Thomas Rogers's Open Salon Blog

Calling all OS foodies: The Salon Kitchen Challenge

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:11:15 -0500

If you've been paying attention to Salon's cover page today, you've probably noticed a couple of things 1. A large cartoon of Francis Lam, our new food writer, staring at a donut. 2. Salon's brand spanking new food section. Both are exciting new developments, not only because Francis spends much of his day recreating the exact same pose in our New York office, but because with our new food section, we're also kicking off a great new way for all of you Open Salon foodies (and I know that there's a lot of you) to get the attention you deserve.

The Salon Kitchen Challenge is our new weekly food feature in which we ask Open Salon bloggers to show us their most creative -- and delicious -- meals and recipes. Every week we'll lay out some rules, and the following week we'll select a winner (whose meal will be featured on Salon itself).

For the full details, check out Francis's post here. But, for convenience's sake, here's the inaugural challenge:

"We’re thrilled to be launching the good ship Salon Food right into the gravy sea of Thanksgiving.

So, this week, after the feasting and the football, open up that fridge and celebrate with us! Forget the couch-surfing turkey sandwich and knock out something shiny and new using your Thanksgiving leftovers"

We can't wait to see your delicious post-Turkey Day creations! (just remember to tag your posts: skc thanksgiving)

Open call: Who's your Sexiest Man Living?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:11:48 -0500

It's that sexy time of year again: At the end of this week, People Magazine will be announcing its Sexiest Man Alive -- its annual award for the country's most desirable dude. As you know, Salon has a longstanding disagreement with People's taste in men (and its dedication to naming pretty-boy actors), so, as we've done for the past years, we'll announcing our own list in the coming days.

Salon's Sexiest Man Living list celebrates the men that make us swoon -- not just because they're beautiful, but because they've got the smarts, or talent, or gravitas, or pop-cultural presence that really makes us blush.

So we want to know: Who do you think should be this year's Sexiest Man Living? Write up a post with your nomination -- and include an explanation of what makes him so dreamy -- and we'll be featuring them on the Open Salon cover in the second part of this week. (Make sure to tag your post "sexiest man living 2009") If you're looking for inspiration, you can check out last year's entries here.

Alert: About your feed import

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:11:50 -0500

As some of you have noticed, we've been having some problems with our feed import function over the last few weeks -- some posts are being imported a few days late, others aren't coming in at all. The cause: Open Salon's growing popularity. As wonderful as that is, our system is getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of blogs being imported.

Our hard-working engineers are going to be pushing out a fix in the near future, but, in the meantime, we apologize for the delay -- and I promise to let you know as soon as things are up and running.

Announcement: I'm on vacation!

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 18:10:51 -0400

Just to give you a head's up, I'm heading out of town on a much-anticipated vacation until Thursday -- and Kerry's going to be stepping in to update the cover and make Editor's Picks as he can. (You may notice that the updates will be a bit more sporadic until I get back). Have a great weekend!

Note: Weekends and Editor's Picks

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:09:05 -0400

As you all know, Open Salon never sleeps. Ever since we launched the site, many of you have been posting, commenting and rating 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- and we're thrilled. But as many of you have surely noticed, there are some times of the week when the editors aren't around to give your work the attention (with Editor's Picks, and cover placement) we'd like to give it -- most notably, on weekends.

I wanted to make it official: While we check in on the site on Saturdays and Sundays (and do our best to keep track of spammers), we can't guarantee that we'll be able to promote your work as much as we'd like to on those days. If you're planning on publishing a blockbuster post, and you want us to see and promote it (with an EP, an Open Salon cover spot, or space on Salon itself), you may want to save it for Monday through Friday (until about 5 p.m., EST) when we'll do our best to give it the love it deserves.