What started with the simple purchase of a surprisingly available domain while listening to James Brown comes to an end today. I'm closing up shop and exclusively running the show at South Side Sox from here on out. I hope you'll join me.
It's been a great five years (at least if you count the two month period of writing before officially launching the site). I didn't know I'd be blogging this long, but your support and contributions made the time fly.
Thanks to everybody who has read Sox Machine and told their friends about it, and a special thanks to everybody who participated in the discussions. The thoughtful, thorough, intense-yet-respectful discussions became a trademark of the site, and it made my thought process sharper, too. I can't believe I've never had to delete any of the tens of thousands of comments left on the site -- even after Rob Neyer (thanks, Rob) invited me into the ESPN.com SweetSpot Network and boosted my traffic considerably. I'm grateful for it.
As the picture out front suggests, I'll effectively be freezing Sox Machine in carbonite. I'm leaving it up to refer to stuff I've written, but I'll close down the comments in a couple days. Likewise, some contact information has changed, although the old channels will still work:
- E-mail: jim.margalus/gmail
- Twitter: @JimMargalus
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/SouthSideSox
I'll still be writing on a reduced schedule over the next month as I finish up the book, but once White Sox Outsider 2011 is out, I'll be back to writing every day. And there's plenty of great content coming on my off days, too.
I hope you'll join me over there. The South Side Sox community has been more than respectful and accommodating of my attempt to separate the White Sox-related conversation from the off-topic/personal stuff, as well as making it more safe for work. Due to the sheer size of the site (it gets more than double Sox Machine's traffic), I can't promise it will ever be as on-point as Sox Machine -- then again, you can help steer the discussion with your input.
You can also contact me off-site with suggestions on how to improve it. The goal with South Side Sox is the same as I had for this site -- build a site that can't be beat for White Sox analysis and discussion. The infrastructure allows some inherent advantages, and the participation of the Machinists will help immensely, too.
It's a bittersweet day, but it's a move that has to be made. We must move forward, not backward, upward not forward ... and I hope you'll come along for the ride.
Thanks for being you.
-Jim
