Our colleague hopes to make his return soon.
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Some good news on the Where’s Doug? front.
He sends his “apologies for the extended and unanticipated absence” and “Thanks for the concern” shown for his well-being.
He has “been dealing with some personal issues” and “hope[s] to get things back to normal soon.”
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Doug? Who is this Doug of which you speak?
I flashed on the 1953 movie, Shane, in which the little boy calls to a departing Alan Ladd, “Come back Shane!” Probably not realizing that Shane was either going to leave or hop Little Boy’s mommy and kill his daddy.
But I’m pretty sure Doug could return without either killing or adultery. Probably.
@Jay L Gischer: Concur. I saw some twitter activity from Doug, but it looked like something automated. Hope he’s back soon, and it is indeed nice to hear more from our other hosts as they pick up the slack.
In an alternate universe…
Doug decided that the reasons for calling himself a libertarian and independent had warn so thin in the 2010’s, that he had realized that he likely would no longer be able to, in good faith, however stealthily, vote for a Republican in the future.
This, of course, caused his head to explode., with fragments all over the various corners of the internet.
However, in this universe, I am very glad that he will be returning!
Doug was carrying the majority of the content load here for awhile now. He was the go-to guy for day-to-day breaking news which is the biggest and hardest beat by far.
And creating content for a site like this is *really* hard. And his style was traditional: premise, background, supporting evidence, reaction, conclusion; that’s *hard* work which takes many, many hours to do properly. It’s detailly, which you can’t fudge. We, the commentariat, would have swarmed him if he’d half-assed it, which he didn’t. It’s a lot of pressure both external and internal.
Also, in OTB’s instance, there is a slight disconnect between commentators and hosts – majority center-left commentators and center-right hosts.
When the host(s) and the comment section are aligned politically, philosophically, and psychologically it’s *way* easier to produce content. Find a hook, chuck red meat at the horde, and call it a day.
Doug could not do that; he did it properly. Which we should appreciate.
@de stijl: Agreed all around. I carried the whole load at OTB for a while and was Doug-like in my productivity for years, averaging something like 10-13 posts day in, day out. I eventually burned out doing that. It’s just exhausting. Doug was so prolific that it became easy for me to just weigh in on the handful of issues that truly interest me—a much easier undertaking.
Don’t ding yourself too hard. I was in your shoes, briefly. It’s truly wickedly hard exhausting work.
Reacting to every news story is a fool’s game. It will kill you eventually.
Pace yourself – generously, and then some. And if Doug chooses to never post again that is super cool and correct if that’s his wish. If I were he I would probably bail – zero upside by max effort. That’s a hard row to hoe continually.
