Thursday, February 28, 2013

The State of the Blogs


Yesterday while researching material for a future post I started looking at other bottle sites and blogs for a little spark of inspiration or a small piece of information to use in the article I was working on. Anymore it doesn't take much to divert my attention from the task at hand to other things that are not related to what I was originally concentrating on. As you can see, right off the bat, I have already been derailed from the original intent of this post.

 

Although my winters here in the mountains are not as busy as say someone working full time and commuting to and from that work in a large metropolitan area I have trouble at time, making the time, to keep fresh and interesting new material on this here bitters site.

 

Anyway, while looking at the other bottle sites I noticed that quite a few of the sites I like to visit are, shall we say, not quite current. There are some sites I visit that are daily updated with new and interesting articles, photos and thought provoking comments from the followers of these sites, and I make a point of looking at these sites almost every day as time allows. The sites that seem to be updated every few days I look at every few days. The sites that get updated every few weeks get less of my attention and I, like most folks, lose interest in these sites and don't visit them on a regular basis.

 

In today's information glutted world it just takes a few minutes online to pretty much find just about anything that you are looking for. Need the definition for a word you are not familiar with or a speech the president of the pez collectors society gave in 2010, then just a few minutes of searching the worldwide web will likely get you what you're looking for.

This site, The Western Bitters News, started as a way to bring information to collectors of western bitters and related collectibles. It has evolved into a site that includes information on western bottles, digging news, research articles and a forum for other collectors to voice their opinions and knowledge on the bottle collecting hobby. I hope this site has been as much fun for the followers of the site as it has been for me, the administrator, of the site.

 

Hats off to all of the dedicated folks that have the wherewithal to start a blog site and keep it current and interesting. I fully understand what it takes to keep things interesting and current. For those struggling to keep your sites current I can understand what it takes to make the time to research material and update your site regularly and I hope that you continue to add material to keep your sites up and running.

 

Long live the bottle sites!
rs



3 comments:

  1. Rick,
    Thanks for providing the collecting community a great site for ongoing constant information about not just bottle collecting, but vast amounts of California history. Good Job my Friend. Keep up the good work.
    Packrat49er

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  2. I visit your blog every other day, and really enjoy the information amassed here in your archives and in the daily posts. Keep up the good works, a lot of collectors out here appreciate your effort.

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  3. I've collected bottles since 1975 when I first started digging the local creek bank. I've always been a low-to-medium level collector. I've got a few rarities, but nothing like the bottles featured on this site for the most part. Other than regular perusing of the site and the occasional comment I don't really have any top-shelf, high end incredible pictures or acquisitions to post here. I read this site 99% of the time to learn and to be impressed at what beautiful Western glass has been discovered. With perhaps (by my estimation) around 2 or 3 regular Western bottle collectors posting new additions/discoveries here on this blog, it would seem there a good couple handfuls of other equally "advanced collectors" who could post new finds or favorites from their collections. There is something perhaps to be said for the internet being too "public" for the hush-hush/word of mouth only communication between many advanced collectors. Not a criticism, but simply an observation.

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