Any community that would have me as a member...
While I was sick in bed, you guys have been having a useful conversation over at Radio Free Blogistan (at its new address) about what the hell the "Salon Blogs Community" really is, or means.
Since this project has always been, and remains, an experiment, I don't think I have any fixed answer to that question. Technically, of course, a blog that registers with our community server -- typically by having downloaded Radio through Salon and, after 30 days, paying the license fee -- is part of the community. But since blogs can be anything -- compulsively communicative or proudly isolationist -- the notion of "community" is an awfully vague one. If there's one thing I've learned in 13 years on the Well and seven years at Salon helping run Table Talk, it's that you don't define an online community from the top down -- you let it define itself. So I'll keep reading these discussions and conversations, chime in where it seems appropriate, and try to jot down all the useful suggestions that involve Salon doing something.
Here are some of the things we want and intend to do, soon, with Salon blogs:
(1) Begin occasionally featuring other Salon Blogs, not just mine, on the Salon home page headlines list. Doing so will, we hope, direct some more attention to bloggers' work. Now, this will have its popular aspect (yay, Salon is sending us more readers!) and its unpopular aspect (Hey, how come you picked that blog to highlight and not mine?). But we'll play around with it.
(2) Work with UserLand to eventually enable more "personalized" URLs. We know that most bloggers would rather be a name than a number! But this is a change that has to come from UserLand's side. It's their software.
(3) Build a more permanent listings page of Salon blogs that lives on Salon itself, featuring listings and brief descriptions of the blogs that have a more fixed existence than the "Updates" and "Rankings" pages. This listing would only be available to users who have paid their license fee for the Radio software. Still to be worked out: How is this page ordered?
I wish we'd been able to move on these changes sooner. This month has sort of been a wash for me -- between the time-sink that was the Jason Leopold affair and other management stuff here at Salon, and then getting sick, all I can say is, I'm looking forward to November!
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