Welcome to doupetch.com v2.0.

Those of you who were regular visitors at the original dougpetch.com probably won’t recognize the place, but that’s the whole point. I pulled the plug on the old site when I realized that it had become little more than a rambling, unfocused vanity site that was a poor imitation of the multitude of link-centric weblogs available on the web. That wasn’t my intent when I opened for business so I took the decision that a complete make-over was in order.

As I prepared to reenter the arena I thought long and hard about what I hoped to accomplish through my on-line presence. Some goals, such as promoting my writing and speaking, were fairly obvious and concrete. But I also hope to achieve some more, shall we say, nebulous goals. To challenge the status quo, for instance. To surprise and delight. To explore topics that are important to me. To share the best resources that I can find. To leave you just a little bit better for having visited. And to have fun.

So the new dougpetch.com is - I hope - a more focused affair. No more following the crowd in order to be part of the crowd. No more throwing up links just to have content. If you see it on dougpetch.com you can be sure that it’s something I care about and that I believe others will as well.

I planned the look and feel of the site with those thoughts in mind (along with some other ideas that will become apparent as time goes by and the site continues to evolve). And now it’s up to you to judge how well I accomplish my goals.

And the old site? Let’s just say that while you may find its echoes in your favorite search engine it is, for all intents and purposes, gone. May it rest in peace.