"70 of the past 100 CM posts have been generated by moderators.
This was never the idea. We have more than 100 spots for correspondents; the page was always meant to be fueled and written by a large group. Before I left the page I was guilty of worrying too much about empty days, and so my fear resulted in too much moderator-generated filler: linked articles, flashbacks, etc.
I encourage all the great community members of the page to consider posting your own stuff. The comments are always exciting, oftentimes booming.
Well, the page needs you. The page can't sustain with Cal's bad graphics, Terry's twits, and one day, all the flashbacks will be used up!
Let the RGM know if you'd like to have posting rights, and if you already have them, feel free to let loose and use them. Happy 2014 everyone."
I guess I'm a blog nerd. I'm quite interested in the machinations of the place.
ReplyDeleteOf course some of those 70% of recent moderator posts are generated by folks NOT mods, right? People who send things, etc.
I also understand the impulse to post flashbacks etc. when nothing else new is on the page.
I read a few blogs, and when there's nothing new, I just stop going back. It means the blog is inactive, and so I can commiserate with the mods who try to keep material coming up for visitors.
I guess it doesn't seem possible to me how few people actually post here. What are there now, about 20 people? That makes me feel discouraged. You mean when I write my occasional post, this is the only audience? I thought I was much bigger than this!!
The hit meter says that there are hundreds of people visiting daily. But (like most blogs) few of them comment.
DeleteI wish I could contribute more; I'm an online adjunct, but a full-time high school teacher at private school. Grad school has faded into the distant past, and most of my griping and soul-searching lately has been about the changing-for-the-worse world of independent high schools. The way we're changing probably has an awful lot to do with what you're seeing in your classrooms, but really most of my teaching these days isn't directly relevant to CM. I really enjoy reading the comments, though, and I post there from time to time. I don't really have a sense of whether I'm a recognizable CM persona; more of a fringe lurker, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteThe online material I have is mostly student smackdown, but I'm cooking up a couple of ideas, so I hope to post one or two original pieces in the near future.
Thanks to all the mods for keeping CM going strong.
There are no other mods. That system is outdated. There is and will only ever be the RGM, the real goddamned moderator.
DeleteAnd the RGM is in charge. Except for when the RGM is eating pie.
Mmmm, pie.
DeleteI'd love to hear more about what's going on in high schools (public, private, or charter), since I'm sure it does, indeed, connect quite directly to our misery. And I'm sorry to hear things are getting worse in private schools, which I've always thought of as at least partial refuges from some of the worst fads in assessment/educational management, but maybe no more? Or is it just the over-invested parents that are a problem?
DeleteAlso, is there any pie left? If so, I'll have a piece, please.
CC, it's not the parents, though sure, we have a few helicopters in our airspace.
DeleteThe problem with private schools is its vast and rapidly-growing caste of career administrators. Whereas private schools were once refuges from the ignorant, obstructive bureaucracy of the public school world, now we, too, are top-heavy with admins who left teaching as soon as they could to "move up" into administration. Once there, they exist in an echo-chamber of marketing schemes, fad-chasing, and anti-intellectualism. It's a Dilbert cartoon come to life.
The newly-appointed head of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is an appalling exhibit A: John Chubb, conservative idealogue, has no teaching experience and in fact no experience at all working for independent schools. His only experience in education was as head of the Edison Schools, one of the most atrocious (and probably criminal) examples of the cynical, corruption-rife failed charter school movements in the country.
At the campus level, imagine your worst Dean, multiply him by four or five, and then shrink your community down to about 350, including faculty, and imagine that their decisions affect you and your school even more immediately, directly, and swiftly.
I think this is a valuable and important insight into the entire teaching discourse. I'd love for you to post a series on the changes in private school teaching in the past few years.
DeleteSo about how many of those of us with posting rights are actually posting? I have no angst or misery during vacation time, but I am pretty darned sure that, come Monday, my misery will be back in full swing.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done a hard count, but there are only 29 people with posting rights, and there are at least a dozen who haven't posted in the past year, and there are some who have never posted at all. I count, in fact, 4 people who have rights who have never used them. And three of those don't even comment. It's a very small pool of people who are active in posting. Fab brought this to my attention and convinced me that we should put a lid on the mod-generated content. Perhaps folks see the page as being busy enough as it is.
DeleteThe RGM
And let me also say, if folks don't want to post, that's cool. Nobody is being shamed in this; I hope I get that point across. It'd be great if more people wanted to post things here. If they don't, then that's what it is. It does feel like a very small community, and that also contributes a bit to the insular nature of the page on which some readers remark.
DeleteThat does seem like a small community. However, the fact that a lot of people do visit but don't comment is encouraging. I would love to see more of those people post and hope that new people will feel brave enough to join without limiting it to "newbie Fridays" or something like that.
DeleteI read pretty much daily and never comment (except this one). It's a combination of reading on my phone, so commenting is annoying at best, and not being directly in higher ed anymore. I'm considering a PhD and teaching, though, and it's certainly relevant reading! I've been a lurker for a year or so.
DeleteAli, I am glad you lurk (and that you commented). :) I think an 'outsider' perspective of education and college misery (as in outside of higher ed) would be relevant, too, from time to time, so please comment when you can! :)
DeleteIt seems like very many of the posts by the moderator are sent in from others. And the moderator content is often fun.
ReplyDeleteOf the 29 people with rights by your math, a good 15 post. That's more than many blogs (most blogs?).
I am just wondering if Fab has not yet accepted, even after all this time, that his original idea is not necessarily "the" idea. And that whatever he had in mind is never going to happen. I'm sorry this turned out to be such a disappointment to you, Fab. But I do wish you'd stop raining on the parade or whatever it is we have going on over here. As Les has said, over and over, this thing is what it is. And of course, it is dying. It's always dying.
Uh, I think of all the people who have uttered a word on this page, Fab is the one who gets carte blanche. I would no more go after him than I would tug on Superman's cape. I think he has earned the right - many times over - to comment on what this blog is and might be.
DeleteKimmie, I did not intend my post as "going after" anyone. I don't challenge his right to comment----I just wish he could somehow not be so unhappy with things the way they are obviously going to be until this page finally dies a quiet death (hopefully sometime way in the future, but who knows?).
DeleteFab, my apologies if my comment seemed insulting or to be an attempt to attack you.
Fab, I agree with you. The page is going to die with as few people working on it as there is now. Without the mods putting up posts and linked articles and flashbacks, there's just a trickle of VERY FINE work here.
ReplyDeleteI think the page is great. I love coming here. I love that I get to post once in a while. But I agree: wouldn't it be great if more people liked the page and contributed.
I agree with Kimmie; if anyone has free reign to say whatever he/she wants about the page, it's the guy who created the page!
But I'm not mad at Bella either for saying what she thought. I disagree, but I respect and understand her point of view.
: )
DeleteSo we've now got one more post from one of the semi-regular posters. Not sure if that's the most productive thing in the situation, but I ran into the info, and figured I might as well put it up while I was thinking of it, and add a few questions at the end in case anybody wanted to get a conversation going.
ReplyDeleteI kinda agree with everybody: I'm not sure we're ever going to have 100+ active posters (or what that would look like, since we'd inevitably clump up at certain times of the week/year unless somebody was managing the whole thing, which would be a huge headache, and wouldn't work anyway, because academics are deservedly notorious for missing/ignoring deadlines). But I do enjoy it when things get lively, and we have a variety of voices (whether they're posting directly or sending stuff in to the RGM), as was the case for a few weeks in December. And I do tend to think that most communities are stronger when there are more people actively invested in making the community work (though having more people who feel they have a stake/investment can also lead to more wrangles. Yes, I have spent substantial time on church committees. Why do you ask?) So, please, if you've been reading and/or commenting for a while (or, for that matter, just found the page), and have something to say, please chime in.
[Insert obligatory reply about how "the regulars" gang up on new posters here]
DeleteGood post about OLLI. Thanks.
DeleteIf the RGM charged a $100 annual fee for posting privileges, there'd be more posters and posts. Get that Tom Sawyer mojo going.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about a few things:
ReplyDelete1) Following Hiram's observation, how many of the past 100 posts are moderator-generated, rather than just moderator-posted?
2) Likewise, how many of those 70 moderator posts occurred during the holidays, traditionally a slack period?
3) Do we have a comparison case with peak times, such as just before mid-terms? Of any given stretch of 100 posts at that time, how many are moderator posts?
4) Finally, of the 70 moderator posts in the last 100 posts overall, how many happened on a day when someone else posted something - i.e., when it was not strictly necessary to have a moderator post to have daily content?
I absolutely respect Fab's right to comment on his vision for the blog, but I want to make sure he has the right data. This is a stressful time of year AND - perversely - a time culturally designated for "taking stock." I just want to control for the possibility that the picture is not so depressing as it may immediately appear to our buddy Fab.
"Our Buddy Fab" is a great name for a movie. Cal, can you make that happen?
DeleteI haven't done the research to answer the questions, but they are all good ones, and fairly easily calculated for anyone with the free time.
DeleteMy own feeling is that the mods have always posted material when it's slow and hardly ever when it's busy.
Let's see how the new year goes. When folks have things to share with the community, they can post on their own or simply use the new SUBMIT button in the sidebar.
Let us enjoy the page and each other while celebrating the misery.
I had posting rights, but was purged.
ReplyDeleteYes. Leslie K deleted a number of inactive accounts a few months ago. We've apologized for that on more than a few occasions, and have added back anyone who intended to post on the page. Everyone has always had the option to send material to our email address. (Or the brand new submit button.)
DeleteShort of coming to your house and pressing your computer keys, we're confident that people who wanted to post something have been able to.
Yes, Leslie writes that this happened in July. She's still sorry and hopes anyone who never got reinstated will just let us know.
DeleteWe are standing by to allow the misery to flow!!
BC, you should get posting rights back and stay active! I remember with great interest your updates on the Walker fascism a few years back. It was great to have a ground floor series of updates on that. Come back!!
DeleteI, too, hope Burnt Chrome will accept our apologies again. As Leslie noted several months ago, it was inadvertent. We've once again sent an invite and hope that this time BC will rejoin the misery.
DeleteI take full responsibility for the BurntChrome Fiasco of 2013. These other people might wish to throw themselves under the bus for me, but I cannot let them do that. I am to blame. Me and my horse. When we get drunk, we make big mistakes. I'm just very very very very very very very sorry.
DeleteDammit, Bubba, I'm to blame. You're the victim. You're the martyr. I've wronged you!!! Now just shut up and take my sincere fucking apology.
DeleteOh my God. I am going to say exactly that next time my Dean gets mad at me....:
Delete"Me and my horse. When we get drunk, we make big mistakes." I'm just very very very very very very very very very sorry."
I love it love it love it love it.
And YOU Bubba.
Oh Bubba, you and your horse never make mistakes. You simply have adventures!
ReplyDeleteI will check my email, and resume my posting, because I have got some whoppers.
Thank you, Fab and Leslie, for all of your hard work here keeping this sandbox going (and for filtering out the cat turds).