The time has come to wind down RealSpellers. As of the end of March, 2023, this site will go offline permanently.
When we first created RS, back nearly fifteeen years ago, it was intended to be a public place and clearinghouse for those interested in SWI to get together for conversations, articles, blogs, information in the Wiki, books, links, videos, matrices, webs, lesson plans, etc. For many years it was a vibrant community. But in the last few years, as SWI has really taken off, RS seems to have been superceded by the various Facebook groups.
For awhile we thought that RS would still have a place in the SWI world, as it offered some things Facebook could not. For one thing, it was a safe place: we didn't collect or sell your personal information, we didn't track what other sites you went to, we didn't have advertising, and we didn't allow trolling or flame wars. Past posts were easily searchable, and we had a large collection of videos and other resources.
But now we are faced with a dilemma. You might think it would be easy just to leave it up for those few who still use it. But fifteen years is a long time in the online world -- much of the software on which the site is based is out of date and no longer supported. It is possible, of course, to update it to modern standards, but with a site this old and this size, that would be a massive undertaking involving hundreds of hours of labor. If the site was still in active use, it might be worth it. But, as you can see to the right, when I posted this article the most recent comment on the site was more than a month old. So, it's clear that RS has outlived its usefulness.
Creating and running this site has mostly been a pleasure, and I'd like to thank all of you who have been involved, posted on the site, and read the articles. TBox2.com and Orthographica.net will still be available for those of you who subscribe. And, of course, there's a whole constellation out there now of SWI groups, classes, books, blogs, websites, videos, and many more resources. RS may be going away, but SWI is stronger than ever and is well along the path to revolutionizing the teaching of English/Language Arts in the English-speaking world.
-Matt
PS: The website may be going away, but you will still be able to reach me at my webmaster address here, as well as on the other sites. M.
