About…

Updated July 12, 2008 

EMUTalk.org is a discussion space that started here, on September 14, 2006. While it is a forum that primarily discusses issues associated with Eastern Michigan University and the Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor area, IT HAS NO OFFICIAL AFFILIATION WITH EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY! If you want that, visit http://www.emich.edu

If you are interested in learning more about what it takes to contribute to EMUTalk.org, about posting a comment on one of the on-going topics, and other various bits of legal mumbo-jumbo, visit the The Rules: EMUTalk.org User’s Manual and Commentator Guidelines.

Who started EMUTalk.org? Who runs this site?
EMUTalk.org was started and run by “sitedad,” aka Steven D. Krause. Krause’s “day job” is as a Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at EMU. Again, while Krause does work at EMU, EMUTalk.org has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH HIS OFFICIAL WORK as a professor. Essentially, EMUTalk.org is Krause’s hobby. You can learn far more than you want to learn about Krause at his official web site.

Why does EMUTalk.org exist?
The goal of EMUTalk.org is to provide members of the EMU community– students, faculty, lecturers, adjuncts, parents, administrators, secretaries, sports fans, janitors, construction workers, commuters, etc., etc., etc.– a place to read, write, and comment.

Just how many people read EMUTalk.org anyway? And who are these people?
Since September 2006 and the time of the second rewriting of this “About…” document (mid-July 2008), EMUTalk.org has received over 540,000 page views from readers, has had almost 827 posts, and nearly 7,000 comments. In other words, hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of people read EMUTalk.org every day. The vast majority of these readers, writers, and commentators are located near EMU in southeast Michigan.

Is there anything else I can read in the media about EMUTalk.org?
EMUTalk.org has been quoted or referenced in a variety of print media articles. Sitedad/aka Steven D. Krause was interviewed by the Ann Arbor News about EMUTalk.org in August 2007, and that’s available here.

Who pays for this?
Surprisingly, a site like EMUTalk.org is very inexpensive. For the 2006-07 I paid for the site out of my own pocket; for the 2007-08 year, I held a modest fund raiser and took in about $100 to pay for the expenses of the site. Starting in summer 2008, I began a plan of running small and discreet Google ads.

Ads?!  Wait!  Are you in this to make a bunch of money?
Hardly.  Basically, I just want to cover my expenses.  I don’t anticipate making any more than about $100 a year on this site, which is just a bit more than the costs for the site each year.  However, if I do end up making more than that, I will either discontinue the ads or find some other good use for the money– a donation to an EMU or local cause, an EMUTalk.org-themed event, etc. 

Who owns the posts and comments that are posted at EMUTalk.org?
All posts and comments on EMUTalk.org are licensed by this license from Creative Commons. Basically, anyone anywhere is free to remix and share the contents of EMUTalk.org in any format as long as attribution is given to the site. Writers who think that they own and/or can profit personally from what they post as either posts or comments at EMUTalk.org are wrong and they ought to think more carefully before posting or commenting.

I just want to post a comment– how do I do that?
It’s easy! First, scroll to the bottom of the post you want to comment on. You have to supply an email address that’s real, though you can post anonymously.  If the site is in “comment moderation mode,” it might take a bit for your comment to appear.

I’d like to learn a lot more…
If you want to learn more about EMUTalk.org, then you ought to visit and/or review the The Rules: EMUTalk.org’s Disclaimers, Code of Conduct, and Ways to Participate (Version 2.0).