Greetings! Content has been going slower than I hoped due to the enormity of some of the topics I have attempted to tackle. I'm working on a follow-up to the Indie Voice article that goes more in-depth into the past of the feature and multiple potential origins. I'm also re-working one of my very old articles on HAPPY-breaking in pop music. It's one thing to write about a particular artist, where there is a beginning and an end. It's another to look through multiple decades' worth of music, where there are no delimitations and little prior research. Research is ultimately a living project and no topic is ever truly "done" - but I want to make sure the pages I'm working on will meet the standards of Ace Linguist up until now.
I am also working on one more Dialect Dissection that will be out very soon on an individual. I have two more that are in the very early stages, one of which might be a sort of mini-dissection due to lack of material from the artist and substantial overlap with the Indie Voice page. Nevertheless, I think it may be worthwhile to cover some of that overlap because it's one thing to look at it from the point of view of "multiple artists with indie voice", which is quite macro, and "one artist with their own version of indie voice," which is the micro level. I try to avoid repeating myself, but maybe in this case the repetition will help.
Dropbox has increased their rates, which is not surprising to me. But it does make me realize that the services I rely on are not static and may continue to rise in price in the future. In particular, I'm working on some more advanced projects that may require paid hosting services. This sort of stuff starts adding up quickly. The Patreon has not been a huge success (shout-out to my one patron - I appreciate your support greatly!) and I understand. Patreon is usually better for content that comes out once a month or weekly. However, I cannot pump out articles monthly and have them be to my standards. I would still like to cover my costs of hosting and such as I try to do more advanced things. I have therefore been exploring having some unintrusive ads on the site. The purpose of the ads would be to cover, at least partially, the hosting costs - I doubt that they will cover the cost completely. I don't view Ace Linguist as a profit making venture, and on the very remote chance that the ads bring a bucketload of cash, I would like to communicate that with you to see how we can use it to improve the website. There are few accessible linguistic educational sites out there and I want to continue making Ace Linguist accessible to you all - one thing I've looked into is hiring expert help, which is currently out of the realm of possibility.
If it doesn't work out, I'll remove them or try something else. I don't want to plaster this with unpleasant ads. I also strongly dislike deceptive ads and am aware of the possibility that ads may be a vector for malware. I'll research these possibilities and be vigilant about them. The ads are not in place yet and I will let you all know once the dirty deed is finalized.
Many thanks to everyone who has supported this site by sharing it with friends or commenting or writing an email or supporting on Patreon. It warms my heart to know that there are all sorts of people out there who want more in-depth linguistic knowledge in their life. I hope to continue meeting that need for years to come!
- Karen
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