You have read that right, this is my very last post with The Otherside of Midnight and that makes me sort of depressed. This blog started out as a way for me to get Facebook likes, but it turned into so much more. #TonsOfFacebookLikes
In the 5 years I have been writing this blog, I have received over 60,000 views from 38 different countries. This blog has been translated into Spanish, Russia, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Swahili , and even English (UK). Now to any one of my dozens of faithful readers know that is fucking shocking because my blog is difficult to read and hard to navigate in English let alone in a translated version that Google shit out.
To me that number is absolutely bonkers. I only thought some friends who already thought I was funny might read this blog sometimes, but I have been blown away at the people who want to see me make hashtag jokes and put a white guilt spin on them. Why the hell would you want to read that shit in Swahili?
There have been posts about my crazy and often exaggerated adventures, there have been posts about me shitting my pants, there have been posts about the death of my friends, there have been posts about me making new ones, and going back to read some of them for nostalgia time sake has shown me that I have really grown up. Not in the way of getting a suit and voting Republican. But in a way that all of you have recognized and some of you have stopped reading this blog because of.
I have gotten a little too political.
This blog isn't funny anymore. I was reading through them and I could feel the tension between the John Kelly who has made his entire identity from jokes and humor - a John Kelly who will sacrifice his own comfort and reputation if it means a laugh, and the John Kelly that was beginning to emerge who feels passionately about issues and thinks the police are full of shit and that he absolutely needs to write about it and write about it loudly.
It is a struggle that I have been forced to grapple with. Should I continue this blog but move it back into the comedic vein if for no other reason but to give me an outlet to do it? Or do I write about the things I am beginning to truly care about and double down on political motivations?
Neither of those seemed fitting so I did the only thing I could think. Ditch this sinking boat and do a crazy hair-brain idea that is surely guarantee to take up 150% of my time and give me little reward. And I convinced the Goswami himself to join. Together we are creating a news website and its called:
nonprophetnews.com
Kaushik Goswami and I have been talking about doing this for a while. We have been fed up with the state that our news is in and we honestly think we can do a better job. Sites from Politico or the New York Times have been filling their column inches with shitty articles and sponsored content from outside vendors with big wallets. This has gotten so bad that there are estimates that 25% - 30% of the content you read on a daily basis is sponsored by an outside source.
Fucking what did you say? 35%!? Yes that's sort of right and news agencies cleverly hide it. Politico doesn't even post that is sponsored content most of the time, but then it has Jeb Bush's campaign manager writing an article about Jeb is still in the race. (Spoiler Alert: He's not) The worst part is that it is almost indistinguishable from their real articles.
Well Kaushik and I aren't going to take it anymore and you guys get to benefit. Don't worry it is not going to be 100 articles all from us. We can't fill up a website with our articles alone, so we are making a News Aggregate
"I am sorry John I am not 90 years old, what the fuck is a News Aggregate?"
Think of the Huffington Post or RealClearPolitics but written by two stoners who are funnier than any of those pricks.
Each day we will find the best articles we can find from all over the web, articles that aren't sponsored by corporations or political campaigns and post the shit out of them. We want this to be your one stop news source.
We aren't just posting from Mother Jones and r/SandersForPresident. We are grabbing from Rare, RedState, The Atlantic, Reuters, Politico, New York Times, Economist, RealClearPolitics, CATO, the Brookings Institute, Foreign Policy, Scientific American, Rolling Stone, and anything we can get our hands on. We don't want this to be a partisan news website.
We want this to be the best goddamn news site in the world.
The Q&A Section
John will you still be writing your own shit? It seems like all of that top part is horseshit if you don't write you own articles. Aren't you in the middle of your white male struggle to find purpose?
Kaushik and I hope the website will be 80% outside news articles and 20% of our own. This means more articles for you and NonProphet Originals to really sink your teeth into.
John you are a pretty lazy guy, you didn't even keep up with this blog, are you really going to be able to fill this website with articles?
Fuck no I am not! That's why I need you. If you care about an issue, I want you to write about it. If you think I am wrong on a piece, I want you to write about it. If you want to post an article to our website so you too can get Facebook likes, then I want you to write about.
Submit any all submissions to npn@nonprophetnews.com and if you write enough of them we can make you a permanent writer.
Did you just try and offer us a non-paying job to help you with your bizarre website?
With this economy, yes I did.
John are you going to ask us to follow you on social media?
Fuck yeah I am! What else is on your news feed? Candy Crush Saga? Heuer's Spring Break Photos? John Kelly Liberal Facebook Posts?
We promise to be a news website that is better than anything else you have read on your news feed. We will have only the best articles from the web and if that sounds boring to you, then I don't know why we are friends.
Are you even making money on this?
Absolutely not! And not by choice! Google Adsense is sort of ridiculous because you have to click on the ads to get any money and we don't want stupid readers who think clicking on ads is a good life decision. We are looking to create a reader fan base and move on from there before we even think about money.
John can you please just make one more emotional plea?
Like most business ideas this has a high chance of failing and becoming a shell of nothing. Our first revenue stream is likely to hit after we all self-driving cars. We need you. I need you. Please visit this website as much as you can. I promise it will have interesting articles and information you need to become an informed citizen.
John why are you really doing this?
Because, I live deliberately and this is what that means to me.
