Welcome to According to Dazz

Let me tell you something: It feels great to be away from Blogger. The first incarnation of According to Dazz will always be immensely important to me, but looking at it from the other side of college, it was obvious that it needed a total overhaul. I wanted to explore some new directions and I wanted to have a bit more creative ownership over the consumer experience, so instead of going back within Blogger’s system to fix things in-house, I took the Dazz team on a hunt for some new property. And now, here we are. According to Dazz is its very own website. It has its own domain and its own email and its own newsletter and its own logo and—holy smokes—I’m super excited about it.

A ton of work has gone into the site. We’re proud of it. This is the product of victories great (the buffalo!) and small (the exact code for that exact shade of orange), and we hope so badly that all of the late nights wrestling with HTML and the CMS are worth it for your experience. Our mission is not to build a website that becomes your homepage. Our mission is to build a website that you love reading and want to engage with. Write us an email. Send us a recommendation. Tell us how we can be better. People make things to see their creative visions realized, but people also make things for the joy of connecting with others over something shared. That’s what According to Dazz is about. That’s what we’re most excited for. We don’t know what this can be, but we have an idea of what we want it to be, so with that, welcome.

We’re trying to do something a little bigger with Dazz than just create another blog. Yeah, most of our content is going to be commentaries and musings from our staff, but we’re aiming for a broader degree of subject matter and analysis than the usual (but still quite valid and worthwhile!) life updates. We’re going to specialize in entertainment and popular culture, but we’ll also venture into sports when we feel like it. There might be more variance in our coverage later on, but for now, that’s what we’re here to offer. I mean, yeah, we’re technically still a blog, but the point is, we don’t want to be put in a box—not in these early stages.

There have been some questions as to what kind of content you’ll see on the site, and while there will be a few reactionary pieces (hot takes are alive and well, hombre), the foundation of According to Dazz is going to be its collection of running series. Things like Our Highest Rec or Rewind Files or Hardcourt Tales are going to be reoccurring periodically, and each one will have a distinct theme or premise that it follows. At the top of each post you’ll always be able to see what series it’s a part of, with a little description of that series too. As we go along, we’ll be debuting more of these series, so keep an eye out.

Finally, it feels important to say that Dazz won’t be a for-profit site. We have no ad revenue, and frankly, we don’t have much interest in generating ad revenue, and that’s the way it’ll be. Ads are like tramp stamps: Once you see it, nothing else looks quite as good. The truth is According to Dazz will actually lose money, because we’re paying to have our domain and our email account and our hosting service. We’re not telling you this so you feel bad. We’re telling you because we want you to know that, like anyone who wins The Bachelorette, we’re here for the right reasons. We just wanted to make the best website we possibly could, and if that meant spending a few dollars, fine—it was worth it—and if you still think this is a poor investment for a recent college grad, you might be right, but no Bachelorette contestant won because of their intellect, okay?

Finally, since we’re people-pleasers over here, we’ll close with some scorching takes from our staff. For extra cheese with your popcorn, you can imagine each take precluding with “According to Dazz.” We thought it was cute.

According to Dazz…

• The Dark Knight is the worst of the three Chris Nolan Batman movies.
• When it comes to sports, you always cheer for history in the absence of another rooting interest. (In other words, hating a team because they’re good is silly.)
• Cats are just animal versions of awful college roommates.
• Peyton Manning is the best passer ever, but Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback ever.
• WWE is not a sport, but it is a legitimate form of entertainment and everyone should experience a live event at least once.
• Writer’s block isn’t real, but distractions and preoccupations are real.
• Harry Potter is underrated.
• Game of Thrones is overrated.
• If there was any book you should pick up and read right now, it’s The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
• Some things will always be universally beloved in this world, and that includes fat-guy touchdown dances, Michael Peña and grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Oreos are better as supporting cast members than they are as the star of your dessert.

Enjoy the site, everyone, and thanks for being here.

Time to go to work.

—Dazz