A Quick Programming Note On Slowness

Hey all,

I wanted to take a quick moment to update you all on the current behind the scene statuses of The Cardboard Republic. We know that you have a ton of options when it comes to consuming board game related content, and if you regularly consider our site as part of that, it’s incredibly appreciated to say the least. At no point in our nearly seven year run have we ever taken that for granted or used it to rest on our laurels.

Well, at least not the proverbial laurels. Our Laurels on the other hand…

At any rate, you may have noticed that things have been relatively light the last few months here output wise. That is true – our monthly average for output has been down for much of 2019 compared to past years. However, this has not been for lack of interest or desire. Simply put, there are a series of reasons behind all this which have transpired at roughly the same time, pulling each of us away from giving as much time to CR-related material as we’d like, including:

  • Erin and I having bought a house and have been spending nearly every day of the last three months currently remodeling the entire interior.
  • We’re also expecting a Junior Senator in a few months time…
  • Both Sara and Dave began grad school earlier this year, which is a time sink unto itself.
  • Sara has also been working on preparing her bi-annual online magazine, A Seat at the Table, which will focus on providing voice for underrepresented groups in the board game hobby.
  • The day jobs for all of us have been uncommonly busy in 2019, especially for Brendon, Erin, and myself.

All of this can basically be summarized as Life Happening. We’re not alone there by any means. 2019 has been insanely busy for a lot of people, and the blunt truth is that since none of do this as a paying job, something eventually had to give along the way. Which for most of us has meant our “leisure” time of talking board games – at least partially. In aggregate, this has all led to a general dip in the volume of articles, reviews, and other material (such as YouTube videos). And for that, we apologize.

My wish here, however, is to reiterate that this is a temporary situation that we hope to rectify as soon as we can. While we may have been quieter or less frequent in our articles and conversations online of late, we haven’t up and and disappeared. We haven’t gone away, and we have no intention of doing so. In fact, this whole ordeal has only served to strengthen our desire to ensure we not only get back to the baseline level of content that you’ve come to expect from us over the years but actually improve beyond that. Some extra time away from the keyboard has allowed us to formulate new ideas that we’d love to see come to fruition, and we’re also recommitting efforts to increasing the number of voices found here as well by seeking out new writers. (If that’s something you’d be interested in taking part in by the way, check out this page or contact me directly.)

In short, we know it’s been a bit quieter here in the Republic than normal, but we’re working on it. And we appreciate you bearing with us in the meantime.

Thanks,

-Ryan & the CR Team