What say we have some input and discussion towards the infrastructure here? If you don't get your licks in early, you miss out in young organizations like this.
Here's one to discuss: If you want to run more than three blogs (or two, or one, or four?) you should pay extra per blog.
REASONS: you use more processors and bandwidth; you blanket the headlines to the exclusion of others paying the same as you; you are more likely to have inactive blogs wasting up space (see prior points).
What say y'all?
One of our co-bloggers has raised this question in my mind: do we just split the BN (no matter how painful that may be)when it gets too polluted, or do we stand and try to hold the high ground? I've been of the laissez faire school of thought, but she made some good points. Let me, as usual, take the bit and run at the mouth with it (pun intended).
The site is supposed to have a vision (for all), a purpose (one for the users, and one for the ringmasters), and a set of rules/standards to make the first two happen. There is structure to keep the sandbox overflow out of the book shelves, the bodily fluids out of the technical tips, and the the playpen toys out of the poetry, and THREE (count 'em, THREE) avenues besides the blogs themselves to side-chat with other bloggers.
As I see it, there are the Comments (supposed to be about the blog to the author; they are left visible to other people presumably to spark thinking and conversation through the other channels, not to stand and turn slowly with your oppponents bloody head hanging from your hand for the others); the Community Comments, which ARE designed for everyone to get involved with; and the "Coffe House" chat room. Additionally, there is access via email links, which are subject to regulation by your respective email ISP's AND the rules and regs of the BN.
What has happened is that our exhibitionist urges have led us to blur these boundaries to the point that " laissez faire" means that folks are having trouble meeting the vision of the site. Some folks have taken this freedom as permission to log on "weapons hot" and open a free-fire zone from which they ambush everyone they want due to the anonymity of the Net.
It's like the kids who come to the neighborhood park, find a young tree, put a swing on it, enjoy the hell out of it, break it, and move on or complain. The structure is there for everyone to do what they want, but that can't be true if they insist on making the whole thing one big blogging melee'. Ths structure we are swinging around in is fairly young and fragile, we need to respect the rules so it can attract and keep enough new folks to keep it changing and growing. Maybe more chat rooms and higher membership fees? Stricter enforcement sounds good and is probably inevitable, but there's a razor edge between censorship and pruning the weeds. How about editing of a sort, which would probably entail delays posting, have posting standards and subsequent mandatory location of a particular blog in a particular section?
If we can't stand our ground,can't keep it orderly (I didn't say civil), we'll wind up with a site occupied by vagrant offensive assholes who grunt, look around, and finding a paucity of patsies to abuse,move on, leaving the BN to collapse.
Shape up, people!
missed your opportunity to draw a moustache on my, well, moustache.
Offer closed.
Give me some ideas for my "About Me" profile and I may post it there for up to a week. In the case of a tie between two or three of my abitrarily selected favorites, I might take turns posting them. Or if it strikes me as funny, I'll meld them. (If you want writing credits, I will probably post them!).See my blog.
I am also going to start not-reading comments to my blogs as a reflex. I am encouraged that some folks are taking the energy they were putting into comments and making them into blogs. Way to go! If you want my attention , put a blurp here or in the Cafe. If you email me and I don't like it I'll turn ya in, I prefer that reserved for the serious stuff.