Monday, May 21, 2012

All things, even good things, must come to an end

All blogs are grass*

The Cucking Stool is going quiet, as of today.

The Cucking Stool has had a long run, longer than many Minnesota blogs. We've been lucky enough to collect a couple of awards along the way, including the recent one in the side bar from CBS Local - WCCO. Some people, anyway, will be sorry to see the Stool go.

But don't despair, boys and girls, or you either, grasshopper, because Aaron and I, and perhaps MinnObserver and Rob, and maybe even Sigmund Spot as well, are moving to a new website: LeftMN.

The new site has an absurdly short and easy to remember url: left.mn. That, by the way, is the same top-level domain as the Minnesota Senate and House. Pretty neat, eh?

LeftMN, which we call a "website than leans left" is a lot more than a blog. In addition to stories that you might see on a blog, it will have easy access to audio produced by LeftMN's authors, including Not Almanac, and video interviews from the Capitol, Drinking Liberally, and elsewhere, a section on elections and polling specifically (authored largely by Tony Petrangelo, another blogger who is founding the website with Aaron and me and the great website designer, Jesse Ross), and a community page that will feature news about Drinking Liberally and information about events by progressive politicians in Minnesota.

It has a lot more graphic elements and will be much easier to navigate (although the search box hasn't been implemented yet). It got added when I wasn't paying attention.

So go have a look, and update your links!

The Cucking Stool is not really going away; it will remain as an archive, but it won't be updated. As some point, probably in a couple of weeks, we'll close comments on the blog. Here's your last chance to get your licks in.

Echo has also informed us that it is discontinuing its blog comment service in October, 2012. At that time, the comments will all disappear. If you have one that you want to immortalize, you need to copy it soon.

A very important update: I was negligent in not mentioning the role that Ken Avidor has had at the Stool for nearly its entire existence. He's not listed as an author, but he's provided many wonderful cartoons to illustrate and amply posts and the ideas in them, and he's supplied some of those ideas, too. This was a much better blog because of Ken's time and talent. I am happy to say, the collaboration will continue at LeftMN.

Spot

* All flesh is grass is a quotation from Isiah 40:6.

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