Cynics Unlimited

How it Began

The 2005 formation of Cynics Unlimited (CU) was sudden and unscripted. After several months of reading blogs, ranging from the political to the perverted (and all points in between), it was clear that pretty much anyone could write a blog. The worst I could do was equal some of the more obscure corners of Blogspot.

Alas, to a self-described hacker, Blogspot would not suffice – nor would any hosted service. The site had to be totally independent, driven by configurable software and supplemented by selectable plugins. Among blogging software, Wordpress offered the most options in terms of plugins, themes and general support. I’ve since experimented with blogging under alternative frameworks, including Joomla, Drupal and b2evolution, but Wordpress continues to lead in terms of simplicity and expandability (at least from the user perspective).

The name “Cynics Unlimited” is a swipe at the Toronto Unlimited ad campaign, which according to the designer for this site’s logo, is considered by the to be one of the worst-conceived campaigns in recent memory. As the tourism bureau’s best response to city’s SARS-driven economic fallout amounted to a twisted ‘T’, cynicism came rather easy to this layman. “Cynapse” is a cross between the words cynic and synapse, conveying the idea of cynical thinker. The pseudonym was also created to distance new writing from … erm … disturbances that I may or may not have created on chat boards under other handles.

Early Success

After a month of testing the waters, CU broke through with “The Jane Creba Factor”, a slightly embittered diatribe about the inordinate attention given to the Boxing Day slaying of the Toronto teen. My argument that Canadians only cared about the shooting because of the victim’s Barbie-like appearance attract a fiery debate in the comment section, along with a year of steady Google traffic and a mention in the Toronto Sun. Unfortunately, the Toronto Sun quote was incorrectly attributed to a then small and unfamiliar blog called Jack’s Newswatch (JNW). The site owner was decent enough to track down the real source and drive some of his new-found traffic to CU. Respect was won instantly and we forged an association that resulted in my hosting several future generations of JNW (including the current one).

The second positive consequence of The Jane Creba Factor was the combative yet superbly-communicated comments of poster who went by the handle “Emilia Liz”. Her writing was so elegant that I had to persuade her to write an entire essay about her thoughts on the incident (she was in close proximity at the time of the shooting). Emilia continues to contribute to CU, both as a writer and in the comment section.

The Traffic Game

Regardless of what bloggers may state about inner fulfillment and spreading the message, virtually all of us check traffic statistics religiously. More visitors means more bragging rights, which substitutes for revenue in the blogosphere, and in some cases more real revenue. CU currently draws about 5,000 unique visitors per month, which is decent given:

• Posts are sometimes infrequent and become available as we become available
• CU has no specific political slant or target audience. Left-leaning readers brand us as heartless right-wing bastards for failing to bless the latest social ponzi / redistribution scheme; The Stephen Harper rank and file dismiss us as bleeding-heart lefties for showing even slight conscience about those “conquered” folks. Some of CU’s most popular threads have nothing to do with politics.

What also separates CU traffic from the traffic of other blogs is that most of it is driven by search engines. While we do get some repeat traffic for hot-button threads and a small core of regulars, a strong majority of visitors are Google-spawned surfers looking for information. The result is a site with a relatively inelastic traffic flow – few other blogs can cease posting for several weeks without a sharp decline in visitors. It’s a bonus for bloggers with busy lives who nonetheless want to remain somewhat relevant.

Noteworthy Posts

• The Jane Creba Factor. For the reasons stated above. It put the on the map, inadvertently lead to the what is now my blogging circle of friends, and attracted CU’s second-in-command.
• Tutorial: Internet Gaming with Age of Empires 3 and Hamachi. The most popular and traffic-inelastic thread to date still supplies more weekly traffic than many current threads.
• Should Religious Schools Receive Government Funding? The issue that brought John Tory down spawned a very hot debate between believers and doubters
• Caribana 2006 Jump Up Part 2. Not so much for the writing, but the colorful pictures that showed Toronto’s largest festival in a positive light.

Special Thanks

Of course, nothing is accomplished in a bubble, and CU was essentially a group effort even when it was a “solo” blog. My thanks go to:

• Emilia Liz for her tireless participation as blogger, administrative assistant and comment combatant. Her posts have added dimension to the site and provided CU’s readership with a wealth of original material. Thanks as well for minding the site while I was on holiday!
• Jack for his helpful suggestions, promotion on his hugely-successful site and support. His kind words and input have saved this site from being mothballed.
• Witchdoctor, NewsJunkie, Blink7, Quadrant Interceptor and Dashmaster for their periodic contributions.
• Mac, Sandy and B Psycho. My blogging circle. I’ve also had the pleasure of hosting the latter two, and it is exciting to watch from the inside as new sites develop.
• Shay at Booker Rising for being a first-responder when this site was looking for initial linkers (I’ve since fallen out of favor in that community, but I wish Shay all the best with her future endeavors)
• The Wordpress development team for making setting up blogs so dead-simple.
• Google. Nuff said?
• Last but certainly not least I must thank my wife, who not only provided a wealth of high-quality photos for various posts but also endured the ranting and pacing around one encounters when living with a perfectionist. She has the patience of a saint.

The Future

The future is uncertain … and I’d have it no other way. Blogging, like most activities, will continue for as long as I can find a new way to experiment with it. Once there is no opportunity left to try something new, CU will vanish as quickly as it appeared. After all, isn’t it is a sin to waste spare time on the mundane?