One thing is for sure, we don't make a living off the hits that we're getting. So that can't be it. Of our reliable writers, two have bona fide classical credentials, so their interests lie in the music, people, and places they write about. Even for them, it is difficult to look at the meager numbers of visits to their pages, and, realizing that even some of those hits are their own visits to see if I messed up their work with my editing, to motivate themselves to do another article or two. No, the sheer volume of reader adulation and glory isn't the reason we do this.

As I was commiserating about this via email with Florian in late August, he wrote back that when he performs, it doesn't matter if the crowd is large or small, he does it because he loves doing it. What a revelation. I read and re-read that sentence and remembered that it has been seven years since I last played guitar in a bar band, quite often to no one other than the bar maids and bartenders. We usually made a couple of dollars, but that nor the crowds, which we obviously lacked, was the reason I kept at it. I did it because I loved performing.

Now that I don't have that musical outlet, I use writing, editing, and laying out Vienna Online as a creative outlet. I do it because I can look back at it and it gives me a type of joy that only someone who is addicted to it like I am can understand. Florian Keller has it, of that I am sure. I'd guess the rest of our writing team has it, as well. If you have it, you're welcome to join the group. Write to me at the email address below.

And bring a large extended family, preferably all with computers.