Me and Cram had a productive talk yesterday about the Verwirrung blog and what we'd like to do with it. However, I think we have probably gone as far as two people can, without having to let other people in on the discussion. So here it is.
The background
Blogging has, in many ways, taken over from internet forums as a primary method of discussion on the internet. Its relatively easily to find, keep track of and set up blogs. Equally, they are designed for feedback and various Web 2.0 style business. Blog communities, such as DailyKos and Redstate, are big business, and blogs can have wide impacts in fields as diverse as military theory, reporting, science and fiction writing. In some cases they allow you to leave feedback with people with impressive intellects and ideas, leaders in their chosen field.
The idea
To make Verwirrung one of the primary vehicles promoting the site, ourselves and, by extension, Discordianism.
In depth info
I was primarly inspired by the idea of Imminent.sea, which I have mentioned before. This blog, which plays a role in the past of some of the main characters of Warren Ellis's latest comic, Doktor Sleepless, was a underground sensation, with experts in various fields commenting on the future of their chosen sphere of knowledge. For example, they had experts on criminology and intelligence, on security, on sex, on computer-human interfaces, on the environment and several other areas (as of now, unknown).
How does that apply to us?
Of course, none of us are "experts" in the widely understood sense of the word, but with access to the WWW we don't need to be. We just need to be intelligent, able to write and have access to the right resources.
Me and Cram talked about dividing up the blog into several different conceptual topics, and choosing an author for each one. Topics would be things that would interest a Discordian, but also be of potential interest for a wider audience. We drew up a list of the concepts we think someone here could, in theory, write about. Here is the list, as it stands, so far:
Myself - politics, economics, conflict
Cram - pranks, installation, operation:mindfuck, the Discordian society, ARGs
unknown - "the law of fives", cognitive biases, mind affecting drugs, perception alteration, how the brain works.
unknown - internet culture
unknown - computer tech, hi-tech security
unknown - religion watch (what various religious figures are up to, departures from religious dogma, cults etc. Not usual atheist "religious people are stupid" blogging, more "this is what people believe, how fascinating/horrifying" POV)
unknown - the wonderful word of sexuality, dating, relationships and sex.
And many more possible topics (such as biohacking and other innovative use of biology, architecture, culture and literature, music and entertainment etc) are possible. These are just the most obvious ones we thought of.
The idea is to have one author concentrate on each, according to interest. Their focus in particular would be on ideas in the field that challenge conventional thinking, changes that are happening and things that we have discovered which either impact on the here and now or in the near future. We want to be high on the learning curve in all of this.
We'd also want a decent quanitity of articles published on this. I don't think it would be asking too much for, say, 2 articles a week minimum on Verwirrung from all the specialist authors. In addition, all those happy with just doing their own thing would be free to publish links and rants as they please. And of course, the more posts on the specialist topics, the better.
Other considerations
To get a blog noticed you need to do three things, really.
One is post a lot of material.
Two is to have better material.
Three is to comment on other large blogs.
So, to solve the first, this is why I suggest at least two posts a week (barring holidays and other IRL engagements of course, everyone needs time off) on the topic. I think we have the second covered, though I have a proposal below which may help with that. And the third is what I shall deal with right now.
I think we know by now pretty well which audience is most likely to be receptive and open to our sort of writing and topics, from right off the bat. That wierd countercultural mix that can be found among the former Irreality crew, GPOD and the Mythos Media Gang, Warren Ellis and Neal Stephenson and Terry Pratchett fans, political comedy writers, agnostics and atheists and other skeptics and those various dregs of the countercultural world I cannot be bothered to name.
The idea would be to find a few of these blogs and, between us, comment on them infrequently. Most blogs, when you comment, have a place for your link, which you could add the Verwirrung URL into. Getting us known will help us get feedback and improve the blog, plus its always nice to know you are being read by people (also, putting a link on the front page has helped).
As for the second consideration, judicious use of an RSS feed and several highly rated sites in your chosen field can quickly turn someone from a n00b into a fairly savvy observer. I am more than willing to help people find and evaulate such sites, in order to use them to make Verwirrung a kick ass blog.
Questions and comments?
For the "sweet spot" of content, we need about eight people to say "I'm in." With 8 people, each of them only have to write one post per month and the blog will still have two new articles per week. It's really not that challenging to have a hot, active blog when it's tended to by a community like this one. And it significantly raises the size of our e-foot print. (And you know what they say about communities with big e-foot prints... huge e-penises.)
This would be a great time to volunteer for one of the above categories.
I'd like to suggest one more topic to the list so we have an even 8 bloggers. The new category would be the Black Iron Prison - explaining it through different lenses and mediums.
So far, we've got Cain and I signed up. Anybody else?
The schedule is the rub for me. I'm also not terribly keen on pigeonholing my contributions as thus far I've taken a "jack-of-all-trades" kinda approach to what I put up. But, if it is the will of the council, I guess I'd put in for some of the BIP-ish/Shrapnel stuff and also cultural topics. But again, I think the proposed schedule is going to be difficult for most, so perhaps the initial benchmark is covering "all" of the topic areas and then fleshing out the frequency of contributions.
I was thinking that the BIP would fall under the rubric of Law of Fives, actually.
Another one might be Discordian Theology though. Writings, rants, little bits of poetry, creative fiction, perhaps discussions based on Discordianeseque works (like Illuminatus!, V for Vendetta, The Invisibles etc).
Also, while one article a month per person sounds good, as a minimum, naturally I would say the more high quality posts, the better.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on January 13, 2009, 04:47:59 PM
The schedule is the rub for me. I'm also not terribly keen on pigeonholing my contributions as thus far I've taken a "jack-of-all-trades" kinda approach to what I put up. But, if it is the will of the council, I guess I'd put in for some of the BIP-ish/Shrapnel stuff and also cultural topics. But again, I think the proposed schedule is going to be difficult for most, so perhaps the initial benchmark is covering "all" of the topic areas and then fleshing out the frequency of contributions.
Well thats cool, too. If you don't have the time or motivation, we don't want to push you. We'd rather people who wanted to put in the sort of effort above to volunteer themselves, and the rest to continue doing as they see fit, on the timetable available to them.
I can understand not wanting to be fixed to a single topic either.
Excuse me, but is has NOTHING to do with motivation. It has everything to do with having a wife and a 5 year old daughter at home.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on January 13, 2009, 04:56:08 PM
Excuse me, but is has NOTHING to do with motivation. It has everything to do with having a wife and a 5 year old daughter at home.
I'm not trying to have a go. Really. I'm offering possible reasons as to why anyone, you, me or
someone else may not want to do this.
I also mentioned a timetable, if you took the time to notice, and actually had you in mind when I said
that.
Jesus Christ, why does everyone think I'm suddenly trying to troll them around here?
I would be well up for this. My stumbling block (for the blog as well as in here), as I think I've stated recently is the comparative staleness of my ideas allied with uninspired writing.
I'm working on it though, I have recently started using my notebook again to write a bunch of random ideas and scraps of inspiration down from through the day before I go to sleep.
If I stumble on anything I like, I'll be sure to let y'all know.
I think I can handle the Lo5/BIP/Cognitive philosophies bit. With a bit of prodding, of course.
I was thinking my last couple of NanoWrimo excerpts could be a good introduction.
I don't intend on writing a NOVEL in these things or anything. I doubt my posts will be more than 500 words - any longer than that, and you lose people's attention. I bet I can cram out 500 words on pranks each month. Hell, that's about the amount of time it takes me to start a topic, and I do that every few days. A lot of people (myself especially included!) have trouble being creative on a deadline or whatever, so there's definitely no hard feelings if people aren't into becoming regular bloggers. :)
I was brainstorming topics that I'd want to write about earlier, and I found myself going, MAN there's so much I'd want to write about that doesn't fall under the heading of "Pranks, jakes, ARGs, games, and mindfucks".
The idea though isn't that people are forced to write at length on that one topic like some sort of blog sweatshop. Of course, people are encouraged (as they are now) to write on whatever they want, whenever they want. It's just that if we have certain bases that we know will be covered each month, we'll have a pretty well-fleshed out blog.
VERRIWUNG SHOULD BE BLOG SWEAT SHOP, LIKE HUFFINGTON POST.
\
:nigel:
Quote from: Cain on January 13, 2009, 04:58:57 PM
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on January 13, 2009, 04:56:08 PM
Excuse me, but is has NOTHING to do with motivation. It has everything to do with having a wife and a 5 year old daughter at home.
I'm not trying to have a go. Really. I'm offering possible reasons as to why anyone, you, me or someone else may not want to do this.
I also mentioned a timetable, if you took the time to notice, and actually had you in mind when I said that.
Jesus Christ, why does everyone think I'm suddenly trying to troll them around here?
It is the phrase "We'd rather people who
wanted to put in the sort of effort above to volunteer themselves..." implying I don't
want to put in the effort. That is what is pissing me off. It's not about wanting it's about availability of time. So if it was a wrong choice of words, fine, but you are generally a person who is very precise in his wording so you will understand why I'm suspicious.
I propose that we concentrate on the initial point of the thread, and leave the linguistic semantics for another thread.
Precisely Cram. The specialist topics would be to make sure that, if nothing else, there would be something on the blog that month. I sure as hell know if something cool happens on Fringe the night before, I'm gonna blog it, regardless of focussed topic. It also adds to the variety of the blog, and ensures a decently rounded set of topics will be on there.
Also LMNO, I thought that may interest you. As did Cram, in fact.
My idea would be to give each specialist subject a name and topic tag, which could be used whenever it is being discussed. That way, it would be easily searchable as well.
Quote from: LMNO on January 13, 2009, 05:07:47 PM
I propose that we concentrate on the initial point of the thread, and leave the linguistic semantics for another thread.
fine. have at it.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on January 13, 2009, 05:06:25 PM
Quote from: Cain on January 13, 2009, 04:58:57 PM
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on January 13, 2009, 04:56:08 PM
Excuse me, but is has NOTHING to do with motivation. It has everything to do with having a wife and a 5 year old daughter at home.
I'm not trying to have a go. Really. I'm offering possible reasons as to why anyone, you, me or someone else may not want to do this.
I also mentioned a timetable, if you took the time to notice, and actually had you in mind when I said that.
Jesus Christ, why does everyone think I'm suddenly trying to troll them around here?
It is the phrase "We'd rather people who wanted to put in the sort of effort above to volunteer themselves..." implying I don't want to put in the effort. That is what is pissing me off. It's not about wanting it's about availability of time. So if it was a wrong choice of words, fine, but you are generally a person who is very precise in his wording so you will understand why I'm suspicious.
I'm writing a research proposal, have three blogs and am applying for several jobs. Every single day. I'm sorry I don't have the time to word everything perfectly so everyone can understand me clearly and precisely and perfectly, I simply don't have the time. See, I'm even repeating myself. if people want to see insults and snide comments in my every single remark, then so be it, but they're looking for something that doesn't exist.
And yes I am kinda pissed off, but only because your the third person in the past week or two to accuse me of this when I haven't been looking for a fight and didnt mean any malice. being the bad guy for everyfuckingbody on this forum is pretty dull.
I'm willing to take the religious watch theme. I'll have to learn how to bite my tongue though.
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on January 13, 2009, 06:04:21 PM
I'm willing to take the religious watch theme. I'll have to learn how to bite my tongue though.
Cool, I thought that would interest you. I mean, you can poke fun at them and stuff, that is what religion
is for, I just didn't want to go down the whole
God is not Great route, by keeping it quirky and humourous. But I'm sure you can do that very easily anyway.
Payne, how would you feel about covering internet culture? This would basically be thieving cool stuff off of ED and SomethingAwful and ItsOver9000 and stuff. If you don't want to, its cool, I just thought if you wanted a specialist subject and didn't know what to go for, then that could be one that is both easy and interesting.
Quote from: Cain on January 13, 2009, 06:12:44 PM
Payne, how would you feel about covering internet culture? This would basically be thieving cool stuff off of ED and SomethingAwful and ItsOver9000 and stuff. If you don't want to, its cool, I just thought if you wanted a specialist subject and didn't know what to go for, then that could be one that is both easy and interesting.
Yes, I could do that.
I will work on something later on to see if I can do something interesting with it.
Quote from: Payne on January 13, 2009, 06:33:14 PM
Quote from: Cain on January 13, 2009, 06:12:44 PM
Payne, how would you feel about covering internet culture? This would basically be thieving cool stuff off of ED and SomethingAwful and ItsOver9000 and stuff. If you don't want to, its cool, I just thought if you wanted a specialist subject and didn't know what to go for, then that could be one that is both easy and interesting.
Yes, I could do that.
I will work on something later on to see if I can do something interesting with it.
If I could make a suggestion, mainly because this is a topic I'm really interested in--
Though "mainstream" internet culture is far more relevant to the randomblog audience, I'd be really curious to see a column written from an "internet safari" point of view, exploring different forums and ideologies. In particular, I'd love to read an expose on various "discordian" websites, and what's going on there. I don't mean 23ae and myspace, where nothing much seems to get done, but moreso about s23.org, the discordia wiki, and chaosneverdied, where there still seems to be a few sparks of creativity.
I wish I could volunteer for something but I seem to have hit an extremely dry spell lately... I haven't posted anything of note on my own blog in a LONG time... I will try to get my shit together and do something soon...
I'd also add if there is something you are passionate about and want a platform to talk about it, then you should use the blog too. The only thing I would suggest is to have something of that future/new/impact viewpoint when talking about it.
One of my first thoughts was to actually go on a one-man Safari to the same kind of model as we did the first one. Spend a couple of weeks on fairly obscure forums, get a taste for what they're like, and write up a post on the good and the bad shit as well as the interesting and weird, link them back to their review and then move on.
Which leaves everything fairly wide open as far as content from blog-post to blog-post goes, and I could maybe find some really good shit out there.
Quote from: Payne on January 13, 2009, 06:45:19 PM
One of my first thoughts was to actually go on a one-man Safari to the same kind of model as we did the first one. Spend a couple of weeks on fairly obscure forums, get a taste for what they're like, and write up a post on the good and the bad shit as well as the interesting and weird, link them back to their review and then move on.
Which leaves everything fairly wide open as far as content from blog-post to blog-post goes, and I could maybe find some really good shit out there.
I think that is a really good idea.
I think that sounds pretty damn cool. Payne, modern day anthropologist of the WWW.
QuoteThe One-Man Internet Safari.
An attempt to discover more about the hidden knots of community in the web-o-sphere.
Aims: To explore the hidden depths of the internet. Obscure message boards mostly, the places that no one knows much about, if anything. I hope to find the differences and similarities of disparate groups and pin down part of how their "community" works, through a basic select list of criteria. Then using this information, I will post regular reports on Internet Culture in the manner of an anthropologist. Except probably a very inept and lazy one.
Forum choices: Any forum will do, as long as it is fairly active and isn't VERY specific as regards content. If it has a General Discussion board, it's in. If it's only about the Honda Acura and nothing else, it's out. I may also attempt to find some kind of connection between one and the next (a rival board, a sister board, anything the members of a forum refer to often). I don't want to visit huge boards, where it would be impossible to keep track of even a small selection of content. By the same token, I don't want to visit slow moving small boards where all the content can be observed in days.
Rating Criteria: Forums will be rated on simple criteria that should be common to any thriving community. Identity, creativity, originality, administration and sustainability (a function of the first four, usually). This is subject to change at whim and as circumstances dictate. Any other interesting things that crop up can be covered in the write-up.
Memes: Particular attention will be drawn to the use of common internet memes, as an attempt to "draw" a picture of a particular memes impact. There will also be an attempt to discover more about local "in-joke" memes as part of an attempt to discover more about the forums creativity and originality. Memes are a good way to get a short-hand "glimpse" at the culture of a community in a short time.
Time Scale: 2 to 3 weeks per forum maximum, or until banned. Plus the time it takes to write up a report and any following up required to investigate Forum rivalry/wars or other similar things.
Persona: I will play it straight. I don't want it to come across as a troll unless the board warrants it, in which case their reactions to trolling could be an interesting angle to take in the write-up. I won't disclose the nature of my presence unless directly asked or as I feel circumstances dictate. Post-Safari, I will endeavour to inform the board of the nature of my presence and if anything interesting comes of that, include it in a follow-up. I will be using the name "Payne" for all of my adventures, so it should be possible to track back, or to follow my progress in the future.
Any other things I should think about, anything I should change, other awesome ideas?
Also, I'll tend to keep my mouth shut about where I'm hanging out because I don't want it to end up in mass boardings and trolling and shit.
So, uh, should we be getting to it?
Sounds good to me. Can't think of anything to really disagree there in methodology at all.
I was thinking, when do we want to start putting in these changes to the blog? Right away? Or should we build up a good repository of information and sources first (including the network we want to promote ourselves through) and then launch it all in a couple of weeks, once we know we have most of the stuff for it in place?
Quote from: Cain on January 13, 2009, 07:59:45 PM
Sounds good to me. Can't think of anything to really disagree there in methodology at all.
I was thinking, when do we want to start putting in these changes to the blog? Right away? Or should we build up a good repository of information and sources first (including the network we want to promote ourselves through) and then launch it all in a couple of weeks, once we know we have most of the stuff for it in place?
From my experiences, having the content first always seems like a good idea.
Ok, I've got two rants, and that boston.com article on ways to hallucinate w/o drugs could turn into something.
Plus, I can always rip a few hundred words on BIP, Architecture, Reconstruction, Shrapnel, et al.
Quote from: Payne on January 13, 2009, 06:45:19 PM
One of my first thoughts was to actually go on a one-man Safari to the same kind of model as we did the first one. Spend a couple of weeks on fairly obscure forums, get a taste for what they're like, and write up a post on the good and the bad shit as well as the interesting and weird, link them back to their review and then move on.
Which leaves everything fairly wide open as far as content from blog-post to blog-post goes, and I could maybe find some really good shit out there.
I love it!
I don't write well as I sure everyone knows by now, but I have done research and such in the past with good results and I can do that for anyone who wants certain shit looked up and such. Just pop me a PM and tell me what you are looking for and I'll search it out and PM you the links and passages!
If, of course, that would be of any help to anyone.
Quote from: LMNO on January 13, 2009, 08:07:58 PM
Ok, I've got two rants, and that boston.com article on ways to hallucinate w/o drugs could turn into something.
Plus, I can always rip a few hundred words on BIP, Architecture, Reconstruction, Shrapnel, et al.
I can look for info sources on related topics, if you want. A few key words on google alerts and some RSS feeds should give you more than enough material on future trends in those areas.
Quote from: LMNO on January 13, 2009, 08:07:58 PM
Ok, I've got two rants, and that boston.com article on ways to hallucinate w/o drugs could turn into something.
Plus, I can always rip a few hundred words on BIP, Architecture, Reconstruction, Shrapnel, et al.
PLEASE TO BE NOTING:
I am still collecting essays for the Golden Sphere of Possibility... articles on 'other possible models' including shrapnel etc would be awesome.
Also to RWHN, Payne and others who have written on shrapnel, ruts etc ... I'd love content from you all :)
Now returning this to Intermittens forum...
Quote from: Cain on January 13, 2009, 06:07:14 PM
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on January 13, 2009, 06:04:21 PM
I'm willing to take the religious watch theme. I'll have to learn how to bite my tongue though.
Cool, I thought that would interest you. I mean, you can poke fun at them and stuff, that is what religion is for, I just didn't want to go down the whole God is not Great route, by keeping it quirky and humourous. But I'm sure you can do that very easily anyway.
Well, I knew that you knew it would interest me... :? or something. And you know I'm not a big fan of the Hitchens "Kill all the fidels" route. Life would be boring if we didn't have idiots to laugh at.
Anyways, I've already got an idea for my first post. I can have it written up by tomorrow night. When are we planning on going through with the New Path Forward?
For now I'd say write up your entry and Save it. Then we can deploy them when we have some loose charade of a posting schedule.
I'd be willing to write some thing on biology here and there, on bioweirdness, etc, I do it around here anyway, so might as well get some of that onto the blog, yah know?
I'd really like to see this.
Quote from: Kai on January 14, 2009, 09:17:21 PM
I'd be willing to write some thing on biology here and there, on bioweirdness, etc, I do it around here anyway, so might as well get some of that onto the blog, yah know?
That would be cool. Especially if you had anything on biohacking, or the intersection between biology and futurism (potential future uses of biology to improve our daily lives etc).
So long as you have the time, of course. I know you have a pretty heavy schedule. But even if you threw up the best/weirdest/most interesting science news of the month or something, that would be cool.
I'm going to confer with Cram more today on the networks we can use to promote Verwirrung as well. Once I've had another coffee, because damn do I need it.
Quote from: Cain on January 16, 2009, 12:12:17 PM
Quote from: Kai on January 14, 2009, 09:17:21 PM
I'd be willing to write some thing on biology here and there, on bioweirdness, etc, I do it around here anyway, so might as well get some of that onto the blog, yah know?
That would be cool. Especially if you had anything on biohacking, or the intersection between biology and futurism (potential future uses of biology to improve our daily lives etc).
So long as you have the time, of course. I know you have a pretty heavy schedule. But even if you threw up the best/weirdest/most interesting science news of the month or something, that would be cool.
I'm going to confer with Cram more today on the networks we can use to promote Verwirrung as well. Once I've had another coffee, because damn do I need it.
I need some tea, myself. I don't really know much more about the biohacking movement except what has been posted on here. If I see anything on either though, I'll be sure to post something. I got more than enough time to throw up a post here and there.
If nothing else, I'll spend this weekend drawing up links for everyone to put in their RSS feeds, which should be full of information on the subject of your interest. I'm pretty good at finding information, after all.
Looks like I might have some free time to start backloading some articles.
When are we starting the 2x/week assault, anyway?
Once we've drawn up the networking plans and RSS feeds. Call it a week, maybe longer.
Also, before I go, do you guys have any particular names you want for your segments? Because I'll put those in as categories. And do you want any particular categories or blogroll links putting up?
Do you think I'd be watering down my topic too much if I add "The Strange Times" to my discussion? This would consist of examining the weird interactions between subcultures and the people who create an identity out of really weird feedback loops. For example, I'd love to review events like this:
(http://craphound.com/images/fursvsklingon.jpg)
---but I worry that's pretty disparate from my Pranks, Jakes, and Games topic...
As for my column's name, I was thinking along the lines of "Participation Encouraged" or some other participatory meme. Something a bit catchier though. "Adventures in the Strange Times" seems fun, though a bit straight forward... thinking more on this
Each of us should probaby write an introductory post which introduces you and your topic matter, to kick off your column.
Quote from: Cain on January 16, 2009, 12:35:38 PM
If nothing else, I'll spend this weekend drawing up links for everyone to put in their RSS feeds, which should be full of information on the subject of your interest. I'm pretty good at finding information, after all.
Cain = Tenzing Norgay of the internets! As for the column name, I'm fine with ChaoSkeptic. I'm trying to make that a brand name.
Quote from: Cramulus on January 16, 2009, 03:18:25 PM
Each of us should probaby write an introductory post which introduces you and your topic matter, to kick off your column.
I like this idea. It would be a good reset for the blog. Introduce all of the new regular bloggers. WordPress has a way to do blogger biography profiles too but I have no idea how it works. :(
I can put all bios on the "About" page, including any contact details or other information you want to share.
Cram, I think that topic could easily fall under yours or Payne's section. However, if you wanted, you could just create another forum topic category for it and do it as something additional.
I'll add Chaoskeptic as a category as well.
Do you think the name "Starbuck's Gravel" has a nice ring to it?
Kind of a gravelly sound to it I think...
"ChaoSkeptic" and "Starbuck's Gravel" (provisional, in case someone comes up with something LMNO likes better) have both been added. No additions for the blogroll?
If Trip is reading this, would there be any way to remove the categorly cloud? I mean, its only going to becom longer and more annoying as time goes by, and the categories are visible on each individual entry anyway. Also, would you or Faust be able to update the Wordpress software?
the categories are gone.
shouldn't the blogroll require some cleaning up as well?
and how about restricting the total number of posts on the front index a bit?
(it's just, i have a dislike for really long pages)
Limiting it to ten should probably do the trick. If people use the "see more" button while writing longer pieces, that should keep it tidy.
I think the blogroll is alright, personally. I've seen a lot worse, shall we say. And thanks for killing the categories.
I think Overcoming Bias would be a good addition to the blogroll: http://www.overcomingbias.com/
i've been checking that blog every now and then and it's got a LOT of really interesting things on it. it's got a lot of things on it, and a lot of them are interesting, but not all :)
still havent had time to properly dive into the archives yet though
Quote from: Triple Zero on January 17, 2009, 02:19:22 AM
i've been checking that blog every now and then and it's got a LOT of really interesting things on it. it's got a lot of things on it, and a lot of them are interesting, but not all :)
still havent had time to properly dive into the archives yet though
Some of it is total wtf, like the people that just go on and on and on about cryogenics and sentient AI. Then there is other stuff which is really intriguing.
yeah but then the cryogenics and sentient AI ramblings are pretty amusing in their own "spirited" transhumanist way, and then once they get past that, cryogenics and certain kinds of AI give rise to some interesting ethical problems (that are still far removed from actual reality), and some logical puzzles or ideas that are cool to tell at parties where there's a lot of exact minds (did you get the one about the two-box problem with the Omega AI?)
And added.
I haven't got person specific feeds, due to putting finishing touches on my research proposal and complete and utter lack of sleep (one complements the other, especially since not sleeping is making working harder).
But here are general feeds which might be of use to everyone:
http://grinding.be/feed/
http://feeds.boingboing.net/boingboing/iBag
http://blog.3bulls.net/?feed=comments-rss2
http://www.technoccult.com/feed
http://twitter.com/technoccult
http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/commentisfree/rss
http://feeds.wired.com/wired/index
http://feedproxy.google.com/NakedCapitalism
http://crookedtimber.org/feed/
http://exiledonline.com/feed/
Also, anything on the blogroll is probably a good bet.
So, as to previous discussions, I would like to continue to contribute but cannot promise a timetable or schedule due to the nature of my IRL work. So, I figure I can be like the Andy Rooney of the blog. I'll try to come up with a title for that if it helps.
I also would like to contribute... I was thinking about focusing on news and concepts surrounding the confusion of the map and territory... a sort of Semantic Cartography maybe ;-)
I'm thinking about entries that explore the semantic gymnastics that people go through when they confuse words and things.
EX 1 - A few years ago a state government decided that the IT dept. could no longer reference "master" and "slave" drives inside a system. Apparently they found it offensive... but it did explain why I found the bondage gear in the bottom of my tower the last time I cleaned it out. No confusion of the Map and Territory there ;-)
EX 2 - Prisoners of War have rights... Illegal Combatants do not.
EX 3- Sea Kittens may not be nearly as tasty as fish....
Etc.
Thoughts?
I dunno if there would be two current events each month, but maybe one and another entry on older examples or general semantics ;-)
Thoughts? Opinions?
Sorry, had got caught up with things.
That does sound interesting...my only worry is that it could overlap more when it came to the cognitive psychology aspects of LMNO's stuff. But if you could avoid that potential pitfall, it does sound really very good.
Would you want to add anything else into that mix though? Like more on linguistics generally, or perhaps system based looks at the world around us (which sortof links in, plus with your computer skills you would probably find very easy to understand and convey).
Also, I've started on finding sources to use for writing. Stand by for PMs, people (if I don't get to you today, I'll get to you before the week is over).
Verwirrung relaunch date:
27th of January. Thats when our New Peoples Glorious Democratic Republic blogging regime should come into practice. This is why:
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=6914
Let's face it. You're in a blog rut.
Most of the time, you write about more of the same kinda stuff that you usually write about.
Maybe it's your day-to-day life, the stuff you did. Maybe it's topical news response. Maybe it's short fiction. Maybe it's re-linking random stuff you see on the internet. Maybe it's LOLCAT porn. (I hope it's not LOLCAT porn.) Maybe it's here on LiveJournal, or it's over on Vox, or Blogspot or Blogger or Blogblog or Postablogablowablog, or WordPress or Facebook or FacePress or FacePlant or maybe it's just your Twitter account. It's what you're comfortable with, I know, I know...
...but why not try doing something different, just for a day?
Two weeks from today, Tuesday January 27th, is Lewis Carroll's 177th birthday. Carroll, you'll recall, wrote about a girl who fell down a rabbit hole and found herself in a place where all the rules had changed. In two weeks, on Lewis Carroll's 177th birthday, you should do the same.
That's right: the 5th Annual Rabbit Hole Day is coming.
When you wake up on the 27th, instead of writing about your usual work and school and politics and friends and news and stuff, experience life down the Rabbit Hole and write about the work, the school, the politics, the friends, the news, the stuff that you find there instead. Travel through time. Turn into an animal. Flee from assassins. Talk to your goldfish. Conquer Greenland. Sprout some extra limbs. Learn how to walk on water. Marry an insect.
Take a break from the Every Day and write about your Rabbit Hole Day. Your normal life will be waiting for you when you get back.
In an effort to actually think about pushing the memetics of the Blog, I still think tha Blog should be the Homepage for the PD.com site. I find the current homepage a bit stale and static, and teh fact that the FnordFind Search doesn't work annoys me to no end.
I would like to see a smaller version of the IRC page header with maybe "Read the Book" on the yellow tab, and then under that a much smaller "Verwirrung" header, and then the rest of the blog. Links to the forums, the BIP and the IRC page should go in a sidebar.
I can work on designing this, but it may not get as much attention as it would deserve because of homework this week.
Quote from: Cain on January 21, 2009, 11:55:11 AM
Sorry, had got caught up with things.
That does sound interesting...my only worry is that it could overlap more when it came to the cognitive psychology aspects of LMNO's stuff. But if you could avoid that potential pitfall, it does sound really very good.
Would you want to add anything else into that mix though? Like more on linguistics generally, or perhaps system based looks at the world around us (which sortof links in, plus with your computer skills you would probably find very easy to understand and convey).
Also, I've started on finding sources to use for writing. Stand by for PMs, people (if I don't get to you today, I'll get to you before the week is over).
Sounds good to me.
Quote from: Telarus on January 21, 2009, 08:19:59 PM
In an effort to actually think about pushing the memetics of the Blog, I still think tha Blog should be the Homepage for the PD.com site. I find the current homepage a bit stale and static, and teh fact that the FnordFind Search doesn't work annoys me to no end.
I would like to see a smaller version of the IRC page header with maybe "Read the Book" on the yellow tab, and then under that a much smaller "Verwirrung" header, and then the rest of the blog. Links to the forums, the BIP and the IRC page should go in a sidebar.
I can work on designing this, but it may not get as much attention as it would deserve because of homework this week.
there's been a trickle of effort in redesigning the front page. I'm not sure what the current status is, but rumor has it the new front page will have our wordpress feed, possibly in addition to some other goodies. Faust, 000, and that jesus guy all worked on it, but I'm not sure what the timeline is. Since it's based on working on the front page during leisure time, I doubt there's a proper date of launch. :p
As far as I'm concerned, a blog feed for the front page would be more than sufficient. I'd be very happy with that
Quote from: Cramulus on January 21, 2009, 09:14:32 PMbut rumor has it the new front page will have our wordpress feed, possibly in addition to some other goodies.
GASM feed?
on the blog - is THAC0 too arcane to refer to casually?
You could always drop a link to an explanatory article.
The wonder of Web 2.0 -linkifying everything
Quote from: Cramulus on January 22, 2009, 02:49:37 AM
on the blog - is THAC0 too arcane to refer to casually?
I don't know what it means, but now I want tacos.
Thanks Cram.
Quote from: Nigel on January 22, 2009, 04:53:55 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on January 22, 2009, 02:49:37 AM
on the blog - is THAC0 too arcane to refer to casually?
I don't know what it means, but now I want tacos.
Thanks Cram.
That's cause you've never been a half-elf paladin*.
* yes, I know...
I'll sign up. Not sure what yet though. Only thing I can really think of is trying more of the stream of consciousness stuff I was spewing out a couple weeks ago.
Quote from: Requiem on January 24, 2009, 05:55:36 AM
I'll sign up. Not sure what yet though. Only thing I can really think of is trying more of the stream of consciousness stuff I was spewing out a couple weeks ago.
That could be cool.
Also, Rata, would you want to discuss hacking and computer security? I know that's kind of under my portfolio currently, but while I just have lots of reference material, you actually have some white-hat experience in the area.
I have a 7 page report on crowley, cannabis, and 5th circuit techniques that has been awaiting publication somewhere.... I'm pretty sure I want to serialize it out, because the 7 pages are just a "Part 01", and I'm going to continue it.
I can probably get a good 2-4 articles serialized out of it. Here's a taste:
Quote from: TelarusCannabis: A Paratheoanametamystichood of Eris Esoteric (POEE)
Special Report: Part 00001
Please file this in the Out-House under E. Lost Documents and Forgotten Truths.
QuoteRMN: What was it that first sparked your interest in consciousness enhancement?
Robert Anton Wilson: Korzybski's Science and Sanity. I was in engineering school and I picked up the book in the Brooklyn Public Library. He talked about different levels of organization in the brain-animal circuits, human circuits and so on. And he talked a lot about getting back to the non-verbal level and being able to perceive without talking to yourself while you're perceiving.
It was 1957. I was very interested in jazz at that time, and I told a black friend about some of Korzybski's exercises to get to the non-verbal level, and he said, "Oh, I do that every time I smoke pot." I got interested. I said, "Could I buy one of these marijuana cigarettes from you?" He said, "Oh hell, I'll give it to you free." And so I smoked it.
I found myself looking at a quarter I found in my pocket and realizing I hadn't looked at a quarter in twenty years or so, the way a child looks at a quarter. So I decided marijuana was doing pretty much the same thing Korzybski was trying to do with his training devices. Then shortly after that I heard a lecture by Alan Watts, and I realized that Zen, marijuana and Korzybski were all relating the same transformations of consciousness. That was the beginning.
http://www.futurehi.net/docs/FiringTheCosmicTrigger.html
Without that connection, Robert Anton Wilson may not have wrote many of his books, and I would probably not be writing this, nor you reading it right now. Who am I? You may call me Episkopos Telarus, KSC (Keeper of the Sacred Chao), Tender to the Edible Zen Garden, Keeper of the Contradictory Cephalopod, which you should think of as an arbitrarily chosen Holy Name of Discordia. Don't know about Eris(Discordia) yet? Well, I didn't set out to write that kind of article, but you can brush up by reading the Principia Discordia, by Malaclypse the Younger (Greg Hill) and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst (Kerry Thornley) 1. Just realize that that's the tip of a very weird iceberg.
Having mentioned that, I'll sum up the reasons for writing this article by saying that a soft voice from my Pineal Gland told me to write it. This article does not attempt to lay out all of the esoteric knowledge regarding the Sacred Herb (and really, doesn't attempt to explain all about anything). It simply represents a synthesis of my current research into some form of narrative. Useful for the moment, constantly under revision. Also, keep in mind that research of this type becomes extremely hard to corroborate the further into the rabbit-hole we go.
Here we go.....
It began about two years ago while I was trolling through www.occultforums.com. I noticed someone scrambling for any magical correspondences through which to work with Cannabis (marijuana/ pot/ hemp/ chara/ etc), and something pulled me to my copy of Aleister Crowley's Liber 777, a brilliant compilation of some of the most confusing magical correspondences ever put to paper. I had recently read that Crowley coded his opinions and research of various mental states (or "astral planes") into Liber 777, along with the substances, archetypes, and techniques he used to attain these states. The key to unlocking this, it seemed, was a good understanding of his numbering system, and lots of time playing connect the dots (I was woefully ignorant of the structure of the Tree of Life at that time). As Crowley explains in the intro to 777, when someone from one culture thinks of (or works with) a specific God (example, Egyptian: Thoth) and one from another culture thinks of another God (Hindu: Hanuman, or Roman: Mercury), he considered these not two different thoughts, but the same thought under different labels (these entities are all listed in line 8 of various tables).
"Well Crowley was such a complicated individual that everybody who reads Crowley has a different Crowley in his head." -Robert Anton Wilson
I began in the obvious places, the tables entitled XLIII Vegetable Drugs and XXXIX Plants, Real and Imaginary. This generated a working set of numerical "keys" with which to comb through the rest of the book. These keys were (Vegetable Drugs) 2-Hashish, 3-Soma, 7 & 8-Cannabis Indica, 14-All aphrodisiacs, 15-All cerebral excitants, and (Plants, Real & Imaginary) 23. Cannabis Sativa, Lotus, all Water Plants.
2, 3, 7, 8, 14, 15, 23
Armed with this numerical sigil, and struck by the synchronicities it held (it begins with 23, ends with 23, and has an esoteric 5 in the center, flanked by 15's), I began a very strange trip through esoteric mysticism and history. Many of the columns were frustratingly blank. While I will not reproduce the full table that I generated in this article, these numbers and their entries in 777 inspired much of the material presented here. When obvious references to these "keys" occur in the article I will reference this in parentheses, using (key23), or (key14), for example.
Now, many people have been researching the esoteric history of Cannabis, and I will draw on many sources for this Report, from Neo-Zoroastrians to Old Skool Discordians, from the Canadian Senate to Sects of Stoned Saddhus, from Zen Tricksters to Sufi Mystics. Let us begin with the Discordians, primarily references in the Principia Discordia. I will warn you against assuming that any or all Discordians you meet smoke Sacrament. As a disorganization, we channel those who partake in this sort of Sacrament into certain esoteric sects, while still embracing those who reject it for various reasons, recognizing that they have found their own Sacrament with the Goddess.
The first reference in the Principia to Cannabis comes during the Myth of the Apple of Discord, or 'How the Trojan War Began' (pages 00017-00018) in which a footnote reads **There is historic disagreement concerning whether this apple was of metallic gold or acapulco. This seems typical of the Principia Discordia, in that a cryptic reference leads you to (or reveals that you do) know something about an obscure subculture, which suddenly makes the joke that much funnier. Can you imagine that? The three most self-important Greek Goddess fighting over who gets da kine bud as big as an apple, Bogarting the Wedding Gift. And Eris, forced to lurk past the wedding threshold, obviously meant for the bride, Thetis to claim it, but only Goddesses have the nerve to claim to be 'the fairest one' at a wedding.
The next veiled reference comes on page 00027, a doodle of a cockroach with the caption, "This is St. Gulik. He is the Messenger of the Goddess. A different age from ours called him Hermes (key2, key8). Many people called him by many names. He is a Roach." The reader may be familiar with the term 'roach' in reference to marijuana, but may wonder where this comes from. We can trace the term back to a Spanish marching song popular with rebels and soldiers in the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920. The most well known lyric goes,
La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no puede caminar
Porque no tiene, porque le falta
Marijuana que fumar.
The cockroach, the cockroach
No longer can he march
Because he doesn't have, because he la-acks
Marijuana to smoke.
And if I were a Mexican soldier...or rebel, in that situation, that's exactly how I would feel. What? Cannabis makes you a lazy stoner, you say? Oh, we'll get to that brilliant bit of governmental-religious social manipulation later.
Further on, we find a wood cut of a POEE Brother wearing the 5-fingered hand of Eris and smoking a joint (page 00033). Then on page 00039 we are introduced to the 5 Discordian Apostles, and find out that the 3rd Apostle, Sri Syadasti, Patron of the Season of Confusion is the offspring of "the Squaw Mary-Jane and the Gentle Chief SunFlower Seed, of the Peyotl Indian tribe". The fact that Sri Syadasti's full name 2 is a Sanskrit Koan (thus confusing the two types of "indians") comes to fruition when we read the footnote: "NOTE: Sri Syadasti should not be confused with Blessed St. Gulik the Stoned, who is not the same person but is the same Apostle." This appellation, "the Stoned" anchors the Sri/Gulik connection to the Sacred Herb. Sri Syadasti the Stoned also has a beautiful alliteration.
Further references are there to be found by the curious seeker, especially where Gulik pops up, but I also feel I should mention Lord Omar's introduction to the 5th Edition. Kerry Thornely begins his introduction to the 5th edition of the Principia Discordia 3,
"If organized religion is the opium of the masses,
then disorganized religion is the marijuana of the lunatic fringe."
This theme runs through his introduction, with many references to marijuana, and to many of the mystic sects mentioned in this Report. The comparison of organized to disorganized religion also highlights how little the effects of Cannabis resemble the effects of opiates, the numbingly oceanic "security" drugs. Cannabis also proves itself distinct from alcohol and other substances that effect emotional control and blur the lines of primate pack status. Again, it's effects separate itself from the abstract-symbol accelerants, from the "lowly" caffeine and nicotine to the more "extreme" cocaine and methamphetamines. It seems to share traits with some of the psychedelics, such as psylocibin and LSD, but in the doses normally ingested does not cause archetype invoking hallucinations which overwhelm the usual perception of reality.
References:
1 - http://www.principiadiscordia.com/
2 - http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/46.php
3 - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tilt/principia/intro5.html
4 - This citation appears in the next article, stoopid.
5 - This is a recursive footnote. Fnord.5
It's a bit pinealist.
Quote from: Requiem on January 24, 2009, 11:10:38 PM
It's a bit pinealist.
:lulz: Yeah, it started off that way. Most of the Discordian references are crammed up front. It borders on Pineal Post-Occultism, but it's mostly just Post-Occultism in the rest of the article.
Still, its pretty cool.
Basically,I want Verwirrung to be a vehicle both for things Discordians/Subgenii/Mutants/etc would like, but also a vehicle for expressing your own interests and areas of expertise. That's why I want good material, and to raise the profile, because then it becomes a relatively high profile platform, allowing you to further your own agendas via the power of Web 2.0....whatever those agendas and aims may be.
Also, has everyone decided on a name for your given area of interest? Like Iason with ChaoSkeptic? Just that when we launch tomorrow, I was going to do a big page introducing everyone and what they will be writing about, as well as updating the About page with that information. Just a paragraph on your interest and, if you want, contact details for people to leave you links or hints or angry emails telling you that you suck etc
For example, my draft introduction.
Cain
Hi, I'm Cain. You may remember me from such posts as "LSD or Opiates - which is best for watching the Presidential election coverage with?", "Putin is the ultimate Bond Villain and Final Boss of the Internet" and, the now infamously banned essay "Dick Cheney wears a gimp mask and eats live puppies". Anyway, most of you will know me, either from my posts here, on my old blog, the PFLD, or from the PD forums. My own little section on the blog, "Tactical Polyvalence", will concentrate on politics, warfare and economics. I'll try not to report on the most obvious and covered stories of the day, but the back-room deals, the advances in weapon technology, the attempts at sneaking through legislation and other underreported events. Though I cannot promise I wont occasionally take cheap pot-shots at idiot bloggers and journalists, on slow days.
I'm editing a few bits in the CRAZY PREPARED vein, and I caught up on this thread's stuff. Are we fire - at - will, or waiting for the 27th?
Well I was planning on waiting, because its Lewis Carroll's birthday and all sorts of blogs will be doing crazy and different things on that day. It seems a good day for the launch.
I'll create a category called CRAZY PREPARED for you as well.
What do you think of my section being called "SEEING IS BELIEVEING"
I think it fits, yeaH?
Quote from: LMNO on January 26, 2009, 04:26:47 PM
What do you think of my section being called "SEEING IS BELIEVEING"
I think it fits, yeaH?
It does. Do you want me to delete "Starbuck's Gavel" then?
Also http://www.principiadiscordia.com/blog/cain/verwirrung-20/
Feel free to introduce yourselves. I'll hit some blogs later today and see if I can drum up some interest.
Yeah, Starbuck's Gravel is too PD-centric.
Ok, I'll do an intro today.
Right, since there's some tiny bit of interest in my first person rants, Ill actually do them. I'll come up with a name and intro later, here's a rough draft for a blog entry.
Quote from: Modern Medicine by Requiem
I had an MRI today. (Nothing is wrong with me, some researcher just wants pictures of my brain). The experience is interesting. It starts with a checklist, basic information to make sure there's nothing in my body the magnets are going to have fun with. Next up they have me change into hospital garb. I'm then told to wait, for about an hour, since they secretly scheduled my visit after the time they told me, for fear I'd be late.
After a great deal of waiting, and signing various release forms, liability waivers, and so forth, I'm taken to a small room, the last of my possessions (a book and the locker key with my street clothes) are stripped from me,. Then I get to go into a larger room, with even less space thanks to the monstrously large hunk of plastic, super-conducting wire and liquid helium.
I put on the headphones, bizarre things out of the science fiction of a century ago, with no metal, and sound pumped through a tube of air into my ears. Then the technician straps my head in place. Thus begins the bondage. The bench is slid backwards slowly, and I find myself unable to move my arms, which are now pinned between my body and the sides of said tube.
Something they don't tell you about, when fussing over the potential claustrophobia. MRI machines vibrate.
They start playing a movie, I brought Fight Club with me, since I'll only get to watch the first half of whatever it is, and I hate the second half of fight club.
Something else they don't tell you about MRIs, they produce a variety of sensations as they scan. A strange tugging sensation of my abdomen. A spot of my skin starts to vibrate, slowly moving up my right side. My nose starts to itch. Then my eye.
The movie continues playing just long enough to remind me of the first rule of Fight Club. Which I will say no more about. The researcher asks me to please stop moving my foot, and they start playing some cognitive tasks for me, think about this word, watch for green dots, don't think about anything specific.
I cheated on the last one, and wondered why the windows 2000 desktop I was staring at had a program called 'SSH secure shell client' when SSH stands for secure shell.
Finally, after about an hour inside this glorified bondage device, I'm pulled out of the machine, given my things back, and sent on my way. They even gave me pictures, which I share with you now.
(http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu338/Requiem-Blog/brain.jpg)
shouldnt an MRI scan be much sharper than that? I always thought they have really high resolution.
nah, neurology's mostly guesswork
It's roughly akin to diagnosing a hardware problem on a computer you didn't understand or build through quirks it produces in the I/O devices or shooting it with 32 flavors of cosmic ray.
Some science will always seem funny in retrospect.
Back to the point at hand:
Cain, was the idea to post twice a week?
Yeah, on your chosen topic at least. If you want to post more, or rant about how MCR sucks, or how you're going to come into work tomorrow with a shotgun and make your supervisor sorry...then you're free to do that as well. Its a lower limit, not an upper one.
I'm thinking tuesdays & Fridays, most likely.
Somebody remind me how to register log in and post on the blog. (I may or may not be registered).
Quote from: Triple "Dave" Zero on January 28, 2009, 11:23:05 AM
shouldnt an MRI scan be much sharper than that? I always thought they have really high resolution.
Its a magic tube that takes pictures of your inside without cutting you open, what the hell else do you want?
If I ever find them, I'll scan the ones from the first time I did this, they are much much sharper, though there are far less of them.
Friday blag has ben blagged.
If anyone has trouble following my posts, let me know. I try to linkify as much as possible so even the layperson can understand, but keep it otherwise technical so I can delve deeper into some of this stuff.
I'll also not be making the mistakes that SciAm makes. :x
Delve brother, delve. I'm taking it like GEB. If I don't understand, that's all on me to figure it out.
Ok, so the new approach has been in place for a couple of weeks, and I like the way it's going. There's a lot of good information pumping.
Any word on getting fresh eyes to the site?
A good way to draw traffic is to get links on the big news aggregator sites: Fark, Digg, Disinfo, etc. The best way to do that is by having good original content which we've been doing a good job of so far.
We also need to similar blogs to ours so that we can leech readers off of share links back and forth with. I have no idea who would be a good candidate for that since Verwirrung doesn't really fit into any genre right now.
Yeah. I've managed to get a few via the XKCD forums, because I have the link in my sig. However, I think also going via sites like Warren Ellis' place, and places like Grinding.be, Boing Boing and just commenting occasionally, with a link to the blog via your profile, could do a lot.
Readership wise could we reach into other social - blog arenas? I'm thinking of getting back into the LJ - type scene as a venue for some of my more half - assed / kitchen sink stuff, and will link like - minded assholes back to Verwirrung. It'd be more limited number wise passing it out there, but more targeted too.
Article wise, I've been liking what's going on.
If anyone has feedback, (bad, ugly, or glaring errors), I'd rather hear it from folks here first. I will return the favor when I see something I think needs mentioning.
In case you were wondering, the 'Seeing is Believing' section hasn't been updated in a while becuase my new interblag filters at work prevent me from seeing blogs and such; as a result, I am now forced to update from my home computer, where I have much less time to do such things.
Apologies, but I will find a work-around.
I hammer out a LOT on lunch / breaks and send it to myself, then post from home.
Also, I've got 3 sillier / more hypothetical CP's prepared for gradual release. I'll try to save 1 or 2 for filling in mid - week slumps.
Thing is, I've been getting a lot of my subject matter from sites that are now work-blocked.
I'll do what I can.
recruit this guy
http://drunkenmaster.net/category/discordian/
Added to the blogroll
You guys, are there any categories you want adding? I've noticed I've got a pretty comprehensive list for my topics, but you guys may not. Is there anything you want put on Teh List?
Just to throw a few out:
Violence
Physics
Social Engineering
IRL Operations
Stuff
Pink Fluffy Bunnies
h:fnord:p://misadventuresincrazytown.blogspot.com/
Bump.
When's the Blog going on the front page again?
Here's a GASM, find a pic from the PICS thread, and one from WOMP (or an edited once from Spagbook). Find some other content + comments. Throw it onto the blog (try to link to the parent threads).
It took me just about 20 minutes to grab Nigel's Parable of Steve, find a few images from the start of the PICS thread, and style it with CSS.
I'll need 4 more editors wiling to do this on a semi-regular basis (and learn a little CSS) for there to be enough new content with links pointing into the forum to drive traffic.
EDIT: It seems that the WordPress installation is striping out (removing) my custom CSS from the post. Who has access to the back end options? We may need an upgrade to WP 2.9 I'm leaving the post unpublished for now.
I'd like to volunteer to help out as an editor/contributor. I skipped most of the middle of this thread, but if it didn't change very much from the OP and that's what you're still looking for, I'll be happy to help. I used to do some blogging so I'm familiar with the whole blogging thing, I can contribute a regular article and/or help with promoting in the ol' blog-o-sphear, blogcatalog for instance.