This is an anniversary. Four years ago, Babel on the Bay was established as a personal web site. With more than 400,000 words in the archives, we could have written at least three novels. If you have found what we have written to be interesting, we have accomplished our objective.
But we feel our approach has been too one sided. Maybe polemics is a dying art form. Being controversial without balanced response creates an aura of dissension. That is not what is wanted. Nor is it intended. People do not respond well. They get the impression that you are always angry and nothing can be further from the truth.
At first, we softened the criticism by interlacing the articles with what we called our ‘twits.’ The Twitter form of communication had intrigued us and we saw the 140-character restriction in poetry as an intellectual challenge similar to the Japanese haiku. It was not universally understood. We dropped it.
We are not about to dismiss Babel on the Bay. We have too many loyal readers for that. We also enjoy writing. What we are thinking of doing is commercializing it. There is no reason why we should not make some money on the work. Have you checked the price of gasoline lately? Who the hell can retire? We need money the same as the next guy.
But before we do anything irretrievable with it, we want to hear from you. How do you think Babel on the Bay can better serve its readers? Obviously we know a bit about politics. We are passionate about the environment. We know business and we have a good grounding in technology. As a writer, we start as a darn good researcher. We are a reporter and an editor.
One of the possibilities that appeals to us is alternative media. We have said often enough how badly Babel is served by the news media. People are ready for a good localized news service on the Internet if it is done properly.
What do you think? Send us an e-mail and tell us what you would like to have in Babel on the Bay.
-30-
Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]