An Admission of Guilt

Image by Lydia Wang from Pixabay (This looks a lot like my dog)

I was recently in Detroit for work and trying to get some Playlist things done back at the hotel when I realized that lately I haven’t been the best steward of this site.

When the site was rebuilt and finally launched in the spring of 2023, I think that I emerged a bit burned out and a tad disappointed. As many of you know, when you produce a short run of a theatrical production (2-3 weeks, for instance), there is a sense of finality when the show opens. Choices and compromises were made to get to that opening, and while you can tweak around the edges, you can usually walk away from the production knowing you did your best and let it be.

Launching a website isn’t like that. It’s never really done. Even now, almost two years after the rebuild there are parts that I’m trying to get fixed or fix myself*.

...I remain proud to be the steward of such a service.

When I purchased Playlist in 2017, I was unemployed and trying to cobble together some contract work. I had a one-year-old and a three-year-old, and my sleep schedule  was so messed up that I found myself with weird blocks of time to tweak things on the site, create content, try things, support a network of writers who were reviewing shows. Frankly, I could just spend more time on a consistent basis fiddling with it.

Fast forward to 2025.

I have a full-time job with 50% travel and two tweens. My life looks very different than when I was tinkering a bunch throughout the week. I’m also a long way removed from the day-to-day of theatre. My own company hasn’t produced anything since 2019. I no longer make the time to go see shows like I used to. 

And yet, I still love theatre. There is no form of art so vibrant as a live performance where everything clicks. 18 years after its launch, Playlist remains a service that exists to support the creation of those moments. Despite my recent lapse in passion, I remain proud to be the steward of such a service.

...stop trying to do this alone.

Why am I sharing all of this?

I want everyone to know that I’m sorry for the last 18 months - I have let Playlist coast. I’ve given the site minimal attention and been lax in everything from communications to solving known issues. If your interaction with Playlist has been subpar during this time, I want you to know I am genuinely sorry for that. 

So of course something needs to change. Obviously, I can’t quit my day job, and my kids are going to continue to grow and need more of my attention and resources. There isn’t a world where my relationship to Playlist goes back to its pre-COVID version. Instead, I am looking for possibilities and focusing on bringing about a version of Playlist that serves the community that is here now.

What does that mean? I don’t know exactly yet. I do know the largest piece of that puzzle is for me to stop trying to do this alone. Here are two ideas I’ve been toying with to solve that challenge:

1. Hire an operational manager to handle the day-to-day tasks of Playlist. This is shaping up to be a great role for someone who enjoys getting into the details of things, who wants to deepen relationships in the community, and wants a hand in shaping the structure and function of Playlist’s future.
2. Form an advisory board to support larger initiatives that Playlist should be taking on. This could be a group that imagines the future of Playlist, that debates the pros and cons of ideas, and helps to connect me to the ‘who’ that can bring those ideas to reality.

I think this could go a long way to re-establishing the brand of Playlist, strengthen the ties with individual users of the site, and provide a roadmap that supports bringing greater value to the performing arts of Minnesota. 

Finally, on a personal note, I want to thank everyone who has sent a message to Playlist over the last few years expressing their gratitude for the site and the work I do. Many of those messages contain something along the lines of “I’m sure most of the emails you get are people complaining and upset about something.” Sadly, that is correct. In spite of that reality, know that the messages I receive praising Playlist as a service are the absolute highlight of working on this never-ending production. So thank you!

If you’ve read this far, you obviously care about this service. Thank you for continuing to be a part of this journey. I’ll have more info in the coming weeks about an operational manager role, and about an advisory board. If you have ideas, thoughts, or questions please send them my way. 

Most importantly: keep dreaming, keep creating, keep connecting.

—

*Things I know are an issue that I / we (backend developer) are working on:

1. The Contact Us email: this is pretty much fixed with a short-term solution at the moment. All messages sent through the site’s form are being received in my inbox as intended. Man was this one a pain in the @ss.
    
2. Talent Profile renewals: renewing a talent profile, and messaging around expiring profiles, is currently broken. We are working on a fix. In the SHORT term - if your profile is expired, or you receive a message that is has expired, or you just want to renew, please use the CONTACT US page and get in touch. I have a workaround for paying for a renewal and we can make that happen.
    
3. The site going down every 3-4 months: this has to do with some SSL certificate thing with our host and the site itself. We think we have a fix but need to see what happens in the next cycle. It is really hard to test this issue so we just have to wait for it to come around and see if the fix works.
    
4. Image cropping on posts: this one drives me crazy. I don’t have a good fix for this, and may just need to do a video in our FAQ and point people to it. If you get a message that your image needs to crop to 2:3 - select crop image, move the corner of the cropping tool by the tiniest bit and it should consider it cropped correctly and let you publish / save your work.
    
5. Purchase multiple ads and only get one in your products: this one is not happening to everyone and we are struggling to understand what is triggering it. If it happens to you use the CONTACT US page to get in touch. We can refund or add products as necessary. If you can also grab a screenshot showing that you didn’t get all your products that can help in troubleshooting.