The Future Of Indy Undercover And Other Blogs

Will the mystery of Indy Undercover live on, or will it simply fade off into the sunset on the heels of Tuesday'e election victory. That's the question the purported law enforcement officers behind the blog are trying to answer. The anonymously written post reads today:

LEOs and CCs, the Indy Undercover team is meeting this weekend to determine the fate of the blog. We are deciding whether to keep it going or call it an experience come January 1st when the new powers take over. We have decided we want to solicit your opinions, regardless. So what should we do? Should we stay or should we go? And if we stay, what do you want Indy Undercover's focus to be? Some of the crew want to go back to full-time law enforcement. Others want to stay and fight and act as a counterbalance to what's coming on the horizon.

It is hard to deny the role Indy Undercover and other blogs like Advance Indiana, Indiana Barrister and Digital Farmers, among others, played in Greg Ballard's victory last Tuesday. Frankly, I think I can speak for the pro-Ballard blogs in saying we did more to aid Ballard's election this year than his own party. We all heard party leaders telling us as recently as two weeks ago Ballard didn't have a chance of winning. We hung in there, believed in him and fought to the bloody end on his behalf. Now, where to go.

Indy Undercover has been a mystery everyone has wanted to unravel. On at least two occasions, I have been falsely accused of being the person behind the blog. Once, a leftist blogger said Ike Randolph and I were doing it as a joint project. The Scribe, otherwise known as Jacob Perry, falsely and viciously accused me of being the person behind Indy Undercover after he was outed by the blog. Perry later purged the offensive post. An even more bizarre thing happened last year when someone began anonymously sending me alleged e-mails between Ike Randolph and Abdul Hakim-Shabazz discussing posts for the blog. I couldn't tell whether they were spoofed e-mails so I showed them to the accused, who denied being behind the blog. Both say it's a group of law enforcement officers just like the blog claims. Rather than rush to judgment, I accepted the two men at their word.

I have sometimes debated in my own mind whether I would have been better off from the beginning publishing Advance Indiana anonymously as Indy Undercover and other blogs have done. It was an issue I confronted the moment I created the blog some thirty months ago. Ultimately, I believed I had to identify myself to my readers to be true to myself. I also believed it would provide me the incentive to take extra care with my words, understanding the impact what you write can have on others, intentionally or unintentionally. It hasn't come without its cost though. As more and more people read your blog, the more people start e-mailing you and even contacting you on the telephone. It consumes a lot of time--time which could otherwise be spent earning a living. Contrary to what some people may believe, I don't make money blogging. I have had some faithful readers who occasionally tip me for my work here, which I sincerely appreciate, but it's not been enough to pay for the cost of a high speed Internet connection.

What's more difficult is the people who take what you write to the next level. For more than a year now, Darla Williams of the Indiana Minority Report has repeatedly lifted and posted information contained on this blog on her own blog--using the term loosely. While the posts were attributed to me, not once did she ever ask my permission to re-post what I write here on her blog. I was unaware she was doing it until a well-known journalist in town brought it to my attention. I never complained to her about it. I just accepted it as her way of complimenting my work. When I questioned her qualifications to serve as liaison for the new Ballard administration to the outgoing Peterson administration, she was quick to call me a "green-eyed monster", a "kook" and a racist. Never mind the fact that I had also paid her a compliment as a talented lawyer. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished. Williams also quickly pulled the link from her site to mine. Do you think she will also purge all the posts she lifted from my site over the past year? Hope I helped drive hits to your site, Darla. I hope you practice better diplomacy in the Ballard administration than you've demonstrated towards me.

Life goes on. What the future holds for this and other blogs remains to be seen. It's always a wild ride. You can choose to live your life as a rollercoaster or live your life on a merry-go-round. The life I've chosen is the rollercoaster. The ups are great, but the downs can be really trying on a person.