how weird things is getting ready for a fresh new hell in 2019
Between the two years of adventures with Rantt Politech and the hiatus then resurrection of Weird Things instead of the plans laid out in 2016, it might seem foolhardy to make definitive plans for the future. But a lot has happened to clear up where we need to head, so I feel more confident in making and sharing a potential roadmap for next year. After all, this site has been redesigned from the midtier up, every article’s graphics updated, and its front end stripped down for speed and ease of use for a reason.
In the past, hiatuses were created by major interruptions in daily life and a desire to reinvent the wheel when it comes to content management. But what I learned over the past few years is that content comes first and the technology has be a distant second to the actual delivery of it. I’m actively recruiting new voices and soliciting new opinions. I’m partnering with Rantt Media for additional resources. Weird Things isn’t just being brought back, it’s being reinforced for future resilience and continuity.
It’s no longer just a passion project, although to an extent is still is and always will be, it’s being steadily transformed into a media outlet. Its goal? To be the place to provide the proper context and fact checking of new, bleeding edge studies and discoveries, to have in depth discussions on important issues in science and technology you need to know, and to put you ahead of the curve as the word around you is rapidly changing. We don’t just want to tell you what’s on the horizon, we want to give you a guide and game plan to take full advantage of whatever’s next.
This is why I sped up and modified the design and underlying code, to improve search placement and the site’s responsiveness and ease of use. This is why I upgraded and enhanced all the graphics to fit with the new layout. This is why we’re recruiting and syndicating new voices, to offer more ideas and information. This is why we started the podcast, to give you weekly deep dives into topics that really matter, if not today, then tomorrow. And this is why we’re doing more social media outreach, to ensure sure this information makes it to you consistently and on every useful channel there is.
In its early days, Weird Things was intended to cover the newest conversations in research and development, to promote skepticism and rational inquiry, to examine extraordinary claims with a critical, evidence-based eye, and promote not just good science and education, but the tools to wield them. In the decade since, the need for all this hasn’t went away. On the contrary, it’s intensified by at least a few orders of magnitude. And we’re here to answer that call in the coming year.
