We are blessed to have you join the family, Denise.
There is a limited audience for what the blog was doing, and it's not the shift or growth in exposure that killed it, but the subtle changes in the way people use the Internet. I sensed that change a long time ago, and was waiting for the Lord to tell me when to change things because the shift had crossed some invisible line. I don't fear trolls, but trolls are the first wave of other, more serious threats, in my experience. To meet the rising challenge of communicating the message, now is the time to become anonymous so that the message gets all the attention. It's part of the biblical concept of recognizing who is family and who isn't. I'm one person within the household; that's a privilege for only a few. The person I am in public is much more circumspect. Given the nature of online information exposure, the best way to do this is to construct a persona that is not easily unmasked. That way, handling trolls is a matter of the message, as no personal attack is possible, and the discussion can't get sidetracked.
There will be more books under my real name. I'm seeking to empower the tribe's testimony, not to raise my profile. Share my books all you like; I encourage it. But more important is that you share the message itself. Use my books if I say it better than you might, but I never assume no one else is going to say it well in their own right. People are the message.
Addenda: There's a strategy at work here. First I'll set up a blog and an HTML book attached outlining the basic message (nothing new to you in that book). After a few posts and some evidence of an audience, I'll take the alter-ego "on the road" in the sense of showing up on some social media services. I'll have to choose from those services unlikely to censor, since this alter-ego will be something of a bold prophetic character. The idea is to get folks to start paying attention to the message. If there is any real interest, that alter-ego will funnel them toward this forum.
There is a limited audience for what the blog was doing, and it's not the shift or growth in exposure that killed it, but the subtle changes in the way people use the Internet. I sensed that change a long time ago, and was waiting for the Lord to tell me when to change things because the shift had crossed some invisible line. I don't fear trolls, but trolls are the first wave of other, more serious threats, in my experience. To meet the rising challenge of communicating the message, now is the time to become anonymous so that the message gets all the attention. It's part of the biblical concept of recognizing who is family and who isn't. I'm one person within the household; that's a privilege for only a few. The person I am in public is much more circumspect. Given the nature of online information exposure, the best way to do this is to construct a persona that is not easily unmasked. That way, handling trolls is a matter of the message, as no personal attack is possible, and the discussion can't get sidetracked.
There will be more books under my real name. I'm seeking to empower the tribe's testimony, not to raise my profile. Share my books all you like; I encourage it. But more important is that you share the message itself. Use my books if I say it better than you might, but I never assume no one else is going to say it well in their own right. People are the message.
Addenda: There's a strategy at work here. First I'll set up a blog and an HTML book attached outlining the basic message (nothing new to you in that book). After a few posts and some evidence of an audience, I'll take the alter-ego "on the road" in the sense of showing up on some social media services. I'll have to choose from those services unlikely to censor, since this alter-ego will be something of a bold prophetic character. The idea is to get folks to start paying attention to the message. If there is any real interest, that alter-ego will funnel them toward this forum.