12:00 *blink* 12:00 *blink* 12:00 *blink* 12:00

I think I read another Mindsay Reunionite compare the current state of Mindsay to the dilapidated town. It used to have all of its allure, but then it started to decay due to lack of upkeep. The local riff-raff moved in (splogs), and there wasn't a lot of maintenance being done. True -- friends still lived in the town and were fun to visit, but many decided to look for better places to nurture their creativity.

I'd like to think of today's Mindsay as something a smidge different:  It's more like the VCR which has its clock still blinking *12:00* perpetually even though it's been plugged in for several years now.  Sure -- other sites may have more sophisticated blogging and social networking gadgets embedded. It may look a bit un-tech savvy to hang around and take a look at it from the outside. But it still works just fine as platform. In the same way that you can still watch that VHS tape of "City Slickers" over and over again on it with no problem, Mindsay serves up the blogs of dear friends. Over and over again. But without subtitles or extraneous "making of" featurettes.

But you know what Mindsay really reminds me of? A roller coaster. Not just any roller coaster, though -- a kick-ass roller coaster which opened at Kings Dominion Theme Park in Doswell Virginia in the early 1990s called The Hurler.  At the time, KD was owned by Paramount, and Paramount's hot movie property at the time was Wayne's World.  Thus -- they decided to open a special section of the park based on Aurora, IL -- the town where Wayne's World took place. The line leading up to the coaster had all sorts of Wayne's World references and took guests through the basement set and the legendary breakfast nook. It was amazing -- a roller coaster which was exciting but also relevant to my generation! How awesome was that?

Fast forward ten years. The notion of a Wayne's World themed roller coaster was about as exciting as an Angela's Ashes log flume ride. The ride was still there, but they took out all of the dated references to what people thought would be a timeless movie franchise.  The coaster was still quite good. But if you were to ask most riders why it was called "The Hurler," they'd likely scratch their heads.

Maybe I thought that Mindsay would evolve a bit more. I mean, why not? I had been blogging here when it made a leap from version 1 to version 2 (which people complained about until they got used to it). I saw through a move to version 3 (which, not surprisingly, people complained about until they got used to it). I saw the advent of video posting. A wiki! Forums!  Maybe I thought that, in my absence, Mindsay would continue to flex its muscle and become a social networking power! Perhaps it would have been a mighty contender in the race to become the next MySpace! (SPOILER ALERT: Facebook won that race.) Maybe Mindsay would achieve some sort of celebrity status not seen since the days of gusopenshaw.*

Maybe I set my expectations too high for Mindsay.  But I had expected that at least a few of the following things would have happened by now:

• There would be a working Mindsay app for the iPhone.  There's an App for everything. Why not Mindsay?  If I could update Mindsay as quickly as I could Facebook, maybe I'd still be around!

• Mindsay would bring back true Instant Messaging Integration. You know why I picked Mindsay over a whole plethora of other blogging platforms? Two reasons: (1) One of the creators (Adam) was an alumnus of the University of Maryland, just like me; and (2) Mindsay allowed you to post blog entries simply by IMing the post to their server. That went away in verison 2.  I would have loved to see that come back -- as well as a chat feature.
  

• A more useful "Find People" button at the top of the page.  Has anyone used that in the past few years? I mean really...

• More episodes of bdtsp   In fact, I would have wanted "The Best Damn Tech Show, Period" to have graduated to the more vibrant "The Best Damn Tech Show, Exclamation Point!" I'm thinking co-sponsorships, a booth at a nationwide Mindsay annual convention, and more exposure to what was a wonderful video podcast.

• An Annual Mindsay Convention in Las Vegas. Or Amsterdam. Or Macau. Loads of sponsors. Seminars. Swag. Comped hotel rooms. Booze. And, of course, spicy pork.

• An Acquisition of Wikipedia by Mindsay Wiki complete with a merge of Wikipedia into Mindsay's platform. Can you imagine the number of people who would need to sign up for Mindsay accounts simply to edit information about ... well, everything on earth (and beyond)?

• A feature film based on the activity of the Mindsay Forums.  I'm thinking that a horror/thriller might work best. But I'll let someone else sort out the details.

• Crazy40.com - the hype and hoopla spun off onto its own website!  (I know that some of you have decided to see if this is registered now. Yes. Yes it is. There are links to adult websites on it. Which reminds me...)

• Racier and more exploitve banner ads for American Apparel. I think Mindsay can certainly graduate to full frontal nudity in its revenue stream, don't you?

• Mindsay as a mainstream religion in three or more civilized countries.  I think I've seen enough strong, spiritual leaders in the ranks here to make it happen. I'm actually most surprised that it hasn't.

• A Dateline NBC Expose featuring: "Mindsay: It's Poisoning Your Children's Souls." See above.

•  A weekly sketch comedy show on NBC at 10:00/9:00 Central featuring characters from the  wtf  Radio Show.  Look -- anything will be better than Leno.  This is a missed opportunity -- unless Mindsay acts now!

So -- let's make all of this happen before next year's Mindsay Reunion! Who's with me?
___
* I do have to say, however, that former Mindsayer drewby hit it pretty big in the social networking world. An early user of Twitter, he happened to register the name "drew." After discovering that he had cancer (which he recently announced he had beaten), he has done a lot in the online community to raise money and awareness for cancer research. He made a deal with Drew Carey, in fact, to relinquish his Twitter name to the Price is Right host in exchange for $10,000 towards cancer research -- a deal Drew Carey accepted and said he would complete if he had 10,000 Twitter followers.

Drew Carey decided to change the terms of the bet:  If he has 1,000,000 followers on Twitter on December 31, 2009, he will donate a million bucks to the same cancer research charity. If you want to be a part of this, follow @drewfromtv on Twitter. And just know that the guy who started this all used to have his own Mindsay blog. Just. Like. You.

EDIT:  Corrected Drew Carey's current Twitter name above.