… in town and updating EMUTalk.org, that is. Be sure to check out the just approved comments on various topics.
In the next couple of weeks, I plan/hope to roll out some changes to EMUTalk.org. I know I am going to change the layout of the site, update the version of WordPress I’m running here, add some more EMU/Ypsi/Ann Arbor-oriented links, links to other bloggers (and encouragement for folks to start their own blogs), etc. I’m also going to figure out how to run some discreet google ads. I figure I only need to make about $100 a year to pay my bills here, so I am imaging some very small ads.
One thing I am not going to do is return to the experiment in community/collaborative writing that began EMUTalk.org. I think that experiment failed in two interestingly different ways. First, instead of it being a “community” and “collaborative” effort with a lot of different folks writing posts, it ended up being a space where only a few posted. And posted. And posted. The other related issue is that a lot of these posts and the subsequent conversation was a lot more like the Jerry Springer show than a discussion forum, and, as I have discussed with many colleagues, I am not interested in being the host of that kind of “show.”
Actually, I think this more restricted format has, paradoxically, started to encourage more participation. A number of folks have more or less directly told me this, and it seems like I have received more emails from folks for suggestions of posts to EMUTalk.org lately. I think there’s been a bit more variety in the folks who have commented, and the readership of the site is about what it was last time this year.
Still, I would like to find some ways to get some more folks involved in different ways. Ideally, I’d like to see links and feeds to other EMU and Ypsi/Arbor bloggers. For example, EMUTalk.org regular Kayla Potter sent me a link to her blog last week (sorry I am just mentioning it now) that I will certainly be including in a feed here. As I’ve said before and I will say again, if you have a blog or a web site you want me to link to it, just let me know. And if you need help getting started making your own blog, let me know that too.
I’m also contemplating the idea of “guest bloggers,” a practice that’s pretty common in other blogs like EMUTalk.org. The way that would work, basically, is regular readers/commentators/past contributors could have a chunk of time (a week? a month?) to take a turn posting on some EMU community-related topic. And then I’ve got some other ideas that are less formed.
Anyway, look for changes sooner than later, and if you’ve got any ideas or complaints or whatever, let me know.
