“registered on: 10-Jul-2000”
it’s nearly 10 years since i registered and started the adventure called ireallylovemusic.
10 years.
that’s totally insane.
my life has become so very very different since the idea for the 9600bps friendly site materialised in those pre-web 2.0 days.
naturally, the sites direction has twisted and turned over the years as my infamous mood swings take effect,during which time ireallylovemusic has ridden the wave of net boom and hidden in the corners while blogosphere glut gripped all an sundry.
in the 00’s there were a few mad intense few years during which time the real world mailbox rattled every day with shiny discs from all over the world, meaning ireallylovemusic hq creaked and groaned, and i literally fell apart as there just weren’t enough hours in the day to keep up with the demands.
maintaining the myriad of old school html pages was becoming a pain in the arse, hence the switch to the blog with access to the original archive via a link.
due to understandable changes in the industry in recent times, ireallylovemusic has been scrubbed off just about every promo list out there, meaning i have space and time in my life again.
subsequently, i have begun to question the move to pure blog status.
i totally concur that the navigation of the original ireallylovemusic site was (still is) painful, awkward, and anything but intuitive, perhaps it’s the cantankerous side of me, but i actually like that aspect. it means that, like a dusty old record shop in some forgotten little town, you can mistakenly chance upon some random words about an album that you’d not normally ever come across, and who knows, that may make whoever wanders in that direction, check out an album that would have normally been left unloved.
in my world, that’s a win.
also, i feel it’s relevant to quote the original statement of intent (did i mention it’s 10 years .. ) as i feel to have strayed somewhat from the original plan :
“the reviews will be plain, simple and to the point. no hype just telling you whether its worth picking up or not.”
so my dilemma in recent days has been : do i leave the blog as the point of entry when people visit ireallylovemusic, or put things back, and have the original site as the point of entry with the current blog as a sub-section ?
having pondered long and hard, i have decided to throw caution to the wind and revert back.
nothing will change for those who do that fancy rss feed gubbins, and of course, should there be a need, people can bookmark direct to the blog thereby completely missing out on all the effort that has gone into the redesign of the site (ahem).
it’s just i have an urge to dust down the original site and reaffirm its long standing place in my heart.
to summarise, i have missed all those notepad html sessions.
thank you for glistening.
mark e