Today, after more than four years to manage this site, I decided, complex but well-considered, to close Elusive Shadow.
The announcement will take place as a surprise to many but appears inevitable because I can no longer reconcile the management of the site and my current obligations.
Elusive Shadow was launched in June 2007 with a view simple: to provide a platform for "encyclopedic" quality function as a regular media specialist, with an editorial demanding, allowing each to expand their knowledge of Michael Jackson and establishing many links with journalists as well as creative projects related to the artist. To learn that, too, through this adventure, to better understand and anticipate the challenges of daily responsibility of a community. And oh so formative and rewarding was the experience!
Elusive Shadow opened many doors for me, allowed me to work on various missions, meet exciting people to live unforgettable moments that otherwise might never have existed without the momentum generated by the site. In four years, millions of Internet users have come his 2000 articles, up to a million pages viewed each month, the forum that accompanied the site for over one year for its members and federated in 1300 totaled more of 130,000 messages.
This reflects primarily the strong support of many people whose loyalty will remain the greatest reward of this adventure. Encouragement received, the attachment site expressed by the visitors were much incentive to invest more and more.
The disappearance of Michael Jackson June 25, 2009 has not started my motivation to manage Elusive Shadow, quite the contrary. She has added a new dimension and a simple determination: that of "being there". Following the announcement of the drama, we received over 8000 messages in the space of three days and the months that followed, they came by the hundreds every day. In such circumstances, how to consider giving up? No, it had to be there. Be there to support the best of fans who had suddenly the feeling of having lost everything. Being there to explain and translate the steady stream of news invading the web. Being there to make it "as before".
However, once past the whirlwind first few months, the need to emerge from this bubble has emerged. Working exclusively on projects related to Michael Jackson with Elusive Shadow, I was immersed for ten hours a day in the ambient atmosphere of mourning and its consequences. It did not seem healthy to continue to move full time in this environment. Gradually, I took up new opportunities, training, new job, new responsibilities ... Over the months, the share devoted to Elusive Shadow has naturally diminished.
In addition, the challenges of managing a site on Michael Jackson have evolved about the artist today is primarily a work of passion, which means having the desire and time to dive for hours in his art and its history for the sake of learning and sharing. If this dimension of sharing was obviously central Elusive Shadow, it was not the only challenge of the project and it has become difficult to develop the site in the direction intended when it was created.
Finally, it seems important to stress that this decision has nothing to do with Michael Jackson himself. Thanks to him, I met my dearest friends and spent my most memorable adventures. Although over the years and life experiences, the way I look at him a long way, probably I will keep a long time if not always a great affection for this artist and the memories associated with it. But this is a personal dimension and can be compared to the management of a site the size of Elusive Shadow, which requires discipline, work and imposes certain constraints. Today, it is these constraints that I walk away and not Michael Jackson.
The page turns on a great adventure and human editorial and goodbyes are never pleasant moments. However, these open up new horizons that allow me to consider them calmly.
I am fully aware of the void that will leave the site for some fans and by the time I write this, I thank you "from the bottom of my heart" for making this project what it has become. I hope you had fun browsing the pages of Elusive as much as I enjoyed creating them, it gave you the desire to deepen your research on Michael Jackson, to be curious and who knows, you put yourself to write?
Thank you all for you, too, you know "being there".
