Nathan Rabin's Happy Place: a Nice Site for Nice People to be Nice to Each Other
I liked the commenters at my previous employer The Dissolve so much that I found myself hoping that the site would be big enough to stay in business and someday become profitable but not big enough that we’d lose that wonderful sense of community that comes with nice people coming to the same lovely place every day to have intelligent, civil and informed conversations.
That did not happen. The Dissolve remained a lovely place for nice people to have intelligent, civil and informed conversations but it did not become big enough to stay in business or achieve profitability and I was laid off about a month and a half before the site closed.
That was tough. That was really, really tough. It’s been seven long years since The Dissolve ended and I still haven’t gotten over it in many ways. It’s a deep scar that stubbornly refuses to heal with time.
The end of The Dissolve and two years of rapidly losing columns at websites like Rotten Tomatoes, The A.V. Club and Splitsider left me with an earnest longing for a professional home of my own, something that was all mine, that no one could take away from me.
I created that home in Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place in 2017. I made something good and pure and honest on the internet, something that reflects who I am as a writer and a man.
Out of desperation and inspiration I made a lovely place for nice people to gather every day to have intelligent, civil and informed conversations. And that means the world to me.
Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place has a value far beyond the exceedingly modest income generated by its Patreon account or its perpetually under-achieving store. It has a creative value and an emotional value wholly independent of its success or failure as a small business.
From a financial standpoint this website has struggled from its inception and now seems farther away from achieving profitability or sustainability than ever before.
It’s hard not to let the dreary dictates of commerce keep you from being proud of your hard work and perseverance but it’s easy to let a solid half decade of unending financial struggle get you down.
Despite what the despairing voices in my head might tell me, this site IS a success because it’s good and honest and sincere but also because of you, the reader.
You could be anywhere in this great big world and this massive internet yet a tiny, statistically insignificant group of beautiful people come here every day and treat me with a level of respect that I find deeply flattering and also a little bewildering.
I’m just an exhausted dad just barely getting by. To the world at large I stopped mattering when I got laid off from The Dissolve seven and a half years ago. Yet you treat me, my thoughts and my emotions like they matter.
That keeps me going. You make me feel like I’m still on the right path when it often seems like I’m going nowhere and taking forever to get there.
I have no idea what 2023 will bring but I know that I can count on the site’s regular commenters to continue to make this an oasis of decency and lively discourse in the vast ocean of belligerence and hate that is the Internet.
That alone is enough to make the Happy Place a Secret Success at the very least even though most days I feel like a distinct failure, if not a flaming fiasco.
Buy The Weird A-Coloring to Al: Cynical Movie Cash-In Extended Edition at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop, signed, for just 10.75, shipping and handling included OR 23 dollars for FOUR signed copies AND a free pack of colored pencils, shipping and taxes included
Pre-order The Fractured Mirror, the Happy Place’s next book, a 600 page magnum opus about American films about American films illustrated by the great Felipe Sobreiro over at https://the-fractured-mirror.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
The Joy of Trash, the Happy Place’s first non-"Weird Al” Yankovic-themed book is out! And it’s only 12.00, shipping, handling and taxes included, 23 bucks for two books, domestic only at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop
Buy The Joy of Trash, The Weird Accordion to Al and the The Weird Accordion to Al in both paperback and hardcover and The Weird A-Coloring to Al and The Weird A-Coloring to Al: Colored-In Special Edition signed from me personally (recommended) over at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop
Or you can buy The Joy of Trash here and The Weird A-Coloring to Al here and The Weird Accordion to Al here
Help ensure a future for the Happy Place during an uncertain era AND get sweet merch by pledging to the site’s Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace
Alternately you can buy The Weird Accordion to Al, signed, for just 18 dollars, tax and shipping included, at the https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop or for more, unsigned, from Amazon here.