Good Bye

This is, indeed, and finally, our last post. But all is not lost. You may find us here, blogging, posting, and keeping you up to day about all things Chesterton, so come on over.

The Start of the Transition to Something New

I'm pleased to announce that we are beginning the transition to a new American Chesterton Society web site, one that will combine the best of the old site with the best of the Gilbert Magazine site, with an interactive component like a blog. So it will be the best of three worlds combined into one.

You'll be able to get more content, interact with Gilbert columnists and readers, and much, much more.

As soon as the new site is ready, you'll be the first to know. And thanks for 5 great years of blogging here.

Just Discovered: lost comments

I was wondering what happened to the comments that usually come when one posts. Apparently Blogger took it upon itself to moderate the comments without my knowing where the comments lingered while waiting my moderation.Tweet

Your Blog Authors at the Conference Dr. Thursday (AKA Peter Floriani, PhD and Nancy C. Brown)

Tweet

Comment Moderation

Sorry folks, one bad spam-bot apple got past the word verification and created chaos for me. Until Blogger improves their ability to hold off blog spam, I'll have to put this on moderation. Otherwise, you would see some pretty immoral stuff, and that's not what this blog is all about.

This spam bot was awfully clever. It took words either from the post or from the comments already posted, and re-posted them, sounding almost as if they were contributing to the conversation. If it weren't for their "special" user name, I might not have noticed.

Tidbits

Thanks to Dr. Thursday for the post yesterday and for trading post dates due to his travel schedule. Over the next two weeks, I'll be traveling, so posting may be sporadic.
Meanwhile, I'm working on two different podcasts, which I hope to finish up before I leave. Big changes are coming soon for the blog, so stay tuned.

ChesterCon09 Twittering, etc.

I have just made a hashtag for twittering at the conference this year. I'll be at #ChesterCon09 --naturally! Check in frequently for up to the minute updates. See the icon at left to follow me (at AmChestertonSoc)

I also hope to do some blogging, take some pictures, and if I get the hang of it, videos up at youtube, too.

Stay tuned!

ChesterCon09 countdown: 19 days

Major Blog Changes

After resisting the urge to upgrade (Chestertonianly, I didn't want to take the fence down before knowing why someone put it up there), I did change things today due to some requests I've had for being able to spread the Chesterton news further afield; a situation which I heartily agree to do.

So, check out the new features, try them out, and hopefully, all shall be well.

Loome Has a Blog!

Check it out.

Peter F. says: I esepcially like the pictures, and the motto, "Saving Western
Civilization... One Book at a Time"

Happy Anniversary, Blog!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the 3rd anniversary of the American Chesterton Society Blog.

Our current stats: We've had over one hundred thousand visitors. We have an average of over 120 unique visitors a day (although you'd never guess that from the number of comments. A lot of you are lurkers...come join the conversation! Ask us a question! Tell us something interesting about yourself and Chesterton.)

We have 80-100 new visitors every day, and 30-50 returning readers a day.

We have eight "followers"--faithful readers who use Blogger to keep track of their blogs. There are other ways to follow this blog, but I don't follow them.

The vast majority of our readers are in North America and Europe, with a few in India and southeast Asia. We get occasional readers from all over the globe.

We've had over a thousand posts, mostly made by me, and joined weekly by the amazing Dr. Thursday.

FYI: I, Nancy C. Brown, am editor of this blog for the American Chesterton Society. Contrary to some opinions, I've been given full control over the content of the blog. If your comments are occasionally edited or deleted, I'm responsible. If you have complaints, the buck stops here, with me. This blog, like any other blog, is not an exercise in "free speech" per se. We do expect people to be polite and use their God-given powers of reason. However, that said, the most common thing I delete is some sort of spam, lately involving the cessation of smoking. Apparently some poor laborer is tasked to search out smoking references in blogs and then put a certain link in the comments of that post. Poor things.

So, cigars? Wine? Cheese? Cake? Yes! Let's have a party. 3rd anniversaries don't roll around every day. *Cheers* Here's to the American Chesterton Society!

Chesterton Society Needs YOUR Help

Dear Friends of Chesterton,

I don’t mean to clog up the blog, but I need to make another appearance here directly on the heels of dealing with the New Yorker. With Chesterton becoming better known, the attacks are beginning, and we need to be able to respond.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t be in a worse position to do so. The American Chesterton Society is facing a financial crisis. We need your help. Our usual donations are way down, and as usual, our expenses have gone in the other direction. We need to raise $30,000.

We understand that everyone is feeling squeezed right now, but whatever you can do to help - $25, $50, $100 or more – it would be greatly appreciated.

Your donation is tax-deductible, and you can donate online.

or mail you donation to:

The American Chesterton Society
4117 Pebblebrook Circle
Minneapolis, MN 55437

Please help us keep Chesterton’s flame burning brightly. Thank you so very much.


Your servant,

Dale Ahlquist, President
American Chesterton Society

Blog Administration

It has been noted that our stat counter (over on the left and down a bit) is approaching 100,000 hits. We shall celebrate with style.

Blogger has allowed one to prep ahead posts (for example, when your blogmistress is out of town and might not be allowed on the internet by various and sundry thrifty-minded hotels) and keep them as drafts. However, one must then somehow get on the internet to release these "drafts" from prison and post them.

Then, recently, Blogger began a new service called "Scheduled" posts, where one could create a draft and then say when the post should be posted, and Blogger would "hold" these scheduled posts until the correct time, when they would be automatically posted.

Blogger seems to have lost this ability (perhaps temporarily) and so I noticed that posts I had "scheduled" appeared as "published" as if in the future.

So, I hope this explains the problem to anyone who wondered about it.

Catholic Blog Awards

Congratulations American Chesterton Society Blog!

We won!

Well, we came in Eleventh Place (with 20 votes) in the "Best Group Blog" category. Yeah, us!

We also came in 93rd (with one vote) in the "Most Informative and Insightful" blog.

Thanks to everyone who voted.

Award for this Blog!

This blog is a runner up for the Catholic Blog Awards 2007-Best Group Blog award!

I guess the group is me and Dr. Thursday and YOU!

Congratulations Everyone!

Tomorrow is an important day

It has to do with the marriage of Chesterton and a blogg...no, no, I mean a Blogg. And a birthday. Two birthdays, as it is also my father's birthday, and several other Chestertonians also have birthdays tomorrow.

UPDATE: Somehow the date was wrong on this post, the birthdays are June 28th (but happy birthday to Candlestring's father today!

Blog Readers who attended the conference...

Please let me know who you are. Leave a message in the comments, leave a link if you have your own blog. I'm just curious to know how many of you attended. Thanks

Things People Search on

I was just checking to see how people find our blog. It's fascinating what people search on to find us. Someone searched on "TMWWT" sorry if that confuses people, it's simply short for The Man Who Was Thursday, which takes way too long to keep re-typing. Someone found us by asking Google for a G.K. Chesterton poem for lent; by searching for E.C. Bentley, by searching for Boethius, Chaucer, and "Obedience, the most thrilling word in the world." They searched on "The Surprise" Dale Ahlquist, King Arthur and "fallen angel". They are from the US, Finland, Canada, UK, Germany, and many other countries each day. Since I started keeping track, we've had 9,000 unique visitors, visiting over 19,000 times. This includes you. Thank you.