Five Years

This blog is five years old today!
It was on 6 February 2011 that I put up the first post and after 648 posts in total its now reached this anniversary. A lot has changed in that time, both in my life and in the world, and I felt it was worth acknowledging this landmark.  Of course This Way Up as a title goes back to 2002 when it started as a printed fanzine but those issues were on the whole seen by far fewer people than have viewed the blog. Blogs were already old hat when I started this but they continue to thrive. This may be because it’s a very adaptable format and it doesn’t matter how much or little you decide to post. The problem with the paper issues was filling that awkward half page or having to wait until all the material appeared. With the blog, if there isn’t anything particular to say then I don’t have to come up with something. Also with the zine once the issue had been available for a few months, it had effectively finished its life span until it turned up ten years later at a car boot sale whereas here posts from the very start of the blog can still be viewed indefinitely.
Yet I miss print zines and do still dabble from time to time. Last October, when I produced a special twentieth anniversary issue of my previous zine Faze it was available either as a print version or a PDF to download. Both were free but the stats tell their own story. While requests for the print version were merely in the 20s, views of the PDF were several hundred, more in fact than ever bought the zine when it was print only. While this meant a lot less envelope writing and stamp licking (why has no one invented flavoured stamps?) it also confirmed what I suspected which was that paper fanzines are on the way out. People will still want them but just not in the quantities they prefer to view online.

All of which does make me consider what sort of thing should be on the blog. With the way online media has developed there seems little point reviewing things or discussing topics that the rest of the Internet is also talking about; for a start the chances your particular post will be viewed decrease the more everyone else is writing about the same thing. Also veiws have been falling in the last couple of years. The table at the end of this piece lists the top viewed posts all of which have been seen by thousands but the last time a post passed the 1,000 views mark was in November 2014.  With my own spare time also now far less than it was five years ago I feel this blog needs to move towards things that are not so much at the forefront of the media world. It’s what we used to do with the zine as well.
So, This Way Up will continue for a while yet and evolve into something slightly different but hopefully will continue to bring you all with it. Thanks to everyone who has viewed anything or written something or shared posts elsewhere. Your support is always appreciated.
Now because you didn't ask, these are the top 15 Viewed Posts from this blog:

1: 2012 David Bowie Theories
2: John Sullivan tribute (David Rolinson)
3: Foyle's War Season 8
4: Forgotten TV- Bizzy Lizzy (Tim Worthington)
5: Richard Carpenter 
6: Forgotten TV Enchanted House (Tim Worthington)
7: Nebula- Far from Nebulous(Andrew Darlington)
8: Forgotten TV Small World (Tim Worthington) 
9: Winter's Reach
10: Welcome to the Pleasure Dome (Andrew Darlington)
11: Loving the Alien (Sean Alexander)
12: Don't fear the Midnight Beast
13: Fantasico! (Leonardo season 1)
14: Top of the Pops 17/8/78 (Chris Arnsby) 
15: Anatomy of a TV Advert