Now that you are reading this, I can say that everything is working. While I write this though, nothing is working. I haven’t built a website in years, and I have never built a website that was live. I am fortunate to have help from Zach Pino, but I am still far behind the curve when it comes to understanding what is going on. From what I have gathered, I own this url, and I rent space from Google to host it. I use Koken to build and manage my site. And by magic, a small animal sacrifice, and certain rites performed under the full moon, it all works.

Or something like that. 

 Next was the comments plugin. I use Disqus. Again, I got lost and Zach figured it out. This was big, since community is half the point. To that end, I will need to gather up all the social media outlets I can get. I have Instagram (@avbates) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-bates-40041213), but I will snag up Twitter and Facebook (and Myspace I guess). I am concerned that keeping up with all the channels will be an overwhelming challenge. How to manage all that is a mystery. 

I listen to the Making It (http://makingitpodcast.com/) podcast and the three hosts (three wise men?) seem to operate on a scheduled system of release: they put out content once a week on a schedule that works for them. I will try that, but I don’t want to create content for the sake of content. To me, the content will come out as I make progress. Sometimes that will be slow or fast depending on where I am. I can’t see writing an entry about waiting for a manufacturer to email a quote. Maybe, though, if I have something to say but not likely to produce photos. 

Since you can comment- and I hope you will- I want to talk about comments. I will delete content that I don’t think applies. This goes for mean spirited, non-constructive comments, but also goes for stuff that is just off-topic. I don’t want to hinder communication, but I also don’t want to go down rabbit holes that are unrelated. For that, I will try to set up an email account or something where we can have private conversations. When in doubt, though, just comment. If I delete it, it may not be personal so take it easy and feel free to ask. I am a professional designer not a professional moderator, but I will try to keep up with communication. Anyway, I am going to try and fill out some of the blank spaces so that is all for now. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to sharing the development. 

 -Bates