All Change
So. Well. Ahem.
We’re going to have a forum. Now. Blogmom is going to read this entry and make sure I’m not talking through my hat or other inappropriate appurtenances, and then she’s going to post it, shut off the individual entry comments and add the forum link and awaaaaaaay* we go.
The good news is: this means you can talk to each other. Right here! As a part of the Complete Blog Experience! You don’t have to wait for me to get my ‘approve’ finger warmed up every night to release the last 24 hours’ comments to a monitor near you.
The bad news is: for those of you who understand these things, there is no bad news. You can just sit there saying, oh! Great! A forum! We can talk to each other! –Oh, and you can have your avatars back too, which should cheer many of you up. But for those of you who are more like me, who suffer severe and debilitating web cluelessness, I’m afraid you’re going to find the forum initially pretty intimidating. I do. It intimidates the (*&^%$£”!!! out of me, which is one of the reasons we haven’t opened it before now, because I was still hiding under the bed and whimpering. I have finally been driven from this unfortunate position by a lot of impatient moderators and Blogmom, all brandishing bracing advice to the general purport of ‘you’ll get used to it’. Well, yes, I will. It’s my blog. I kind of have to.
I’m worried about you, though. Don’t you touch that ‘close’ button! No, there isn’t anything good on TV tonight! Much better have a first look at the forum and get it over with! Moderators and Blogmom are standing by (depending on your time zone) to poke you out from under the bed with virtual sticks too.
Once we all get used to it, it will be a much better system and more fun too, I promise. As I have said, probably too many times, it never occurred to me, a little over a year ago when I started Days in the Life, that it would develop a community; obviously I was hoping for readers, or there was no reason to do it at all, but I wasn’t expecting so many lively, engaged commenters with things to say. When I was still thinking in terms of readers, this business of ‘approving’ comments for them to go public was a little control freaky, yes, but a perfectly workable way of dealing with breakthrough spam and the occasional troll attempt; and hey, I am a control freak, and it was my blog. It also didn’t occur to me at first that there might be people craz–I mean kind and generous enough to be willing to do something like moderate a Days in the Life forum. And then ajlr gathered the Five Heroines and Playing With Your Food was born; and Maren, who is a kind of Heroine-Plus**, is creating a librarything out of Pollyanna . . . and all of you are posting recipes and book recommendations or there would be no reason for all this heroism. Golly. And it’s become kind of our blog any more. It’s still my name at the top*** but the ‘approving’ system has started feeling kind of ridiculous, while the Occasional Troll Attempt means I didn’t want merely to leave comments open.† What you want is a forum, Blogmom said. I do? I said.
. . . Okay, I lied a little. There’s another reason for a forum, for letting you talk to each other, for the community aspect to have its head. I need to stop answering so many comments. It’s irresistible, answering comments when I have to approve every one, and when, aside from the fact that I Am Robin McKinley Famous Author!!!!!! you’re mostly talking to me because it’s so difficult to talk through me. –And it’s fun. I enjoy writing the entries†† and I enjoy responding to your comments. I have also said at far too regular intervals that I must cut down on the time I spend on the blog . . . and then I don’t. And I still feel guilty about all the comments I don’t answer. The entries themselves are more negotiable, somehow: they’re just me and the thing I do, putting words on a screen, and while I’m expecting to take in a few tucks there too, I don’t feel guilty about it.††† You commenters are people.
But someone asked not too long ago if blog-writing wasn’t cutting in on writing-writing time? And I answered, honestly, ‘not yet’. I’m afraid that’s changed. Since Peter and I got FIRE turned in, since I’ve gone back to PEGASUS . . . PEGASUS looks like running long. I’m into the second draft and it’s bounding enthusiastically forward. ‡ I think I need to spend more time seeing where it wants to take me.
So here we are, on the brink of a forum. I suggest we hold hands and jump. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two . . .
* * *
* Sound of wildly galloping hoofs
** For some reason this makes me think of vitamins. Multi-plus! Now with added antioxidants, omegas 3, 12, and 47, and tiny little hoovering machines for the insides of your arteries!
*** And my absolute right of veto. Don’t fall into the dreadful error of thinking I’ve gone all mellow or anything.
† And let me say about the long dazzling screed of membership rules for the forum, all you have to do is behave like a grown-up. You don’t have to be a grown-up or feel like a grown-up^, but you have to behave like one, which is not the same thing as saying Check Your Sense of Humour at the Door. The Queen of the Penguins is one of my moderators! So is the woman who let her bull terrier read CHALICE!^^ There’s another moderator who posts videos of her ferrets! Silly is good. But from my experience of readers of the web site–especially, perhaps, of Author as Bitch from Hell, or, How to Convince Me I’d Rather Be Cleaning Bathrooms Than Answering Book Mail, who at the moment is in retirement, but she’ll go up on the new web site sooner or later, trust me on this–it’s the people who don’t need to worry who do worry. So if you’re worried, you’re fine. If you’re not worried . . . maybe you’d better read the rules again.
^ I rarely do, despite decades of experience
^^ We have photographic proof
†† Mostly
††† I feel, Yo! McKinley! Learn to write short!
‡ A bit like Connie in her Other Bridle. Ow, my shoulders.
A word from Blogmom: the moderators (aka the mods) and I have been working away at the forum and getting it ready for prime time. Among them, your mods have many years of experience running and participating in online forums, so you’ll be in good hands.
Visit the forum and take a look around. If it looks like fun, go ahead and register. The mods and I are standing by to approve new member registrations so everybody can be up and posting away in no time.
When you register, you can use the same name you’ve used on the blog as your login (username). The login can contain spaces.
And remember, technical questions should come to me, Blogmom. You’ll find my contact info at the bottom of every page. For the nonce, I will also be accepting private messages on the forum if you have any problems.
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