I'd like to suggest that on the anniversary of your very fine blog that you stop using "filler," the memes, the maps, the made up eye candy, the moderator-generated content that updates the page once a day in the absence of original material.
I've never been a mod here, but I've been a long time counselor to you, Leslie, Terry, etc. And I have contributed "filler" myself, recently, for the same reasons you have. But I don't believe it's the best thing anymore.
The page needs to go on on its own. I believe that blank days will test the community's interest in keeping the page alive, and I urge you to consider this very modest proposal.
I hope others who are reading today will weigh in with their own thoughts - or indeed other proposals - in the comments below.
- Compound Cal of the Canadian Cals
I continue to take my share of the responsibility for the decline of the page. I'm afraid that my over-the-top closing salvo confused too many people, based on emails that have been forwarded to me by Fab. I think Cal's idea is a good one, and support it.
ReplyDeleteTerry P.
As someone with posting privileges who never manages to post, I share the blame. I have a few things going on right now, and will see whether I can get something out of it.
ReplyDeleteMy "problem" is that, seeing what others post here, the problems of one little proffie don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
Which is to say, the moderators should not feel obligated to post filler. Posting stuff just to fill up the page is our job, the folks with (and without) posting privileges.
DeleteThe moderators' job, as I see it, is to post things that are e-mailed in, and to step in when the comboxes get out of hand. For at least some definitions of "out of hand."
It occurs to me that in this place, the tendency to label each other's issues as "first world problems" is quite low indeed. Your problems are our problems.
DeleteWell, no, I am the one labeling my own problems minor. I'm really pretty grateful for where I teach, and most of my students. But I do have some tales of this year, to be posted anon.
DeleteHi Cal, you lazy gluten-free fucker. Yes, I hear your proposal and it's one that's been discussed.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know how much community members love the page. I don't want it to go away. Some notes that arrived this morning through the email have said that the proposal makes sense and that in fact may spur some new content, which is all any of us really want.
We're open, folks. We're going to stay open.
As always, you can post on your own if you have (or request) posting rights, but it's also fantastically easy to use the email link in the sidebar and I'll have a small child or monkey or my cat do the actualization. I'll find a poorly made graphic from Cal's voluminous and lousy gallery of old images, or I'll make an equally shitty one.
It's all okay. Sorry we've been so dysfunctional. I continue to love the site, and will do everything I can to keep the lights on, the pantry full of gluten free snacks, absinthe, snake repellent, and ammunition (for Walt).
The suggestion makes sense to me, too, but really, whatever works for the mod(s) works for me. There's no one right way to run the page, I'm pretty sure, but choosing a way that suits whoever's serving as RGM is a pretty good start.
ReplyDeleteI think people were finding the combination of the anniversary notice and the current background a bit ominous (though of course we don't know who posted what). Personally, I'm rather fond of graveyards, but some find them disturbing, I'm told.
Eek! What have I done? I'm not sure what that stuff in the current background is, but I'm thinking it might be blood.
DeleteIt sure is science-y. Is there some pathology in this plasma, resulting from ingesting the hot-dog, which is both filler and killer?
DeleteCassandra! It was a placeholder while Cal took FOREVER to respond to my request for new graphics. He really is the worst. Golfing. Baking his awful gluten free bread, hard as rocks. He's terrible. But he did make a nice avatar for Neala, our newest correspondent who has a great piece on the top of the page!
DeleteAnd we now have a nice, abstract background that will either give no one or everyone the heebie-jeebies (but/and we can argue 'til the cows come home over what the heck it is -- trees? ice? broken glass? some combination of all of the above?).
DeleteI'm perfectly fine with not worrying about filler, and letting things progress as they will.
ReplyDeleteIf the Canadian Cals would cooperate with the California Cals and the Kensington Kimmies, then this blog might actually have a shot at finally dying.
ReplyDeleteHere's a Modest Proposal: Kill the comments. People post interesting stuff in the comments that could be front-paged. Go old school like RYS.
ReplyDeleteI come here as much for comments as for the posts themselves. Some relatively short comments have been quite thought-provoking, but I suspect they'd not have been aired if they'd had to be developed into a full post each. I think comments allow for a broader spectrum of interaction, each contributing according to their comfort level.
DeleteMaybe we can continue to help each other to recognize when a comment has reached the level of being a new post. At the suggestion of others such as yourself, I've added to my list of ideas to develop further, and I fully expect to uncork them all after they've fermented enough.
I love the proposal. I don't want Fab to burn out or feel like this is a chore. Surely content will come in at enough regularity that we will all continue to check the page.
ReplyDeleteDon't give up on the Misery if a couple of blank days go. It's still the only game in town as far as I'm concerned.
I like the old stuff. RYS rocked.
ReplyDeleteI like the new stuff. Go Neala!
I like Fab and Cal and almost everyone.
(Twitch!)
The only suggestion in this thread that I don't like is killing the comments, for OPH's reasons.