Monday Morning Meta Madness

Mo’ Meta, mo’ betta.

Hi gang.  Welcome to summer.

Attentive readers will remember that I have projects with my club that occupy me for almost the entire month of June.  In past years this hasn’t mattered so much because I wasn’t expected to produce on a daily basis, this year I have arranged for TheMomCat to substitute as afternoon news editor.

This does not mean I will be entirely absent, just that my internet access will be sporadic, unreliable, and random.  There is a distinct possibility that I might have as good service as I have at my desktop, but it’s something I don’t wish to count on and, while a lot of my time will be spent waiting around swatting mosquitos, there are periods of urgency not to be denied and if history is any guide they are likely to occur just when I would normally be selecting stories for you.

Future Directions

As usual I’m thinking about long term improvements to our site and there are several projects that I’ve postponed in part because I’ve known this interregnum has been approaching.

One of these is Classical Gassing.  I enjoyed writing them and I think that sort of whimsical self indulgence is a good fit for weekend mornings at 6 am when Robyn is not posting Muse in the Morning.

We have a lot of open spots on our Front Page for regular features if people are willing to commit to them.  For instance Friday sees many contributions of Photo Essays and cultural pieces that I think would be perfectly placed at the 10 pm and midnight weekday slots or on weekends.  Unfortunately Friday is a really busy day for us with many of the times already taken, so I’m asking you to consider if your content might find its audience at another time that’s convenient for you.

If you wish a particular spot it’s not necessary or even desirable that you sit by your computer looking at the clock.  Simply tell us when you’d like to be featured, post whenever, and an Admin will take care of the rest.

I’m a great believer in predictability in programming and scheduling.  It builds readership and loyalty.  As we grow I expect we’ll be refreshing the Front Page more often with muse driven and topical articles.  What this means to you as an author is that your piece will age more quickly.  What it means to our readers is that they can always expect to see something new and exciting.

I’m very proud of the fact that we are much more active than some other blogs I could name with less deserved reputations.

And we’re an HTML playground.  Please keep your width < 560, 500 in blockquotes.

Or I’ll fix it.

The Big Question

Let me start by saying that I delude myself that Afternoon Edition and Weekend News Digest are as good a news summary (from a lefty standpoint) as you can find on the web.

I experimented earlier with a Week In Review feature that while immensely valuable from a news subject tracking meta standpoint is an enormous energy suck and sorta depends on the consistency you get from a single author.

We will be having our third anniversary in September and that’s a long time in blog years.  Those of you who have experienced deadline writing as opposed to muse driven will understand that consistent quality is a job.

I’m an organizer of volunteer community groups and I’ve seen burn out too often not to recognize it.

The solution is regular hours, weekends off, and vacations.

After I stumble back from my “vacation”- exhausted, muddy, sun burned and mosquito bitten, my vanity might lead me to decide to revive Week In Review.

It’s really a masterpiece.

Instead I hope that the community will step forward in leadership and my next decision will be who to recommend for Contributing Editorships and Admin positions so that all those that have given so much for so long to make DocuDharma the success it is feel confident that, should they need a rest, we will always be here to welcome them back.