Been there, done that, got ZERO suggestions. Sorry.

Tell me too. I need constant affirmation!!!

Oh...and a place that will let me publish my crap!

I wish I could too.
:(

You might want to check out Writing.Com or WDC as we call it. It is a site for writers and it also offers a blog page for those writers who also want to do a blog. You can find all kinds of writing there and all sorts of writers. Just a suggestion, check it out.

How about someone institutes a massive prayer chain involving every blogger on OS, like they do for critically ill people. Sorry, but it seems a miracle is the only answer. That's all I got.

I got a place over at Yahoo! Groups, we can hang out there. What do you mean is the floor sticky? Of course!! :D

(Really not a place like Open --- there's LOTS of blogging sites, just none as personable as this!! ~nodding~)

So uh, should I start the prayer?

Okay,

OH RA WHO ART IN ATLANTIC CITY,
PLEASE, GIVE US HOPE, AND GIVE THE OPEN TECHS BRAINS SO THEY CAN FIX THE SITE....AMEN...

:D

Arggg
I have been hounding Salon, literally, it tops my titles on my sight. I started out here with a story and find myself lost in Andy Rooney type of behavior, sited by the many writings I see here.

But I have the time to loose myself in this blog.

I found SALON from watching Julie and Julia. But I cannot understand how Julie was able to keep a fulltime job, use a 1 hour transport each way, shop for the goodies to create her recipe's and then to prepare them and finally write her blog.

I believed it when I watched the movie, but now I am skeptical. If she experienced these same issues (and her blog required precision in creating replica meals from Julia Child's cookbooks), there is no way she had enough time to prepare over 500 recipe's in 365 days AND keep her blog up to date.

Hey, I'm gonna copy and paste this comment on my blog. That is if I can even get on it.

redroom.com. Or shewrites.com. Or set up a blog on word press or blogger and get familiar with twitter and promote the heck out of it. or hell, even examiner.com isn't shabby (and you can make a few bucks off of it). examiner articles always come up high in searches, but its a bit more journalistic.

Personally, I love the group at RedRoom. It's more sedate than here, but good, kind and supportive people run it.

Sorry for my French, but this is a FUCKING shame that so many of our posts are about the demise of a successful site being run into the ground.

Here's a few: newsvine, the after vine, skirt (for women), examiner (you have to be approved), word press. Nothing is quite like OS but some of these sites offer opportunities if you are writing news related posts. For the most part, they are not interested in our personal live, but current topics are welcome.

Don't leave OS, but also post at these sites which pay for page views.
RedGage
Triond

There are Facebook pages for OSers, I understand, but I don't do Facebook, and I doubt if that format lends itself to longer posts. I'm just going to wait it out here. Mornings seem to be the best time lately.

fictionique.com

created by OSers who just got sick of it

Yep, Beth, a fucking shame. Thanks for the suggestions, friends!

I'm with Beth, I think those two sites attract high quality writers and encourage community the way that OS does...that said, I mostly post to my own blog b/c it's worth it to me to control branding, links, etc...

Yeah the site speed is a problem. But i think that is going to be corrected soon.

Hi sweetfeet, I'm very late here, but curious.
What have you found that you like since you posted this?
Interesting to see what others came up with, I seem to not be able to take on more than one site at a time, so I'm just here at OS, but much less often as my available time shrank this year...