Upcoming Changes to This Blog

7/14/2020

For the past ten years, I have written this blog anywhere between five and seven days per week. For almost ten years before that, I produced regular content for the predecessor site to this one. When this blog was at its peak in 2013, I had 100,000 readers, regular appearances in media coverage, a number of TV opportunities, a literary agent, and a growing writing career in both fiction and nonfiction. None of that is the case today, and I don’t see a way to justify continuing to devote so much effort to this endeavor. Several recent posts had readership so low that I could have just emailed all of you a few bullet points and saved myself the trouble.

A number of reasons contributed to the decline, but a few are fairly obvious. First, I vastly underestimated the degree to which my readers cared about my work as opposed to simply hating Scott Wolter and America Unearthed. The (first) cancellation of that series in 2015 started the bleed of readership, and that downward trend never changed. Second, the transition away from an internet of articles toward a social media world of memes, videos, and pictures has further eroded interest in longer writing. Increasingly, there is no place for complex analysis. Over the last five years, I have tried many different strategies to expand my audience across many platforms and media, and nothing has made a dent. Even appearing on national TV did literally nothing for me.

I knew the end was coming when the hate mail started to dry up. In the mid-2010s, I’d get dozens of hate missives each week from apoplectic readers outraged at whatever it was I had said. The hate mail trailed off after 2015 and has largely stopped altogether. It’s a good proxy for disengagement as social media pushes people into bubbles where they may never encounter an unwelcome viewpoint.

On Sunday, one of my tweets had twenty times the number of readers as the weekly average for this blog. Overall, my tweets average around ten times the number of readers as my blog. However, that audience is almost all the same group of people, and it is not growing.

This past week, I borrowed a celebrity acquaintance’s 165,000 Twitter followers in an experiment to see if some higher-profile promotion could drive some more traffic my way and help to grow my social media presence in an effort to demonstrate to literary agents and media types that I have work worth representing. The results were beyond disappointing. The effort netted one like and somewhere south of 30 clicks. I had my largest audience since I was on cable back in 2013. And I got one like. Out of 165,000 people. I doubt I will get that kind of audience again, and it’s clear that I perform way below random chance outside the group that already follows me.

Whatever mysterious alchemy produces engagement, I don’t have it. Things haven’t changed very much since Nicole Kidman said in the movie To Die For that you aren’t anyone if you aren’t on TV.

The History Channel’s efforts to damage my career did not help matters. Leaving aside the time they threatened me with a lawsuit or the times I caught their employees posting inflammatory comments on my blog, their informal efforts caused real damage. My literary agent dropped me when he couldn’t get publishers to give me the time of day. The TV offers dried up next. I didn’t report every TV effort I undertook here on my blog. But I was under consideration for TV roles several times, and I shot a pilot presentation that impressed the producers enough to make plans for when the pilot was taken to series. The same answer came back every time: You can’t shop a show around in Hollywood with me in it because the bigwigs at A+E Networks and their corporate cousins (which include the Disney properties) decided otherwise. Sure, they could all be lying, but why would they all tell the same lie? I heard the same thing from the one literary agent since then who gave me any real consideration. If a book doesn’t stand a chance of finding favor with cable TV and Disney, then it might as well not exist.

I haven’t been featured in a news article in years, despite regularly doing interviews with reporters. I went from being quoted regularly in publications like The Washington Post and The Atlantic to being cut from the New York Times, CNN, National Geographic, and a list too long to name. The balance of effort to reward is far too skewed.

The trouble has always been that success isn’t an individual endeavor. It depends on having a network of people who are positioned to help you to succeed. That has never been me. It’s great that many people receive help and support from higher-ups that led to success. That wasn’t my experience. People tend to help only when they think there’s something in it for them.

So I got left with the aliens. Lucky me.

You don’t need to feel too sorry for me. I work all day at a dull gig writing backend copy for websites. I didn’t really want my legacy to be that I wrote the snippets of text that show up on a Google search for specific industries’ optimized keywords, but millions of people have read them. It would be nice to have a similarly large audience read something that actually had meaning.

The long and short of it is that I know what needs to be done for the next phase of my career, as much as I’m not enthusiastic about doing it.

First, unless and until more people read my blog or visit my website, posting nearly every day is not feasible or sustainable. There just aren’t enough of you to justify that. I won’t stop blogging entirely (and contractually I am obliged to continue efforts to promote my current and future books), but it can’t be as regular or as sustained as it has been for the past decade.

Second, since there are so few readers, having comments on the blog posts is increasingly pointless, especially when they are primarily the same handful of outspoken regulars making the same points over and over. The time it takes for me to read them and wade through all the spam (sometimes up to a 3:1 ratio) is a huge waste. Comments will remain open (with moderation) on this post, but I will be shutting them down soon.

Third, I will need to transition to more social media content, whatever that might look like. I’m not sure what it will look like yet.

Fourth, more of my efforts need to go into providing the best possible start to my new book—not the pyramid one, but the one after that. It will be connected to the upcoming seventy-fifth anniversary of UFOs in 2022, and it will need to be on a tight schedule to make the deadline. The first step is to devote the upcoming weeks to crafting a strong proposal.

81 Comments

Suzanne

7/14/2020 09:14:26 am

I'm glad you won't be quitting entirely! I've just found your blog and added the rss to my reader. Looking forward to looking back through what you've already written.

Good luck with your next phase and I'm sorry it's been so rough.

BigFred

7/14/2020 09:20:55 am

I've read every one of your blog posts since Season 1, Episode 2 of America Unearthed ("Medieval Desert Mystery") in December 2012. Going to miss your well-researched writing. Thanks for what you've been doing. Good luck in the future.

Joe Scales

7/14/2020 09:35:00 am

Your foray into politicking tended to discredit your complex analysis. Please know that any critical analysis of my own in this regard was not done with ill intent. Though I'll certainly miss some of the more benign lunatics you attracted, I'll not miss the imbeciles. Good luck Jason.

Monsieur Chaudiere

7/15/2020 01:10:35 pm

The irony here is positively yummy. This blog has hemorrhaged visitors over the years who did not want to have to scroll through endless beyond the pale comments or did not want to be bullied for daring to post their own perspectives. Guess who has been repeatedly identified as one of the major troublemakers.

Yummy.

7/16/2020 10:21:26 am

"Guess who has been repeatedly identified as one of the major troublemakers. "

No doubt you repeatedly identified me as all sorts of things, using a different moniker each and every time you did so. I was always here at Jason's discretion. That you can't see this puts you in that latter category of my farewell above. And finally, I'll have no more of you.

Kent

7/16/2020 07:11:42 pm

'Tis a bittersweet symphony. But I look forward to seeing you at the next Troublemakers International meeting.

For those not in the know, it's like Toastmasters.

7/17/2020 10:05:51 am

To quote Dorothy, "I think I'll miss you most of all" Kent. Or would that be miss me? Either way, safer travels 'Cuz. Tread loudly.

Huh. What

7/17/2020 08:05:56 pm

Joe thinks that the analyses involving race and politics, which is what colavito was also doing in 2013 when the blog peaked in viewership, also led to a decline in viewership. I guess the recipe for reviving success is to stop talking about race and politics and start talking about race and politics.

Jr. Time Lord

7/14/2020 10:09:40 am

Jason Colavito,

You are trying too hard. Maybe take a deep breath and relax. Fame SUCKS!!! You can't go anywhere without getting mobbed by kids and their parents. NONE of which has a clue as to your real name. My University did Aesop's Fables for about 12 combined schools, I playing the Tortoise. From the following day until graduation, I couldn't step out in public without some child screaming, "IT'S THE TORTOISE"!!!
I would then quickly find myself surrounded by children and their parents. Trying to get home with 4 frozen pizzas and a gallon of milk being a 5 minute walk, turned into 82 minutes with sloppy wet mush and cottage cheese. This would occur in every town in a 30 mile radius. The same radius of schools we performed.

If you REALLY WANT fame...Be careful what you wish for. Let your Works speak for themselves.

Anthony

If anyone cares,

The Tortoise is the Sun
The Hare is the Moon
The race is the year

7/14/2020 06:58:07 pm

82 minutes is a surprisingly precise detail in this hitherto unpublished excerpt from "Aesop's Made-up Stories".

C'mon Jason, you gotta give me this one! Or not of course.

7/15/2020 01:55:22 am

82 minutes is the precise amount of time, I left my date waiting at my house. SHE LET ME KNOW IT TOO!!!
Details stand out in situations like that. MAJOR learning experience. Turned out to be married and on a short time schedule.

There are reasons I like my anonymity. I have no desire to become famous. I only began posting years back when zealots, bible thumpers, and various other True Believers began spewing their literal interpretations of astronomy stories to promote a religious based racial agenda. Actually, this is the same time I began noticing proPutin posters. Every one of them would try to come off like they were from the West. They were really easy to spot. Specific cultural references always went over their heads. A deceased poster and myself had fun tripping them up, thus exposing their true nationality. RIP Traveller

T. Franke link

7/14/2020 10:16:15 am

I can follow all your points. Nothing has been in vain, and you created a lasting impact, even if you do not notice it in full. Be sure about this.

My further ideas: It is necessary to know what you want, before you start looking for public success. Maybe what you want is not possible with public success. You should clearly put the truth you want to tell, and your real interests, first, and public success only second.

Maybe it's the literary style of your articles which is a problem. Sometimes I liked it, but sometimes I thought: Oh man, come to the point! You need to make offers for various grades of in-depth reading. First a telling headline. Then an abstract, or a bullet list, of short factual counter arguments. Then the long story. And literary deviations only at the end of the text. Or a split: Many short messages without any literary elaboration, and few long ones presenting a certain topic in wider context (you started already with your long stories, or?).

You observed correctly that certain errors repeat time and again. You could attract public attention by building up a kind of typology data base of these mistakes, and then just pointing out for every book or TV series: They commit this and that age-old errors we have already seen here and here. Making the repetition you see palpable for everyone.

Maybe a kind of wiki lexicon (with you as the only author) about all the books and authors and TV series and TV celebrities and TV channels would create more impact in the long run than single articles? You could use this wiki to point out the repetitions and develop the typology there. And it would preserve your observations beyond the single article. All your single information about one topic would come together in one article over time. This wiki could become accepted as a reliable source in the Wikipedia and spread the word to a wider audience. If I was a TV channel director, I would fear such a wiki much more than single articles which come and go. You will start to get hate mails again ... and law suits.

Such a wiki would also be a source for short messages in social media. You change an article in the wiki, and you release a message about it in social media with Web link.

The problem with networking is that you will face the situation where the others want you to say or to silently accept something you do not want to say or stay silent about. You could try this in a restricted area, but I would surely keep your core contents under your own control. Eagles fly alone.

You could try to find topics you did not touch upon. I suggested to systematically debunk typical errors about history still alive in the Islamic world, or in Buddhism, or Hinduism (or Atheism?!).

Maybe producing videos on a youtube channel would attract another audience and even offers? Although my own youtube channel is not very convincing, it opened up such opportunities. And it helps maybe to develop the ability to speak, a kind of personal development. I regret that I do not have the time to do more for my youtube channel. It's a helpful experience.

Shane Sullivan

7/14/2020 11:04:32 am

It's been a privilege to read your work for the past eight years, Jason. I wish you luck with your upcoming books, and the future of your career.

H.P. LOVECRAFT

7/18/2020 10:24:04 pm

Wishing you all the best, Shane.

Mr. D

7/14/2020 11:31:18 am

I've read most of your posts over the past couple of years and have enjoyed your counters to the crack pot AA theorists and pre-Columbian theorists and how they tie to current issues. I have to admit that I haven't read as many fully to date.

I fully understand how online media has changed so much, especially during the COVID times. I wish you luck in finding a new voice. I think that being a blogger is a tough thing to do and, for better, or worse, it requires one to re-invent him or her self from time-to-time.

I work in high tech and I constantly have to change with the times. I accept is as something I need to do to keep myself marketable.

I think you have been very successful form getting your word out there ... but earning a living out of it, well if I knew how to do, I'd give some pointers to many people Im know.

Joanna Hannigan link

7/14/2020 11:40:43 am

Dear Jason, thank you for giving me the gift of you, for the Mound Builder Myth, Jason & Argonauts Through the Ages, Cthultha Myth (exposed), Pyramidiots . . ., and your insightful, factual, well edited body of work.
When Henry Miller was asked to name the 100 most influential books in his life, he created a 300 page volume... My list also stretches to 100s of pages, however, several of your books are in my top 50 so please keep writing and exposing lies and half truths. You're needed more now than ever. Fans are fickle, and those that respect you most, I suspect, tend to be lone wolves like me--or the Howard Roarks, the William James Sidis', the Randolph Bournes of this world. You will figure it out, adapt, thrive. Meanwhile, I'll look forward to reading future incisive blogs, grams, long forms... Jo

Nick Danger

7/14/2020 12:40:47 pm

Mr. Colavito,

You must do as you must. I will regret each day you do not have a blog post. The comments do not add greatly to my enjoyment - they will be missed by few, I suspect.

I will continue to check daily for the occasional post, and enjoy them when they appear.

Best Wishes,

Bill

7/14/2020 12:46:22 pm

While I rarely comment, your blog has been a bookmark that i have checked almost daily for at least 6 years if I remember right. Some articles I scan quickly, some I read in detail as some are more inline with my own interests. However, I often find your thoughts interesting on subjects I would not have otherwise cared about.

In any case, wherever you go next, I wish you all the best and will continue to check in here as long as there is something to check in on.

Can i get some cheese with that whine

7/14/2020 12:59:18 pm

Josh Gates, Scott Wolter, Graham Hancock and Schoch and so on and so forth are household names compared to the best known of the debunkers. The money is in telling people about aliens building pyramids not about Egyptians building pyramids.Did you really think that you could spin this gig into two hour long appearances on Rogan, number one best sellers, and quitting your day job?

Jason Colavito link

7/15/2020 08:04:51 am

I wanted the opportunity to write about things other than pyramids and aliens, and I'm tired of them.

Brian

7/14/2020 01:31:15 pm

Jason, you're one of the bright points on the web. I read every post and recommend you to all my sane friends. The chase for social-media notoriety may be all too necessary these days, but please, you're doing important work, even if Disney and A+E don't want you interfering with their spread of mental manure. We can't let all the rational voices get shoved to the margins while social media's almighty algorithms drive the world to endless, baseless fury. Hang in there, we need you.

All that being said, go easy on yourself and take a well-earned break. Knocking your head against brick walls is exhausting. Take a step back and see just how many cracks you've managed to make in the mortar.

Paul S.

7/14/2020 01:37:11 pm

I will miss your informative articles, but I can certainly understand not wanting to put extensive time and effort into something that is not getting a large readership. I'm afraid I have no advice to give, since I have never even tried to attract media attention, online or otherwise. Sometimes what one is interested in just happens to be out of step with what is popular at the time. Still, I think that you have been performing a valuable, under-appreciated service in bringing attention to the many flaws with fringe history claims, and in tracing the history and context of those claims. I have learned a lot reading your blog, and I thank you for that!

rwoodsmall

7/14/2020 01:49:05 pm

Jason - I read The Cult of Alien Gods last year and started following your blog a few months back. Not much of a commenter, more of a lurker, but I do want you to know how much I appreciate your writing, both short- & long-form, and I'll definitely look forward to your work in the future. Times are tough for individual writers - I've seen the sort of sentiment from your post in general over the last ~year or so from a few folks I've followed/read for awhile; aggregators preferring bite-sized chunks only exacerbates the issue, and our short attention spans as readers doesn't help. I just want to say thanks for putting in the work, and know that you'll have readers in the future, whichever direction you head.

Norbert Fiks link

7/14/2020 03:40:55 pm

Dear Jason, reading your blog posts after receiving your newsletter is one of of my Sunday rituals for a couple of years now. I would miss them, because there's no alternative. But I understand your point completely.
Greatings from Germany.

7/14/2020 04:45:09 pm

A cry for help or a recipe for success? Mr. France made a good suggestion about Youtube, but it seems your real passion is complex analysis of young adult fiction.

Where did all the spam go before the moderation started?

7/15/2020 07:53:33 am

To the spam filter, which wasn't particularly effective.

7/18/2020 02:25:16 am

I've read every post and comment on this site, without taking married women on an imaginary four frozen pizza date, and I will say your spam filter was pretty darn good. You might say "Well, I deleted them manually" and I will say "Why didn't you delete every post that started with with "Look, asshole" or Bezalel's "Open wide, just the tip" from February of this year?

Patrick Leary

7/17/2020 03:40:38 pm

Stefan Milo is a lesser known, less knowledgeable and less talented version of Jason. His YouTube channel has 45K subscribers.

Cesar

7/14/2020 05:14:12 pm

It is hard to understand the low demand since the website makes academic knowledge accessible to the general public.

Chris Lovegrove

7/14/2020 05:44:47 pm

Sorry to hear that you will be blogging less. I have really enjoyed reading your content over the last, wow, nearly ten years or so. And I'm sure that in will continue to do so. Will definitely engage more with your work on social media.

An Anonymous Nerd

7/14/2020 05:53:48 pm

The Fringe/Right Brigade always wins sooner or later, I guess, though the specifics vary.

Oh well. Farewell, Mr. Colavito.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Not the Comte de Saint Germain

7/14/2020 06:09:09 pm

Though I can't match Bigfred's longevity, I've been a commenter here since April 2014 ("Fringe History and the Survival of Esoteric Nazism"), and I've read most if not all of your posts since then. I don't watch any of the cable shows you demolished, but what I appreciated most was the detailed rundowns of fringe-history myths and where they come from. For that reason, I really hate that today's media economy seems to reward short and shallow, and that it seems you'll have to orient yourself more toward that market. But I'm glad you'll still post here occasionally, and I'm very glad you managed to publish The Mound Builder Myth (which I bought) and Legends of the Pyramids (which I will definitely buy when it becomes available). Your interests may increasingly lie elsewhere, but I found these histories of misinformation fascinating.

As for the comments, I think they dwindled partly for the same reason you have a shortage of new things to say about fringe history: most of it consists of endless recycling and slight distortion of old ideas, which means that after a while you're just debunking the same old garbage. When I first showed up here and was fairly new to the fringe-history world, there were regular commenters who knew way more about it than I did, whom I learned a lot from: Spookyparadigm, EP (as annoying as he could sometimes be), Over-Educated Grunt (possibly the smartest regular commenter we had). But when everything's been talked over, people drift away, leaving the comments sections to the hobbyhorsemen who never tire of repeating themselves.

An Over-Educated Grunt

7/16/2020 06:47:26 pm

I was going to hold comment until I reached the bottom of the screen, but... thank you.

Clint Knapp

7/14/2020 07:07:54 pm

Jason,

While I haven't made regular use of comments section in years due to a desire to disengage from the increasingly toxic discourse that started ramping up during the America Unearthed run, I've remained a constant reader here for more years than I care to figure out right now.

I've always appreciated your writing (be it the blog, books, or the new long form article series I sincerely hope you keep working on), your commitment to your cause, and your thorough examination of whatever the topic of the day is even when the topic of the day isn't one I have a personal interest in. I always learn something, and that has value in and of itself.

Woo sells. We knew that already. Even if fighting it doesn't sell nearly as well, never forget you've done admirable work and contributed real scholarly effort in a world that seems to be forgetting what that means.

I for one will keep checking in daily to see what's new, keep looking forward to the next book, and just be pleasantly surprised when your urge to write overtakes any sense of despair low view counts and a lack of hate mail might instill in you.

Thank you for all the good work you've done here over the years, and here's to a future that can be just as productive even if the trajectory of it looks a little different than you expected.

James Ford

7/14/2020 07:22:22 pm

I must have ended up on the blog of a different Jason Colavito. The one that I am familiar with recently had a book published by a major press and was also invited to contribute an article to what is already starting to be a seminal collection of essays refuting Graham Hancock's nonsense. This Jason Colavito sounds like someone on a suicide hotline because they cannot even get a short story published in the local community college student literary journal.

The YouTube suggestion is sound. Don't let it be another example of choosing to follow good advice only after you have exhausted all other options.

7/15/2020 08:02:46 am

There is a massive disparity between my influence and my success. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I don't get paid for academic essays, which aren't really read beyond a small scholarly audience. The mound builder book failed its way down from its start at a big New York house to a regional university press, lost its marketing rollout to COVID-19, and at any rate I won't know its sales figures for a full year. It's lovely to be respected by thought leaders, but it's less lovely to spend one's entire life writing about space aliens and pyramids because one has been locked into a box for fifteen years. There is a whole world beyond that, and sometimes it would be nice to explore it.

7/16/2020 08:36:03 am

I think that you are trying too hard to craft a particular narrative.
A respected flagship university press that publishes on a wide range of topics and markets nationally may disagree with the characterization of them as a regional operation. I doubt that more than a handful of professional anthropologists were even aware of your existence until recently. Having that free essay read by hundreds or even thousands of people who are in the position to order 30 copies of the Moundbuilders book at a time for course readings or make that recommendation to others may yield long-term benefits. Perhaps you should choose to treat an occasion such as this as an opportunity to build upon rather than as an indication of non-success. Put in your own efforts to pitch the book to anthropologists, historians, Native American studies and ethnic studies types then complain if sales are still tepid two or three years from now.

Exploring other options for writing topics is producing some excellent reviews of television programs. However, I don't think that a collection of complex analyses in that vein is going to have New York publishing houses beating a path to your door either. You are in the wrong line of work to expect instant blockbusters

TONY S.

7/16/2020 04:43:35 pm

Jason,

You clearly have a vast amount of historical knowledge and reference material, as well as a fluency in multiple languages which allows you to do your own translations.

I would love to see you publish books on a variety of historical topics.

7/17/2020 12:27:41 am

"There is a massive disparity between my influence and my success."

Which do you think is bigger? You complain about your success, but I'm not so sure about your "influence". Don't see it.

Doc Rock

7/18/2020 07:08:08 pm

Chas:

You are getting in some late licks on this horse. Jason developed an interesting but niche-ish project that the powers that be at a major New York press took a pass on, probably because they wanted to remain as powers that be at a major New York Press. With a little encouragement he found a good fit with a press that is in the business of publishing the interesting but niche-ish work that powers that be at major New York presses generally take a pass on because they want to remain powers that be at a major New York press. He is now disappointed at the results of publishing an interesting but niche-ish book that the powers that be at a major New York press didn't want to publish because they wanted to remain powers that be at a major New York press, but which found a nice home with a press that is in the business of publishing interesting but niche-ish work that the powers that be at major New York presses don't want to publish because they want to remain as powers that be at a major New York press. I think that about covers it.

To anticipate a similar discussion that will take place here in about a year or two, based on recent developments, the answer is Duke University Press. Similar dilemma, though.

7/18/2020 11:27:59 pm

It's my understanding that "New York" is commonly used as code for The Slur That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Are you trying to not so subtly reference the

7/19/2020 12:15:34 pm

New York is also the title of a kickass Lou Reed album. Mere coincidence? Or not! And is it not within the realm of possibility that one can find Templar codes in the New York subway graffiti?

Ponder that whilst I mix myself a Manhattan for the first kiss of the day.

Mark G

7/14/2020 08:43:05 pm

Well, you never lived long enough to become the villain. It would be a much easier path to become the kook and make outlandish claims to get your hits and retweets. Choosing knowledge over nonsense these days doesn't make you a social media darling and that is certainly disappointing. Hopefully at some point the lowbrow uneducated movement fades out and common sense returns. Either that or we just move to the bottom part of this flat Earth and start a better culture where your thoughts and opinions are published and appreciated.

Tom M

7/14/2020 09:40:11 pm

I’ve been coming to your blog only for the last year or so. Finding your site while looking online for anyone who thought ancient aliens and Scott Wolter were nuts!

I found it confusing that while you would write very articulately on AA, Wolter, Shatner, Hancock, and the like. You’d also throw in your review of whatever melodrama caught your attention on Netflix. Seemed polar opposites to me. But now I understand you we’re trying to increase readership by expanding your content..

I wouldn’t take it too hard. Scott Wolter has been cancelled twice. And as you’ve pointed out, Ancient Aliens keeps rehashing the same nonsense. Viewership has long since peaked and currently remains stagnant. Perhaps shows like AA and Pawn Stars have just about run their course. And we can get back to more substantial programming. How many more times can they dig up Oak Island and not find anything before people realize there’s nothing there? Don’t give up. Not sure social media is the answer for your brand of content. Nevertheless, good luck to you, sir.

7/15/2020 07:52:13 am

Truthfully, I've been writing about TV since 2003. It was my first job after college and has always been part of my writing. The fiction side of how we represent our world has a deep impact on how people imagine reality, and it's all connected.

7/17/2020 12:30:14 am

You say so. Argument by assertion.

Jim

7/17/2020 10:15:45 am

Did you mean "proof by assertion" ?

"Argument by assertion",,,, lol

Not jim

7/17/2020 12:21:47 pm

JImmy

The most entertaining comments are the ones that JC will no longer let Joe Kent post in situations like this.

Or maybe he will just engage in denial by denying.

E.P. Grondine

7/15/2020 07:22:22 pm

"AA and Pawn Stars have just about run their course"

Hold it right there. Pawn Stars and American Pickers will both continue for many years to come. Both shows are sounder than a dollar.

AA is being sold in box sets now, and it probably has run a part of its course., having exhausted its material We'll see.

William Fitzgerald

7/14/2020 11:35:46 pm

Every Batman needs a Joker.

Best of luck.

7/14/2020 11:57:20 pm

" you aren’t anyone if you aren’t on TV"

Wrong. You aren’t anyone if you aren’t on Youtube

Best of luck Jason.

orang

7/15/2020 12:52:24 am

I go to your blog everyday and have for years. You have changed my thinking and opened my eyes to many things. I marvel at what you've done on this blog. You must be a genius. If, however, you miss hate attacks, here's one: I dislike some of your UFO articles. The ones where you debunk the UFO lunatics and nut jobs are ok, but when you say the whole phenomenon is non existent and cite various government stories at support your opinion, then these are the ones that I dislike. Furthermore, if you are writing a UFO book as your next project, don't. UFOs are a dead end for all but a very few people. Maybe you can get some work from that skeptic mag.

Jens

7/15/2020 02:53:26 am

I for one have loved your blog, it has been my go-to for any historical conspiracy nonsense. Best of luck, Jason.

Kurt Stallings

7/15/2020 03:17:33 am

I’ve been almost a daily reader since discovering the blog several years ago, but I get it. Frankly, I’ve always been amazed by your sheer output of quality analysis, day after day, and wondered how you could sustain it. I’ve very much appreciated your work! I look forward to the rest of your career.

Grigory Nekhoroshev

7/15/2020 03:52:10 am

I've been reading your blog for seven years. Then I became a reader of your books. My native language is Russian, and I live in a cultural context that is very different from the American one. But your notes in this blog help me understand the phenomena of modern mass culture in Russian. The course of your thought is always very interesting. Every Sunday, I spent 4 to 5 hours reading and thinking about your notes that appeared during the week. It is a pity that this will not happen again. I look forward to reading your book about UFOs! I wish you creative upehov!

Rackham

7/16/2020 12:14:45 am

I've been a regular reader since the day, many years ago when the decade was young, my local newspaper published online an article featuring a weird claim which you debunked. I googled your name then reading this blog and its library became a daily occurrence at lunch time. Having been a fond yet sceptic adept of "merveilleux fantastique" through Charroux, Mazière and Hancock when I was a teenager in the 1990s, it was great to revisit these ideas with an adult mind. Your analysis were often sound, provided context and nuance, which made these stories, hoaxes and tales far more interesting. When shit hit the fan recently in the US, I was glad to have read the Mount Builder book you wrote since many outlandish claims from each side started to surface which I was able to recognize for what they were.

Life is often ingrate... efforts don't always pay off as we expect them, but they do in unexpected way. You have a particular take on these subjects and it helped many people to debunk hoaxes all around the world during kitchen discussions and online chats. Sure, you are right about the change in information consumption with the rise of social medias. I've been writing a blog for years and while I improved my quality over the years and learned distinguished people in my hobby were regular regular readers, the numbers never raised after 2015. It stagnated. I tried Facebook and found instant, shallow fame... which was unsatisfying because it was no place to have a discussion about ideas.

All you've done over the years isn't lost. You create a fantastic corpus of knowledge, free of access. Your books may be not very popular and plagued by sad publishing circumstances, but they are cherished by those who bought them. See this as a training session, a long one... And don't forget men gets successful often in later age, about the age you are. You've got experience on your side now. You need to expand your horizon on other subjects you want to explore. GO FOR IT! And you know what? I'm pretty sure everything you've done here will some day connect with your new research fields.

Best of luck, you are one of the rare sane voice out there and even if I don't always agree fully with your stances, you present them in a way that commend respect and consideration, things now very rare!

BTW, publishing Mount Builders in 2020 was pure genius! Maybe ill-fated in terms of marketing, but spot on current issues. The proof you aren't off the rail when dealing with the past and its current implication!

Chaseon

7/16/2020 12:54:56 am

That was a disheartening read. To me, you're brilliant and have deeply affected my development with critical thinking. I'll look forward to whatever you can devote to this blog. Honesty doesn't sell. My sincerest thank you.

Kal

7/16/2020 12:22:17 pm

I have been here since 2013. Happened to catch reviews of Ancient Alien specifically because I found the show ridiculous, even though I am a scifi author. (You will never find out my secret identity, or as one or more sleuth commenters figured, they got it wrong, ha).

It was fun to riff on America Unearthed and various shows also. You were sort of a MST3K for scholarly readers.

The suggestions of a YouTube channel are good. I have several. Heh. I don't make any money though. I do them because I can, for fun.

The main reason the channel has gone down, and every one has, is that there literally is no content. The TV stations are still locked down. Nobody is going to the set of AA. That's okay, they can use stock footage as always.

Will Netflix hire you?

Anyway, the main change occurred early in the year when you finally flagged and stopped some of the vicious trolls on the web site, who for years had been wrecking the blog. Negative publicity doesn't bring in new people. When they stopped coming, the damage was done. New people didn't want to come here for fear of being yelled at.

I've even sent people I know to this site, and there were those trolls, posting and getting angry, and then they never wanted to post there again.

You even have children posting on here. Maybe they were discouraged.

Be consistent. During the pandemic, nobody is making bank on writing blogs, so don't worry about that. Have a day job. Do that well.

Reviews of vapid teen shows probably did attract some younger viewers, but they liked the shows, and then clicked off.

What you needed to do as far back as 2014 is ban the trolls, entirely. Any time they popped up to rant back and forth, block them.

At one point in 2016 or so you had a famous troll who went on harassing your followers for a good four days. Some dude name Pulitzer. Funny name. His stuff was however not funny. (The subject was robbing a grave site of giant bones, or something).

Anyway, I won't pother listing the rest.

This gig is tough. Cheers.

Clete

7/16/2020 12:39:24 pm

I entirely agree with you. After the trolls got on this site, they would demean and belittle anyone who disagreed with them and in a lot of cases did not even mention the topic. Jason Colavito's response was....nothing. He refused to ban the trolls and gradually some of the old time posters refused to come onto his blog. He lost these people and they never came back.

7/16/2020 07:24:13 pm

Others would say it's better without Gunn "Stoneholes" Sinclair, a.k.a. Bob Voyles and the Buddhist Circuit Rider.

Shag nasty

7/16/2020 09:28:48 pm

Joe Scales and Kent are the only two people who want to change the topic or get defensive when others raise the issue of trolls contributing to the decline of the blog. Positively delish irony!!!

7/18/2020 07:27:58 pm

Clete:

I'm note sure if I am ready to buy into the notion that the kiddie table had a causal role in the decline of the blog. Blogs are like restaurants. The place that had people lining up outside one year has been turned into a Dollar Store by the next year. An alternative perspective (to play the devil's advocate) would be that the there was already a decline in place that was partially offset by some people sticking around to keep an eye on the almost daily sideshow. I think that I even stated this at some point when people were pondering why Jason wasn't whacking the puppies on the snout even when they were drenching the carpet. Numbers are numbers even if they include a lot of people who just want a quick peep inside the freakshow tent. But since I haven't been around from day one and don't live on here like certain folks, I'm not opposed to the perspective that a lot of people were just turned off by some of the antics and the blog suffered accordingly.

7/16/2020 07:20:49 pm

@KAL "TV stations" don't produce content, and "TV stations" are up and running. I don't remember anyone trying to guess your identity, but if you can dream it it's real.

Learn the world, my friend.

7/16/2020 04:34:36 pm

Hey Jason.

I'm going to miss your regular postings. I do hope you leave the website intact because you have provided a tremendous amount of excellent information and reference material. I like to periodically reread your older posts.

I first discovered your blog when America Unearthed began. I read through your posts years before I started to actively comment, and always enjoyed them and found them to be very informative.

Your blog is a haven of sanity in a world increasingly being engulfed by the fringe, conspiracy theories, contempt for experience and expertise, anti-science, anti-intellectualism and culture vultures. You've provided an essential service for those seeking to understand these subjects by presenting things within their proper contexts.

Please know that your efforts have always been appreciated by me and others here.

Prospero45

7/16/2020 04:52:03 pm

I will miss your book reviews more than anything, some were a bit of a slog, but you had the occasional banger, like your review of 'magicians of the Gods'.

I think maybe the TV production companies see your antagonistic stance towards woowoo as a threat to their golden egg laying goose. Hour long chunks of alien or pyramid drivel can be churned out endlessly, like romantic novels where only the names and locations change, but the plot remains the same. These programmes almost guarantee a predictable, if modest, income stream at low cost.

Good luck in the future, whatever it holds, and please dont abandon your mythbusting altogether, there are few enough of you around.

7/16/2020 06:55:56 pm

I can't even tell you how long I've been here, but from the cheap seats...

I haven't been reading as often because it just hasn't been fun. Same reason, long before that, that I quit commenting. Even this blog post seems to have marinated in self-pity for a day or two before you finally let it out of your head. That's good and healthy on occasion, but it's been the consistent tone here for a while. You've more and more started to sound like a bitter old crank - the phrase "my reading is doubtless the correct one" sounds like it was lifted from Scott Wolter - and less like an articulate, clever explorer of the truth behind mystery-mongers and mystery-mongering. It just... wasn't fun any more and after a while coming here to read you deep in your self-pity cups and Joe and Kent playing Mr. Know-It-All... frankly if I wanted an asshole acting omniscient AND a smart guy bitter about the hand he was dealt, I could look in a mirror with less effort.

I hope the books work out well for you, and I'll still stop in here and read, but not near as frequently as I once did.

7/17/2020 01:40:40 am

Maybe Mr. Scales and I are not the best writers here (I can't speak for him) but maybe we're the best. Not trying to shoehorn Atlantis or Islam or hand-crafted Bic lighter sheaths, or toothpicks and credit cards as tools into everything.

I don't get the "Mister Know-It-All" crack so I'll let it pass. So many people here are idiots but I have already pointed them out. You're not one of them, criticism shmiticism.

7/17/2020 09:41:52 am

No, you are not the best writers here, or anywhere else for that matter. Your self satisfied, sneering posts are asinine and tedious.
Even though you obviously find yourself hilarious i can't imagine you will find anyone here who shares that view.

But who knows? Maybe you are a bona fide comic genius, does anyone else think so? Open to persuasion as always.

Bhutan Bob

7/17/2020 10:54:09 am

Encouraging people with mental health issues to commit suicide, making overtly homophobic comments and posting the same long winded statement multiple times in the same discussion thread are just a few of the transgressions of Joe Kent. Makes the Atlantis and use of credit cards as a straight edge posts seem quite tame in comparison.

7/17/2020 10:22:55 am

A few of us wanted to keep Jason on the straight and narrow, and he was always fair in allowing critiques in this regard. I salute him for that. Unfortunately, others here saw it only as slight and would go to incredible lengths to combat same with only intellectual dishonesty or just plain imbecility in their arsenal. And speaking of the latter... someone seems to be missing from all this.

7/17/2020 05:33:09 pm

@An Over-Educated Grunt,

You were one of the handful of regular posters that had already been here a while when I first started reading through Jason's blog.

It was always interesting reading through everyone's comments, I enjoyed the dialogue you had with each other. It was for that reason I became motivated to start commenting instead of just reading.

Thanks, my friend.

Same to the others, you know who you are.

max

7/16/2020 11:31:35 pm

I think this is just a sign of the times. With covid, social changes, protests, etc... no offense but I don’t think a blog focussing on historical nuance and misunderstanding goes very far. And ancient aliens, while it hooks into the underlying racism of the current times, is still probably too niche for your average newcomer. Combine that with Twitter-length attention spans and long, in-depth posts, you get an audience that can’t or won’t keep up.

Also, why the focus on TV? Why not put energy into podcasts or Youtube shows? Seems like you’re angling at mainstream stuff, where 99% of hopefuls don’t get through anyway. Seems like an obvious waste of effort in putting all your eggs in one media basket. (If I can recommend, the podcast Medieval Death Trip seems like a good format and fit for your style)

Frankly, trying to go mainstream won’t work anyway. There’s a reason Game of Thrones is more popular than Cosmos. There’s a reason the History Channel no longer does history. Unless you can entertain large swathes of people, you won’t be able to speak in mainstream places. Your writing is great, but it’s also often dull, in the sense that there are few colourful descriptions of places and people. Tracing a myth down through the ages, listing references and historical writers... it’s necessary academia, but that’s not entertaining at a larger scale. I mean no offense, I admire what you do... But I don’t think what you’ve been doing is the stuff of national bookseller lists. It’s just too niche, and too dry. (I’ve never read one of your books, just going from the blog posts here)

If that’s the kind of writing you want to do, do it. I just don’t think you can make a household name out of it. And I’m not sure I understand why you want that place in the media, but perhaps consider that there are millions of scientists and researchers whose names no one will ever remember: but their legacy lives on in the innumerable and subtle ways they shape the scientific literature. If what you’re seeking isn’t satisfying you, then it perhaps could be because seeking media attention is by nature a vapid pander to the masses?

Maybe instead of trying to grow via mainstream press acknowledgement, accept the community of fans is small, but willing to buy and buy again. Get on Patreon, grow your community gradually and because they care about what you do - stop seeking the big numbers that publishers want, and instead just feed the passion for what you want to do. Your fans will go along with you because they want to see the same content as you do. Mainstream audiences though, couldn’t give a *** and will be fickle and leave you high and dry. You’re doing niche work, so why not aim at a niche audience?

Anyway, I‘m not trying to discourage, I just don’t think there’s money in writing anymore unless you get lucky. There’s just too much content for people to get for free these days. Having said that, I think your library of translations and so on is invaluable. Perhaps more time promoting that is in order, because honestly if you visit the blog, no one would really know it exists.

— Lastly since is the final time I can comment. Thanks for the reads. I’ve learned a lot about myths, and the way in which our understanding of the past is filtered and re-filtered through the different lenses and mistakes of writers of the past. I think your most interesting reading lately has been ones which spoke eloquently on the current media tropes of sexuality - because it is so heartfelt - and not the rehashing of Egyptian pyramid myths. One of my favourite posts here was when you explained the tropes of horror films and the uses of Victorian era houses to create mood and setting. It was something I never thought of before but when you explained it, it made so much sense. Maybe ancient aliens is old, and you need a new bag of tropes to deconstruct? TV is moving on, but you’re still holding on to the old stuff. Maybe every five years you need to see what’s current in the media and talk about that, rather than running aground by holding on as long as possible to what *was* current.

Maybe a new blog, free of this one’s troubles, would help shake off the cobwebs.

Still, thanks for the effort, for attempting to educate us masses ;)

The Atlantis Expert

7/17/2020 02:12:11 am

Join the dark side, the Atlantis/Ancient Aliens Community is waiting for you. You may have to sell your soul...

C. Abbott

7/17/2020 02:55:10 pm

Mr. Colavito said, "When this blog was at its peak in 2013..."

I reviewed the blog content of 2013. Two noticeable contrasts between that year and later years:

A. The articles were more consistently focused on pseudohistory, pseudoarchaeology, and pseudoscience in general.

B. The several characters who turned the comments section into a free-fire zone were absent or operating under much more well-behaved pseudonyms.

C. Mr. Colavito spent more time engaging in thoughtful dialogue with those who posted thoughtful comments instead of being baited into petty arguments.

D. Quite obviously Mr. Colavito was much younger and had not yet reached the age where it is common for men to experience a midlife crisis and develop a pessimistic outlook on their lives and careers.

I volunteer as a mentor for adults undergoing outpatient treatment for depression. Many of them feel as though they have lost control of their lives and are simply spinning their wheels in the present. I regularly urge them to think back to a time in their lives when they believe that things were going well for them and they were happy. I ask them to compile a list of the things that they were doing that they feel contributed to that state of mind. It is then suggested that they use that information to do a reset and make a serious effort to recapture that atmosphere. We have had significant success with this strategy.

Food for thought.

Kristian

7/18/2020 08:15:45 pm

Jason,
I'm sorry to hear you are dialing back, and apologies for not being commercially supportive over the years to permit you to continue your great work here.

You're a font of knowledge and an amazing writer, and I hope to see more of your works, if no longer in this space. Precise, concise, balanced, insightful, poetic, always completely informed--simply put, you were an oasis I would retreat to when I needed a shot of wit and rationality amid our daily chaos. Typing in your address and knowing there'd be something deeply interesting and charming on the other side there was one of my few certainties. I'm sorry I didn't visit as often... 😔

Best of luck,
Kristian

7/18/2020 10:07:14 pm

I have looked into the reality TV lineup of studios such as Prometheus Entertainment, and indeed during the pandemic they have had to shelter in and cut losses, and not ask people to come into work.

The stations yes are still operating. Hover, Ancient Aliens completed its 15th season in April and will not be returning until later, possibly late fall. Since they can recycle content, it would be fairly easy to live stream interview clips, as usual, and do other new episodes, but they'd be repackaged older ones for a while. They're waiting it out till later. No date set yet. Unless someone knows something.

Streaming services will not be effected as they have massive libraries of shows to watch.

News programs operate using some people sheltered in not at the studio, and some in the studio.

You do notice an uptake in reruns on History.

Studios do produce content for stations, but you likely get that when someone says 'stations producing' they mean the studio that produces it for the station.

Cap

7/19/2020 11:03:47 am

Sorry to see you "cut back". I do think it a sign of our times-the USA Today trend of quick news without in depth thought. Too many tiktok like distractions now. The danger of losing the perspectives of truth and science among all the propaganda and misinformation (fake news right and left) is mind numbing-ly depressing to me.

All the best Jason-I will keep looking for your efforts and paying for them when I can. I put you in the class of James Randi as a 'hero' of rational thinking and common sense reality. AND I do think YouTube might be an outlet for you-properly handled. Look to TIK's WW2 channel as a sort of template for your own channel-flame wars, trolls and all...

As for the hidden-behind-screen fools like Kent and Joe-what will these feeb's do without Jason to kick around anymore-who will you harass now? Many choices-weak trolling standards. In the end-what have your trolls and snide remarks given to humanity and the universe? And as a positive credit to living well? As Ricky Gervas' character in the original OFFICE would have said-"time wasters". Should be your epitaphs.

Glad Jason will finally be done with you...again, all the best Jason and thanks!

Aindreas O'Ban

7/19/2020 03:19:50 pm

The pattern has been established for years. The issue of declining quality of the blog is raised. The same two parties are identified as the core of the problem by those who acknowledge the elephant in the room. The only protests to the contrary come from those same two people. Nothing new to see here. Thankfully the geography for trolls is shrinking. One of the feebs tried similar stunts on another blog like this one and members turned out in force to denounce him and send him packing. Other blogs require visitors to register before posting comments thus making it easier to ban troublemakers. It's win-win. People can freely visit and read the main articles but the emphasis is on quality versus quantity in the comments section. One can feel safe to comment on an article without fear of harassment. Like roaches scurrying for a shaded corner when the lights are turned on troublemakers are forced to try to ply their trade in increasingly limited and marginalized cyberspaces. Good riddance!!!!

Amanda

7/19/2020 12:57:14 pm

Jason, I came to your blog after watching an episode (apparently a rerun) of America Unearthed where the narrator kept talking about an ancient altar on the east coast. When I searched for that topic, your site was the first to come up. I read the post and bookmarked the blog, and came back to read the other articles. I always enjoyed your posts on horror and Lovecraft, and especially the ones on ancient history and pseudo-archaeology. We cancelled cable TV shortly after that, and so I didn't read the posts on Ancient Aliens or other TV shows.

I agree with some of the other comments that podcasting is the way to go. Personally I love the model of "Lore" where a common story is told, and then the history of the story is given. This may be a niche already filled, and perhaps you have investigated it already, but I did want to say I have enjoyed the academic articles and the "debunking" articles, and I wish you the greatest success on your future ventures.

7/20/2020 08:54:06 pm

It would be interesting to see you bring some of your strengths and explore the mis-dating and outright forgery of much of classical literature and history. Dante even speculated that Latin, rather than being an ancestor language, was a constructed lingua franca. Eusebius, Petrarch's Livy forgery, Plato... It's quite the rabbit hole.

7/30/2020 12:20:35 pm

Jason - I have enjoyed your blog for at least 10 years. As a lawyer, I face sketchy testimony and unsupported opinions often. I have always appreciated your scholarly dismantling of those who are bending and twisting facts into an incredible narrative. Nevertheless i have learned so much about history, anthropology and science in the debates that rage here. Plus you are talking about things that I have found to be "cool" since I was a youngster - UFOs, ancient civilizations, unsolved mysteries, strange phenomena, etc. . .

Keep up the good work any way you can.