I haven’t posted a news update on the blog in ages. I figured this first post of the new year was an ideal opportunity to update the masses!
First off, let me acknowledge the obvious: our blog production has dropped. Our blog hasn’t been nearly as abundant or consistent from our blogging heyday years ago. The reasons for this are many, including some waning initiative on my part. We’ve also seen a good number of our bloggers depart over the years for reasons many, and it’s been challenging to keep a consistent group of us blogging together.
I’m thankful for the one-time (or perhaps two- and three-time) guest bloggers who have kept this blog afloat over the last year or two! They come straight from our Patreon community, and they’ve added to this beautiful mosaic of our collective story.
It’s reassuring that even when we can’t maintain consistent, longterm bloggers, we have an abundance of men in our community willing to craft a story or two for our general audience. The well of our story never seems to run dry.
Beyond this matter of establishing consistency, we’ve also had some hosting and commenting issues that have plagued our site from time to time. Our commenting in particular just isn’t what it was in our blogging zenith. Some of this is technical, as we now have to pay a fee for a decent commenting plug-in on our site.
But the other side of our drop in comments is the reality that people just aren’t reading blogs as much as they used to. Or if they do read, they’re definitely not commenting as readily. I do miss those glory days of seeing 50+ comments on a single post.
Alas, the biggest reason why both blog and podcast production have slowed over the last year is for all the groundwork being laid for Your Other Brothers and Your Other Sisters coming together. It’s happening!
It’s taken a long time — a couple years now — but YOB + YOS is happening. At long last.
Over the coming months we’ll be rolling out new websites for YOB and YOS, in addition to a site for our new umbrella organization. Hopefully that shiny new website feel will attract readers — and commenters! — once again. On some level, though, I must reconcile that our faster-paced, attention-challenged culture calls the shots more than I do.
Once this mountain of organizational, administrative duties stops consuming me, I’m committed to reforming a regular blogging and podcasting rhythm. I can’t wait for that day.
Until then (hopefully later this spring), I’m aiming to produce weekly story content — whether a blog or a podcast per week. Some months might see an even amount of both; some months might see more blogs than podcasts; some months might see more podcasts than blogs (probably not, but maybe).
I don’t want to see our blog or podcast wither away during this organizational transition, so a weekly rhythm for some story content feels like a solid minimum commitment for the next few months.
Moving beyond the spring, I am eager to find more regular contributors for our site! If you’re already pledging on Patreon, I may be reaching out to you in the coming weeks about such roles for our blog and/or podcast. You are, of course, always welcome to reach out to me first if you feel so led.
Do you feel any pull to share your story? I hope you’ll prayerfully consider joining the YOB content team in 2025. We need more storytellers.
I learned a long time ago that YOB is far beyond me. I can pay the bills and schedule all the recordings and postings, but without a solid team of people contributing their stories alongside me, Your Other Brothers is nothing.
Sometimes our former contributors leave YOB because they enter a new leg of their journey. But more often than not, our once-regular contributors simply run out of stories to tell. And then we need a new generation of men to tell their stories.
It’s time for such a generation to rise up once again.
I hope you’ll consider your role in our community’s coming chapter…
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