Friday, July 14, 2006

Where Do We Go From Here?

We had this discussion months ago, but I thought I would reopen it now. Our little piece of blogspace has become more and more professional looking. We almost always include images with our posts which automatically gives it a good look. Our writing has become sharper and the posts have generally become more professional.

Look through the last couple of month’s worth of posts. Almost every one has a cohesive narrative thread. There are a few quick hits (Prayer requests, tidbits of information, etc.) but for the most part we’ve all learned to say things with wit, style and verve.

I would once again like to throw out a call to making this site (or another site just like it) into something more public. We’ve recently all learned that more people read our blog than we ever thought, why not open it up for more eyes?

It wouldn’t take much more effort than what we’re doing now to be “professional.” We’d need to do some slight editing to our posts, everyone would need a quick reread before they posted. We’d probably want some minor guidelines as to what kind of posts we want to put out there.

The benefits of making it public would include:

• Entering into discussions with many more people
• Being part of something “bigger”
• Cool cred for owning your own website
• We’d all be “published” writers

I really think our blog has a lot of potential in the “real” world. A site that honestly discusses religion, politics, culture and everything else under the sun with our distinctive styles has real potential to be something more.

I’ve been a blogger for over a year now and I absolutely love it. Even though my blog is really nothing of importance, I get great pleasure out of crafting a well written piece and putting it on a site that is all my own. But because I am but one man, and my time is limited, my blog is very small. The single biggest problem I have is that I don’t have the ability to create more content. Our group blog has never had that problem. Heck, sometimes posts get lost because we are posting so much.

Some potential problems with this idea:

• Our personal forum would become public. With tons of eyes reading we’d have to limit what we say about our personal lives
• Some of us with slow internet connections rely on the blog to communicate in a manner that is more effective than e-mail
• We’d have to spend more time reading through our posts/comments to ensure they “fit” into the public space
• Religious discussions could get out of hand.

I’ll try to answer these problems. Our blog is currently public. As we’ve recently seen all kinds of people can and do find us. We should already limit what we say about our personal lives. We could however create a separate personal blog in which we could relate small bits that wouldn’t fit into the professional site. This second blog would also eliminate problems concerning e-mail connections.

We would have to spend a little more time editing our information. Honestly, I wish we would all do this a little more anyway (myself included), but it isn’t that hard to write your post in an editing program (like Word) to clean up simple spelling/grammar mistakes. It would also be good to make what we’re trying to say more intelligible. We’ve all been guilty of writing a post or comment that didn’t come out the way we hoped. How many comments have been made only to have to write 50 others to explain what the first one means?

Plus, as we all read each others posts, those of us a little more familiar with grammar/style guidelines could clean up.

Tis true, religious discussions on the Internet do get out of hand quickly. Lots of excitable folks throw out all kinds of accusations. Honestly, at first we really wouldn’t be getting that many hits, so this shouldn’t happen to a great extent. If we get bigger and more people start reading we could very easily create some filters to make it a nicer discussion.

What do you guys think? I really love our blog. It looks better and better each day. I truly believe with a little work we could have a top notch website. Maybe that’s not what anyone here wants. I don’t know, I just really like the idea of having something that feels real and professional. The idea of having something that could really compete with the big sites our there is really cool to me. I think we do having something with great potential. And I volunteer to push this thing forward.

39 comments:

lilsip said...

This all sounds great, but what would you consider to be the goal? Is there some way to measure the success of it?

kellieja said...

As an outsider, I like the Cafe. I believe if I didn’t know most of the people posting it would still be enjoyable to me.
You guys are friends and still keep separate views on things. That is what makes it interesting and leaves you wanting more.
I hope you don’t mind me snooping in your personal lives but it is fascinating!

I think I shall change my handle to Kool-Aid Kellie!

Mat Brewster said...

This is a very good question. To me the initial success would be having a cool website. Again I love our blog, but I would much prefer it to be cleaned up.

It is actually very close to being there already. Look at our front page. 6 of the 8 posts are great. Maybe they could have a little more added, and maybe a little spell checking but mostly they are great. Two of them are quicky posts that would be rejected.

Actual tangible goals could be measured with stats counters and google rankings. We could also look at how many folks are commenting. If it got bit we could actually make some money, but that's way down the road.

To me all that is secondary. Just having a clean, professional site is totally cool. Sort of like josh getting published. Would it be great if it was a best seller and made tons of cash? Absolutely. But would he be super thrilled if it just got published? I bet so.

Mat Brewster said...

Kool-Aid Kellie, my idea wouldn't really change much of what you see here. The personal things could actually have a place too. Charles recent post about his house, or fishing trip, or grill would fit perfectly into my plan.

What I would eliminate would be posts like the one that said "I got the call" posts that are very small and only contain a tidbit of information.

Kool Kats like you and Fred could also be invited to participate and even create guest postings.

mullinz8 said...

Kool-Aid Kellie… I dig it girl, go on with your bad self.

I love the fact that people are joining in the conversations. Especially when it’s folks who don’t post and vanish. Kellie, Ryan and Yudelka have added wonderful POV’s that we might bypass otherwise.

As I said before I’m not going to change what I post. Boring or not my opinion is just that. What someone thinks of that is of no great concern to me.

I don’t think the context of the blog is going to change except that we might have a bit more folks dropping, jerking around and leaving.

My question is how would more people find us on another site versus this one? What is moving really going to accomplish? Can our friends join in as easily?

I sort of think of this like the original café in the ghetto. It was a small space with a few friends and guests that discussed our lives with complete honesty. The café would not have been as tight knit in a huge suite of rooms. I’m sure your making the connection here.

In the end I don’t know, like Rachel said, what our “goal” is.

Kellie, are you hip to the café history right? Sometimes we park the walkers and tell really crotchety, silly old stories too. Chasing panthers across the FU campus at midnight, vandalism, laughter, bizarre (nonsexual) movies, all night cookouts, ACPO… Geez, what a bunch of geeks.

What happens if we get on a good string of dialog about sex stories? Those are a lot of fun and it’s been too long since we’ve gotten good and rowdy! Didn’t we have a 40+ sex post once? There was the topic I considered about writing a Christian sexual manual, it’s still a good idea.

kellieja said...

Remember, you want to clean it up so I don't know if guest posting should be allowed for me. *she gives a smile and a wink*

I finally started my blogspot after having an account for a year. I will leave all of my dirt there.

mullinz8 said...

I think one of the key elements is keeping the personal blogs the way they are. I couldn’t tell you if it was a founding reason but we communicate so easily through this medium and I hate to tarnish it’s ease.

One more of our group has moved from our former HQ and relegating what’s important to him to an unacceptable blog post is in my opinion just about rude. I’m thrilled to know Chuck got his job and there’s no easier and simpler way for us to say bully for him.

Cleaning and tightening up the blog I’m 100% for but editing the contributions removes the people from the posts.

Mat Brewster said...

Actually my idea would keep this blog as is. So nobody would have to move to do what we're doing. Those who want to write, "I got an ingrown toe nail, its full of puss" they can.

What I'm suggesting is that we have another blog where our cleaned up posts can go. Mullins, you're posts would go as is, except for maybe a spell check.

Any outside editing would be just that, catching spelling mistakes and basic grammar.

The point again for me would be to create a "real" site. I'm sorry but all the little posts get on my nerves when I look at this site.

What's the point of josh writing the book? What's the point of you shooting a TV show? The same point as creating a professional blog.

If I'm still in the minority on this, so be it. But it really wouldn't be that difficult. Honestly, if it is that difficult to determine what fits - does it have more than three sentences? Is what I'm about to say interesting to anyone but my closest friends? - then I guess maybe we shouldn't do this.

Mat Brewster said...

Cleaning and tightening up the blog I’m 100% for but editing the contributions removes the people from the posts.

Again we're not talking about newspaper editing here. No one is going to take someones post and rewrite it. It would be simple grammar and spelling mistakes.

I'm thrilled for charles too. And again that type of post could stay here or in an e-mail.

lilsip said...

So you're saying, take the best stuff and transfer/copy it to a blog of its own? That might work.

Mat Brewster said...

Exactly. We've got way too much on this blog that we wouldn't want to a million eyes looking at. Not that its bad or that I'm dissing any small personal post, but that it might not be information we want the world to see.

What I'd do is create a new site, and then only have the bigger, more professional (for lack of a better word) posts. There would be no reason for hard feelings. It's not about who is cool or whatever. We'd all have posts that would be strictly for the personal site, and those who chose to write broader pieces could include it for the professional one.

Mat Brewster said...

Let me back up a little and explain my “whys” a little more. For awhile now I have become very interested in being a part of a larger creative project – something meaningful, unique, interesting and available for public consumption. I suppose part of the nature of being creative is wanting others to be able to see that creativity. Frankly, I am limited as to what creative things I can do.

I can’t sing, I don’t play an instrument, I draw for crap, ditto for acting, dancing etc. What I can do is write.

The question then becomes what can I write and how do I want to present that writing. I’ve worked on a few short stories and started a novel half dozen times, but I don’t seem to have the stamina for it. For the last year I have been writing reviews and essays on pop culture. I enjoy this immensely and it is an active, creative medium.

For better or worse, the web has evolved into what some folks are calling Web 2.0. Almost everything is interactive now. Think of the old print media. Readers had little choice in how they got their information. Newspapers were owned by corporations. Producers and editors made decisions on what their paper would carry, professional writers were given assignments and editors reworked the pieces to fit the corporation’s ideas.

If a story didn’t fit into the corporations idea of what should be told, we didn’t read about it. If editors wanted to slant something one way with a spin, they did. Readers had little choice.

The internet changed this. Suddenly all sorts of information became available. Readers had more choices as to what information to consume. However, it became difficult to sort through the crap. With decent software, total nut jobs could create sites that looked totally credible and were full of absolute nonsense. There were few methods or ranking information as to its validity and fewer means for users to be involved, to comment on the information.

The new web is completely interactive. Most sites either have direct comment links per story, or a forum that allows all users to discuss the issues. Sites like Digg and Shoutwire have developed systems to effectively let the users rank the information and even promote it to the front page. On these sites users submit a posting, then the readers are able to vote on whether or not it is a good story. Stories with more positive votes float to the top of the page and thus get more readers. Effectively readers are choosing the news they want to see, and are able to directly comment upon it.

Blogs are perfect for this. I said all this because I feel some of this group doesn’t really think of blogging as a truly creative and worthwhile endeavor. Like somehow blogs are sub par media. Truth is, blogging is the way of the future, the way of right now.

We are all creative folks with a lot of talent. We’ve talked before about creating something together. Truth of the matter is, none of us have the time or motivation to really create something.

I feel that with very little extra effort we could create a web site/blog that could be really interesting, creative, and meaningful. In time it could be a very big site. There really aren’t any sites out there who have strong conversations about religion, politics, pop culture, and family like we do. We’d have a niche and I think a lot of people would love it.

I’ll ask again. Why does Josh write? Why does Jamison play music? Why does Mullins produce TV shows? Why does Charlie want to write a comic? I want to create something creative with you guys. I want to be a part of something super cool. I think we can totally pull it off.

JS said...

heck, for 10 or 12 bucks ill buy the domain name you want and maybe we can find a good deal on some webspace... i dont wanna give this blog up.

Mat Brewster said...

Well before we do anything, we should get responses from everyone. One of the strengths of our blog is that we get a lot of conversations going. If we set up site 2, we'd need conversations going there.

How does everyone feel about having to go to two blogs - one for our religious/political/culture discussions, another for more personal posts?

If we can get most on board then we can work out some specifics.

Mat Brewster said...

Oh and I think we can definitely use Kellie J's video talents.

lilsip said...

No problem with going to 2 sites here. How easy is that? Click. Only thing I can see happening is that someone may post on the personal one, then that turns into a public-worthy discussion. We could then say hey, lets continue this on the public blog, yadda yadda yadda...

bigsip said...

Let's do it.

The sooner we get it going, the sooner we see if it flies or dies.

That's an "aye" from Sip!

Mat Brewster said...

Ok, if everyone could lay a vote down on this by Tuesday we can get started on this.

To reiterate a few things. This blog (midnightcafediscussions.blogspot.com) will remain here and you can still post everything you want. You can tell us all about the grilled cheese sandwich (opening the grilled cheese) you ate for lunch, any prayer requests you need or whatever. The only difference will be that now we’ll have two blogs. This one will keep all of our personal stories, and the other one will have all of our more discussion oriented posts.

We can link the new site to the old one so it is super easy to go from one blog to the other. We can add a message to the old site letting everyone know there is a new discussion to the new site. So it really shouldn’t cause anyone any problems having two sites.

There will have to be some discussion about how we decide to post to the new place. But I would suggest that if you don’t want anything you write to go to a site that we are actively seeking strangers to access let us know now.

For those of you already gung-ho on this, there are some things to start thinking about now. First what do we want to call it? I like the midnightcafe concept, or maybe mubetasigma, but we can use just about anything. I also like the blog concept simply because it is easy to use and makes multiple users simple too. It’s also free so we don’t have to buy a bunch of web space.

My suggestion for now would be to use one of the blog accounts, and maybe spend a couple of bucks on creating a domain. You can point the domain to the free blog account with no problem. That way we remove the crappy looking .blogspot or .wordpress url and if we do decide to buy webspace later and revamp we can still use the same domain.

Start thinking about design concepts as well and how we want to organize our material. Also we’ll need to discuss how we want to add content. My suggestion is to make some general guidelines as to what we want to post to the new site and then allow everyone to post their own stuff. That way we don’t have the problem of trying to vote or whatever for specific posts. We also don’t hurt anyones feelings for not picking their post. And we don’t have the problem of dual posting with comments every which way.

bigsip said...

I say we make it mubetasigma.

I also think the best way to do it is to post all blogs here first and then transfer the ones most conducive for public consumption to the other blog.

But, who is the approval authority? What are the criteria? etc.

Mat Brewster said...

That’s exactly why I suggest that we allow everyone to post directly to the new blog. Moving posts creates a lot of problems.

1. We’re creatures of habit and will comment to the old blog, even if it is moved to the new one. One of the greatest features of our community is our ability to discuss. This happens through the comments. If half our comments are on the old blog, the new one won’t work properly.
2. I can’t think of a good system to move the posts. Who gets to make that decision? Do we have a unanimous vote? What if some of us are on vacation or what if there is a tie? The potential for confusion and hurt feelings becomes big. Plus while we’re making that decisions comments get made and again screws up the whole plan.
3. There really isn’t a reason to have two posts. It’s seriously super easy to go from one blog to the other so there isn’t any real reason to have the same post in two places.


If this is going to work, it needs to be simple. We’re a creative bunch, but lazy mofos. Complicating the process will only make it fail. It is going to be a learning process.

bigsip said...

OK, so we set some ground rules for the new blog.

Here are a couple from me:

1. Only post informational/edifying posts, unless a personal experience meets informational/edification requirements.

2. Nothing under 100 words.

3. Always have an image with a post unless no image/appropriate image may be found.

Any other ideas? Any major objections?

Mat Brewster said...

I don’t have any problem with this. Personal stuff is fine, but yes it needs to be filled out and probably should have at least some interest to the world at large. For instance Charles recent posting about his new home probably isn’t of interest to anyone but us. It’s a great post, but a little too personal. However, the posts about fishing could very well fit on the new blog. Fishing relates to a lot of people, and that type of post could be changed a little bit to explore the spiritual nature of such retreats.

Honestly anything could be filled out and fit perfectly into the new blog. What I had for lunch today could turn into why lunch is so important, or what makes grilled cheese sandwiches the most satisfying thing in the world.

Pictures are a must. They make the site look so much better.

I would ad that posts may not edify if they create a discussion that does. Meaning someone may write a blog post about pornography that might not be in itself edifying but is designed to create a discussion on the subject matter that is edifying.

bigsip said...

Comical/entertaining blogs are probably fine, too. Many times, those types of blogs will bring about a good discussion.

Most of our stuff would be considered op/ed (opinion/editorial), anyway.

JS said...

i like the word "bonhomie" and i think it suits our group very well.

mullinz8 said...

I can tell you now that posting some stories to one blog and others to a second blog is going to kill me.

If all you want is clean, correct and concise brother I’m all for it, still…

I think one of the things that keeps this blog unique is that fact that doing a show at the Comedy Zone, the Stubbs family is growing, Chucks peeing out of doors, Brews pissy customers, is very personal and that’s placed side by side with some wonderful discussions. I’m seeing this whole thing as a story of our lives and those insignificant moments are back story and elements for character development and understanding.

I say we design a good looking site and post what we want, trying to do the spell check, images, hotlinks, etc but still post the same content as we always have. I really don’t like the idea of judging our lives and stories through the eye of an “editor”. You can judge, critique, and tell me to re-write all the boring moments of my days that I share because you are my friends not business associates with passing shared and social interests when you hand me a check for my time. Yes we’re all mature and know each other pretty well but I have a bad feeling about and won’t tell someone a post is irrelevant for further commentary on another site.

We are basically industrializing our mom and pop general store. I like the eclectic nature and personal touch of mom and pop over providing fewer goods for more consumers. Including the stuff that’s obviously crap (sarcasm) we churn out content pretty well and bury the less popular postings quickly. Waiting for only the juicy bits could create creative drought in the new site.

I don’t think cleaning up this site is akin to polishing a turd. This site works because it’s us warts and all. Open it up, change the look and direct all the traffic we can to it but I think we’re close to marginalizing and judging our opinions, experiences and each other for the sake of a bit of foot traffic.

There is a good chance I just don’t get it… I don’t want Chuck feeling like he should write some fishing story with a side of zen to get posted on the second site, or any of us for that matter. I do know that Hemmingway wrote some real shit from time to time and people still read his work in spite of it.

bigsip said...

OK, I'm with Mullins on this to a degree...

I still think we should set a few suggested guidelines.

Other than that, let's let people post whatever the heck they want.

Even whenn folks post little piddles, it's interesting because the rest of us raz them for it.

So, let's continue as is, but with more publicity.

I just want things to stay fun and open. I'm afraid if we try to hard to "perfect" this, we're going to sanitize it to death.

At this point, I say let's do something, even if it's wrong.

Mat Brewster said...

You can’t possibly be serious. What are you autistic? You do visit other sites besides this blog right? You manage to check your e-mail and post to this blog right? That as difficult as blogging to two places.

It just isn’t difficult to decide to blog something, write it out and then actually look at the thing and make a decision as to where you’d like it to go. If it is two sentences asking for prayers for your sick parakeet, it goes to the old blog. If it is 2 paragraphs and might have some appeal to anyone else post it to the new one.

We give each other so much crap every single day, how come this is suddenly a sensitive area? I can call Mullins a fat bastard SOB and nobody cares, but if I you that maybe what you wrote would fit better in the personal blog suddenly you feelings are hurt?

Man I’m not even suggesting we say anything to anyone. Everyone makes a choice where to post. You know what if Jamison writes three words about his toe jam and puts it on the professional blog, I won’t say a word. This is the beginning, we’re going to make mistakes, we’re going to posts blogs in the wrong place. So be it. Three years from now when it goes huge, we can deal with editing a little more.

Mat Brewster said...

Hemmingway did write some not so good stories, but he did his best to make them good. He wrote, rewrote, edited and sent them to someone else to review.

This is essentially what I am suggesting. Sorry, but having two sentence posts to relay basic information does not a good website make.

I'll try to shut up now and wait for a vote from all before I go stark raving mad.

Yes for the new blog:
Brewster
Josh
Rachel
Jamison? I assume from coming up with a name

Nea for the blog:
Mullins

No word from yet:
Charles
Diana
Charlie (who we'll assume will go with whatever Di decides since he's dead)

mullinz8 said...

In fact I am an autistic, fat, SOB, I’m amazed it has taken so long for you guys to figure it out.

I will happen upon other peoples blogs and give them a once over and move on. I’m pretty web and computer savvy but I don’t spend my free time in front of a monitor. To me and me alone it’s largely wasted time. I’m a searcher; I find something that I want to know more about, find it and leave. Any extra time on the thing just makes me wonder what kind of porn is out there, damned if I don’t go and look…

Let’s revamp this whole thing and make it really shiny and move towards the brave new world of maximum exposure. In doing that I still think we keep the three word posts we’ve “grown up” with.

I still have another take though. Brew; build a site to your exact specifications and take the role of executive editor. From our homely little blog you choose the posts you like and cut and paste those to your new blog, create and cull our site for content, Sipper get up there with him. We can all contribute and do what we do here under that umbrella. It will also give you the ability to tweak our raw ideas into a new direction. (It would be nice to have our contributions from the original site automatically link and update to the new site.)

I think you should take the lead and choose what you want on the site. This is an informal agreement, when you turn the first dime we reevaluate and all become active in the process, obviously riding off your coat tails. In writing a business plan and agreement we would have to define our rolls, if this could be the launching pad for some evolutionary literature we should stick to those rolls now. I don’t know that we all have to direct to machine as much as contribute to its success.

The aspiration of having a super cool website for the world to see isn’t mine. I will do anything to help my friends reach that goal but if I’m going to get involved then I’m going to want to micromanage and I think that’s something Brew can do on his own. Brew, you’ve got a vision for the whole thing and I have every amount of respect for wanting to build it. My vision is to communicate thoughts, ideas and stories to my friends.

That is the reason I think Brew should take the helm and direct the ship on its course. I can help get it there by supplying content without having to steer.

In the spirit that is Mullinz8, let’s go for it!

Mat Brewster said...

Pardon me while I get out my shit detector.

You'll do anything to help me reach this goal...but actually do anything.

Excuse me for a moment Mrs Sipper, but F**k you (and I mean that in the most kindly brotherly love way possible).

You'll do none of the work until I make a dime then you'll start helping? Well F**k you again.

Once again the problem of choosing material is that it hurts feelings. Isn't that the point of you not wanting to do this? If everyone decides what to post where nobodys feelings get hurt.

If I choose then Jamison gets mad at me because his fishing post wasn't good enough.

I'll take the argument that you want to include everything because that makes a good website. I don't agree with it but it is an argument I can understand.

Sorry if that is rough. I am a little worked up, and I am a little passionate about the subject. No harm meant personally. I still love ya mulls even if I don't understand your problem here.

mullinz8 said...

I don’t care one bit if this thing makes money; I’m in it for the community.

I could care less if this thing is read by five people or five hundred.

If in a years time Stubbs becomes someone who is contributing to the website so much so that people are coming back just to read his comics doesn’t he deserve a cut of the pie you could be getting for advertising? Do newspapers get sold because of the editor or the featured writers?
I think money at this point is putting the cart so far in front of the horse it’s in the next county. Right now it’s a non topic.

You have a vision for this blog that I don’t have, you always have. I think you and who ever else can pick and choose the content you want to add to a new site to ensure the thing is perfectly streamlined to fit that vision. Everyone will continue to add to the existing blog as is. What is the difference between you picking what you like and you, Jamison, me, Stubbs and Sipper picking something? At some point someone is going to have a post they think could be posted that no one else agrees with.

The new blog would be YOUR baby with guest contributors as you see fit. Like the Lords Supper it’s separate and apart from the existing blog but still a part of the fellowship with each other. This leaves you to get content and commentary from all of us but also design the thing for flow and formatting without interrupting the original input.

Do you really envision a committee of Café types to discuss which posts are worthwhile? You will not hurt my feelings if you don’t pick something I post, in fact I’m suggesting you be that definitive voice and pick what you think people will want to see and discuss. I’ll add my two cents worth just as I always have no matter the discussion or its location from beginning to end but I don’t want to administrate the thing.

I see it as being more efficient contributing on a freelance basis. You like a post, you don’t, no big deal. The problem before was that everyone had a different direction for the blog. At long last it has become a social posting house. We all thought we could contribute something different but no one decided what each of us would contribute. It became and is still a formless body. You’re website is great. It serves a clear purpose and is very succinct because it has direction.

Telling us to all contribute to something that you have a vision for without setting perimeters is not going to create what you are imagining. Failing to decide, as a group or an individual, what the new site, for the masses, is doing to “do” is a mistake.

I love you to but I think you owe a few more excuse me’s to your list of ladies in the group and visiting.

mullinz8 said...

By the way is your shit detector the wireless version or does it have attached battery pack. I have an older model that has been working great for me for some six years now.

JS said...

I cant wait for this post to get buried... everyday I say "Which is the way thats clear.. still lookin for that blue jean, baby queen..." because of the title... make it stop!

Mat Brewster said...

You're right. I do apologise. To you Mr. Mullins and to the groupe at large. Honestly my mouth has gone south for awhile, but I normally tame it a little in this space.

I don't care if this makes money either. But to continue the analogy, certainly I need contributors to make my idea work. But yes, if this thing did make money someday and I was the one doing all the admin work, I'd take a bigger piece of that pie. If you think a publisher doesn't make more money than writers, well you now more about the publishing business than I do.

Notice the title of this piece. I'm asking where we want to go as a group. This isn't my blog, its ours. I would like to take it a step further. Others seem to agree. I don't want to tell everybody how it will work and make this my site. I want it to be a group thing.

If we all post here then I choose what goes elsewhere it will be crap. What makes this site, and my idea for a new site is our comments. Most of our posts work well because we have a good discussion. We've gotten better at posting and some of them could stand fairly well alone, but they are made so much better with comments.

No one would comment to the new site if the post first came to the old one.

What, specifically is your problem with this idea. You would do exactly as you do now. The ONLY DIFFERENCE would be you would have to make a quick decision as to which site you want to post to. Thats all.

There are no administrative decisions. No thoughts needed on how the site looks, or is designed or is promoted. Write a post (which you already do) then post it (which you already do) When you post log into either this blog or another with a quick thought as to where it should go.

What is your problem with this? Honestly you are the major hold out right now (unless someone else chimes in) and honestly again without you the new site isn't what I want.

JS said...

for all you people looking to make money with stupid google ads, give up. On a blog site, like ours, you might make 10 or 20 bucks a month. 50 to 100 a month is you really really push it on web bots which takes up lots of time and know how.

Yes, people make loads of cash doing crap like this, but unless you plan on making about 100 blogs, ALL with interesting and ever-changing content, expect pocket change.

and honestly, I dont care either way... all things equal id just assume keep it the way it is... maybe if you see a blog you LIKE, copy and paste it into a professional-esque one...? I wont mind you using my content.

mullinz8 said...

Lets roll out the red carpet on a new blog and see what happens.

KellieJ, Yudelka and MIA computer lady and the occasional on looker might get a kick out of a focused and conversation based blog.

We keep this one because it rocks and we can be a bit silly with it along with sending out personal messages that the whole world doesn’t have to know about. For instance Brew just emailed me and told me about a nasty penal rash. I’m not sure why he mentioned it but I feel better having this example of something that would be a classic blog post.

Otherwise if we have a heavy topic of conversation or interesting observation, what ever, we post it on the more refined site.

Everyone is invited to the cookout as usual and no one is required to bring a covered dish. Let us all rejoice and feast on the fellowship of the brothers, sisters and guests of this blog and to welcoming the eyes of the world.

Mat Brewster said...

Thanks Mullins. And all I had to do was threaten him with a bowl of lima beans.

I still want to hear from the others. I'm more than happy to run the admin stuff on it, but will ask everyone to post their own to whereever they think is cool. We'll work out some casual guidelines once we get going to.

Mat Brewster said...

Let me add an apology here again. I was in no way cursing either Rachel or Josh's Mom. I was apologising to Josh's Mom for the cursing that followed. My poor grammar may have caused some confusion.

So again I apologise, all cursing was directed towards Mullins, to whom I have already apologized and worked things out.

Both lady Sippers are fine, outstanding ladies who deserve our praise and certainly not our cursing.

Judy said...

I'll be looking forward to this 'focused and conversation based blog.'

I enjoy the conversations here already.

Good job, guys!!!