Let me hear ya

150,000 increasingly quiet visitors and counting.

Where'd they go, the dozens of witty, intelligent, and knowledgable commenters who regularly contributed and added their insight and personalities to this blog? Not that there aren't still many thoughful contributors, but in the first several months, there were quite a few.

Traffic numbers here are still strong and trending slightly upward, (averaging 3-400 readers a day), but the number of comments seems to be lagging.

Part of that is due to choice. I've simply stopped posting comments which contain unsubstantiated charges against one candidate or the other. That cuts down their number by a large degree, and allows me to enjoy their howls of "censorship" and suggetions that I should move to communist China.

But I'm talking about rational reasonable comments, irregardless of whether they happen to agree with my views or not.

There's many alumni who were great additions to the place and who really made it a more interesting and fun blog. But it's like someone dropped a vial of anthrax or something. Many have vanished. (or they simply don't use the same names?)

I'd like to do a readers survey of sorts to gage reader attitude and your thoughts and opinions about the blog. I've written hundreds of thousands of words here, but it's been largely one-way. I'd like to hear back from you.

Please contact the team here at Inside Dope Industries at TheInsideDope @ gmail. com and share your impressions of the blog. Include how long you've been reading, how often you visit, what you like best about it, and what you like least. Include anything you'd like to see more of, or what you'd like to see less of.

Tell me anything you think would improve the blog or make it more enjoyable and interesting for you. I'd especiallly like to hear from readers who no longer contribute, and hear if there's anything I could do that might get them to get over their case of lock-jaw, so to speak.

I have many theories as to why this might be, but I'd like to hear from readers themselves.

It very well may be that there's not much here that they're interested in, at least not enough to comment on, or maybe the overal quality has fallen. In a year and a half, naturally things have changed and evolved, and perhaps the blog has gotten stale or gotten away from things that interest them, or maybe the fact that there's a gang who has the nasty habit of dragging things straight into the gutter whenever local races are mentioned has scared them away. Or it could be due to false rumors and smear attempts that keep people from contributing.

The fact is that I don't know and it's impossible to tell. That's why I'm asking readers to drop me a line and let me know their opinion of the blog and what they think might be improved or what I'm doing right.

As always, all correspondence is kept strictly confidential and your input would be greatly appreciated.

Drop me an e-mail by simply clicking on the link above or the red text in the sidebar to pop up an email already addressed and ready to go.

Not to blow my own horn, but I've put a tremendous amount of work into producing this over the past year and a half in the hopes that people might find it useful or interesting and that it might be a place for interesting debate and discussion. It's my goal to continue to work towards that goal, and your input will greatly help in that effort.

Thanks in advance.

PS. Do not leave your thoughts in comments here. Please send them in e-mail so I can better address your concerns, complaints, compliments, etc.