Ephemerides keep coming. Early January this blog crossed the 11 years mark of continuous posting, with no more than a couple of weeks break for travel or sickness. In about 5 posts we may reach post #4000. And times have changed. What you are looking out today is one of the very last times that the scheme inaugurated years ago will appear. Enjoy the format presentation last days if you liked it, rejoice if you hated it. This has been the Venezuelan blog with the longest serving format theme. I am willing to bet!
Times require a need for simplification. The death of Chavez did not simplify anything, it made it all worse. Though had he not died we would be in big trouble anyway, just with a little bit more of international $$$ credit as Chavez would always look more secure than Maduro in office. Today's crisis may have arrived, say, in May 2014...
Maduro insecurity is making the regime evolve fast into an outright dictatorship to try to hide its weakness. We were a dictatorship trying to pass as democracy through elections under Chavez. But with Maduro now it is brutal electoral fraud. Doubled with what is now an open military regime though we cannot tell for sure how united the army is.
Thus there is a need to refocus the message and the means, as already hinted last December. This is not anymore an explanatory blog on Venezuela, this is becoming a resistance blog.
I have already modified and updated the page presentation of the blog though more editing is still needed. I am preparing to open a brand new blog which will include all the texts in Spanish under a different platform. As the regime is censoring openly web pages (ask Alek Boyd or Dollar Today), it is important that I have another blog on WordPress just in case. Also some people do not like that I mix my post languages. I suppose that now that the Spanish written posts reach more than half the average English post visitors then it is worth to develop a full fledged Spanish texts blog and see what happens.
The design will be simple and standard Blogger. I simply cannot afford to pay someone to set up something jazzy (though if anyone volunteers or offers to pay for it...). Thus I will limit myself to tweak Blogger templates and create something sober and white. Do not be surprised when the first white page appears that its color scheme and design evolves for a few weeks until I find again something I like. I want a simple page that downloads fast and can be read easily on tablets and phones as I notice that hits from such sources are increasing. Also, when trouble comes I may have to start posting from my cell phone, the horror!
On future projects I plan to also split my Twitter in language type, maybe even starting one in French. I have observed that switching languages is even more off putting to readers than in the blog.... I plan to write shorter and shorter posts, and maybe open yet a third blog for when longer texts are needed, and also to start collecting a selection of the 4000 earlier posts. I am no journalist nor plan to turn the blog into a book because simply I have no time and it is not my vocation, at least not now. But I am tired to repeat certain types of explanations and I think a "historical blog" can fulfill both aims, to create "the book" and to offer a historical "dictionary". If well organized it will be easy to send people there. But this is for later in the year if ever. Right now, I will limit to setting up a leaner blog, more fit for resisting the regime, that takes less time to write as time is shorter and shorter in my life with all the family and business problems that I must endure.
Thus are things. Of course, suggestions as changes happen are welcome.
We in Switzerland ith roots in Venezuela, will miss your English version. We will have to translate the Spanish text on internet, but it will loose some of its high quality. But we understand the reasons of the change and wish you good luck, signed only with
ReplyDeleteRWS
to protect my family in Venezuela, which seems to be already of "black list" of some higher ranking individuals.
I am NOT stopping the English version, I am splitting the blog in two..... Fret not.
Delete"Congrats"? on nearing 4000. Good move on splitting the blog posts.
ReplyDeleteWish the situation was different though...I miss (some aspects of) Venezuela.
The pen is mightier than the sword. Keep blogging Daniel, your contribution is another weapon in the fight against the military louts.
ReplyDeleteI really don't care about the format. Your posts are and have always been the best in my book.
ReplyDeleteI cannot thank you enough.
María
I like short posts that are well constructed - posts that are short, sweet and to the point.This is why I prefer English writing to the Spanish.
ReplyDeleteFlorid language is considered good writing in Spanish but unfortunately this leads to what I and many others consider pretentious or arrogant obfuscation for the sake of appearances.
For many of us, we see in written( not usually in the spoken) Spanish a diminished appreciation for content and clarity - But isn't the primary purpose of informative writing not clear communication ?
My advice is to keep posts in Spanish as simple as possible so that clarity of thought will lead to communication and greater understanding.
As usual I wish you good luck!I appreciate all your efforts.
firepigette
???? I try to keep my Spanish posts as short as possible as I am not used to write in Spanish. What I should open is a blog in French..... then you would see....
DeleteIt is true Daniel that in the past your Spanish posts are rather to the point, I just mentioned that because I imagine( and maybe I am wrong) that some people could start to demand a more florid Spanish.I remember how everyone criticized Quico's posts in Spanish a few years back.I guess it would depend on the audience you start to attract, and am also supposing that the new changes could attract new kinds of people to your blog, but maybe not.
Deletefirepigette
Un style ampoulé?
Delete"a resistance blog." Man the figurative barricades! Keep up the good work, Daniel.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm more new to this but me and my now wife have been following the post. I'm from USA and she is from Venezuela and we are always trying to keep up with all that is going on. Especially because of her family and friends there. We thank you for everything you do to keep people informed. We where wanting to have a wedding there but all these hard times are not great to do so. Thanks again and good luck with new blog additions.
ReplyDeleteWell Daniel I really like the new format.
ReplyDeleteClean, easy to see how many comments & easy to read.
A real improvement.
And I am not done yet. But the basic stuff is there. Now I need to fit stuff, erase some etc....
DeleteI like it just fine
ReplyDeletefirepigette
Nice,clean and quick new theme Daniel, like it very much except the color.
ReplyDeleteA nice light brown would be pleasant, but that's just me. Good luck with the blog and the new ideas!!
Too bad for you, purple and its shades are my favorite color. Did yo not notice that links were already in purple in the old format?
DeleteI think your plan for a Spanish blog has merit. But, I think it should be written, as you do in English, that the reader is not Venezuelan and is looking for information. There are more than enough blogs in Crillio for Venezuelans to read. Good standard Spanish or French provides the largest number of readers and when put into google translator are readable in any language in the world.
DeleteI like the new look of the site. Purple is OK with me. Pink would be OK too.
Hopefully you will remain for much more time narrating the turmoil in Vzla, and hopefully, in shorter time, the demise of the present regime. I think Venepiramdes is also censored as I was not able to access it during the last months of last year, but here in Ecuador there is no problem.
ReplyDeleteJe suis impatient de lire ton nouveau blog. Merci encore pour toutes ces années de témoignages. Gracias Daniel.
ReplyDeleteGo ahead, your blog is very good either in English, Spanish or what ever. Very well written and very illustrative
ReplyDeleteAlicia
I hope the Spanish will be simple to give Mr Google an easy time in conveying the intended meaning to us foreigners The new format is excellent and congratulations on your blog's longevity. Long may you deliver the truth.
ReplyDelete