This Is The Beginning

I started this blog all the way back in 2004 without any clear focus or sense of purpose, and with the hope that 1. I would eventually settle on some sort of vision for what I wanted it to be about and 2. In the process, it would develop some kind of audience.
Neither one of those things ever happened, and in the years in which I've been infrequently posting I've kind of been all over the map, posting rants, recipes, drawings, excerpts of some of my other writings, movie reviews, and just any random whatever that happened to pop into my head.
After nearly eleven years of random mental meandering, it's time to close up shop.
It's not going to be any great loss - see my point about failing to achieve hope number 2 - and, honestly, over the past couple of years my infrequent posting schedule has become so infrequent as to be practically nonexistent.
With that said, however, this isn't quite the end of Threshold.
As some (most?) of you already know, I've begun a new venture in the world of online comics, creating OpenDoor Comics in an attempt to build an open and inclusive platform for publishing comics of all kinds from creators of all backgrounds.
It's an exciting - and scary - new adventure for me, and between that and my continuing role as a Corporate Drone and Establishment Stooge, there's even less time and energy available for focusing on The Little Blog That Couldn't.
So the time has come to shut it down, shut it all down.
Well...not quite all.
Threshold will live on, in a new, slightly more focused form, as The Threshold, the Official Blog of OpenDoor Comics.
It won't be the same kind of unfocused ramblings that virtually no one has come to know or love, but if there's such a thing as Blog DNA (Note:  There isn't), that genetic code will continue on in this new entity.
With The Threshold, the goal is to keep people up-to-date on the latest happenings with OpenDoor Comics as the idea continues to move towards  my ultimate vision for it, and while it will have a certain randomness to it - the result of its genetic inheritance - the focus, ultimately, will always tie back to the central vision that led me to create OpenDoor Comics.
Ideally, I'm looking for The Threshold to be comparable to the old "Stan's Soabbox" columns that used to run in Marvel comics that were ostensibly - as with anything attributed to Stan - written by Stan "The Man" Lee, and the "Meanwhile..." columns that DC used to run under Dick Giordano's tenure.
Right now, the new site doesn't really have a lot going for it, but, like someone once said about a famous ship, she's may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts.
So...that's it.
I hope that any of you reading this will stop by the new place from time to time, and that you're able to find content - beyond what shows up in Threshold's digital descendant - that you will enjoy.
It's too late to avoid busting out that hoary old cliche about how every ending is a new beginning, but, while I want to avoid getting too maudlin, I do want to say that I'm at least a little sorry to see the end of this chapter.  Threshold never really delivered on my hopes, but there was a definite value for me to have this avenue of expression over the years.
While this will be my last post here, I'm not completely pulling the plug - what exists now will continue to exist for the time being, but don't be surprised if one day you find that not even a memory remains.
Please be sure to swing by OpenDoor Comics regularly, and, if you're of a mind to, follow @OpenDoor_Comics on Twitter and like OpenDoor Comics on Facebook, and just generally help spread the word about my new venture.
Finally, a big THANK YOU to everyone who's stopped by over the years.

Jon Maki

The Results Are In

All two of them.
One vote (on Facebook) for The Dark Phoenix Saga.
One vote for "whatever."
So there is a clear mandate:  Conqueror of the Barren Earth wins!

Numbers

My blog's stats since 2007:

Page Loads:
51,367

Unique Visits:
42,069

First Time Visits:
35,273

Returning Visits:
6,796

Thanks For Pointing That Out, Amazon

E-mail from Amazon:

Hello Associate,
We noticed that you were accepted to the Amazon.com Associate Program several weeks ago but have yet to refer a sale.

Why not just be blunt, Amazon?

Hello Associate,
We noticed that your blog sucks, you barely get any traffic, the traffic you do get is from people who are looking for slash fiction, information on celebrity brassieres and images of the contents therein, and the marital status and/or height of said celebrities, and further, those unlucky Web surfers who do end up on your blog get away from it as quickly as is humanly possible.  So getting them to click on one of the Amazon ads to buy something is completely out of the fucking question.

P.S.  You suck.

Statistically Significant?

In my last post, I stated that the number of people who would be amused by it was statistically insignificant. However, I later learned that the number of people at least interested in looking at it actually was statistically significant:



Well, significant in terms of the statistics of people who come to my blog.
Yeah, my little blog that couldn't was featured on Reddit, and as a result had a fairly large influx of traffic, some of my biggest numbers ever.
Not that those numbers are especially big, mind you, but even so, it was odd to see that many people flocking here.
Of course, having a lot of people look at my blog also means having a lot of people quickly navigate away, as there's nothing particularly engaging that would keep them here (or get them to come back).
Still, it was fun while it lasted.
Honestly, having a lot of people come here doesn't really mean anything anyway; I don't have any ads, so there's no revenue that would come from it. I don't have any particular axe to grind, so it's not like I'm looking for like-minded fans or followers.
Nobody clicked on the link to Heroic Portraits, so it didn't drum up any business - and anyway, when people do go there, they look around, briefly, are unimpressed, and then leave.
Really, all that having a lot of traffic to Threshold would do for me is increase the likelihood of someone saying something insulting in the comments.
Actually, I'm almost disappointed that with all the people who came here, not one took the time to pop into the comments and say "your retarded" or "FAIL!" or something along those lines.
Ah well.
Anyway, the hits have stopped coming, and it's back to obscurity, which is probably just as well.
Not much of note going on today. I talked to my mom, did the laundry, and am about to eat dinner.