Goodbye to The Altered Page

Welcome to 2019. And to my last official post on The Altered Page. 2018 was a year of change for me and that theme will continue into the new year. Wasting no time, the first change starts now.

My online life started on August 10, 2007 when I uploaded my first post to The Altered Page. Back in the day, long-form blogs were the way to go. The only way to go. People had the patience to read, many supportive comments were left and responded to, and a community was born. Some of my strongest artist friendships began in those early years and continue to thrive today.

But, as we all know, social media continued to develop and micro-blogging sites began to become popular. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - to name a few - started to change the face of the online community and make social exchanges more user-friendly and speedier. Why read 5 paragraphs and click through to leave a comment when now you could simply see a picture and click thumbs-up?

I have come to embrace the quick forms of social media in my life as an artist as they allow me to connect with my community while not taking all my time away from actually creating. Seems like many other people agree as more and more long-form blogs have been neglected and closed. But at the same time, I continue to love the depth and breadth that my blog was designed to encouraged. And truthfully, I have always found that I came to truly know people via blogs in a way that has never been equaled by FB or IG.

So what's a guy to do? Why not keep both?

And I am. But not here.

I have made the decision to move my blog to my website and drop the name The Altered Page. This has not been an easy choice but it came down to one simple concept: control. With so many constant changes to the algorithms of many social media platforms, it seems like years of work in developing a community can come crashing down in an instant. For example, it took me many years and much effort to create a Facebook Business Page with 14,000+ followers. But it seems like it only took Facebook one minute to change the algorithm so that only a fraction of a fraction of my followers now see any of my posts. Not going to chance that on my blog. Combining it with my website gives me, and only me, the choices.

While I may lose a good number of followers in the transition, you know what? I am ready to be Seth Apter online rather than The Altered Page. Truthfully, I cannot even remember how I came up with that name except for remembering that all my first choices were already taken!

Hoping that whenever you find this post, you will take the time and take a chance to head over to my new blog. Maybe even have a read and, if you are so moved, to follow along on my continuing adventure by receiving each new post in your inbox. And, since we know nothing ever disappears from the Internet, if this is your first visit to my old blog, maybe stay a while and see what happened over the last 11+ years.

And no matter where your next click takes you, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making my journey in art so fun, exciting and satisfying.