[Modliness: READ] change to blogflogging

[pith]

The mods and I are discussing changes to make to the FAQ and once we're done, we'll open the discussion up to the whole community to see what you guys would like kept, removed, changed, etc. Keep in mind we won't be able to implement what everyone wants, because some things just won't be feasible, but we'll try to keep a balance between "what will keep a 1000+ member community running smoothly?" and "what will make a 1000+ member community fun?"

We are going to try another change with the blogflogs, though, in part inspired by the wonky RSS feed. This community was founded by people who wanted a safe place to criticise LKH's writing. As it grew, though, there was an element that wanted to criticise her as a person. For a while, it was mostly in decent taste, if not quite good taste. Somewhere along the line, a nasty element came in, and posts and comments went beyond snarky into downright catty and immature—not to mention repetitive. We all know she's hypocrite about her private life: she complains when people talk about it, yet she blogs about it for all to see. We know how badly she wants to appear edgy. But at this point, her personal life has been dissected past the point of good taste.

To that end, blog posts pertaining entirely or mostly to LKH's personal matters will no longer be flogged. We'll try this for a month or two to see how it affects the community. Blogflogs will still come through the blogfloggery account, and if we miss a relevant one—or if you have any other comments or concerns—you can use the contact form on the bio page (and the Lashouts website) to get in touch with the mods.

Comments

[wonderbink.livejournal.com]

Question--what about the points of discussion where her writing inevitably overlaps with her life? The whole Richard = Gary and Jon = Micah/Nathaniel thing, for example? How should that be handled?

It's really no nevermind to me, but I'm sure that's going to be on other people's minds.

[pith]

Right now, I think that'll be handled case by case. Some people take it too far, some don't. As long as it stayed within the realm of comparison/contrast and actually tried to spark a discussion, rather than just "Jon isso her Micah", it would probably be okay.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Erm.... how often does she blog about her work...? It seems like her personal life is all she blogs about...

[pith]

Like I said, it's a trial run. I'd rather we turn to other avenues of conversation than basically become a tabloid that one rips apart one person.

[easol.livejournal.com]

Mkay, I gotcha.

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

So, basically you're getting rid of the blog feed? Because she doesn't blog about her writing.

If you want to limit the community to just mocking the books, do that, but don't bother to keep the blog thing going because it's never going to be relevant to the community.

[pith]

As I said, it's a trial run. If people want to read her blog, they can read through the RSS feed or her site; the blogflog system was never meant to be a substitute for that. Some personal comments were fine, but then some members started taking it too far.

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

No, I get that, I just think it's going to be kind of... pointless for someone to have to monitor the feed to see if she just happens to write about writing. It might just make it easier on everyone involved to make the community only about snarking her writing. YKWIM?

[gothgoddessrhia.livejournal.com]

I can't bear to hop over and read her blog. I usually skim the entries here and read the blogflogs. I'm fine with whatever you decide.

Frankly, I kind of hate reading her blog at all because it does show how badly her real life blurs into the books. It makes it very hard to see the books as separate from her life.

[jassanja.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this is not going to slow down the community even more...

[pith]

It probably will, but would you (general you; I'm not trying to put you on the spot *g*) prefer a bunch of conversation of often-sketchy quality... or perhaps less activity, but have it be more involved?

Beyond that, though, the mods are discussing challenges to post to the community. (And I fully admit that the lack of challenges is my fault. I've been lazy and busy and all that, so I know that's my fault.) We're also considering opening up the community to fanworks, but we'd do a poll to see what everyone thought.

And we're always open to suggestions. I have a permanent account, so if people ever want to do a poll (say, "What's your favourite non-canon pairing that LKH would never write?"), I'm totally willing to put up polls for people.

[longtail.livejournal.com]

It probably will, but would you (general you; I'm not trying to put you on the spot *g*) prefer a bunch of conversation of often-sketchy quality... or perhaps less activity, but have it be more involved?

Personally, yes, I would like much more conversation and less quality control. This smacks too much of thought and conversation police. The repetitiveness didn't bother me because it often sparked hilarious jokes and all kinds of conversation. Now it's getting to the point of too many conversation rules to follow and I've discovered myself not coming here more and more because of it.

*shrugs* JMHO.

[pith]

That's fair. But you also have to realize I'm hearing both sides of the spectrum: some people want anything-goes, other people want more order. For every person who wants less "quality control", there's one that says "Yes, okay, we've established that you think Anita's a whore; do you have anything ELSE to say?" The repetitiveness may not have bothered you, but it has bothered others... many others. And as the mod, I have to take ALL of those opinions into consideration.

I am totally open to suggestions. There are things (like leaving Trinity herself mostly out of discussions, for example) which I will probably not ever change. However, if someone has a convincing argument, I'm open for trying new methods.

[othellia.livejournal.com]

Umm... I have a question. Why don't we just going back to the old way of doing things (http://community.livejournal.com/lkh_lashouts/417328.html) and see how it works out? Maybe encourage floggers who add in original snark as opposed to endless comments about her lack of paragraphs, keeping out the "darkity-dark" complaints in favor of some new memes/freshness in general. I mean, the reason we switched over was to give people to flog in the comments, but I only know of one or two people who do that and even they only do it occasionally.

...just a thought.

[pith]

That's definitely something to consider. I'll discuss the pros and cons with the other mods. Maybe we can try it for a month or two and then have a community poll to see which way people prefer.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

For what it is worth, I liked the old way of doing things

Some personal blogs are fun

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

The erotic candles blog gave me a lot of laughs on a really bad day. I'd request that if something really wonderful appears that isn't work related you consider it for flogging.

Re: Some personal blogs are fun

[pith]

Very true :) Right now, we're not actively posting the personal ones for flogging, but we're trying to find a good balance with the blogflogging, especially since 90% of LKH's entries now are personal.