Dan, Nick and I have just finished a major chin wag. We were reviewing. The situation. Can a man be a blogger all his life? All the trials! And tribulations! Etc. TTAG’s terrible trio met with the site’s ad guy (newbie shooter post to follow), a banker (profits to follow) and a brace of Lone Star State economic development guys (following Rick Perry on Facebook). After all that, Austin’s finest Tex Mex, more Padróns than you can shake a stick at and a close look at the recent TTAG reader survey, we made a few key editorial decisions. Of which I’ll share with you . . .
First of all, you can look forward to more of the same. We’re not going to mess with the site’s zeitgeist. If nothing else, I’m not sure I could find where it is in the code. You want no-holds-barred firearms-related news, rants and reviews? We’ll give you more no-holds-barred firearms-related news, rants and reviews.
Secondly, we’re going to tone it down and modify the mix. We’re not going to weaken our editorial bias towards extending and defending Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Nor we will sugar-coat, uh, anything. Or stop the snark. But we’re going to . . .
– Ditch the supermodel links (so you can recommend us to friends with low-T)
– Add some pro-gun control editorials (a.k.a., “fresh meat”)
– Continue to move towards a heavier helping of actual gun stuff (e.g., gun and gear reviews, comparos, TTAG Skunk Works projects)
– Generate more original content on Twitter and Facebook (e.g., gun giveaways)
– Develop a better gun review app (and launch it in iTunes)
Lastly, we know that TTAG’s design has strayed from its minimalist mojo and slipped behind the widget curve. So we’re implementing a new theme and switching to the DISQUS commenting system. NOTE: DISQUS killed by popular demand.
No doubt more than a few of you will bitch about the new site’s look, feel and functionality. There will be bugs. Rest assured we know that TTAG is your site. You put food on our table. We will do everything we can to address your concerns as quickly as possible.
And now, ahead of the editorial shifts, reader stats data dump and 3.0 refresh, dígame. What are we doing right, what are we doing wrong, what shouldn’t we be doing at all and what did we forget to do?