Crossposted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
The world is ruled by an oligarchy. Even the government functions primarily as a puppet of executives, serving mainly to pass laws – such as banning off switches on televisions – that protect and consolidate their power. Technology has advanced to the point that people’s physical movements and communications can be monitored at all times, almost all non-security technology has been discontinued or fallen into barely functional disrepair.
The only real check on them are the people who regularly expose their unethical practices and allies both inside and outside the system who assist.
Truth, paranoia, or a dramatic introduction to more Meta?
You know, CT stands for ‘Completely True’.
Mo’ Meta Mo’ Betta
Despite my mild, self effacing, and humble manner, I’m really quite a revolutionary. I just tend to put more personal emphasis on training and education than I do on direct non-violent action, though the very act of presenting the truth to people can be considered an incitement.
I’m a great believer in the power of the internet and sites like The Stars Hollow Gazette and DocuDharma even if we don’t have political action committees and fundraising bats because at the very least we are exposing our audience to information they might not otherwise access and providing a community atmosphere where it’s ok to express your leftist leanings.
The Stars Hollow Gazette is developing into a News, Sports, and Opinion site, though we’re not limited to that kind of content by any means. DocuDharma has always been pretty eclectic and art and fiction are not ignored.
What they have in common is a schedule.
Network 23
I’ve always looked at the Internet as a whole as the world’s biggest magazine, but that’s just because of the flashy graphics. An individual site is more like a daily newspaper, TV, or Radio.
Most of us have the common experience of the fast moving Daily Kos. 500 diaries a day (read them). 18K Comments… a year (wrote them), but there were also the franchise diaries like What’s for Dinner, Overnight News Digest, and Welcome New Users which appeared on a regular basis to stand out from the crowd.
Consistency and regularity are your key to your audience.
At The Stars Hollow Gazette we currently run 7 or 8 pieces a day, Four of them are daily, 3 occasional. 6 Weekly Features. The blog is live from 6 am ET until 8 pm with articles appearing at these times-
- 6 am Six in the Morning by mishima
- 8 am On This Day in History by TheMomCat
- 10 am Occasional
- noon Punting The Pundits by TheMomCat
- 2 pm Occasional
- 4 pm Occasional
- 6 pm Evening Edition by ek hornbeck
- 9 pm Weekends (Translator)
Regular or occasional posts are welcome and featured, sometimes at a regularly scheduled time and sometimes as bonuses.
Bonuses ek?
People tune in for a reason, and that’s to read stuff. There’s nothing sadder than a stale, neglected blog with tumbling whistling deserts of nothing new.
Why visit?
I read what I call my ‘Quick’ sites 3 or 4 times a day- Eschaton, Crooks and Liars, Americablog, FDL, Think Progress. They always have something I might have missed.
You’ll also note as a close reader that all these mega successful sites publish daily on a schedule.
Now I think my Evening Editions are highly efficient and worth the admission (which is free by the way) since if I spread them Atrios style I’d personally blot out the Soapblox limits. Generating content is not a problem, but part of the art is to set up a structure on which you can hang your muse driven ramblings and those of others.
I’m just as happy not to write and no stranger to odd hours when the voices in my head won’t stop.
Back to the Future
The basic scheduling on DocuDharma is mostly the same as it’s always been (also ET)-
- 3 am Late Night Karaoke by mishima
- 6 am Muse In The Morning by Robyn
- 7:30 am Six in the Morning by mishima
- 9 am Member Content or a substitute
- 10 am Member Content or a substitute
- 11 am Member Content or a substitute
- noon Cartnoon by ek hornbeck
- 2 pm Member Content or a substitute
- 4 pm Member Content or a substitute
We currently run 10 or 11 pieces a day, Four of them are daily, 5 occasional. Regular or occasional posts are welcome and featured.
Ersatz: A cheap imitation of inferior quality.
If you want peeder instant chat response then there’s only one oft imitated but never duplicated site you can frequent. It’s more limited at Soapblox sites unless you constantly hit refresh. You just have to get used to it.
Your story takes extra time to develop and cross posting and self linking increases your impact as far as Google’s concerned which is your ultimate goal, isn’t it?
This is political blogging after all.
DocuDharma only gets 600+ unique visits a day and over 1500 page views so somebody reads it even if you don’t.
Your Contributions
I don’t expect anything except your eyeballs, everything else is just bonus. I make a real effort to prominently feature your content, indeed that’s the actual necessity for structure. Without the consistency of regular dependable expendable pieces of uneven merit to encourage at least daily readership your features will languish. As it is your brilliance stands out against the background noise of mediocrity.
Too noisy you say? My mentor pyrrho would disagree. Back in the day with the right kind of tools 500+ was a ok. Even given the somewhat limited but better than most Soapblox platform it’s just not that hard to keep up.
At DocuDharma and The Stars Hollow Gazette I’ve got the Front Page display set at 30 which gives you two and a half days at current activity levels (3 at Stars Hollow) if you just use your scroll wheel. Any sensible member has gone to their page/Profile/Display Prefs and set Recent Diaries: to 50, which gives you about a week (pieces posted directly to the Front Page by Contributing Editors don’t count). Might as well run up your # Of Recent Comments: counter too but…
It’s up to you to create your own fun.
I can’t compel your muse driven masterpieces and even less your love expressed in comments and recommendations. That’s entirely up to you. I look at the page views and visits and can see we’re having an impact.
My goal at both Stars Hollow and DocuDharma is a site that runs 24/7.
Intimidated yet? Your potential impact is monster, but you can’t sit on the sidelines and expect it to magically materialize. I’m asking for something much more reality based than money- action.
I’m about to embark on my annual spa regime of rolling in mud and getting bitten by mosquitos and at that my accommodations will be somewhat less than I’m accustomed to except in the schadenfreude department.
Rest assured (or cower in terror, your choice) I won’t be that far from the Intertubz. What will suffer is my schedule. Some regular features will be delayed or not appear. I hope to make up for that with occasional flashes of insight. I expect we’ll be able to work through this as last year at the same time TheMomCat and I set up The Stars Hollow Gazette.
Upcoming events include the Canadian Grand Prix, Le Mans, Belmont, and Le Tour.
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