A big sigh of relief on getting back into something more comfortable

This is good. This is very good: the name OSM (Open Source Media) turns out to have had a brief but unhappy life, and is being tossed into the dustbin of history, exactly where it belongs, IMHO. Welcome back old friend, Pajamas Media!

I wish I could say "I told you so." (Actually, I could say "I told you so"--along with most other bloggers--but my earlier criticism of the name change was never expressed in print.)

Pajamas Media was a great name, and it's still a great name. Whether the entire concept is equally great, and will ultimately fly, remains to be seen. But I'm certainly willing to wait and see.

I've seen the flak from others within the blogosphere and without: criticisms of the name (agreed on that score), the business model (don't know enough about it), the writing on the site (I'm giving that one time).

Call me shallow, call me social, call me a touch-feely-therapist type, but my main motivation so far in joining PJ Media has been to meet other bloggers, and that's been realized, in spades. How else and where else would there ever have been the opportunity to get so many bloggers in one room together?--after, all, herding cats is a notoriously difficult enterprise.

As far as the money goes, I'm more than satisfied. I could have started some blogads here, but really hadn't done the research yet to do so. So I'm more than happy to let PJ do it for me and pay me a tiny bit of money in the bargain. I have the right of refusal; I can quit at any point I wish and be right back where I started, having lost nothing, including my autonomy.

As far as all the anger towards OSM/Pajamas from Ann Althouse and Dennis the Peasant and others goes, they have their own concerns. Included in the mix are their own stories of having been dissed by the powers that be at PJ. Who's right and who's wrong is one of those things I won't comment on unless I've heard the full tale from both sides--and I wish I had, actually, because my therapist self somehow thinks maybe I could have mediated, at least at the beginning.

That's probably the height of hubris on my part; perhaps the differences and anger were just too great even from the start (and if anyone hasn't a clue what I'm talking about and is interested, just go to each person's blog--listed on my blogroll--and start scrolling down. You'll find a bunch of posts on the subject soon enough).

It's sad when people who were formerly friends (or at least, formerly civil!) end up dishing out so much vitriol at each other. I know, or at some previous point have had correspondence with, everyone involved (some very slightly and tangentially, and some rather better), so I'll draw the veil of silence now on the subject, put my apple over my face, and go slinking off.

I hope I don't sound cold or disinterested when I say this, but I don't think my blog --or the blogs of any of us, including its founders--will live or die by the success of PJ Media. We all define success differently; right now, I consider this blog to have been successful, if not beyond my wildest dreams, then certainly beyond what I considered any realistic expectations. Great readers, and plenty of them--what more could a person want?

I certainly didn't go into blogging for the money--that would have been like going into poetry for the money. I may be economically illiterate, but I'm not financially balmy. I can only speak for myself, but I know why I blog, and I don't think that reason will ever change. I knew from the start what my niche would be--what the story was that I felt internally driven to tell.

What is it I needed to say, and why am I so compelled to tell my tale? Well, it just so happens that I once wrote a post on that very topic. So if you want the best answer I can give, see here for more.