I’m going to be “on hiatus” perhaps a couple of weeks or more to catch up on my business, which needs some significant attention right now. Blogging, as most of you know, is a loss. Between my wife’s illness last fall, getting the surfacestations paper out this spring, and other time-sucking issues, I have a lot of catch-up to do. Blogging, while at times exciting and rewarding, doesn’t pay the bills. Ever since Amazon killed affiliate programs in California due to tax insanity, now blogging pays even less. Ad clicks and a few kind souls who drop into the tip jar are about it, yet I find myself spending 6 hours a day (or more) on some days. A good example was last Saturday, when I spent about 5 hours chasing Turtles down a rabbit hole in Australia.
This coming November, I will have been at this job for five years straight, with only a couple of short breaks. What started out as a interesting diversion for my local newspaper has turned into a global monster that needs daily feeding. So, time for a diet.
I’ll have one, maybe two, small posts on weekdays, maybe more on weekends, the rest can be filled in by regular contributors and those that use the “submit story” feature in the header. It may turn out that “less is more”.
About submitting stories, many of the “submit story” offerings these days are simply reposts of articles on newspaper or magazine websites, which I’ll generally reject due to copyright issues and other reasons. The best way to submit a story like that is to paraphrase and excerpt it.
See Tips and Notes for those that don’t want to submit a small story.
WUWT has a life of its own now, and I don’t need to be as attentive as I have been. Climate Audit goes days without posts, and Steve still manages to maintain a pretty good traffic rank because people are always looking for the next post. I know people will step in to fill the void here.
Once I get caught up, I’ll spend more time here again. In the meantime, carry on.
Thanks for your consideration.
Anthony
Anthony – I have little scientific learning so I rely heavily on the ongoing efforts yourself, your fellow contributors together with the admirable honest reasoning of other bloggers, such as Steve Mc and Judith C, to throw light on, what is fast becoming a global warming nightmare. Your output has been inspirational and my hope is that, after a well deserved break, you will feel able to resume your place as a learned guardian of what is good scientific practice.
May I suggest that the idea of a “tip box” seems inadequate considering the service that you are performing on our behalf? Perhaps, an appeal for the annual funding you need would be better as is done by sites such as Media Lens? I feel sure support would be considerable and would form a just reward for your marked input to public debate.
In the meanwhile, “best wishes” to you and your family
Many thanks…
Dave G
Thank you for your efforts here and best wishes on your time off.
I also want to congratulate you on finding a way to do this. In my 13 years blogging I haven’t managed to, and I am so burned out and sick of losing money/work hours that I am ready to walk away. Maybe a little moderation following your lead would be a good thing.
Thanks for everything!
Ray B
Doing less work to do more work? Somehow, that doesn’t seem right. 😉
I will look forward to whatever you present. Enjoy real life.
We all appreciate the huge effort that you make to keep the web-site running. Enjoy a well earned rest Anthony and we will be looking forward to your return refreshed and re-armed for battle with the forces of darkness and evil..
we’ll miss you. try to take a real online break this time tho. the website will flourish in the meantime because it has developed a kind of life of its own. pity it isn’t bringing in the cash it deserves, but that’s the bizarre nature of the free market where we’re told access to numbers is critical for advertisers, but it doesn’t work out that way in reality. shame/
Anthony, many, many thanks for all your hard work. When folk say ‘the truth is out there,’ WUWT is one of the places they are referring to.
Don’t worry, as you say sometimes less is more. For instance it will give me a chance to catch up with some work as well! As I’ve just been given a subject lead at University to take onboard. And there I was thinking it would be a quiet Summer this year! Ho-hum!
It hadn’t occured to me that you might earn a little if I click onto those greenie ads… Do you? If so, I’ll break my habit and do some clicking!!!
Anthony…graveyards are full of indispensable people!
Cool decision.
I reiterate my suggestion for you to move your family and business to Texas! You will then have less heart burn and more time to help save the planet from the AGW Harold Campings who are so destructive to progress on solving real environmental problems.
Good decision, Anthony!
A break followed by a slow down is better than running yourself into the ground.
Thanks you what you’ve built, there are indeed quite a few who can take up the slack for you – and we’ve learned so much here that we can kepp on with our comments in the manner approved by you.
Now I’ll get clicking those ads …
They say a change is as good as a rest, but I’d like to see you take an actual rest from all your labors and call it a Vacation–summertime is the ideal time to do it, of course. It should include a trip along the coast, or a fishing trip or two, or fine dining with your wife, or something as simple as kicking around home with the computer off and the barbecue on. Thanks for all you do, Mr. Watts, but by all means kick back and enjoy the (non-catastrophic) weather in N. California.
Sorry that you live in the once-magnificent state of California. I lived there once too, several decades ago. Relatives still living there tell me it’s getting time to move on to a more sane location but then who would remain to counter the insanity? It’s a tough choice.
What you need is a sinecure ala Schmidt and Hansen. There seems to be a lot of them about, but of course you would, correctly, not accept the government ball and chain. Thank you most sincerely for your efforts to date. Where’s that oil money when you really need it?
Thank you, Anthony!
Anthony sez–“I’ll have one, maybe two, small posts on weekdays, maybe more on weekends, the rest can be filled in by regular contributors and those that use the ‘submit story’ feature in the header. It may turn out that “less is more”.”–THANKS for the advisement.
we know you have been inordinately active. My sense is that the past 20 months have been the turnaround phase in the climate struggle for sound science. Many others, not the least S. McIntyre, have also been downshifting their activity, and talented others (shub, tallbloke, etc)have assumed new, more active roles.
The new status has been paved before. And adjustments are called for, of course. THANK YOU!
I have a lot of respect for people who run small businesses, and imagine doing so in California must be a unique challenge. (You do notify your customers whether or not your software causes cancer, right?)
One of your few failures is following through on previous announcements that you need to take care of the business – Hey CTM, can you take Anthony’s password away from him?
Everyone else – see that cute temperature logger down at the bottom of the right hand column? You need one of those! BTW, I needed a model that recorded temperature so I could check the supercaps in my weather station, Anthony’s staff went beyond a special order for me to adding it to the product list. If you need something that tracks 0-30 VDC, it’s a cool device.
This is a good time to let WUWT coast for a bit. While the media and Gov’t science haven’t gotten the word, general public has. WUWT has a lot of momentum, it’s not stopping anytime soon. Heck, we’re not changing direction anytime soon.
And … Have you considered calling up Jeff Id to tell him it’s time for his “retirement” to end? Tell him you have a whole new logo designed for “Watts Up, With Id”. 🙂
Along with many others, I want to thank you for all your efforts – I’ve learned such a lot from you and a few other dedicated bloggers – and I also want to wish you a good break (from us!). I’ve just hit the tip jar as a small token of my thanks, and hope lots of other readers/lurkers will do the same
Well done top man, good decision, look after your life.
Many thanks
Ray B; put your URL in the line provided below the “Leave a Reply” box. That way everyone can check out your site.
Greart job, Anthony! You’ve created a wonderful site and attracted many wonderful people. The loyalty and support of your readers will help keep this train rolling. See you when you get back.
Take care of your priorities – and thank you for the huge amount of time and effort. It is greatly appreciated!
The enormous contribution to the climate debate by you, Anthony Watts, will one day be globally appreciated. Anthony Watts… you are a champion!
Well, if you’re going to create a blog of this quality, Anthony, it’s going to get a lot of readers and commenters! Seriously, we all owe you heartfelt thanks for this excellent site, and nobody bould begrudge you a break from it, even if only partial. Good luck and vy 73, and hope to see you again not too far down the log.
Steve
When somebody says “I’ll be blogging a lot less for a while”, he usually ends up blogging a lot more.
This seems to be a general rule of Nature, along the lines of Parkinson’s Laws.
I hope you can defeat this rule and give full attention to the things that need attention!
All the best Anthony, Mrs W and family.
Look forward to reading more of the surface station work later.
If so inclined, I am sure there are plenty of families across Australia that would gladly offer bed and stay should you and your family visit down under.
We may even teach you the art of ferreting. http://www.aushunt.com.au/main/mainarticle2.php?articleid=0f62896668
Alas no camels :<
Don’t forget us though? We need you? Best of all to you and your wife and regenerate if possible to come back refreshed and fighting.