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I'm sure this has come up before re: multi-blogs per day, but ...

The First Amendment is one of the most sacred passages of human inscription in the history of writing things down, IMO. It is not my intention to squelch anyone's expression. And I also noticed that the home page has had it's 'headline listings' increased both for discussions and blogs.

But I'm wondering if it wouldn't be a welcome courtesy if our more prolific bloggers (I could easily be among them, if I showed no restraint) could submit only one blog every 12 hours or so. That way, other posts wouldn't get pushed off the home page so fast.

Like I said - this has probably come up before and, frankly, I don't know how it could be enforced. In fact, I am against a rule - but I do ask for courtesy.

Finally, it was brought to my attention that a 'blog' should, in some respect, be a journal entry. That is to say, the person who submits it should own it in some way - be the author of it. I'm not ragging on spam, per se. I just want to clarify that reposts of articles that can be found elsewhere without critical comment aren't really blogs.

Thanks for your time and attention,

Howard

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Permalink Reply by Jaume on May 25, 2010 at 2:30pm

Cat o'Nine: No reason in the world not to despatch him promptly.

But he only exercises his right to free speech, doesn't he? Think twice before writing things like this or this thread will hit Godwin's limit soon. :^/

Seriously - Riomarcos' behavior is a perfect allegory of what I find wrong with the (sacred) right to free speech, or rather with how this right can be abused: when the signal/noise ratio goes down to zero, it's not free speech anymore, it's free noise. On the other hand, we all know that regulation is a slippery slope. (Now, where is my cake?)

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Permalink Reply by sacha on May 25, 2010 at 12:42pm

I asked him very politely to post them in his photos so that people who take time to compose a blog are not pushed off the list. I asked him to please be courteous, and that was his response.

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Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on May 25, 2010 at 2:46pm

This was all? Were there any other responses that were more like hating? Nothing wrong with putting it in photos.

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on May 25, 2010 at 10:43pm

This is the squeal of the inane - "it's my blog, I'll do what I please" - each and every worthless nothing-to-say douche coughs it up when asked to show some consideration. Well it's not "my blog". It's blog space that is provided in good will by the community. This behaviour is akin to visiting someone's house and taking a shit in the middle of the lounge floor.

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Permalink Reply by Asa Watcher on May 25, 2010 at 11:50am

Having been a member for a while, I’m still not sure how all this should work.
Like, here we are having a discussion about “blogs”, but it is appearing under the “Forum” banner within the category “ Atheist Nexus Discussions, Ideas & Site Suggestions”.
So it took awhile for me to figure out the difference between posting under “Forum”, and posting under “Blog Posts”.
It seems that choosing one of the 15 Forum catagories is a good way to submit an article under the “Forum” banner for discussion by everyone.
If a person just wants to write something personal, they submit it under the “Blog Posts” banner.
Yet, “Blog Posts” look alot like many of the “Forum” posts to me.
If I decide to submit a thought or an issue that I want to share, should I search through the 15 catagories under the Forum banner and then decide which catagory is appropriate? The 891 discussions under the “Water cooler” catagory look alot like the 6000+ “Blog Posts” to me.
What is the advantage/difference to submitting an article to a catagory under the “Forum” banner as opposed to just “flinging it out there” under the “Blog Posts” banner?

I want to do the polite thing here, and need some guidance.

Suggestion:
Perhaps one way of controlling Blog Posts would be to eliminate the ability to comment on them. That way discussions would be limited to only those submissions that appear within one of the 15 “Forum” catagories. This might necessitate increasing the number of “Forum” catagories, but might also impose a bit of discipline on simply posting stuff as a blog, and would encourage people to seek out a “Group” within which they could discuss and comment on specific interests or just post stuff.

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Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on May 25, 2010 at 2:49pm

There are plenty of sites that limit the amount of comments you can make in a particular period of time. You make one or two comments, try to make another and get a thing that says "you've made several comments in a short period of time--give it a rest" or something like that. It could be the same with blogs.

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Permalink Reply by qıƃ ɟ ǝıɔɐɹʇ on May 26, 2010 at 5:37am

I've been a heavy internet user since well before the existence of web browsers, but still I'm not clear on what a blog is *supposed* to be. Everybody seems to have a different understanding of it.

The first time I ever heard of blogging (a bit over a decade ago), I understood it to be something like the captain's log on Star Trek. By that I mean a diary, sharing interesting tidbits discovered in one's travels about the internet, with or without commentary. I've seen some good ones where the author shares some 10-20 items a day, each time quoting from and linking to a web page.

Whenever I see someone presenting a blog that doesn't seem to be working as I just described the script in my head screams "Here's just another idiot who doesn't know WTF they're doing". These days only about 1% of blogs work the way I heard they were supposed to, so many years ago. Group blogs *never* seem to. Quality control. Yep. That's a problem everywhere, not just here.

I've been reading at A|N almost daily for over a year and a half, and haven't managed to make out what the difference is supposed to be between the Forum section and the Blog Post section. I read them all the same way: click on titles that seem interesting and read until I get bored.

If I had something to share as an initial post I wouldn't necessarily know which place to put it. *Is* there even actually a difference between Forum and Blog? Maybe nobody knows. Yes, some instruction would help.

If *I* were the person writing the instructions I would specify that blog posts should start with a link to another site. Then, they should quote some very small section (avoiding copyright violation). Then, they should comment at least a little bit. Others might comment as well. But once that page has been linked, it's been done already.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Moore on May 27, 2010 at 12:40am

If *I* were the person writing the instructions I would specify that blog posts...

I'd say that would be a forum post, not a blog post.

The boundaries of distinction between a forum post and a blog post can be blurry, but a useful guideline is that blogs are for personal opinion (think Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed piece), forums are for general discussion (think chat over coffee or down at the pub).

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Permalink Reply by sacha on May 28, 2010 at 9:53am

exactly

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Permalink Reply by Atheist Exile on May 26, 2010 at 5:44am

Hey Howard,

Was this an isolated incident or an ongoing pattern or practice?

Some guidelines might be helpful but I have to believe that less rules are better than more rules. I doubt people post multiple posts in a day for the express reason of dominating the recent blogs list. It seems to me that, with thousands of members, one should expect just about any potentiality here on A|N.

I once had an Asperger's asshole respond to a religious joke I had posted in my blog. He told me there's a group for humor and I should use it, instead of my blog, to post jokes. I didn't take kindly to this self-anointed watchdog and his caustic reply, so I posted 5 or 6 more jokes in quick succession, just to thumb my nose at him.

Code could be added to the site to limit the recent blogs list to 1 entry per person per 12 hours. This would allow us to post whatever we like in our blogs but avoid hogging the recent blogs list. This is less heavy-handed than rules limiting our membership activities.

P.S.
There are many people who respond to many discussions in quick succession. By doing so, they hog the recent discussions list in the same way those others hog the recent blogs list. By your reasoning, they would also be limited. See what I mean? I don't think our self-expression should be limited by administrators OR self-anointed watchdogs unless we violate the TOS.

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on May 26, 2010 at 5:48am

That was me you asshole. And why did I chip you ? Because you were an asshole posting inane gibberish only you found amusing. You are the original narcissist blog bomber. That you are still proud of leaving turds in the playground sandbox only confirms it. And so does using "asperger's" as a term of derision, asshole.

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on May 26, 2010 at 7:26am

Or assburpers. That was another "it's my blog, I'll do what I please" set of imbecile flatus - the distinction was it was not newbie ignorance, but deliberate, aggravated vandalism. After posting several tired jokes even by Johnny Carson teevee standards as blog items, then being asked to keep the jokes in the humour forum, the dick follows it up with another 6 or 8 individual blogs with even older, lamer jokes. "It's my blog! Don't tell me what to do in my blog!" That really advertises Nexus as the home of quality content doesn't it?