Saturday, May 23, 2020

A Stumble, Rather Than a Fall

Yesterday marked 14 years since I began writing and editing The Rap Sheet as a blog. (It had previously been a newsletter distributed by January Magazine.) When I first accepted the challenge of commenting on, recording, and occasionally helping to better illuminate the history and evolution of crime fiction, I had no realistic understanding of the time and commitment all of that would require. I had no idea of the friendships composing this blog would bring into my life, or the rewards and frustrations it would offer.

The frustrations have seemed overwhelming of late. As I noted recently, almost all of the videos I’ve uploaded to my blog-publishing service—Blogger—since 2006, suddenly disappeared in mid-April. Efforts to solve this mystery and undo the damage in a comprehensive fashion have been unsuccessful. The most likely explanation seems to be a technical one: Blogger has made so many platform changes over the years, that those video uploads of mine are finally no longer acceptable via my version of the software. Which may also explain why I am unable to upload new videos to Blogger.

I have been reduced to relocating the original videos, either online or on my computer (thank heavens I’m a pack rat about these things!), and re-embedding them or—the worst-case scenario—installing them on YouTube so that I can then “share” them to The Rap Sheet. Ironically, the reason I took Blogger up on its offer to let me upload videos directly to its platform in the first place, was that YouTube has been an unreliable partner in the past, capriciously deleting videos to which I wished to link. I thought I was being clever in avoiding such failures, but instead set myself up for a worse result.

There was a point, shortly after this catastrophic failure of my video clips, that I considered shutting down The Rap Sheet. The thought of having to reconstruct so much of what already existed before April seemed daunting. This spell of intense discouragement lasted for more than a week, as I struggled to shrug off my despair and ignore the many gaping holes in past blog posts, kept plugging away at work, and eventually reached the stage where my long passion for blogging here, and my determination not to be defeated by electronic snags, overcame my impulse to just give up and do something else. I feel odd admitting this, but it was largely thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent slack it created in my work schedule that I found time enough to begin the rebuilding process.

As my grandfather always used to say, when facing large and small hurdles, “It could be worse.” And I suppose that’s true.

I realized long ago that I am rather proud of The Rap Sheet, and that I want it to be part of my writing legacy. I want it to be a permanent Internet fixture, if that is possible. Although I try to be conscientious about fixing or eliminating broken links (caused when a Web site, blog, or single Web page ceases to exist), I can’t completely overcome those problems. But I don’t want to see this page riddled with “Video Is Unavailable” notices where film and TV clips belong. So, although it will take time and diligence, I am determined to repair all of the chaos caused by this season’s apparent technical issues.

Meanwhile, thank you for sticking with The Rap Sheet all this time. I hope that by the blog’s 15th birthday, both the novel coronavirus and these aggravating computer obstacles will be well behind us.

25 comments:

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Thank you for being here and keeping things going....as always.

Jerry House said...

"I am rather proud of The Rap Sheet."

You darned well should be!

Bill Selnes said...

Please keep going. Your blog is so informative. Glitches and problems will keep coming. I encourage you not to feel defeated if some videos do not make it back.

Ann Parker said...

I'm glad you powered through the frustration and discouragement... I would hate to see The Rap Sheet fade away (or be cut short). I look forward to perusing each installment. Thank you for all your work!

BirdLives! said...

I look forward to reading every Rap Sheet. Keep up the good work. Yours in crime (fiction).

Amy Condit said...

We appreciate all the solid content provided and hard work it takes to do this blog. Thank you so much!

HonoluLou said...

I blog once a month and can barely manage--I don't know how you do it!

"Life would be a dreary waste, if there was no thing called loyalty" (Charlie Chan, The Chinese Parrot, 1926, Chap 2)

Unknown said...

Always look forward to your posts

Scott D. Parker said...

When I got online and started going to "The School of Crime Fiction," The Rap Sheet was one of the required classes. It remains that to this day. Keep it going and I'll keep attending classes.

Laurie Loewenstein said...

The need to re-do what was previously done can be discouraging and overwhelming. We readers appreciate all you do for us. Please know your work is appreciated by readers and writers alike.

Lesa said...

I know how tough it is to keep a blog going for years. When you see your hard work ruined, and not by something you did, it can be worse than discouraging. Thank you for persevering. The Rap Sheet is so important to the crime fiction community.

J. Kingston Pierce said...

The outpouring of support here is so encouraging. Thank you very much.

Cheers,
Jeff

Steve Powell said...

I keep my blog going because The Rap Sheet keeps going. I can't even conceive of a crime fiction blogosphere without it.

Steve Powell

BVLawson said...

Thanks for all the hard work you do, Jeff, and I know how incredibly frustrating it must be to deal with this video snafu. I hope you can continue with the blog for as long as it remains enjoyable and meaningful to you. As much as we'd miss you, your emotional, mental, and physical health are more important.

Gabe said...

Sorry to hear of these technical SNAFUs and difficulties, but VERY glad to hear that you are motivated to persevere through them. This blog is an excellent resource and you are right to consider it a proud part of your writing legacy.

Mark Coggins said...

As someone who threw in the towel on my own (very modest) blogging effort, I understand the temptation, but I'm very glad to hear that you are going to power through the difficulties. Long live Rap Sheet!!

JJ Stickney said...

Thank you.

E. Ellis said...

Thank you for all your work and information. If not for this blog and all of the so many wonderful blogs out there (too many to name), over these past few years I would have never been exposed to all the wonderful writers that are out there and fall under the radar. Because of sites like these, all those deserved writers are publicized and brought to the public's attention.

And like others have already mentioned, for a casual reader, I have no idea how you can churn out so many interesting blog posts and get anything else done.......

Thank you for all your work....

FurryBootsCityBoy said...

A belated Happy 14th Birthday to "The Rap Sheet" - please keep going!

michael said...

Steve Lewis over at Mystery*File almost lost his archives to mysterious tech issues. Remember when the internet was going to be a library for every book ever published and the blogs would leave our words and reviews preserved for all time?

Good luck in your fight against the tech gremlins. One of us has to finish reviewing NBC MYSTERY MOVIES series.

TracyK said...

You have every reason to be proud of the Rap Sheet, it is a wonderful achievement. I like to research authors here, I love the Books You Have to Read posts, your interviews are informative, and your coverage on crime on TV is always interesting. I could go on and on. I can't believe it has been fourteen years, time is going very fast for me.

Happy blogging anniversary.

Unknown said...

Between this blog (and its generous readers) and the Nerd of Noir, I was led to discover dozens of terrific but too little known writers I very much doubt I'd have found on my own. Thanks for doing what you do.... -- Ross

Joyce Delaney said...

This is utterly and unashamedly selfish on my part, but I do hope that you find enough encouragement in these comments so that you are willing to continue. One of our daughters began a weekly podcast in February, and based on her experience, I know that what you're doing can be alternately very frustrating and incredibly rewarding. May your future hold many more rewards than frustrations, and thank you on behalf of all of us who cut our teeth on mysteries decades ago and who are still loving them.

pattinase (abbott) said...

THE RAP SHEET has always been and continues to be the best place to go to find out what is going on in crime fiction writing community. You should be proud!

Elizabeth Foxwell said...

Goodness, I'm glad it's not just me. I kept getting these annoying Blogger messages that my videos were screwed up and had a mess of broken links to fix. Hang in there!