A Word From The Editor
BY DC CUEVA
BY DC CUEVA
One of those was an essay penned by the former Cassius Clay called "How I Would Like To Be Remembered," where he described himself as more than just a 3-time heavyweight champion of the world, a 1960 Olympic gold medalist, and a man who rebelled the establishment when Vietnam and civil unrest was on everyone's minds. There, Ali saw himself as one with a sense of humor, treated everyone with respect, never looked down on those inspired by him, was a helper to everyone who asked for help, stood up for what he believed in, united mankind by love and faith and, in his words, "...for being remembered only as a great boxer who became a leader and a champion of his people."
As DCBLOG crossed a milestone of 300 posts just after 4th of July weekend, and as we kick off another cycle of our signature coverage of the MTV Trifecta, that essay got me thinking of getting something off my chest. In my opinion, I have a feeling that I'm not getting the kind of solid respect and broad exposure that this site truly deserves, even though I have devoted time, resources and energy to this site and have done a great deal of work here since this site launched three years ago. It's something that I don't do that much here in focusing the spotlight on myself - the very blogger & author of this great site, but wanted to express my thoughts here with all of you. So if you can indulge yourself in the next few moments and take the opportunity to listen to yours truly, then let's do it. Here we go...
If you saw an ExtraTime opinion piece I gave during Exes 2, I wrote about how I distinguish my site from all others that cover the MTV Trifecta...We're revisiting and elaborating on that piece here in a different way as we catch our breath at summer's end. There are many words that I looked up in doing this post, and I thought of which words that can best explain this site to everyone. If there are some things that you can tell other fans about what this site does best and what words can define what this site is about, the following I believe best describes it. Here are some of them.
● DEDICATION: Over time, the amount of activity on my twitter hub has dwindled from when I began there to where it is now, in most part now to where I now dedicate the bulk of my free time to this site. I've been writing for many years going back to when I was in high school, and it was on the advice of fellow Trifecta Insider and social friend Andrew Kirk that I start doing a blog a few years ago that became one of the best pieces of advice I've been given. This site has now become my baby in that, aside from work and other things, this has become my top priority. Like any good journalist, in my three years doing this I've sacrificed hours of sleep working late into the night into the wee hours compiling tweets in timeline style for the signature SocialPulse episode diaries. I re-watch episodes and browse through recaps of other sites to come up with my own recaps of the episodes. I draw upon my writing experience to put the best possible posts together and to ensure everything is covered before I press the Publish button. This site does have room for opinions and commentary from time to time, and I do that in the Forum when it is necessary. I do research on the subjects I aim to cover in long-form & short-form posts too within the passions that I have. And when I do write the original posts, I come up with the best words that I can come up with that can best convey these stories to you.
● INSIGHTFUL: One of sports television's great icons, Roone Arledge, made it a priority for those at ABC Sports during his tenure to focus not just on the action on the field but also cover the stories of the athletes and everything related to the event too. Our site provides a perfect complement to all of the other sites and forms of media that cover the Trifecta by following in that playbook in broadening the readers' knowledge of the shows by going beyond the screen to provide a look at this world in a unique way. In my opinion, outside the sports world The RW/Challenge franchise and AYTO are best suited to being given this treatment of insightful coverage, with the shows' histories, large roll call of castmates and dozens of stories from which to choose from, and of course what we see on the shows themselves. Just as Roone, and his protege & later NBC Sports head Dick Ebersol - would do, and using the storytelling template that's defined Olympic coverage for many years, this site has a focus on the people of these shows, and we hope that you're entertained and enlightened by the stories we cover here. We also make sure that, when possible the positive aspects of these people are spotlighted more than the negative stuff that takes place often as a way to provide a different side of these people that might be of interest and make them a bit more relatable. I do extensive research on the subjects I aim to cover in my posts, so you all can understand who these people are.
● INDEPENDENT: Part of the DCBLOG experience is that, unlike other sites that cover the MTV Trifecta, the sports world and others, this is being done independently by this very blogger, with some occasional help from fellow fans. Being that this secondary job I have of being a freelance blogger who's self-employed to do this thing instead of doing it for others, there's no pressure from outside interests to alter this site for the sake of profit or views, other than for those helping me out on occasion and help build a following among you, this site's loyal readers and broadening my reach so that more & more of your fellow fans can enjoy what I get to do and find something different about this world we live in. Maintaining this independence ensures that I do this work on my own terms around my personal schedule and dictating what stories I want to cover and who, how & when to cover them. In effect, I serve as this site's Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor in addition to its writer as well.
● FAIRNESS and IMPARTIALITY: The three shows we cover are all given the same amount of wall-to-wall coverage ('Pulse diaries, the Wrap and ExtraTime) as are the people of these shows too. In the case of the Trifecta, we make sure to cover this world in a fair and mostly unbiased manner, and where possible, this site also makes sure to equal opportunity if anything of a controversial manner is presented here. This is why you don't see much criticism brought about by me on anyone on this site and on my social networks, unlike the case with those of you who check out this site who does that stuff. As mentioned here a lot, you might all go off on certain cast members for their actions, but not here... we aim to be impartial whenever we present any arguments between them on here, and make sure that all sides are shown if it can ever occur. It's only when it has to be done do I give the chance the vent a bit, and that only comes once in a blue moon.
● QUALITY: A word that came up in that aforementioned ExtraTime piece was one that the fellow MTV fan who I had a conversation with told me that when you look at the whole picture, it's the quality that matters the most and not of how many people can get to view these posts. Being one who watches a lot of sports television, lives in a market known for the superior quality of its local news coverage and whose preference is more towards high quality content (thus, I would prefer the exceptional work NBC Sports and HBO do to the debate-driven sports talk and hot takes ESPN and FOX Sports 1 fill their weekdays with), that is what I strive for when I put together these posts. This site puts in a ton of effort to not only be as comprehensive as we can, but also be of the highest caliber as well. I have done a lot of incredible, top-notch work the past year that I can take pride in, and that matters more than trying desperately to get more people to come to this site, though your support is always appreciated and promotion is complimentary. A lot of you have come up to me on social media and have given me nothing but great compliments on the work that I do and it reflects the effort I put in to make it as best as I can. The ads I post on IG and Twitter can best explain that.
● DISTINCTIVE: This site is distinctive in many ways: of course, the signature feature known simply as the 'Pulse brings the social media interaction of every episode to you each week. That is the hook in getting readers to this site in bringing the social interaction of every episode to all of you out there, whether you want to see how your favorite castmates saw the moments or whether you're catching up on them for the first time. But the great work lies in the original stories we do here, whether it's covering the backstories of the people of the Trifecta, the history of the RW/Challenge franchise, the life-long passion for sports or the world at large. The stories we've showcased here range from the silly - funny web videos and the like, to the serious - such as the events of this summer being reflected by a few of the castmates, and to something inspiring in the bonds that some of these people have with amazing people. We've taken a look back at memorable moments and seasons and occasionally have offered commentary and opinion too. In all, we've done ExtraTime personality features on over 80 Trifecta castmates covering this world through the prisms of the show. This is reflective of the belief that everyone has a story and there should be a platform with which these stories can be presented that would sometimes not be the case anywhere else.
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When I was young, one of the career aspirations I had written down was to be in the media and journalism businesses due primarily to my love of writing and longtime fascination with those two professions. Though that dream is still in the pipeline but still attainable, this site is the closest thing I can get to becoming a professional writer and being able to have this self-employed job and hobby on the side of being my own journalist thanks to having this blogging platform to bring this talent I have to all of you.
As written above, I've devoted more and more of my free time to DCBLOG and have focused on turning the passions I follow the most into covering them on here, doing it all in a way only I'm able to do. I've been working my tail off to put long hours and effort for this site, and the body of work I've put together over the past 40 months has been exceptional and speaks to how serious this is to me. I'm take pride in the posts I do that provide a unique look at the people and stories of the Trifecta, many sports posts and so much more, all with the emphasis on storytelling, perspective, social reaction and high quality content that makes this site a must read and THE fan site for fans of the Trifecta. And I have some very good stuff planned for this cycle that I know you'll really enjoy.
From seeing the web traffic that comes to this site, so many users come from all over the world, and often when you type in anything relating to these shows on search engines they would be drawn to this site by the curiosity they have of this complicated world we live in. It's the support that you, this site's loyal visitors, give me that drives this writer to cover the passions I have in a way that is unique, insightful, enlightening, informative and entertaining. Without having you see what this site does every week, then the great work DCBLOG does would simply go unnoticed, and my job of writing would not be nearly as worthwhile as I would want it to be.
So, thank you to everyone who reads this site, continues to visit it regularly and supports our efforts. We'll continue to work just as diligently and as harder as anyone out there covering entertainment, sports and beyond, to translate those passions into a longtime passion of mine of writing, and bring you the outstanding coverage we offer here, as this site continues to cover this world at large for the next 300+ posts & beyond, and as we kick off covering the deepest passion this site has of the MTV Trifecta, starting tomorrow when we preview Real World Bad Blood. Talk to you later.
- I AM DC
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P.S. - Along with all this, I'm taking the chance here to challenge hardcore fans of these shows to take on this assignment: once again as I always write at the end of the weekly episode posts when you can please help to spread the word about DCBLOG and share the links I tweet out on Twitter and social media so that more and more fans of the shows we love can check out this site and everything I have to offer. That way, they can check out this site's quality content, help spread the buzz to others who might not look at these shows from our point of view, fuel discussion on the shows and have more fans provide their input on my site, which has been featured in my "See For Yourself" ad campaign.
Plus, there is even more incentive for this mission as well. If you're a webcaster or operates a Trifecta fan site, if you promise to promote DCBLOG on your social media platforms and help get the word of this site out to everyone, I will consider having you join me for my Forum Q&A's on these shows which I plan to do at various times during the upcoming Trifecta cycle on my DC WRAP episode recap posts, along with our usual postseason reviews. That way, I can bring the discussions you usually do on audio or webcast sites to the written word on this site and do our part to drive the discussion, in addition to offering our unique storytelling-driven coverage of this ecosystem.
If you want to take part, please follow or DM me on Twitter at @DC408Dxtr if you want to join in, and we'll get it started. Once again, thank you for your support.
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