I found out today that one of Baltimore’s finest online assets to the arts and music, webzine and forum Beatbots, is shutting its doors in May.

Read more for the full news posting:

Friends

Three and a half years ago I started Beatbots in my basement appartment in Hyattsville, MD. What started as a simple excerise in creating my own Content Management System, evolved into me trying to run an online magazine with no funds, no writers and no audience. Since that time (and my moving to Baltimore) Beatbots as a creative endeavor has really blossomed. We’ve had a lot of great writers grace the pages of the webzine. We’ve seen the incorporation of Audio/Video recordings on the site and the only public authored events calendar in Baltimore that doesn’t suck. We’ve made a lot of great connections with the people involved in the Baltimore arts/music scene, and for that I’ll be forever thankful.

But after much soul searching, I’ve decided that Beatbots as this thing that I do with all my spare time will never be sustainable. It will forever be an uphill battle for me to bring people together to create something wonderful that isn’t about hype, money or fame. So it saddens me to say that in May, when the next Beatbots hosting plan is due for renewal, that I’m not going to renew it. While I would like more than anything to see Beatbots live on for 5 or even 10 years, it’s just not in the cards. It’s just become such a heavy weight on my shoulders that I think it’s for the best.

I want to thank first and foremost the Beatbots writers who have poured so much time and energy into the writings for the site. It’s really remarkable to think that we as a group could amass hundreds of really quality articles with no formal staff, and no pay. I’d also really like to thank our A/V people but most especially Jeff Mewbourn for his tireless dedication to documenting the Baltimore music scene. Thanks to everyone that has helped to make the message board the best place I know on the internet to kill time at work (and find out about the best shows in the city). Beatbots is made of people, and I really can’t think of any better people around.

So in closing, I feel that Beatbots was in many ways a success, even if the audience that knew about it while it was still around was small. I’m glad to think that there’s this thing that we all did together that will forever leave a mark on our lives, as they were here and now. Until the hosting runs out (May 14) I encourage everyone to make the most of the site.

All the best,
Justin Blemly

I highly recommend you check the site out before it is lost forever. There is some really great content and some really great people roaming around there.

April Fool’s from Justin! well written note.
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