Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 2, 2019 18:31:15 GMT -8
Reviews&Things: One month (or nearly so) progress report.
Good communication is important to sustaining any project. The first question would be: What project is this? That can be given in two parts:
1) It is a place to write and share excellent reviews of books, movies, TV shows, etc. (even product reviews would be great). These are written not to satisfy our own vanity but for the betterment of the reader — those dozens, even hundreds, who browse on any internet site but never post a word.
2) It is a sandbox for your own making. I miss zero about StubbornThings, particularly because I got tired of being a gatekeeper. I’m an organizer by nature, yes but not a gatekeeper. I’d rather not have to be the person who allows communication by pushing a button. With a forum structure, I don’t have to do that. My role now will be to hector, cajole, and persuade people do work better than just the lowest common denominator. And not in order to make us “special” but to do good work for the sake of doing good work and thereby making ourselves useful to others.
People will remain people so you can expect me to pound my head against the wall every now and then. You’ll know when I do it. When I do it, suspect it’s not for my own good but yours.
If I could take every post, comment, and article from the old StubbornThings and integrate here, would I? No. Even God sees to it that species go instinct and that time marches on. We create anew. And anyone who has little to say but rehashing what we said back there is stuck in one gigantic rut. I may try to hector you out of it, but that rut is likely deeper than Hercules himself could cure.
I’m not into vanity publishing. I’m not. And that was perhaps my greatest error when I started StubbornThings. I think few took me at face value. The internet is littered with people who feel the desperate need to be someone. Well, God has already made you someone special, so quit trying so hard. The job now is to express it, not try to forever prove what is ever only an obnoxious and tiresome act to try to explicitly do.
The site is, for all intents and purposes, done. I could add on things here and there, change a color or two, re-arrange the forums. But it’s up to you to shift the sand around in the sandbox and for the reasons that either, as a writer, you simply must express yourself, or because it’s a damn lot of fun.
The only thing I ask is don’t just schlep out your stuff. Oh, I don’t mean not to kid around, poke fun, and just all around informally blather on. But if you’re going to write a review, write it with the reader in mind. Think about improving yourself. And do so not to impress me but simply to be a service to the reader to whom you might connect to a great book, movie, or even a cordless power drill that you find to be a particularly good buy.
Good communication is important to sustaining any project. The first question would be: What project is this? That can be given in two parts:
1) It is a place to write and share excellent reviews of books, movies, TV shows, etc. (even product reviews would be great). These are written not to satisfy our own vanity but for the betterment of the reader — those dozens, even hundreds, who browse on any internet site but never post a word.
2) It is a sandbox for your own making. I miss zero about StubbornThings, particularly because I got tired of being a gatekeeper. I’m an organizer by nature, yes but not a gatekeeper. I’d rather not have to be the person who allows communication by pushing a button. With a forum structure, I don’t have to do that. My role now will be to hector, cajole, and persuade people do work better than just the lowest common denominator. And not in order to make us “special” but to do good work for the sake of doing good work and thereby making ourselves useful to others.
People will remain people so you can expect me to pound my head against the wall every now and then. You’ll know when I do it. When I do it, suspect it’s not for my own good but yours.
If I could take every post, comment, and article from the old StubbornThings and integrate here, would I? No. Even God sees to it that species go instinct and that time marches on. We create anew. And anyone who has little to say but rehashing what we said back there is stuck in one gigantic rut. I may try to hector you out of it, but that rut is likely deeper than Hercules himself could cure.
I’m not into vanity publishing. I’m not. And that was perhaps my greatest error when I started StubbornThings. I think few took me at face value. The internet is littered with people who feel the desperate need to be someone. Well, God has already made you someone special, so quit trying so hard. The job now is to express it, not try to forever prove what is ever only an obnoxious and tiresome act to try to explicitly do.
The site is, for all intents and purposes, done. I could add on things here and there, change a color or two, re-arrange the forums. But it’s up to you to shift the sand around in the sandbox and for the reasons that either, as a writer, you simply must express yourself, or because it’s a damn lot of fun.
The only thing I ask is don’t just schlep out your stuff. Oh, I don’t mean not to kid around, poke fun, and just all around informally blather on. But if you’re going to write a review, write it with the reader in mind. Think about improving yourself. And do so not to impress me but simply to be a service to the reader to whom you might connect to a great book, movie, or even a cordless power drill that you find to be a particularly good buy.
