Mr_Bloggy: But the real success narrative for HBO is quite simple: LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL. You bring your community into these pages, in terms of straight up news, gossip, rivalries, politics, outrages, casts of nearly caricatured local characters - plenty in black hats and plenty in the white ones and endless cavalcade of Souzas, Harts, Gray Wolves, Brannons, Spencers, Kennedys, Sgt Cupcakes, Hagadones, etc's. Full post below.

DFO: Eloquent Mr_Bloggy offers a fine analysis re: what makes Hucks Online tick year after year. Definitely worth clicking in the drop-down box to read the rest. I appreciate his break down.

Question: What can I do to improve Huckleberries Online for 2011?

 

Congrats on the mega-hittage.

Mr_B remains fascinated and somewhat awestruck at how you managed to make this so successful when, in many ways, you were diametrically opposed to the web journalist's success profile in terms of your age, arc and velocity of your career, your curmudgeonly predilection towards right wing politics, and a certain North Idaho parochialism. Yet you managed to turn most of it into strengths and more importantly, you blew the top off the typical demographic of the web-based journalist - young highly wired geeksters blazing away with their rapid fire fingertips spewing hollow-pointed uber-dry and ultimately tedious and vacuous irony. Nope you're of the old school and you kick their asses at their own game which is quite amusing and reinforcing to those of us on the downward trajectory of our careers and forced to smack many ankle-biters out of the way.

But the real success narrative for HBO is quite simple: LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL. You bring your community into these pages, in terms of straight up news, gossip, rivalries, politics, outrages, casts of nearly caricatured local characters - plenty in black hats and plenty in the white ones and endless cavalcade of Souzas, Harts, Gray Wolves, Brannons, Spencers, Kennedys, Sgt Cupcakes, Hagadones, etc's.

Most importantly, you have a loyal and stable set of regulars (in terms of consistency and predictability of comments - the mental health mileage may vary) and despite your earlier efforts to keep somewhat of a professional journalist's distance from your rag tag army, they've become more than just a cyber-proxy group of pseudonyms, they've become quite real in their scrolling, relentless parade of opinions, jokes, nonsequitors, rare but brilliant flashes of logic and reason, arguments, logical fallacies, small talk, big talk, talk to hear oneself talk, and talk to keep the shadows of their hearts in the light and even a little of the loneliness at bay.

Quite the joint. Less a circus than a noisy, colorful bar with a mustachioed barkeep pouring the beers, whines, gossip, straight shots, opinions, local news, firemen calendars, politics, and once in a blue moon - muscling some loudmouth lout out of the bar and ass over teakettle into the street.

Best compliment Mr_B ever heard a coworker give another upon the latter's retirement - “you made it look easy, even though we all know it wasn't.”

Keep kicking some ass as long as you can. But not Mr_Bs, please ;-)

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