Helium needed a "Little Less Talk and a Lot more Action"
As one of my once favorite writing sites prepares for final
shutdown in December, many members are taking the time to delete their articles
in order to free themselves from a site they once held dear. The delete process
is slow because each article must be deleted one by one. That’s not a bad thing
for people with a couple hundred articles on the site. In fact, most of the
people that I have heard from have already completely obliterated their Helium
cache of articles.
Unfortunately, I was not one of the smarter writers when it
came to Helium. I hung on to the site far longer than I should have and truly
believed that things would get better. I, and probably most of the people that
I have talked to, probably would have stayed at Helium for an eternity if it
had stayed the way it was when it was a start-up company that was fun to write
for. Like everything else in life, that wasn’t to be. Everything changes with
time and in business, that usually means corporate changes that can destroy the
family-like atmosphere.
No worries though. I am not writing this today to mourn the
loss of a site I once held dear or to say how sad I am at its demise. Quite the
opposite, I am ecstatic over the news because it means a prayer that I have been
saying for well over a year has finally come to pass. I thought the site would
be here forever, tormenting me with the fact that I had written tons of
articles that should never have been written. God is good, and that is all I
can say about that.
As I slowly delete these articles, whether good or bad, I
have to laugh at how absolutely ridiculous some of the titles are. There are
the titles extolling the virtues of Helium as a writing site. Yes, I can see
your eyes rolling, but I take no offense. My eyes are rolling as well. Then
there were the “What is” articles. Those are really cute because I’m pretty
sure everyone knows what the internet is and why they shop online. It is
doubtful that anybody could get any use out of such articles. I can only say
that I am sorry for writing them.
There were some articles that I found fun and possibly
useful. For instance, “Who is the sexiest man in country music” made me smile
when I read back through it. Yes, of course I chose Toby Keith. Who else would
it be? Though I would make some changes to that article today, including the
title, it was written at a time when I was slightly saner and slightly more
secretive that I was writing at an online article site. In any case, those
articles are now safely tucked away in my personal information and deleted from
the site. Thus the reason for this blog today.
After I have completed downloading the few articles that I
find somewhat interesting and reflect the reasons why I enjoyed Helium when I
first joined, I will load some of those articles on this blog. There was a time
of greater innocence in online writing and I preferred it that way. All the “How
to” articles and “What is” articles did net me some cash along the way and that
is all they are good for now, cash long ago spent. Helium helped me revive my
love for writing and then helped deflate my ideals for the craft. If I am going
to write, I’d much rather do it for the love of doing it and because I feel
passionately about the thing I am writing. I am not sorry for the journey
because I learned invaluable lessons from it. I thank God for answering my
prayer about getting my articles and name off that site, even if it did mean
getting everyone else’s off too. And what I have left are good memories, fun
friends and a few meaningful or fun articles. I have published book as well.
(Not because Helium published it, but because I met someone on the site who was
a publisher). It’s been an interesting ride and now it is time to move ONWARD
AND UPWARD.
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