To anyone that still visits this site; thank you. I know it hasn’t been updated in a very long time. A combination of life events, hosting issues, and general distractions, allowed Experience Points to stagnate and fade a bit. Here is a quick story of where we were, where we are, and where we are (hopefully) going.
Where were we? The Experience Points Radio Show aired on 90.9 FM KSLU for nearly 10 years. It originated as an hour-long topical music show, before eventually maturing into a topical talk show with music. I hosted the shows with a co-host, we played music, talked about games, movies, and whatever was happening in the industry at the time. There were attempts to start several other blogs, shows, podcasts, as well as game servers with moderators… Nothing ever really went too far. TechKazoo and VideoGameRewind were the only alternate sites ever established, but they never had any significant content. It ended in 2019 due to my decreasing ability to balance work, life, and the show. In the early days I would dedicate several hours a week to finding stories, playing games, writing show-notes, etc… I got more busy with other things and towards the end I was struggling to put in an hour to prepare before recording. There were so many other things that were more important that I couldn’t continue to justify the time and effort (however little) that was spent on the show.
Every year I get an invoice for the Experience Point domain and hosting, and every year I pay it and sigh. I pay it because I remember how much fun I had doing the show and making content, and I want the legacy content to still be around. I sigh because I know that I haven’t contributed to the site in a very long time. I sigh because I remember how big I wanted it to be at one point. A friend of mine was preparing to give a speech about how expectations change over time. We were talking and I made reference to my personal blog and Experience Points. While discussing things I noticed that the site was mostly broken; ExpPoints.com was up and would get you to the ‘Network’ homepage, but the Radio Show, TechKazoo, and VideoGameRewind sites were all inaccessible. I was able to get the sites back up, but they had been down for so long that all of the connected podcast outlets had become disconnected. The audio was still available via the posts on the website, but that was it. With another invoice due in a few months, was now the time to pull the plug?
Where are we? Clearly, I didn’t pull the plug; you are reading this post. The discussion with my friend energized me. I was really frustrated that the site had fallen into disrepair. I switched hosting companies, exported and imported content (just the Radio Show), fixed dead links, and got Experience Points back on her feet. But why? Why go through all this effort to keep a dead site alive?
Where are we going? Some of the biggest issues with my early ideas about Experience Points center around poorly managed (and poorly conceived) expansion. The show became a site, then a platform, then social media, then a series of sites, then game servers, then… I am too busy for that Experience Points. I always was. What I plan on doing is sprucing up Experience Points, and then creating content at my speed. I doubt Experience Points will return to a weekly hour-long show. It will likely not return to 90.9 FM KSLU. I doubt I will enlist permanent co-hosts. I may not even re-publish the archive episodes to the podcast outlets. But, I plan on trying to make Experience Points work; for me, and hopefully for you.
Thank you for reading, and if you are a long-timer, thank you again.