“Lean, beautiful and distraction-free blogging.”

“Embrace the zen-like, Silvrback writing experience.”

These statements capture the tone and feel of the blogging experience we seek to create on the Silvrback platform. Call it a core principle, the central vision, or perhaps our calling. However we choose to call it, we must be mindful of how our choices going forward add to or detract from this purpose.

Why should we care so much? A fair question. We believe that great writing is no accident. It is a product of many things, however. Skill. Discipline. Focus. Among other things. It is a craft. It is developed or it is neglected. It is facilitated or it is detracted from.

All of this takes place in front of a screen. “Lean, beautiful and distraction-free blogging” is not merely a slogan. We want you to be in the zone when you do battle with the blank page in front of you. You are the Zen master finding harmony with the page. You are the Jedi knight, we are the light saber. We are the Rivendell, you are the Bilbo Baggins yearning to finish your book.

Look, we’re also a bit selfish. We want your best work. Whether a novice or a veteran, we want to cultivate a Rivendell worthy of your best writing. We think that is the Silvrback purpose - the Silvrback way.

The New Owner

Hi, my name is Kermit Kuehn. My wife Inga and I purchased Silvrback recently. We’re not a large corporate entity looking to absorb this “little” project into some larger portfolio. It is our project. It’s personal. I’m thankful that Damian, the founder of Silvrback, gave us the opportunity to take the platform forward – he wanted it in caring hands. If you missed it, you can read Damian’s announcement here.

I’m a blogger. I’m not a programmer. I worked in industry for a number of years – blue and white collar. I’m now an academic, a business professor to be more specific. I've lived and worked in some six or seven states over the years and three foreign countries. I've been involved in developing a couple of online projects over the years, all modest. I’ve got a few miles on me, yet I'm still growing and striving. That brings us to here, now.

Where Are We Going?

Some have asked about what our plans are for Silvrback. We welcome the interest.

First, as emphasized in the opening paragraphs of this blog, the writing sanctuary must be maintained and continually cultivated. That means that any new features, capabilities or tools must first not detract from that experience, but must contribute to the desired result – a better writer producing better writing.

In sum, it is about the words. The writing. The message. We’ll protect the sanctuary from noise to the extent possible.

With that, however, we look to create more noise – outside the sanctuary. We think the Silvrback experience needs to be communicated more regularly and more widely. This means we will seek to bring more readers to your blogs and we want to reach more writers seeking this type of writing experience. What does that mean?

We will invest in getting the word out through the building of social media networks, by creating interest in what you do through news releases and through paid advertising.

We will carefully consider additional features that will grow and maintain participation in the Silvrback community, and that will help writers produce better blogs. Some of the things on the list for consideration range from the mundane to the more interesting and many of these items come from your suggestions in the past.

On the more simple side, some examples of what we’re looking at include adding Paypal as a payment option, allowing for more language options beyond American English, and providing multi-user sign-in capability for an account. A couple examples of the more jazzy (that means more complicated) items under discussion include site-content search capabilities and/or blog-category search and a feature that would allow the importation of blogs from other platforms.

There are other issues on the list, of course, but this gives you an idea of some of these. And, no, they won’t be rolled out next week but you could see some of the more straight forward coming on line in the next few weeks.

Of course, we’ll be interested in hearing from you, the bloggers, our partners in this endeavor, as we sort through the many possibilities. While hopefully every new feature brings something of value, they certainly cost something – money, time, complexity, distraction.

Help us remember the core principle of Silvrback - “Lean, beautiful and distraction-free blogging.” This is not an option.