September 20, 2004

(Updated) The Slow Winding Down To Farewell

Wherein We Start Lessening The Workload

Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.

Longshots by their very name and nature, of course, don't tend to pay off in the nick of time to rescue us. Naturally enough that was the case today with the announcement of the winners in the previously-mentioned essay contest.

Beginning today, the extended two-month winding down process begins here at PORTLAND COMMUNIQUE. At this very moment, in fact, we are very much not in attendance at a Mayoral candidates forum, and we are in the process of deciding which of the many events on our calendar for this week (which is positively packed) we will be hitting and which we will not.

We do not expect to up and call it quits altogether until November 30, but we very much expect that we will be pulling back and lightening the load between now and then.

Which leaves another matter to be resolved. In addition to those voluntary monthly subscribers we already have, we've received several more due to this BlueOregon post. The tricky thing is how we express our appreciation for that post while at the same time making sure everyone understands that in two months' time, we will be cancelling those subscriptions so that nobody is contributing money to us when we're no longer engaged in the work for which they are contributing money.

Which is the sidelong way of saying that if you're thinking about signing up for monthly contributions, you might want to consider whether or not it's worth doing so since they are all going to be ended at the conclusion of November anyway. We do, after all, need to begin planning for reality here, and that reality is that we have two months left and somehow we don't think our readers want to be paying us retirement money.

All of that passed along, we will return to our recently-interrupted nap.

September 20, 2004

Update

This also means that we will not be accepting any more ads after the ones currently on the site finish their runs at various points during the month of October.

Posted at 05:51 PM | PermalinkComments (3) | TrackBacks (2)
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Comments (3)

  1. William on 21 Sep 2004

    While it's probably realistic that funding won't come through in sufficient quantity by your deadline, I also think it's defeatist to dissuade people from contributing. People are procrastinators and often wait until the last minute for such things.

    As a huge fan of this news source, I would love to see a push for contributions up to the last day. If you don't end up with enough funding to justify continueing, that's unfortunate, but it would be even more unfortunate if that were the case because you made it seem like retirement was inevitable. Thanks for the work you do.

  2. Melissa on 21 Sep 2004

    I will mourn the loss of this site. For the community it built and served. For the way b!X so inspired, informed, influenced, enlightened and persuaded. He is a voice whose silence will echo in the void left behind and I'm saddened that something hasn't come through to sustain it.

  3. The One True b!X on 22 Sep 2004

    While it's probably realistic that funding won't come through in sufficient quantity by your deadline, I also think it's defeatist to dissuade people from contributing. People are procrastinators and often wait until the last minute for such things.

    Perhaps. But in the end, even if everyone who responded to our reader survey by indicating they would be willing to contribute on a monthly basis did so at the last minute, we would have only as much as half of what's needed for my work here to continue.

    If there were a financial model or funding options out there which would make up the rest, it would have been uncovered in the months since the initial notice was given that November 30 was the drop-dead date. Nothing has been found, and I think it's fair to give people to full picture to allow them to make an informed decision regarding any contributions between now and November 30.

Trackbacks (2)

  1. Portland Communique on 24 Sep 2004

    The Portland Communique by The One True b!X is calling it quits. Sometimes a blog comes along that is so outstanding it sort of defies description and the Portland Communique is and was one of these blogs. The Portland Communique kept it readers ...

  2. What Bloggers Are For. on 30 Sep 2004

    What I quote below is from J.D. Lassica's website. And, of course, here I have to mention how much b!X's...