There’s a famous old fable that I've seen told in many different cultures, but for the purposes of this blog, I'll use the Persian version:
Many centuries ago, the holy man Nasruddin was arrested after preaching in the great square in front of the Shah's palace.
The local clerics had objected to Nasruddin's unorthodox teachings, and had demanded his arrest and execution as a heretic. Dragged by palace guards to the Shah's throne room, he was sentenced immediately to death.
As he was being dragged away, Nasruddin cried out to the Shah: "O great Shah, if you spare me, I promise that within a year I will teach your favorite horse to sing!"
Admiring the audacity of Nasruddin, and being a gambler at heart, the Shah accepted his proposal.
The next morning, Nasruddin was in the royal stable, singing hymns to the Shah's horse, a magnificent white stallion.
The animal, however, was more interested in his oats and hay, and ignored him. The stablehands all shook their heads and laughed at him. "You old fool", said one. "What have you accomplished by promising to teach the Shah's horse to sing? You are bound to fail, and when you do, the Shah will have you killed!"
Nasruddin turned to the stablehand and replied: "On the contrary, I have indeed accomplished much. Remember, I have been granted another year of life, which is precious in itself. Furthermore, in that time, many things can happen. I might escape. Or I might die anyway. Or the Shah might die, and his successor will likely release all prisoners to celebrate his accession to the throne".
"Or... perhaps, maybe the horse will learn to sing".
If you haven't yet figured out the purpose of this blog, I have, indeed, decided to renew all of our web hosting subscriptions and to keep the site running for another year.
This website has been a labor of love for myself and the people who help run and contribute to its operation. We have made 0 dollars and I have spent north of a thousand to keep things running and keep everyone safe from Left Wing cancel mobs.
Why? I don't really know, exactly. I'm not even sure why the website exists.
I don't REALLY have any plans for this website outside of having it remain a place to channel my creative energy and to (hopefully) make you laugh every now and again.
The truth is that I get a kick out of designing cover art, making memes and writing things that I believe raise a salient point about the current state of society and/or just make people laugh.
In that respect, it's kind of a selfish endeavor.
The initial concept that led me to create Flappr was an idea to amplify and provide a platform for like-minded, (mostly) normal people, looking to express their opinions and amplify them to a larger audience.
I think we've help provide a place where if you (yes, I'm talking to you) had an idea and wanted to share it a more structured, long-form, setting, you're invited to submit and see your story published on a clean, somewhat professional looking, website.
We give people an outlet to share their voice during a time when it's very hard for conservatives to reach an audience outside of social media (though we remain largely dependent on social media to reach most of you).
That's cool to me.
I remain honored that so many of you have written posts and continue to read them on a daily basis.
I am proud of the content we've posted on Flappr.net, and that we've built a small but loyal community of followers that didn't want to see this site go away.
Perhaps most importantly, we've built this community without ever having to resort to "clickbait" or without having to ever lie to you or tell you what you want to hear. The one thing that I never wanted Flappr to become was a website that trafficked in the sort of inflammatory "fake news" that drives me crazy from our corporate media and from blogs on both sides of the aisle.
Upholding this principle likely comes at our own detriment, as blogs that post links like "10 ways Biden is going to be impeached" or "Trump to resume office on August XX" attract more eyeballs, clicks and provide a much quicker pathway to success.
We don't do that, never will and we encourage you to avoid any blog that seems like their main focus is telling you what you want to hear.
So what's in store for Flappr Season Two? I have no fucking idea.
The unfortunate reality of running this site while also having a full time job is that it will never have my full and undivided attention.
I want to do a podcast, but I won't do a podcast unless that podcast will be published on a regular schedule and can meet certain production standards.
Accordingly, the podcast remains a TBD until I can figure out how to make it work.
What I would like to see over the next year is the continued growth of our community - including more engagement and involvement from you.
I think the biggest failure of Flappr Season One (and there were many) was that I focused too much on publishing content and not enough on encouraging you (yes, you) to get involved. I want you to understand that Flappr exists for you and that Flappr is a fantastic way to dabble in the media content game, if it's something that interests you.
So, I guess I'll end this with a challenge and invitation to our beautiful community: we want your help, we need your help, please get involved, please help us grow.
If you've ever wanted to write a blog, message me and we'll come up with a concept, I'll design some cover art and we publish you.
If you understand marketing, or have ideas on how to help this site grow, message me - because I'm fucking clueless.
If you're into the podcast game and you think you can help us get a show off the ground, message me and let's see if we can get this thing going.
With your help, I believe this site will continue to grow, continue to improve and continue to be a place where fun happens. Yes, every retweet helps. Yes, every Facebook share helps. Yes, every time you tell a friend or click on link helps.
I want you to make Flappr yours as much as it is mine.
I think, at minimum, it's worth a shot - and that's why I've committed the money, the time and the effort into seeing this experiment through for another year.
A year from now, who knows where we will be?
Maybe Flappr will tread water and I will be debating whether or not to continue.
Maybe Flappr fail, I'll shut it down and this blog will be a sobering reminder of where things went wrong.
Or. . . perhaps, maybe Flappr will learn to sing.
Happy Monday and God Bless America.