Daily Dischord is Five
Five years, eh? If Daily Dischord were a human being it’d be getting ready to start school this year. Although, given the habits of some of our staff, if any of us had to take care of a five year old they’d probably be found wandering the streets humming along to some dodgy hardcore band and crying for another shot of Jagermeister.
Or something.
The reality is that we’ve been doing this for a long ass time now. When this website was started in 2007 we had the lofty, unobtainable dream of being a respected, well known music site. Well, most of those that were involved with the website had that expectation. It’s perhaps telling that only a couple of the people who started the site are still involved with it, and perhaps even more telling that only one of them is still involved in a full time capacity. Everyone hoped it’d be an overnight success and no one was really prepared to work at it, an attitude which very nearly proved to be our undoing.
There’s a good chance that you’ve only really become aware of Daily Dischord within the past 18 months and there’s a reason for that, it’s not a particularly good reason you understand, but it’s a reason nevertheless: before the website was re-launched in October 2010 we were very close to packing it in. Only one person remained from the original crew that started the site (Mark. Liam joined about six months or so later) so it remained to be seen if we were really ready to put the time and effort into the site in order to have people, y’know, read what we had to say. In the end we decided that we rather enjoyed it and we resolved to put some time and effort into making the beast come alive. Liam took over control of the site and his years of resolve (and literally years of enthusiasm – he was the only person still writing for the site when no one else was and no one looked at it) is finally starting to pay off. What you see on the pages of this site is the result of that resolve. You’re in Dischordia; the land of the orange, black and white where we speak our minds and hopefully a place where you can speak yours too.
We persevered. So if you happen to be one of the many who’ve come to know our site over the past year and a half then thank you for taking the time to check us out, maybe even get to know us as people and just generally support the site.
Is there really anything we can say about our past that we’ve not written down somewhere before? Started on Feburary 17th 2007 by a bunch of folk who wanted to rant about music, we can positively say that not much has changed since then. We’ve stuck to our guns in terms of our ethos, bowing to no one, refusing to run adverts on the site, refusing to make any money from the website at all. Everyone who works or has worked for us has done it for the love of writing and the love of music, with the added bonus of having some people pay attention and care about what we’ve said.
Believe it or not we do have a plan for the website. You may have noticed that 2012 has brought about a change in how this site operates, well we plan to enhance that and really give it a push in the next six months or so. It’s been difficult for the two people that take care of the day to day operations of this site to really it give all the attention it deserves at the moment but that’s always been the case with Daily Dischord, we never abandon it, we simply go quiet for a while as we deal with things in real life. Rest assured we have a road map, and you’ll start to see where it’s taking us over the coming weeks and months.
Back to the point in hand, five years really is a long time to be doing this. Most websites don’t last six months and it’s truly a testament to everyone who’s read this site and shown us some love at some stage along the way – we owe you everything. It’s that love and attention from you, the reader, which makes this all worthwhile. Maybe this is the first thing you’ve read on the site, maybe it’s the fifty-first thing you’ve read, it doesn’t matter; the fact that you’re here and reading is what really matters to us.
Now, we’re hoping we can keep doing this for another five years. We’re hoping to continue shouting things in a unique and genuine voice, making ourselves heard, showing that we’re not afraid to ruffle people’s feathers in order to increase the reputation of the site.
As we enter our fifth year we look to the past and the things we’ve done, the remarkable things we’ve achieved in the past 18 months, the explosion in readers, the number of exciting new projects and features that we’ve ran both in and around the website and we’re proud. Yet we recognise that it’s through the hard work of those who have been involved with the site both past and present which has brought us this measure of success.
We also look to the future, to another five years and where the website is going, the plans we have in place to raise the profile of the site and our writers. We will continue to hold fast to our ethos of fair, honest and opinionated journalism displayed in a way which is unswayed by any kind of sponsorship big or small.
Together we can turn this small website into something truly remarkable, completely different and absolutely unique in the music world, and in order to do that we don’t just want you to read the words we send forth into the world, we need your feedback. You can play a part in how this site evolves and that is utterly essential in a world where the internet is slowly changing without the opinions of its users.
Thank you for coming this far with us. To all of the readers who’ve checked out the site, everyone who’s contributed to the website in some way and all of the bands who dig what we do, we extend to each of you the most sincerest of thanks imaginable. You guys make this exercise worthwhile.
Daily Dischord is five years old. Help us ensure that the next five years are vital, extraordinary and above all, all about you.
