Is there a technical reason for limiting who gets to blog?
I mean, if somebody wants to blog and nobody reads it- what's the harm....it's their time.
I guess bandwidth and storage are issues?
_____________________________________________________
"The sparrow hops along the veranda, with wet feet."

I'm not the most computer savvy person out there, but I don't see how a blog post would take up much more storage space or bandwidth then a forum post (hell, if no one viewed it, wouldn't it be less then a forum post?).

Letting more people blog would encourage more organized processing of what comes out of forum discussions (potentially fixing that particular shortcoming of IshCon). The only pitfall I see is that if anyone can blog, finding the quality material becomes a slightly more difficult; as I see it, this could easily be solved by having the most prolific or celebrated bloggers be listed at the top of the page. Or something.

Quality control is the main reason I have to not allow everyone to blog. The purpose of Ishthink is to be the first step of people who read Ishmael and think "What do I do next?", so I think it's important to get some high quality density somewhere, and I think that the blogs are a good place to do that.

Thanks for the nomination Rory. I accept. In return, I would like to nominate you.
Take Care.

thanks for nominating me!

my blog would be about walking away, how the view keeps changing. In the next few weeks I would pretty much submit my "lecture" materials, but accompanied by the odd reactions my students are having.

Like an experiment in mind-changing, my hypothesis being: "I can change 67 minds in 3 months". That's the 60 students, the 5 that dropped but I got to them in the first lecture (enough to piss them off), plus the teaching assistant who has to wrap her mind around this stuff to mark the assignments, plus the regular prof, whose usual materials I completely deleted from the WebCT and he'll have to go through my lecture notes to be able to get his disaster back the way it was

Luckily I've realized objectivity is impossible, because I would drive myself nuts trying to objectively determine the outcome

cheers 

i vote for me (that's one!) and She votes for me (that's two!)and i vote for She, so (that's three!) YIPPEE!

anyone want to second our three votes to blog about families, fishing, fiber and foolishness?

In the spirit of supporting a diversity of blogs, seconded!

That's a good name for it too.
whee!

--
@maddox: now she's crying
RichK: haha, your mom doesn't know about your website?

You should have one now. Have fun.

on my YIM katemonster.

--
@maddox: now she's crying
RichK: haha, your mom doesn't know about your website?

man, I think everyone should have a blog... though I don't know anything about any of this stuff so I probably wouldn't be able to post in mine.

you! Greenfeather person!!!!!i am trying to IM you, but i believe i have killed my computer as far as some email capabilities go. someone is coming by tonight to fix it...but i did figure out why i wasn't getting im's for a long time....i kept turning it off...i have to go cut wood if we want to be warm, so i will check back with you later....

hey, try sending me an IM so i can see if it comes through!

Thanks for wanting a blog from me, kate. But I haven't been in a highly verbal mode for awhile, so, it might just be a bunch of pictures with brief descriptions.

I think a picture area is a good idea, especially for those of us who on the site who are visual learners (ahem, like me).

Can we have a pictures area? pretty please?

well, i think you have alot of stuff that you've done, and are doing, that are interesting and important....it just seems to make sense to have that in one place.....somewhere, anyhow....and with occasional comments about what you've foraged, or what did or didn't work on your last project....but your pics tell a thousand words....

Thank you, kate.

I would say that anyone should be able to have a blog and we figure out some way to have a list with the most popular blogs. If an allegation or problem arose with a certain blog then it could be out to "the peoples court" to decide the outcome. I'd just rather deal with problems rather than silencing people for fear of problems.
_____________________________________________________
"The sparrow hops along the veranda, with wet feet."

Thank you Kate and William for being supportive of me doing a blog. I hope I do a good job

- Joe

joevir (AT) gmail (PERIOD) com

Blogs for everyone doing something inspiring!

I'd like to sign up for the blog. I'll be posting my save the world research with fungi, as well as peering into the depths of civilization and it's history...

You are not Leaving, you are Returning

Sounds great Tony, can't wait to hear about it. Oh, if you could suggest some advice for beginning fungi-friends, that would be great - say, good books, or ways to think, or what-have-you.

- Joe

joevir (AT) gmail (PERIOD) com

Wow, this place exploded right quick!

I'm fucking swamped for the rest of January, so I hope you can survive that long, Rory ;^) I already have a zillion posts to catch up on.

I'd love to blog, but I'll be out of it for another couple weeks. I'll be speaking all clipped and stuff when I do speak. Like this. We out.

Peace and Love and Empathy,

Matt

I have an idea

Instead of relying on coming up with a preemptive system, how about coming up with a way of weeding out the not-so-good blogs when and if things get too crowded or unruly?

we could have secret ballot methods, a demerit system (e.g. complaints from x number of different members), or blogs just being archived and closed down when there haven't been any posts for a couple months

just an idea to take the pressure off in trying to figure the whole thing out right now

I think this could be a good idea in some cases, but other bloggers may disagree. I don't like the idea of enforcing this globally. Maybe there's a way the bloggers can individually moderate their own blogs?

I can add a module that allow people to vote posts UP or DOWN.

Based on established criterias, thes eposts could for example end up on the front page (with enough + votes) or get deleted (with enough - votes).

Mob rules!  :) 

try linking specific questions or sections of your blog to actual threads, as a way to give conversational the extra stimulus you seek.

OH I want to second anyone's nomination, I bet we've got a shitoad of great ideas, and we can figure out what to do if we end up with too much.

Tony

You are not Leaving, you are Returning

I like the idea of the vote module. What does everyone else think? This could be an easy way to decide what blog posts go on the front page.

Tony - I think we're reaching a consensus agreement about anyone who wants a blog getting one.  I also think it's nice that people post what they're going to do with it, just for our idle curiosity. 

- Joe

joevir (AT) gmail (PERIOD) com

I've not seen it in action yet, but it's about the equivalent of digging a story if you'd like.

On each post, registered have the option, should they so choose, to vote it up or down. If we decide that 20 votes makes front page, then once 20 votes are obtained, it makes front page.

Same deal if we decide -30 makes a post disappear. if 30 people vote it down, it's automatically deleted. The number 30 might be based on a percentage of registered users. As we grow, it might take more people to vote up or down.

I think you can't get more democratic than that..

Then the job of moderation is strictly to deal with people having issues like (Wiiiiiiiiiinnnnnn.. 30 people hate me.. ) hehe

It's also possible to use a functionality called "Organic Groups" in Drupal.  This would allow sub groups to be formed, where they manage their own sections of the community site.  

So let's say we have many groups, amongst them one about "unschooling", with members A, D and F managing it.  They become responsible for moderating their own corners, keeoign things tidy.  Within there they would have their own sub-list of members, their own event calendar, etc...   It also means that if I, member "I", am not interested at all by the subject of unschooling, I simply do not join that group.

It's a great feature of Drupal and offers many many posibilities.  If there is interest in this, I could investigate and present a report on how it could work..

My 2 cents

G

I like this idea...

And well, could there just be some sort of flag you could set when you write a blog entry, i.e. "I want this to be considered something for the front page" or "This is just something I want in my blog"

You definitely have my vote too. 

I would love to see your art, Olivia!

i second that.

So would I, so 3

you knucklehead.

twofeathers respectfully requests a blog.

please vote for we.

ty

p.s. i will tell you about my new axe, and the empowerment of chopping wood.......

Sorry, apparently my blog has a voracious appetite and ate all the other blogs. Bad blog, bad! No cyber-cookie!

Twofeather you've got my vote! Also, I'd love to hear what Aaron can tell us!

- Joe

joevir (AT) gmail (PERIOD) com

I totally agree, Vote #2!

I'm honored that you guys would want me to write something about this.  If you gave me blog space I would invariably write about other things then just my experiance with Food Issues and Activism.  Unless you simply want me to have a blog to write about organizations that I find and meet that I think are spiffy.

I'd say you can blog about whatever you'd like to.

Sounds good to me

-Joe

joevir (AT) gmail (PERIOD) com

Me too
nomad411

I concur as well, so I went ahead and clicked the button to make it so. I hope nobody minds too much.

--William

That's plenty of time, IMO. If people felt strongly about it, they would have interjected.

I think Ishthink has demonstrated that there is a poweful balance between waiting for input and going for the gusto. A corollary  to (as my mom puts it) "it is easier to beg forgiveness than beg permission".

- Joe

joevir (AT) gmail (PERIOD) com