Of course CM Stuff isn't in crisis, quite the opposite in fact. Considering that the site has been going for a pale four weeks, the response from yer scene has been emphatic, enthusiastic and giving me constant nudges to update as often as possible. I noticed yesterday that newbie CM Euphoria has just made ver Stuff it's 'Site of the week' (site spelt with a silent 'h', maybe?). Further cachet was added earlier in the week by the estimable CM Star, which just happens to be my favourite domain within a community bursting with quality. Kind and charitable comments have been echoing throughout this realm that keeps me busy at work and away from the telly, and further kudos could follow if The Full 90 Mins' Big Brother contest shapes up well.

So why even a hint of crisis? At the weekend, Jonni of Champman.tv wrote a review of this site, a fairly complimentary one on the whole but with some key criticisms. I didn't have to read too far between the lines to realise that there was a modicum of responsiveness to what I noted about them within his review. This wasn't just from the way in which he quoted my comments directly, more the sense that the piece was essentially a loaded attack, twisting my own words against me to build up a picture of trouble brewing. It was suggested that Stuff was a site that had little future, that what you read every day might be fun for a while, but would ultimately prove irrelevant to the scene. Or at least that's the way I saw it. When you reach my advanced years, you do take on a healthy sheen of paranoia, which a sociologist might view as symptomatic of someone who has lived through the Thatcher years, whilst others might choose to see it as self-serving crap.

The subtle mauling dished out from cm.tv followed a shorter review from CM Templates, which highlighted one or two underlying problems about ver Stuff. These are issues that I did not anticipate, and I don't know if I will ever do anything about them. But these comments, along with others noted across the scene, have given me something to think about, and perhaps do add up to a minor crisis of confidence. Then again, there was little else that I could think to write about tonight (I had the in-laws over, an occurrence that usually forces me to leave my brain in bed).

The items on our agenda are:

Does CM Stuff need more staff members? I never considered taking anyone else on to add content or whatever to the site. Without wanting to sound pompous, this was only ever intended to be my pet project, a vanity where I could add my thoughts about CM and the fellas dotted around (i.e. other members of the scene) who make it great. A secondary consideration is that new staff members could in some way dilute the nature of the site, a point Chris Hughes picked up on recently. I would go with this to an extent, but I would also argue that other people add fresh perspectives, sometimes a crucial element to a site's addictiveness.

Is the design of CM Stuff a problem? With CM Addict, TF90, The Gaffer and CM.tv coming up with excellent designs (in the case of the former, I would add that Horngjuinn has a thing of beauty on his hands, a little like being Chris Evans - do you see?) and CM Star producing a look that reflects perfectly its intentions, is ver Stuff in need of cosmetic surgery? Certainly, many of you who contribute to forums demand a lot when you first open a site, and I know that the design for Stuff (as you know, it's a template kindly put together by Project CM) is functional rather than lovely. As I have said before though, if someone put a gun to my head and demanded I construct them a good-looking CM site or else, I'd have to request the trigger so as not to waste anyone's time. I'm comfortable with Stuff's rudimentary design. Okay, so it doesn't exactly give you a blowjob as you navigate around it (though this would be… nice) but it does its job, and that's fine by me. But is it cool for others?

Would you like to see a CM Stuff forum? Aren't there enough forums kicking around already, is my knee-jerk reaction. Though it wouldn't be impossible for me to add this aspect to ver Stuff, would it really be used? I see some message boards that enjoy a mass of interest, such as the well-established forums at PCM and Under Pressure, along with the more recent one at The Gaffer, which does well thanks to its sense of humour and the fact that once you post something, a daft answer from TG's Simon is usually not far away. The unfortunate ones are visited rarely, due to a lack of interest, nothing to reply to and the absence of a community. Rather than go through the mither of maintaining my own forum, I would prefer to visit those of others and conduct my business there. Either that or make good use of msn, where I will usually chat to any old tinker about most things. Besides, one of my red-rimmed eyes is always trained on the amount of webspace allotted me by Netfirms, for which I pay not a dime. I believe in a free Internet you see, but I am also tight in general.

There are other issues that could involve me in self-pitying nirvana for thousands of words, but these are general to most sites. The question is - do you want to see changes made to CM Stuff? Are you happy with what I produce, the way the site works currently, or would you like to see it developed in ways I had not anticipated previously?

One thing about ver Stuff remains true whatever else happens. I intend to run it for a calendar year, not a day more, nor less. This means that on 21 June 2003, I will down tools and stop working on the site. The reason for this is that I will be attempting to turn the same discipline that has me putting together CM content for a couple of hours every day into writing fiction, my first calling and one I must try to make a go of at last. So whatever happens in the interim, this is a minor phenomenon that has a finite shelf life, whether someone takes it over after I finish or not. So that's it.

My cards are on the table, and my heart feels curiously lifted. That said I am well into drinking the remainder of that case of Stowell's Shiraz Mataro I bought yesterday, which could explain things. Essentially though, I would like to have your own comments on how you feel things are going. If there are changes you would like to see made, let me know about them and I'll see what I can do. I think the bottom line is that I didn't appreciate the level of interest that Stuff would receive from your good selves, but I am glad of it. You see the nice thing about criticism is that it proves people notice what one does, and react accordingly. With a scene as diverse as ours, it is clear that no one is going to be pleased fully, hence the wide variety of sites. And that is an encouraging thought.

NB. Fun will return tomorrow - you must forgive this almost Dennis Potter-esque level of self-indulgence for one day only. Thanks, and sorry.