Welcome All!

This blog represents a new chapter for me.  It’s been four years now since I was ousted from the Muppets and, as you all know, with time comes perspective.  If you were a part of the 2017 “Steve Whitmire – Muppet Pundit” blog then you know that it was largely reactionary to the events of the time.  I felt very strongly that I could not allow a false perception of why I would no longer be a part of the Muppets to stand. 

As those of you who were there will recall, that original blog became something akin to the wild west at times.  In the interest of free speech for all, I allowed anyone and everyone to say whatever they wanted about/to whoever they wanted.   That’s because being new to the world of websites and blogs at that time, I made no distinction between what defines a “blog”, and what defines a “forum”.  This time around it will have to be different.

So, to clarify, a “blog” is made up of ‘author generated content’ (that would be me…) where the author shares views and ideas on a blog topic, as opposed to a “forum” that is made up of ‘user generated content’ (that would be you guys…) where members discuss views and ideas.

As I have said before, my desire is for the fans of the work I have been involved in to become the smartest, most knowledgable and informed group of fans they can be.  An educated perspective from the most comprehensive map is the best way to be a truly discerning and appreciative audience.  In order for me to facilitate that, this place needs to be conducted like a blog.

I’m going to try posting in different categories to keep things organized, and I have listed several here.  I can add more categories as we go, if needed.  You are still encouraged to comment, of course, but unlike before I will moderate all comments before they are posted here.  And, this time around I need for commenters to sign in in order to participate.  I’d like for us to really get acquainted and I want to know who you are, so I would appreciate everyone using their actual names as the use of monikers is more a custom of forums.

I may have to consider limiting the number of comments on a post but I don’t want to discourage participation from our community…let’s see how that goes.  In any event, please know that I will see every comment. 

I also ask that, as a general guideline, all of you folks use this space to comment on the actual blog posts, themselves, rather than using the blog to introduce alternate topics as you would in a forum.  Having said that, I do invite specific questions that can become the topics of future blog posts, but I ask that you send those to me via the CONTACT ME page of this website.

Also, I would like us to consider how we might facilitate a separate, more ‘forum-like’ place for the exchange of your ideas on the blog posts I post here, a place where I would pop in as often as possible and add my own thoughts to whatever the community is discussing.  I have just discovered that near the end of “Muppet Pundit” some of you started a chat room to do exactly that…forgive me, I did not become aware of it until the last few weeks because I lost access to the site…more on that in a moment.

I so loved reading all of your thoughts before.  The exchange of ideas was such a good thing but it became too big a task for me to always be there.  So, I look forward to hearing from those of you who have thoughts on how this might happen in a way that members can gather in an ancillary place to further discuss what starts here.  Let’s figure it out before anyone does it.

By way of a little backstory, I briefly want to let you all know that the original “Steve Whitmire – Muppet Pundit” blog was attacked with malware beyond repair just after the last post from me in September of 2017.  I was not able to consider starting a new blog because a project development opportunity came about and consumed all of my time.  However, I have recently discovered an 1800+ page backup of the text from the blog.

All of the text is intermingled with code, so as you might imagine, it is a colossal task to untangle that mess.  Perhaps at a future date after I try to recover the material, I will provide the contents of “Steve Whitmire – Muppet Pundit” as an historical reference.

In closing, I want to share with you all the final comment from the original blog from Anne Terri just before ‘SW – MP’ exploded:

“EVERYONE This is the type of discussion we live for, and what I hoped Muppet Pundit would be.   Can’t wait for Steve to give his input, and I have a feeling we will be speechless for a bit to be able to digest all of it. – Love Anne Terri”

Thanks, Anne, and thank you all.  Even though I must conduct this new beginning as a blog, by definition, I want us to continue and expand our interaction.  Moving forward we can explore all sorts of topics together beyond just what was once the Muppets.  No doubt we will find plenty to catch up on. 

“It’s Time to Get Things Started…again!”

– Steve