By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

So the answer has to be given … did we rattle the chains?

As readers will remember, we came out of the gate quickly when we started six months ago. We were super pumped and the possibilities were endless. The ideas that were being thrown around were plenty.

When we initially started this blog, we said we’d revisit it in six months. At that point, we’d decide if we wanted to continue or shut it down. As someone who has been a writer for most of my professional life, I didn’t want to let the blog go to hell. If we weren’t doing well, we’d shut up shop and move along.

But it wouldn’t come without a fight, that’s for sure.

Over the course of the first half year, we’ve had some ups and downs. We started quick, we slowed up, things looked bleak and we’ve kind of bounced back.

We also got lucky to get some quality contributors right off the bat in Jack Trageser and Steve Hill. Since then, we’ve added Andre Fredrick and Jenny Cook. We also have a few people who have submitted things to us here and there, giving us some great things.

What I’ve really liked about this blog is all those different voices. From men to women, we’ve tried to give what we can.

This three-day schedule on a weekly basis hasn’t been the best for visits, however. And that’s understandable. After all, if there are fewer stories, people won’t come back every day.

That meant is was decision time. We’re at that six-month point. So what to do?

Do we continue?

Or do we say it was a great run and let it ride off into the sunset.

I don’t give things up that easily!

So, we’ve been working quite a bit behind the scenes. And we’ll continue to do so. Starting with the first week in October, we’re going to go to a five stories per week schedule. We’ll run things Monday through Friday. Monday will, of course, remain our poll days. The rest will include original and entertaining content. From instructional posts to stories from the road to guest posts to anything else disc golf.

We learned a lot the first six months.

Things like “What’s in Your Bag?” and the weekly tournament roundups didn’t seem to get people going. But the in-depth stories or the fun things really did. See, that’s something most other disc golf blogs don’t have and with the journalistic background that several of us on staff have, it’s silly not to exploit it.

We’re in the midst of adding a few writers as well. That should give us some fresh voices and ideas. I’m excited to welcome these people on board and we’ll have a post announcing all the recent people joining as soon as we get things solidified.

Our goal is to stay 10 stories ahead of the curve. In other words, we’ll always have 10 stories ready to go in case somebody can’t get something in. That way, we won’t have a situation where we’re skipping days.

One thing that will return is a photo of the week, but we’ll only do it probably twice a month. We’re going to, again, encourage people to send in their best disc golf images. In the next week or so, we’ll have some guidelines that need to be followed for a photo to be considered.

The rest?

Stories and stories. We’re going to continue to cover all aspects of the game. From the grassroots level to the professional level.

And we have a few surprises up our sleeve, one of which will be announced next week. This one is something that I am super stoked about and one that I think will be a treat to our readers.

We’ll also be bringing back contests (and for those who haven’t received things won in the past, fear not — they will be coming soon. Our apologies). However, the contests will run monthly and will require a little more than commenting. But we have some really good stuff to give away — from autographs from some top pros to shirts to plastic and more.

I won’t lie — this story is kind of a filler piece as we bridge our way to the “expansion.” But at the same time, I wanted to keep our readers up to date on our future plans and thank all of you for reading and being a part of this blog.

That being said, if you have some ideas you think we should cover, shoot me an e-mail and let me know. I have a nice list of things I hope we’ll be writing about, from Company Closeups to new products to broad topics, and I’d be happy to add more to the list.

And as always, we’ll do our best to get more original and quality content to give you everything you’re looking for in disc golf reading!

P.J. Harmer is the founder and lead blogger with Rattling Chains. E-mail him at pj [at] rattlingchains.com.