With the new school year getting underway in most places over the next week or so, I wanted to write to the entire CM community at one time.
Over the 14 months of CM's existence, occasional calls have gone out offering "posting rights" to readers. These folks have often been called "CM correspondents," and they are the only people who can post their material on the blog. (Almost anyone can comment, of course.)
Blogger software only allows us 100 spots and we are currently at the maximum. I have a short list of new folks who'd like to come aboard, and so I've decided to ask members of the current 100 posters if they're still interested in maintaining their rights.
Since I came aboard as moderator, I've done a crude statistical analysis of posters and posting. Most of our writers have not posted a single item all summer long, and 65% of the correspondents have posted zero or one posts for the entire calendar year. I encourage those of you who'd like to be a part of the page to contribute more regularly. There is a very small group of people who post in the once-a-week range, and then another group who manage once-a-month or so. The majority of our writers, of course, don't post with any regularity at all.
I am happy to have your involvement in the page, but folks who don't post with some regularity are going to be excised from the correspondent's list. I'm sorry if this seems capricious, but if you're not going to post, then it doesn't seem reasonable that you take up one of our posting positions. Obviously nearly anyone can comment on the page - with a Google account, for instance - but I'm going to reserve correspondent rights for people who post on the page. And, if you are only posting once a year, you can certainly take advantage of our offer for you to "email the misery" to us and we'll put the post up.
Let me know if you'd like to maintain your posting rights, and of course email me if you'd like to join the list of folks who will get new posting rights as this new academic year begins.
My best wishes,
Gordon Presto
Gordon Presto
I'm posting this under a different pseudonym. I suppose Presto can figure out who I am anyway, but I wanted to say that I reject your plan to capriciously delete members of the blog.
ReplyDeleteI was OFFERED membership as a correspondent and I'll use that as I choose. I have not posted yet this year, but I have commented dozens of time. I reserve the right to post if and when I want to.
Go after my account if you wish, but you will lose me as a reader and I suspect most people who read this site will reject your iron hand approach.
Dear Gordon,
ReplyDeletedearer for
putting up with
Disgruntled, etc.
This is a perfectly reasonable
request...
I, of course, feel compelled
to post my little bits,
and am thankful
for the clean, well-blighted
space.
Dick
@Disgruntled - I don't know if you're being ironic or not, but the policy is not "iron handed" by any measure. If you're not posting, why block someone who wants to?
ReplyDeleteI would even agree with a ranking policy whereby the person who hasn't posted in the longest time (or who posted the least if there are several, further ties resolved by lottery) get automatically taken off the 100 list if and when anyone submits a request to become an author. The way it looks, my rate of about once per month (with a hiatus this spring) puts me in the top 20-30 posters, so I can take the heat.
Remember - ANYONE can comment. So if that is all you do, you don't need to occupy one of the 100 front-row seats.
I am amazed there are 100 correspondents. As a pretty avid reader for several months, I'd guess about 30 people write for the page. Lots of commenters, of course, and the threads are my favorite part of the website, but no way 100 people write original material.
ReplyDeleteIf there are 100 commenters, and we each post once a month, that would be 3 posts a day, which is about right in terms of volume.
ReplyDeleteDon't the numbers reveal only 35 regular posters?
ReplyDeleteI post about once a month, occasionally more often if something induces a RANT, but I think those who are just commenting should step aside until they have the time and energy to start using the posting rights properly.
No use in having a line to a club if the club is full of people standing outside smoking. Kick those lazy smokers out!
I haven't been on over the summer, as I have been working on being happier and that meant ignoring anything having to do with my job, for which I receive no pay over the summer months. The school year (and my contract year) is now starting, so I'll be here more frequently.
ReplyDeleteLike today, for example.
I've noticed this on message boards; you may have 10-15 registered commentors who are constant content generators, and 60-80 more who signed in, made one or two posts, then vanished. You are doing it right Mr. Presto; I've seen people dropped like a hot rock for far less, or slammed for x,y, and z (check out the SomethingAwful Forums for a textbook example of micromanaging board admins - if they hate your thread, it becomes a "shit thread", if they dislike your topics you get "board cancer"....insane!)
ReplyDeleteGordon, as far as ringleaders go, you seem like you've got a steady hand. Fab and Leslie are in good company.
ReplyDeleteA+
@Bubba
ReplyDeleteI figure my tenure is just about up. For all the rumors of compounds and hookahs and Compound Cash waiting around to toke with the moderators, all I've found is a stinky couch and a Apple ][ computer balanced on top of half of a ping pong table.
Presto
@Gordo
ReplyDeleteYou were supposed to take a *left* at the dead cactus about thirty miles past the old salt licks! That's the old Freedman compound—we were wondering where you'd gotten yourself!
This is hardly a draconian policy. My sense, based on previous iterations of this dispute, is that if you replace 20 non-posters with 20 people who want posting rights, the net yield will be 2 new regular or semi-regular posters, and 18 brand-spanking-new non-posters who will get purged the next time there is a backlog of people wanting in.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, I'm a cynic, and one of those people who posts about once every seven weeks on average, so what the fuck do I know?
It is not a right to post at College Misery. It is a privilege.
ReplyDeleteI'm like BurntChrome--didn't teach this summer, so haven't been miserable enough to post. Going back in a couple of weeks, so that should change.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, I don't think your suggestion is unreasonable. Do what you think is best for the good of the list. Things will settle out and be okay in the long run.
Sounds fair to me. I agree that we should weed out based on whomever has posted the least... but then again, perhaps waiting until the semester is off and running is a fair move, since summers don't tend to typically offer as much fodder for posting.
ReplyDeleteAs a fairly frequent commenter who posts very rarely, I'd like to keep my posting privilege but appreciate that Prof. Presto's proposal is fair and should bring in some new misery. So with irrational sorrow, I offer my spot for the commonweal.
ReplyDeleteI don't post much, by the way, because (a) other people rant much better, and (b) by the time I've changed enough details to disguise the Little Dears, my desire for ire has retired.
Gordon - we are called "commiserants" ;)
ReplyDeleteI can't keep up with the amount of stuff currently posted, so I've kind of been waiting for whallopers. But hey, I'll post now if you want.
I'm gonna keep 'em coming!
ReplyDeleteSounds perfectly reasonable to me. I wouldn't want to see the rules weighted too strongly toward quantity rather than quality, since some of our best posters are also relatively infrequent (say once every 1-2 months). But I think the moderator can tell from the comments (and/or independent judgment) who those are, and quietly keep them on the list (just as I wouldn't object if some of the most distinctive personalities also had more commonplace alter-egos, in violation of the "one identity" rule). And the "send us your misery" option does mean that it's more of a question of immediacy and convenience than of access per se.
ReplyDeleteI think I've been averaging about two posts per month, though somewhat unevenly spread over the year, and I made some (admittedly pretty feeble) attempts to help keep things going during the summer doldrums. So, until most of the correspondents are doing better than that, I'll ask to hold on to my spot.
And I love Dick's phrase "clean, well-blighted place"; that belongs on the masthead (banner?) one of these days.