Admittedly, I haven't been here very long...but I was reading for months before I created an account. I tried to know what I was doing ahead of time and pick up on the unspoken etiquette of OS. And I think that in many ways, I've done okay with that. But there are some things that leave me scratching my head in puzzlement.
1. The Editor's Picks/cover spaces/etc., etc. What makes an Editor's Pick? Why does a Salon staffer's paltry couple of paragraphs on Carla Bruni and the sex tape semi-scandal, banged out this morning, end up on the front cover...instead of Stellaa's fantastic piece, which was more thorough and entertaining, and which was posted the night before? Why are some writers always featured (laziness on the editor's part?) Why do these things take days and days to change sometimes - if one reads regularly, it can get fairly tedious to see the same articles on the cover day after day. And (this isn't happening at the moment, but I feel like it does fairly often) why are there sometimes two or more pieces on the same topic on the cover?
2. Is there a better way to keep track of "favorites"? Is the list in the order I added people? That doesn't make sense. Why not alphabetical order?
3. This Open Call thing: I cannot make heads or tails of it. It seems like people label anything "Open Call," all willy-nilly. And is the Open Call for right now really "How You Can Build Your Blogging Audience"? (The Help page tells me to look in the upper right corner of the OS front page. I'm looking. That's what I see.) How often is this changed? Can we maybe have a more riveting topic?
4. Pitbulls in Spamalot, etc. The stuff that WILL NOT LEAVE THE MOST READ FEED. Why? Why? Okay, OS, you've broken me...it's like going to a (really messy) friend's house and looking around, then grabbing a mop and bucket and getting to work. Does no-one else want to clean up Most Read? I'll do it! Mememe! ::waves hand frantically::
5. And last but not least...what is UP with Freaky Troll, anyway?!
Tell me what I've missed, O Wise Ones. Or tell me I'm not alone in questioning this stuff.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Dana Dangerous
fingerlakeswanderer
scoubidou
JTress
AshKW
m. a.h
Salon.com
Comments
Thanks!
2. Media are always subjective. They are the dog that wants to be wagged by the tail - and in these economic times, they sort of have to be to survive. Thus: It's a Hannah-Montana-sex-drugs-and-ohnohedi'n't-Pitbulls-in-Spamalot world.
3. I come to OS with the belief that no one will read anything I write. Isn't that crazy? That way, if I don't get a single comment, I feel good that I wrote something I liked. The comments are a bonus. (I like some of the new features since I checked out on a work hiatus several years ago - like the one that tells you how many people viewed your story. Cool!)
4. Don't get discouraged. Keep writing. People are reading. The front page is a fairyland where ideas mingle like little, breathless angels and devils - and it's also a wasteland, where sometimes your best stories get left in the dust.
Be you. You'll get noticed. :-)
I don't know why those posts won't go away, and one of them is mine. I think the way it was BEFORE the feed stuff got opened up some was better. We got to really see what people on OS were reading. They need to find a way to make that happen again.
EPs are a mystery. Well ... not totally a mystery. Staffers get to EP themselves. That's just the way it is. And I think some people, while lovely writers, do always get EP because an editor watches their stuff particularly. Even some of my favorite people have gotten an editor's choice for something that just wasn't much.
In the editors' defense, damn, it's a lot to read.
I wonder if this maybe didn't come off quite as tongue-in-cheek as I intended it to...
I should go and read some of Freaky's back catalogue...
Well done. Rated.
The cover: They pick what they think will draw eyeballs, from what I understand.
Editor's picks: [giant shrug] Combination of skill, topic, style, persona, general belovedness of the regular audience, up-to-the-minute-ness, plus the occasional well constructed whimsy or heartbreak.
Open Call: The single most abused tag in OS, ever. Period. Useless. Good in theory, lost in translation.
Who's In Your Sexiest Pit Bull Spamalot Entourage: You got me. I figure people land here from the front page of Big Salon, see those at the top of the most-read list, click in to see what's so good about them, click out again w/o finishing...but their initial clicks keep the posts up there. Self-reinforcing cycle.
Freaky Troll: An early Open Salon contributor with a widespread reputation for loving cake. Also engaged to Joan Walsh. And have you seen what she can do with that foothole? (Seriously: The doll itself belongs to Deven, aka Tequila & Donuts. Whether or not the doll is the one composing the posts, I cannot say for sure...)
rated for helping us newbies
2. Keeping track of favorites. No clue.
3. This Open Call thing. Ignore it. It's too often abused to be useful; it's the equivalent of the phrase "fun-loving" in personal ads.
4. Pitbulls in Spamalot, etc. Some have speculated, with good reason, that this particular post is getting page views via some automated mechanism, not tied to actual human readers. If so, grrr.
5. Freaky Troll. It took me a while to warm up to Freaky Troll, but I think she's a masterpiece of sustained online performance art. Seriously.
AGREED! RATED! WE ARE AS OF ONE MIND!
This is quite simple. As each post comes through the queue, a live chicken is ritually sacrificed, and the entrails removed. Then, a panel consisting of a Santeria priestess, a psychic, an astrologer, a Republican pundit, and Kerry Lauerman, read the entrails and decide if a post is an EP, and whether it should be on the cover.
The process is quite simple and straightforward. I'm surprised you didn't know it.
By the way, the dead chickens thus generated are all sent to China and recycled into bootleg DVDs. Waste not, want not.
"Pitbulls in Spamalot, etc. The stuff that WILL NOT LEAVE THE MOST READ FEED. Why? Why?"
Because it is the best thing ever written in the English language. It is taught in all the best schools, and recently won the Nobel Prize for Blog Posts. Really, where have you been? This is common knowledge.
"It seems like people label anything "Open Call," all willy-nilly."
Yes, you are correct.
It would be interesting to see what effect that would have on the clog--and whether a handful of other posts would then become the new clog--or whether they'd end up back at the top of the list despite it all.
I'm still working on Freaky. ;)
mwwhahahah ;D
Freaky I didn't get at first either, but you will. When everyone's mad at each other, and saying nasty things Freaky's blog is the best place to retreat to. Feeling bored at 12 am- head on over to Freaky's, someone's bound to be up. Wanting to see a bit of silly to soak your head after someone posts something so poignant it makes you cry- Freaky's.
Awhile back I said jokingly that she was the potato put in to save a too salty soup, and honestly I don't think I could find a better way to put it if I tried. Freaky saves us all from our own intensity.
Spec and I are meeting at The Grind on Fri at noon- you wanna come visit? you don't have to stay- you can just say hey, grab a danish and a coffee to go, and scoot
I guess they take editors to lunch or dinner?!!
Honestly some of the stuff made the front page were crap!!!
I know I could never make the front page because my writing involves so many obscene words “pussy, shit, bitch, penis, anal" etc...
Boo Boo! As if in the real life you wouldn’t hear these shitsss!!!
Anyway I'm NOT jealous everyone made the front page but me!
As always I keep myself calm and I put a BIG smile on ass ( as seen in my profile picture)
Rated!! Go girl! You rock!!!
screamin mama - thank you :)
cartouche - "jealousing" is a great word!
Verbal - you're the best! Many thanks :)
ladyfarmerjed - hooray! I'm not the only one!
Stellaa - I really did think you had the better post there! And thank you, the feeling is mutual.
Rob - many thanks!
Helen...hahaha!
mishima666 - that's the best explanantion I've seen so far...LOL!
AshKW - aww, thank you!
hyblaean-Julie - great Freaky notes! Thanks. And as for Friday...it's my last day on the job, so that's where I'll be. Thanks for the invite though :)
Go to home and at the top you can select EP, or most popular, or most recent and all of those give you the option to look at those posts by everybody or just by your "favorites".
So you should have no problem tracking your favorites at any time of day or night. Feel free to add me to your list. :) Rated.
Can we at least PLEASE have a nice, fun new Open Call? We used to have them all the time. It's a great way to get to know more OSers.
(From a purely selfish point of view, it's practically the only time my blog entries get more than ten comments, but really I'm not that self-centered. Most of the time.)
Shiral - thumbs up to that.
If you read nothing else, you must read Freaky Troll's Easter thing - it was better than all the sermons I've ever heard in my life.
:)
Freaky is a goddess and not to be questioned.
:)Rated
that way you don't get lost in the feed... as it changes rapidly. Keep posting... keep writing. keeping track of favorites is daunting, but OS is a cool site... with brilliant thinkers.
I hope that helps.
#2 Fave's'n'such - Deborah Young above has nailed the proper technique. It's still a mess isn't it?
I still want to know why if it's "Open Salon - You Make The Headlines" do the Eds feel they need to rewrite all the headlines on the cover. No it's not an issue of space, that can be addressed. I used to write headlines for a living and tangling with a writers headline was a sure way to love favorite tender body parts.
If Freaky gets to you then just drop into my place and try our pixies
Just keep writing. You'll get read. "Sides you meet a much better class'o'people on OS than anywhere else.
Other than that tho...OS is great and Freaky Troll has grown on me too. I find myself hoping she'll post and make me smile when things get too stupid to take around here.
Personally - iconoclast that i am - have resorted to NEVER reading from that Most Viewed list on the right, nor from the Editor's picks. Instead I typically just follow the Most Recent entries.
Whether it was just at my newspaper, or the quality of commentary on newspaper sites in general, but the folks who post locally are generally mean and uninformed, not to mention horrible writers. To me, OS is like I’ve landed in heaven.
Still unsure of all the ins and outs, I feel like I am continuing to watch the action a lot, only from a closer place, if that makes sense. I know a lot more now than I did when I put my first piece up a month ago, and some of you are becoming familiar faces.
I look forward to learning and writing more. And I’m off to check out this Freaky Troll person.
1) The editors don't like what I write. Thus no EP's, no covers. The important thing is I mostly like what I write.
2) Yes, but the OS staffers aren't into that kind of organization. Just isn't their thing.
3) Apparently anyone can list an 'open call.' I was confused by that one at first, and then remembered the charm of this space is the sense of anarchy.
4) I never read that post....and the editors are waiting for me me me to do so.
5) Freaky is divine. Just that.
It seems like you've been here a long time already, I enjoy u=your comments and posts very much.
I pooh-pooh all the conspiracy theories about EP and cover picks. But I'm more interested in comments. When I decide to get more competitive about my blog - to the world, not within OS - I'll do some of the things mentioned in Thomas's really informative post about attracting attention to your blog.
I read and comment a lot, and I seem to have some readers. I need to be blogging regularly, which is often MY challenge, as I like the internal stuff and dialogue(except when it's stupid and nasty/crazy).
I think it's really about why you are here. If you're looking for a place where people will read and comment, yipee! If you think it's going to gain you a wide audience, you need to work on it from that angle. Maybe people evolve, as writers, from one to the other, here.
I can tell you that I have a burgeoning friendship with a Pulitzer nominated poet because of my time on OS - and that has ignited a spark for poetry that I have been missing for years.
For me, the community aspect has been really important. But that's not for everyone! One of my favorites of my favorites never comments on his own posts, even if I'm basically hiring a band and parading all over his comments.
It's not a popularity contest, and there are only a handful of people who treat it as such. And I think the editors are doing their jobs and also giving really helpful posts about how it all works.
Try blogging on blogspot and see how many comments you get in the first two weeks (two years) of writing. This place is a gift.
Whew! I didn't know how much I loved OS!
I read your posts, although I got you confused with Robin Sneed for one day because you arrived on my radar at the same time. But that's my personal failing!
The most commented on (and I think popular) post I have written is about Miracle Whip vs. mayonaisse.
There's nothing else to say.
(Keep writing - I will keep reading!)
That there's your popularity contest.
I think that most of my stuff is great and people should be lining up (figuratively) to read my shit. I don't know why but... Maybe I'm envious of Freaky Troll and the attention they get. Or maybe I'm not that good. It's hard to compete with so many people and so many good people at that.
It's humbling to be back in the pack. Especially when you think you're 'all that'.
There are issues here. Some things aren't fair. Life isn't fair. I guess if I was an editor, my shit wouldn't stink.
Sometimes it's hard to accept the truth.
If you don't label it "Open Call" then people see the call tag and don't read what you posted. Odd hu?
BTW, you left our PMs, but luckily for you I did not.
http://open.salon.com/blog/trudge164/2009/04/28/i_am_not_a_whore
I have the same luck with the lottery. :)
Anyways...
Did I just insinuate a rumor? : 0
But one way to view all this is as a taste of the real world. Harlan Ellison once showed that paperbacks have about two minutes of shelf life at the average airport bookstore, which, as it turns out, is where a lot of Product used to move. Most readers of articles in papers and magazines never get past the headline, and the more dogged do three paragraphs. Reviewers of books usually read only the first three chapters. So moving rapidly down the Recent Post feed is not so bad.
Another thing that is pretty cool about this set-up is that the editors may not like you, but they let you keep on keeping on. In what other writing venue can you keep being carried if the editor'd rather not have your business? In this, OS is almost revolutionary. You may never get an Editor Pick, but so what? If your readers like what you do, and you like that they like you...
Well, it gets a bit addictive...
2. No, there is not a better way. Whatever it does is out of our control as far as I can tell. They may be working on a better way. Kerry talks like there are better features coming.
3. The Open Call thing seems ill-conceived, you're right. There should be separate keywords for calls and responses. That people use the "open call" keyword as a response is because the software uses a search for that keyword to find responses, so they have no other choice. But really it would be better if we were told to use "open response" on responses. Oh well. No one asks me.
4. The read feed thing is alleged to be because people continue to read things from previous days. (I claim this is because they feature Most Read as an item, which I think they ought not, and it sets up a feedback loop not dissimilar in character or irritating effect to what happens if you put a speaker near a microphone in a closed loop.)
5. [Singing “One of these things is not like the other...”] Freaky's a good thing. If you don't realize that, you haven't been here long enough. Not only does Freaky offer needed comic relief but also very subtle/insightful social commentary. I've made the analogy to South Park, which looks like fluff too at first glance.