Dark Days Are Over
When I started Band Back Together, it was sort of a nebulous concept for a blog. Most group blogs I’d ever seen were strictly controlled and stuck to one subject. Or they weren’t controlled – or worse, forums – at all and Internet Mole People (my word for trolls) abounded. And having the resource pages available for the broad range of categories, well I hadn’t seen that either. When I had to explain the concept of the blog, I couldn’t.
I just knew that Band Back Together was going to go somewhere, I just didn’t know exactly, well, where.
On a Monday in the middle of September, Band Back Together was launched. I’d put out a call for some stories the Friday before so that the site would have some stuff on it initially, hoping that filling it with other stories (besides my own) would make people feel more encouraged to submit. It was hard to explain that the site wasn’t another Superblog of Bloggers. It was just, well, us.
I think I slept a total of six hours that weekend, trying to get the site ready for the launch.
We launched and the server crashed and burned. I had to frantically scramble around to get a new one set up (whatever that means).
I’m not a numbers person, but I think that you should see this:
In the past 2.5 months, we’ve published 460 posts (there are 25 more waiting to be published).
We have moderated and actually published 2,600 comments.
We have 934 Twitter Followers.
As if those numbers aren’t staggering enough, here is where my mind is truly blown.
Are you ready?
Just. Holy balls, Pranksters:
486 people.
486 people have signed up in 2.5 months to WRITE on this site. 486 people have signed up to pour their heart and soul out onto a blank WordPress document, exposing all of their secrets and letting their demons, at long last, out.
Four-hundred. Eighty-six. People.
Those are the people I can measure. The people who have bothered to take the time to fill out a profile, even if they’ve never been able to spill their words out through their fingers. They are here. Youare here.
There are others, of course. Those of you who read silently, tirelessly in the background, sending prayers and love to the writers who write on this site, which is really your site, every day.
Band Back Together may have once been my site, but it is no longer, which is precisely as it should be. This was never meant to be my site. This is not another tired Super Bloggers site where I sit around with my friends and tell the same old shit. It’s so much more than that. The site goes beyond everything I ever expected it could do.
I’m honored to be a part of this site and I am humbled by each of you. Every comment matters. Every word you write is read by someone else. Your stories matter. You matter.
Here’s some comments I’ve received on Mommy Wants Vodka:
I forgot to add that Band Back Together has been the best therapy for me I have had in YEARS! Not only has it set words into the universe that I have been dying to say, it also made me realize I am not alone. I will forever –eva –eva applaud you for this.
And I love (and post at) Band Back Together. I think it’s a great site and has so much potential to grow into something AMAZING.
I lurk around on Band Back Together almost every day. There are so many beautiful stories there. I feel that it really is making a difference in people’s lives.
I LOVE Band Back Together! TY TY for starting it. I just started my own blog last week. And Band Back Together is the reason. I realized I liked getting my feelings out. I liked writing for me. It helped me. I like telling my stories and being humorous. I also like telling my dark stories. So TY again. But most of all I LOVE the community of Band Back Together. Everyone there is so supportive and caring. People need that. Especially during the dark days.
There are more, many more, just like it.
I did not write them myself. Nor did I pay anyone to write them. I just thought you should be aware. It is your site, after all 
We have a Facebook Page we have Networked Ourselves on their Networked Blogs AND we’re on The Twitter.
Just, you know, let people know that Their Band is ready for them to join, okay?
And in the meantime, WRITE HARD, Pranksters, WRITE HARD. Can’t wait to see what happens here in 2011.
(We also have shirts.)
Update (I’d written this post on Saturday): I wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to tweet and promote their stories and others from their personal Twitter, Facebook profiles and blogs. I think that seeing stories connected to real people – real people that you know – I think that really helps to make each of your stories real. And you ARE all real, I think, unless you’re actually robots, in which case, WELL PLAYED ROBOTS.
The outpouring of support in the past two days has been tremendous. You continue to amaze me.
Thank you.
Your friendly editor,
Aunt Becky