Today, March 14, 2012 marks the 15th anniversary of Xenite.Org. I have told everyone who would listen to me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and SF-Fandom that this day was coming. I’ve even sent email to a few thousand friends (and former friends) of SF-Fandom, asking them to recognize this day with a friendly Tweet.
I have been pondering what to say for several weeks. I didn’t want to let this day pass without saying something, but it’s hard to be reflective about the past because for the last 16 months I have devoted a great deal of my spare time to rebuilding the Xenite network. After years of neglect the Websites were growing stale, the forum community became less active, and I was easily distracted by other projects.
What I can say reflectively is that Xenite.Org changed my life in several positive ways. First, it gave me an alternative platform for my passions, which had run too loose and free on the old news groups. Secondly, building and promoting Xenite.Org and the other Websites in the Xenite network gave me the experience I needed to become a successful Internet marketing strategist and theorist. And I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed more than my “15 minutes” of fame through the years.
Although I doubt most people who have read my books and articles would recognize me on the street or even remember much of what I wrote, there has never been a month in the last 15 years when I have not heard from at least a few people about how I have impacted their lives through my Web experiences. One cannot overemphasize the value of that kind of recognition. I have no illusions about being either a star or a hero, but I know I have helped many people. I couldn’t have done that if I had not decided to “get my own domain” in 1997.
I spent three weeks drawing names on a white board in my office in New Mexico. My office mate watched me with bemusement and maybe a little fascination. He once made a comment about how I was making too big a fuss over picking the right domain name. “It’s not like you’re making a life-altering decision,” he said with a chuckle. I laughed with him because I thought he was right. But time has proved him wrong. Xenite.Org DID change my life.
Last year I made a very difficult decision to take down the old Xenite. Many articles and feature sections I had devoted hours and hours to creating were taken offline. As sentimental as I felt about them they were no longer relevant to what I am doing, to what Xenite.Org should be doing. I was still receiving email from people about Salsa dancing clubs in Houston. I haven’t lived in Houston since 2006.
The new Xenite.Org is leaner but still packed with great content, especially the Middle-earth Website, where I’ve written over 200 question-and-answer articles about J.R.R. Tolkien and Middle-earth, posted interviews with many Tolkien scholars, and republished many of my old Suite101 essays.
It’s funny, though. Even after 15 years and building hundreds of Websites I still agonize over what I’ll do next. I am still on the fence about whether I should set up a dedicated John Carter of Mars section (I love the movie). And although I want to create feature articles about ABC’s “Once Upon A Time” I can’t seem to find both the time and energy to start on such a massive project. If I do it, however, I will do it in the same way I’ve created so many other features on Xenite.Org. It won’t be a wiki, it won’t be just another picture gallery. It will be a Xenite.Org “site”.
To me each new project is a life-changing decision. I had no idea, for example, when I interviewed Craig Horner of Legend of the Seeker that I would soon be working with fans around the world to save his show (and now to bring it back). It remains to be seen whether the loyal Seeker fans will find a new home for their beloved show, but I’m still in there with them, spreading the word, sharing their pains and successes. I’m just another fan in the group, but I wouldn’t be there had it not been for Xenite.Org.
So, yeah, it’s life-changing in ways you cannot foresee. That’s why I keep doing it. I never know what will come next. I just know that whatever I choose to do with Xenite it will be a labor of love, a passion that has to be fulfilled. Lately I have been approached by several venture capital-backed companies that are buying up domains. I haven’t felt compelled to engage with any of them. They don’t really know how to value Xenite.Org, or what to do with it. They would just turn it into another commercial Website.
And I’m not ready for that. Maybe I never will be. I hope you all understand. I think you do, especially those of you who have come back year after year to see what else I have been up to. So here is to Xenite.Org. Here is to our shared passion. Here is to the next 15 years, and whatever they may bring.
Thank you.