Fails, Cheap Sight Gags Work: Yes, the Tennessee Home for the Visually Offensive has served the Gate well.

Over the course of the last year, the Gate has also changed in more ways than I care to recount.

Our Mascot: Gus

In total, there have been more than twenty different headers from the boring original, to the current standard, to the patriotic, to the ridiculous, to the world of livestock, and a few others in between.  We also added my tribute to Sam & Andy’s, our mascot, and Defender of the Faith, Gus, and so many other distractions and eyesores.

Blogging—at least blogging with some purpose—is a lot of work, much more than I ever realized.  It entails endless hours of writing, editing, site maintenance, research, graphic design, code crunching, and observational brainstorming.  Oh, and contrary to what you probably think, there is no money in it—the Gate currently makes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac look like a good investment.

It is, however, a hell of a lot of fun…

You don’t do this because you want to get rich, you do it because it intrigues you, then you enjoy it, then you love it.  It’s kind of like being addicted to crack (I  think) or Tennessee Football (I know) sometimes you want to quit, but you can’t.

Fortunately, I’ve had a little help from Home Sweet Home and the Blazer Chronicles—which, on the whole has increased the quality of this joint immeasurably.  In all seriousness, I have written a lot of complete crap over the course of a year.  There is a lot of stuff which is hardly worth reading.  There are a few things, however, that I am proud of.  Hopefully, the few of you out there that regularly step inside Gate 21 enjoyed the good with the bad.

Hmm… I guess Mike Hamilton doesn’t care much for Gate 21…

Most importantly, however, I have made a lot of good friends over the course of the year, and got reacquainted with a few that I had forgotten about.  From fellow bloggers, to commenters, to flamers, I have genuinely appreciated the support and the criticism.

This first year of editing and publishing Gate 21 has been as much a learning experience as it has anything.  That is obvious, considering that I started a blog which was originally focused exclusively on college football with only 2 weeks remaining in the 2007 season.  Hopefully, everyone out there in internet-land has enjoyed it a little.  If not, well, sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Anyway, thanks to all of you that have taken the time visit the Gate, thanks to all of you who have commented on a story or post, thanks to all of you who have either directly or behind the scenes given me a little help along the way.

This first year has been fun, hopefully the second will be even better.

In the meantime, in the words of Joel over at RTT, his sidekick Jackson the Mule, and our mascot Gus, all I can say is this:

“Woo!”

Thanks for a great first year.  Hopefully there’s even more to come in the next 12 months.

– Go Figure …

Audio Clips Courtesy of: The University of Tennessee / the Vol Network / IMG

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