But part of me is still convinced that all these social structures (like this blog in particular) must be good for something. And I'm a bit anxious about asking this because although I frequent the site, I've never put my neck on the line. So...
Q: What do your readers hope to accomplish with CollegeMisery.Com? Is it just a fun place to go and vent your "spleen," or might it be worth something more than that, something more useful? (I must confess part of me wonders this because based on your published hit counts and the frequently recurring posters, it doesn't feel like it's a very big crowd working here.) Could this place do more? Be more? What are you doing about it? What are you doing to increase the reach and influence of the page?
A: Post your comments below.
I appreciate being able to talk to people at different institutions and with various student bodies -- it serves as a useful reality check sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThese types of posts drive me nuts. It's as annoying as people who see political meaning in the smallest of actions. Must everything be analyzed?
ReplyDeleteIf I wanted to reflect for Christ's sake, I'd look in a mirror.
I think that since the blog is truly quite young, it's valuable to think about it some. I will be shameless enough to admit that I wish it had more reach and that it could galvanize something. But it seems destined to be a little playground for a VERY small group. That's a shame.
ReplyDeleteIt's comments like Beaker Ben's that drive me nuts, but why would he or I waste time typing that? I imagine when Beaker Ben goes to the grocery store he stops in front of products he doesn't want and tells them they're lacking: "Cap'n Crunch? I don't think so. You drive me nuts. Where are my Cheerios!?!?"
ReplyDeleteOn to the thirsty. I think if this blog doesn't grow, then it's got limited utility.
I would like for us to make a big noise. Maybe that's vanity. I don't know. I wish the page would reach more than the 2000 hits it gets a day...oh, and for the record, I'd bet that it's really about 300 people reading the thing. I check it a few times a day and sometimes click multiple pages.
So in reality, the thing probably has far less reach than anyone imagines.
That's a shame because there's some really good content here.
I really love this thirsty. I am not a big blog reader, but when I find one that covers a topic I really love, I want to make the most of it.
ReplyDeleteI've loved being a part of the CM family, but I want it to do more. I don't know what. I'm not suggesting I have the answers.
But I'd like "us" to have more ambition, get the word out, link the best pieces elsewhere. I want more EYEBALLS on the page. Why work so hard on our posts if only the faithful read it?
Is that silly?
I just enjoy seeing how things work at other universities and colleges, and getting the proffies' POVs since I am a graduate student and staff member. And sometimes I try to gently interject from a student's POV, but that usually doesn't go over too well. Mostly I just lurk. There's nothing I hope to accomplish here. It's just something to read during my coffee break.
ReplyDeleteIt's a mildly amusing academic page, and I read it once a day for about 5 minutes. It's clear to me at least that there are only a few people writing. For example, you can strike me dead if Yaro and Richard Tingle aren't the same person writing under the same name.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's pretty likely that Angry Archie writes under some other names as well.
It's okay. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing. But the Big Thirsty from today is just silly. If there's a legitimate 2000 hits a day, that's NOTHING. There's no real reach. That might be 150 people all told, and that just means it's about as widely read as a typical personal blog about a hobby or something.
Again, not a bad thing, but silly to think of it as something bigger.
Is it possible that Fab Sun writes most of it? I don't want to start an argument about it, but since he started the page, doesn't he have the most to lose if it's not active.
ReplyDeleteI'm not interested in increasing the "reach and influence" of this blog. Academics tend to have grandiose ideas of their "reach and influence" to begin with. I don't think that tendency should necessarily be encouraged.
ReplyDeleteBut I think occasionally we actually give decent advice to fellow academics that need it, but can't for whatever reason ask their immediate colleagues. Spleen venting is good too. Seeing the perspective of others as well.
Why try to make it more than it is?
And it's pretty likely that Angry Archie writes under some other names as well.
ReplyDeleteDo tell? If that's true you need to let me know about it, so I can set up some video cameras to catch myself sleep-posting.
Seriously though, it is true that a few posters account for the majority of what's on the main page, with a slightly larger pool of regular comment writers.
But is that a bad thing? I guess I'd like to hear more from the other 80 people with posting privileges, but if all 100 of us started posting every day, or even once a week, I wouldn't have time to read it all. As it is, I skip a few posts already.
CM is a sometimes amusing, sometimes hilarious, occasionally too earnest place to stop when I have a couple of minutes. Nothing more. I like that a wide variety of academics is represented here--from CCs to top-tier unis and everything in between. But I doubt very much that an anonymous blog will ever become a force for much of anything in the real world.
But I would like to have a real world beer with The Beaker sometime. And some of the rest of you too. But I guess that probably can't happen without ruining people's sense of safety.
I'm here for the camaraderie concerning issues that are too touchy to bring up with colleagues in real life in the manner I would like to. Things like, oh, OMFG today after being told that they were all just interested in numbers and no one was even considering cutting programs, my program gets tossed on the potential chopping block as a symbolic gesture to make Governor Whatshisname look effective at cost cutting although we cost NOTHING!!, and oh meanwhile I'm sure the new rec center they're building will look very nice next to the old one. Things like that. See, I feel better now!
ReplyDeleteAnd our football team sucks.
But! That is good for something! Spleen venting is important, especially in larger issues-- we do compare notes and strategies and find comfort, etc, on this site with a unique tone. It's like an anonymous Chronicle for the bourbon crowd. I like that CM has a broader. . theme than RYS did, because many of our most crucial issues are not specifically about YS.
"It's like an anonymous Chronicle for the bourbon crowd." --DrLemurPants
ReplyDeleteSecond that!
Increase reach and influence? I'm puzzled. Why would we want to do that? Presumably it reaches the people who need it, and over time, more people who need it will see it and show up. It's not a big deal. It performs the useful functions of venting, asking advice, and making each other laugh out loud from time to time.
ReplyDeleteThe whole question sounds like it's based on the business model though. We should be Growing Our Audience/Business/Reach in order to perform - what? Make money? That's the usual reason. But nobody's making money here. That's not the point.
I see it as a community meeting point. What more does it need to be?
Oh, and Eating Low Salt - "Is it possible that Fab Sun writes most of it? I don't want to start an argument about it, but since he started the page, doesn't he have the most to lose if it's not active." - as far as I can tell Fab Sun started the page as a service to those who felt bereft by the demise of RYS. He is continuing to perform it as a community service, again, soldiering on through massive amounts of abusive email etc as an act of kindness. Why would he care if it grew? Or shrank? It would be off his plate if it vanished entirely, and he could stop getting mean-spirited emails. What on earth benefit could he get from running it? Let alone from "growing it"? Given the amount of time the poor bugger has had to waste on it already, why on earth would he want to sign in as 12 different people and write all the posts too?
I admit I'm glad the topic came up and it's true I selected the Big Thirsty out of the tiny CM mailbag today that raised the questions.
ReplyDeleteI am on board with the idea of hoping the page does some good, for us first, but also in the larger academy. I may be quite naive, and that's okay.
I guess it's a fun place for me to visit, and that's enough by itself as well. I love getting to know some of you through this pseudonymous society. I feel as if Archie and Ben and Yaro and Stella and BlackDog are about as real as my own colleagues, perhaps more real. I THINK my colleagues are probably lying about what they think about the career, actually, but I have no doubt that those of us who write here are telling the truth.
And Darla, well, I just love Darla.
Yeah, I retract most of what I wrote above. It doesn't actually make much sense...as my students say, "My bad..."
ReplyDelete"What do your readers hope to accomplish with CollegeMisery.com?"
ReplyDeleteThis is a joke, right?
CM is about bitching, bitching about incompetent students that deserve five tenners* in a gulag, adminstrators who should be tortured to madness, and a national culture that really doesn't understand education at all. If you want to talk radical politics go read Lenin's Tomb (leninology.blogspot.com), if you want to discover how screwed up Orthodox Judaism is check out Failed Messiah (www.failedmessiah.typepad.com), if you want to complain about the raw deal that is higher ed in the US, you go to College Misery. CM has no greater aim than to keep people from going postal.
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* Fifty years. And I'm being serious about the culture; I think many people drink so much in college that most of it is a haze.
Wow, somebody at the beginning of this thread went off half cocked, in a pissy mood because he had to work today. That's me, little mister ray of sunshine.
ReplyDeleteArchie, we'll have a beer after I out myself. Since that's on my Things to Do The Year Before I Retire list, it may be a while. Hang in there.
I've always hoped this blog would grow so big that it reaches millions-nay, billions of people. Everyone from the hottest celebrities to the Queen and the President would eagerly rush to the site first thing in the morning. Everyone would get instant notification on their iPhones when a new post appears and they would drop whatever less important thing they were doing (watching tv, checking facebook, preforming surgery) to read it post-haste. Its influence would be so great, that it would not only make academia, but indeed, the whole world a better place. It would one day put a man on Mars, cure cancer, and abolish crocs. You may think I'm a bit too optimistic but I shan't give up hope just yet.
ReplyDeleteShoot for the stars, my friends, shoot for the stars...
I have never posted or commented until today, but I want to say that whoever is doing it, the page is great, fun, intersting, eye-opening, and so on.
ReplyDeleteI read it first thing in the morning. One day I hope to add my misery!
I'm with Strelnikov.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, where did I put my vodka...
For me, this blog brings a dose of Anastasia every now and then. And that's good enough.
ReplyDeleteSeconded on Anastasia!
ReplyDeleteWorld peace and a baldness vaccine*.
ReplyDelete*Bald guys are hot, it's just a joke, I don't want to hear it.
I aim to please.
ReplyDeleteHow come none of you guys (I'm looking at Beaker Ben here) have posted the cure for AIDS yet? I'm gonna keep hanging out here until that happens. Also fatness. 'Cause I got me some fatness.
ReplyDeleteps: I happened to perhaps maybe forward the post about syllabi to some of my colleagues who are struggling with similar issues, and I know that they forwarded the post to others...fly, my memes, fly!
Oh and I am part of a website for crazy people that provides both a forum and a place to track your meds/symptoms/mood/etc. A lot of folks use just the tracking tools...it's a smaller core group of active posters in the forums. I think this is not uncommon.
ReplyDelete"Me, too." That is to say, I get amusement and the occasional good advice or helpful suggestion from this blog. But mostly amusement. And sanity, if smiles and rueful chuckles count as "sanity".
ReplyDeleteI don't know about you guys, but I don't really want the site to get any bigger -- that would just mean I'd be more paranoid that someone would be able to out me. I use this place to commiserate, to get ideas for teaching (sometimes, anyway), but mostly to make sure I actually show up to school the days I'm supposed to be there. This semester has been awful enough I've seriously considered disappearing quite a few times.
ReplyDeleteI like getting other teachers' POV, and also occasionally provoking them to rage when I tell the truth about teaching and they can't handle it because they're a bunch of indoctrinated liberal pussies who can't see the truth in front of them. But you're not ALL like that.
ReplyDelete