Category Archives: EMUtalk.org News

Just in case you are wondering:  I’m messing with the layout of EMUTalk.org based in part on some recent updates to wordpress, so it might look kind of odd for a while.  But one of the features of this new set-up is I can have random pictures easily appear at the top, so if you have EMU images you’d like to see here, let me know and I’ll be happy to include them in the rotation.

It’s come to my attention lately that some EMU football fans aren’t happy about some of the comments I declined to post.  You can see that conversation on the Facebook page for EMU football here.  It’s at times like these (and with all the budget cuts and layoffs and other excitement lately) that it might be worthwhile for some to review “The Rules, version 2.1.” Read on your own, but a couple of highlights:

• EMUTalk.org is not associated with Eastern Michigan University in any way, and it is not only a staff and faculty blog. Lots of people in the community read and post on this site, and we talk about all kinds of different things, including EMU sports.  I happen to work at EMU as a tenured professor, but I consider this site a sort of twisted hobby, one I pay for out of my own pocket and/or with the modest financial contributions from fans.  It’s about EMU, but it is not EMU.
• EMUTalk.org is not an automatically open space; rather, it is what I would describe as “mostly self-moderating,” but every once in a while, I feel the need to step in.
• The key rules for commenting here are be civil, debate and disagree responsibly, don’t keep saying the same thing over and over again, don’t take up too much space, and comment in a way that encourages discussion and doesn’t stop it.
• In my view, the “FOOTBALL IS KING” stuff was getting a little old and repetitive, and the comment that I rejected that is the subject of this Facebook post was very long with lots of links, the sort of comment I typically reject regarding the topic.  Sorry, but it was time to move on.
• Who’s the judge of this?  I am.  And to quote my rules, “Many will see these rules and guidelines as unfair, dictatorial, and inconsistent. So be it. Despite the use of the impersonal phrase “the administrator” over and over again, keep in mind that the administrator is a human being, often reads too quickly because of a very busy day-job, does this project as a hobby and out of the goodness of his heart, and, like so many others (Walt Whitman immediately comes to mind), the administrator is large and contradicts.”

Anyway, keep all that in mind.  Thanks.

The next comment on EMUTalk.org (as of this morning, at least– June 13, 2011, at about 7:15) will be comment #10,000 since EMUTalk.org started almost five years ago in September 2006.  That might not be a lot for The Huffington Post or something like that, but for a little blog about EMU (and rarely emus), I think that’s pretty good.

Actually, I’m once again playing around with the layout here a bit. One of my regular readers and frequent correspondents mentioned to me that he had a very difficult time with the color scheme. I don’t know if this is a diagnosable usability thing or just an aversion to that khaki color, but I thought I’d try a different option to see if there was any feedback. What I think I’d really like is some wise WordPress and/or PHP/CSS coder to come up with a way for reader to pick their own color schemes, but that might be too much of a project….

As you can probably tell, I’m playing around with a new “theme” here at around EMUTalk.org, mainly as the result of some technical problems I was experiencing with the previous layout and design.  There will probably be some more tweaking and revising as the summer goes on, but I’m happy to see at least one “thumbs up” vote here.

Besides the layout, I’ve also done a few things so EMUTalk.org can participate better in this whole “social media” thing– chances are you’ve heard of it.  What that means here is:

• You can now easily share EMUTalk.org posts with a variety of different social media applications, including Facebook, and Twitter (and a bunch of other similar sites). You do this by poking at one of those buttons under where it says “Share and Enjoy” at the bottom of each posts.
• I’ve set up an EMUTalk.org Facebook page.  “Friend” me if you want.  If the various software/settings I’m working on actually work, links to blog posts will appear on the EMUTalk profile.
• Finally, there’s the “EMUTalk Talk on Twitter.”  This is made possible through something called “Twitter Tracker.” The way that it works is if you write a Twitter “Tweet” that contains the hashtag “#emutalk”, then it will show up on this site under the “EMTalk Talk” heading in the right-hand column.  We’ll see how this works out.  The upside of it is it’s another way of participating in the EMUTalk conversation; the downside is I have no way of controlling what people post with that hashtag.

I say “semi-vacation” because I’m not going to completely turn the site off, nor am I going on an electronic fast of some sort, swearing off the Internets and computers for a month.  But I will be in and out of town a bit until the beginning of summer term, and June is probably about the quietest time around campus anyway, so don’t expect any updates here until the beginning of summer term.

Well, unless something interesting happens….