Time For a Re-Think

We set up this place at the request and with the agreement of the community when Fred Clark left to go to Patheos. The understanding was always that it would be a 'group blog', with content provided by volunteers from the community.

At the time of writing this, it looks very much as if the place is going the way of so many new projects: lots of volunteers and contributions at the beginning, but gradually dwindling to a hard core. Unfortunately, the hard core of regular contributors was only about half a dozen people - and in this small group were the members of TBAT (hapax, Kit and mmy), all of whom have withdrawn from commenting and submitting articles because of pressures from both in and outside the community, MercuryBlue who has withdrawn for personal reasons, and Literata, who formally left the board when hapax, Kit and mmy withdrew as participants.

The place is now fatally short on regular contributors. TBAT have continued to create the 'semi-open thread' discussion subjects we always posted to plug the gaps when there were no submissions ready to publish, but now the board is practically nothing else, and such insubstantial fare is not getting much in the way of long or lively comment threads.

The purpose in setting up this board was to provide a place where those unwilling to follow Fred to Patheos could meet and commune. It appears to us that the board has served, or perhaps outlived, its purpose. Some people are now happily installed at Patheos; others have set up blogs and/or established separate online relationships of their own: the volume of contributions here suggests that the place is no longer needed.

This is the impression we have from following the recent progress of the board, and if it is how things are, we do not want to continue to beat a dead cyber-horse: we would rather take the time and energy we spend maintaining this place and dedicate it to other projects. However, we have no wish to pull the plug if people still want the place open. We are therefore giving the community a choice:

1. A substantial number of volunteers can commit to submitting articles on a regular, preferably formally scheduled, basis.

2. We can hand the board over to new moderators, elected by the community, and the three of us can withdraw entirely and move on to other things.

3. We can keep the board going for an agreed-upon period to give everybody here time to set up alternative ways to keep in touch with those they wish to keep in touch with, and then pull the plug, give Fred the choice between taking the board name back and letting it go, and, should there be any surplus in the board's 'tip jar', donate it to a charity of the community's choosing.

Please either volunteer, including a commitment to contribute at least once every two months, or say which of the second and third options you'd prefer, in the comments below.

---

 

The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)

Comments

[Firedrake]

The reason I haven't been volunteering is that I don't feel I have interesting things to say. Given a subject I can come up with material.

I don't see any virtue in option 2. There are already other boards with other owners/moderators; putting one of them at this URL doesn't seem to gain anyone much.

I would still like a place that isn't Patheos - and isn't using Disqus - to talk about Fred's deconstructions. But I don't suppose that's likely to happen again here whatever occurs (it's your choice to stop the "At Patheos" posts, and I'm not arguing with that, just regretting the necessity).

[chris the cynic, who finally has his normal computer back but is no longer used to the size of the keybord]

I wish I could help with option 1. Unfortunately I have, maybe, four ideas for posts. Nothing more. And I've had at least one of them basically since this place was created. It's writing it that's a problem.

Then again...

Please either volunteer, including a commitment to contribute at least once every two months

Four things, at least one every two months, would be 8 months worth of contributions if procrastination and inability to initiate were taken to the maximum possible level. I might have an idea for a fifth post by then.

So, I guess I volunteer. If you don't have a contribution from me in two months or less, you'll know that I've failed.

[chris the cynic]

This is just to remove the note about my computer from my name.

[chris the cynic]

Oh, and if there's anything that I've already written that any member of the TBAT thinks might be a worthwhile main post given expansion/polish/elaboration/whatever, I could try to do that. But some how I have my doubts as to that being the case.

[cjmr]

Unfortunately, I am unable to take on any other commitments at this time. I'm barely keeping my head above water with the ones I do have.

I will be sad to see the Slacktiverse go, if it does go.

I would prefer option 3 if it comes to that, but I think we should send the contents of 'our' tip jar to Fred's tip jar.

[The Board Administration Team]

To the person who wondered if their snarky comment would result in them getting a yellow card the answer is "no, your comment was removed due because you have commented several times using different usernames."

[Sheila]

Think of it as a refugee camp. New houses have been built and there's no point in staying in the tents. Pack up and go home. It isn't failure; it's progress.

[Froborr]

I would be willing to volunteer for either 1 or 2. For 1 in particular, I'm generally more productive when I have a schedule, anyway.

[storiteller]

I would like to volunteer to send in posts regularly, but I too am sadly low on ideas. I have an idea about being a community organizer that I've been turning over in my mind, but I find it much harder to write posts for Slacktiverse than I do for my regular blog. I can write fluffy personal posts on my regular blog, but feel like there's a higher standard for this blog. (Plus, it doesn't have the thematic prompt that my personal blog does.) If I can start writing the aforementioned post while traveling next week, I'll send it along soon. If not, I've got nothing.

[Anonymus]

@4:24am the spambots who quote a portion of the original post are really annoying.

[chris the cynic]

Here's a question, does anyone have topics they'd like to see posts about? If we've got people saying, "I'd like to post but I don't have ideas," we might have people who have ideas for them. If we could get a list of things people would like to see, maybe some of the items on that list would inspire some of the people who want to contribute but lack the ideas to do so.

[Lonespark]

I...don't know.

The thing that I think was done most successfully was the collaborations: roundtables, 101s, the awesome "Question of Susan" post, the post about the rapist friend...

If this place were nothing but "This Week," semi-open threads, and a collaborative blog post once a month or something, I would still read it and enjoy its existence, and contribute, too. I don't know that that would be worth maintaining the place, though.

If TBAT were to step down in favor of a new BAT, would the members go back to posting? Because that would be fantastic.

I really like chris's idea of helping folks out with ideas. And with proofreading or adding to roundtables? Is there a way to do that here, like once a month we have beta thread and people say they have posts and other people say they'll edit them. If the jobs of proofreading (except for the final draft, I guess) and administrative board maintenance were separated, maybe TBAT's job would be a lighter load?

[Lonespark]

Also, I have a bunch of post ideas that I think could work as collaborations with another person or two, so I'll just throw out the general subjects:

American Gods contends that the USA is a bad place for gods. Do you agree with this argument? Do you agree with the definition of "god" presented in the book? Are there alternate Powers the USA is a good place for? Celebrities? Superheros? How does the argument rely on assumptions about certain faiths and practices and cultures? (The big one for me is Native American religion. There seems to be a lot of generalizing about it in the book, and to me that comes across as very dismissive.)

And now that I've written that I think maybe specific books or authors could be good subjects for semi-open threads, and might possibly lead to inspiration for deconstruction posts. I'm never going to do a chapter-by-chapter analysis of a work, but I might be good for "10 things I hate and 5 things I like about...X book." And then the comment thread could have more discussion. I think this could kind of fit in with the general idea behind this place if we mostly did books that dealt in some way with the role of religion in society (especially if we're willing to include fictional societies.)

[The Board Administration Team]

Lonespark: 'If TBAT were to step down in favor of a new BAT, would the members go back to posting? Because that would be fantastic.'

We don't plan to start posting or commenting again, new mods or not. There's too much water under the bridge.

[Izzy]

I agree with what Lonespark said re: link round-up.

I can also, at this point, commit to posting once every two months. Sorry for the absence: been underwater trying to get the next book off the ground, but I think it's gotten enough brain-momentum by now that I can also do other stuff.

[chris the cynic]

We don't plan to start posting or commenting again

I'm sorry to hear that, but I understand that you each have to do whatever is best for you.

[Timothy (TRiG)]

I'd be sad to see this place close down, but it does seem to have run out of momentum. I have vague notions for two essays I might like to submit to TBAT, but I can't seem to get moving on either of them. Maybe this announcement will produce a much-needed impetous.

Two questions.
1. If TBAT stepped down, and someone else carried on running the board, how would the anonymity of those people who need to be anonymous be protected? I can forsee that being very very complicated. My own identity is fairly public, but I understand that some members of the community have good reason to care deeply about privacy.

2. If TBAT stepped down and no one stepped in, would the archive be preserved, or would TypePad shut the site down?

TRiG.

[The Board Administration Team]

@TRiG: those are both very important questions. We have some plans in mind that would address both issues; what we'd like to do is let the thread carry on till Friday to give people the opportunity to have their say, and then propose some solutions. In the meantime, rest assured we do take both archives and privacy seriously, and plan to take steps to preserve both no matter what else happens.

[Timothy (TRiG)]

That's reassuring to hear. Thanks, TBAT.

[Slow Learner]

I'm neither sufficiently consistent nor sufficiently self-motivated as a writer that I can commit to contributing posts regularly.

However, I would love to contribute to group posts/101s, and thanks to the magic of RSS however irregular the posts I can and will keep coming back.
Alternatively if there's a list of "Posts we want to see written, the Slacktiverse", then who knows, I might get a flash of inspiration.

[storiteller]

I agree - it would be much easier for me to contribute to collaborative posts with a prompt than to write posts on my own. I'd like to contribute to the American Gods one, but I'd have to reread the book.

[Nenya]

Hmm, I've been feeling for a while that the Slacktiverse is slowing down. As Sheila says above, not a failure, but perhaps the natural end of something that has done its job and fulfilled an important purpose but is coming to its natural end. All good things, etc. It seems to me like it was largely a bridge between Slacktivist That Was and Life After The Patheos Move. It's been long enough now that I think a lot of us have settled into other routines, though I know for myself that I will always keep a lot of fondness and love for this place. It's meant a lot, both with Fred at the helm and with TBAT.

I did have an idea about a post, but I'm not sure whether for technical reasons it will ever happen. I will continue to read here as long as there is content, and would like very much if it were possible to keep the archives of old posts available.

Thank you for all your hard work, TBAT.

[shall]

I am a long time lurker with very few comments. I do appreciate the work that has gone into keeping the slacktiverse going. As was mentioned previously, the "Updated this Week in the Slacktiverse" post has been the most helpful item lately. I'm not a writer and would not be able to moderate, so I guess my vote is #3, though I hate to see it go.

[The Board Administration Team]

To the commenter whose comment has just been removed:

We direct you to section h. of the new board policies:



Using anonymizing and redirect services without explanation and a consistent name/email address = red card. After this has happened, a notification will be posted on the relevant thread explaining the banning and linking to this policy page. If the person who has received the red card was using the redirect/anonymizing service because they weren't aware of the policy, they can contact TBAT [slackmods@gmail.com] to explain their situation and set up a system for using one.

[chris the cynic]

I was worried that my idea about making a list of posts people would like to see might get shot down as being silly or worthless. Apparently at least a few people think it would be a good idea.

Which makes me wonder what other ideas might be out there.

It seems to me that if we want to get people to send in more articles two things would help:
1 Ideas for ways to help people do that (already have some: my suggested list of posts wanted, lonespark's suggestion of organizing beta reading and round tables in the threads)
2 Ways to make the ideas into actual things instead of just ideas that are not acted on.

And whatever we do, it shouldn't place more work on the backs of the Board Administration Team. They do enough already. (Thank you.)

-

On the subject of ideas for posts, it would interest me to see more or less anyone write about their hometown/general area. What's it like where you are, what makes home home?

I'm interested in how modern pagans interact with ancient scared texts given that the texts are often fragmented and/or contradictory and possibly have been altered to suit certain Christan's agendas.

For that matter, if it's different from what Fred Clark has often described, I'm interested in how modern Christians do it. Ditto for Jews and others with ancient sacred texts.

[Leum]

I'd like to see more roundtables and 101s. I'd be happy to contribute to either, or to help with the collection and editing process with either. The ones I could contribute to/edit would include Asperger's, mental health support groups, spiritual exploration, spiritual doubt and uncertainty, and atheist spirituality. I'd love to see ones on bipolar disorder, neopaganism (we had one, I'd love to see more), being at the margins of your spiritual/faith community (I could theoretically take part in that one as an atheist on the margins of the new atheist movement), and schizophrenia and related disorders.

The open threads are good, but I have a suggestion for expanding them. Every month or two, make a post posing some sort of spiritual, moral, or political question. A difficult one that can't be answered yes or no. People could submit their responses to the question. A good one to start with would be Simon Wiesenthal's The Sunflower. You couldn't post Wiesenthal's whole essay, but I would be happy to write a brief summary and Slacktivites could, if they chose, read the essay for themselves. The responses would be full-length posts, not comments to the thread itself.

Finally, I suggest creating a suggestion box where people can write in topics they'd like to see someone write about.

[kisekileia]

I wish I felt that I could contribute, but I have massive anxiety issues about planned writing. I'd like to see this place not die, but I see what people mean about it petering out.

The Facebook group is "slacktivites", right?

[The Board Administration Team]

To the commenter whose comment has just been removed:

We direct you to section h. of the new board policies:



Using anonymizing and redirect services without explanation and a consistent name/email address = red card. After this has happened, a notification will be posted on the relevant thread explaining the banning and linking to this policy page. If the person who has received the red card was using the redirect/anonymizing service because they weren't aware of the policy, they can contact TBAT [slackmods@gmail.com] to explain their situation and set up a system for using one.

[Lonespark]

I really like Leum's idea. While it could fall prey to people being too busy/short on spoons, it kind of takes the SRS BIZNES feeling down a notch to have writing prompts and to not be the only author. Maybe we could have idea-soliciting open threads on X day, and prompts like, twice a month of something?

I'm concerned that this makes more roundtables and adds work for TBAT, but it seems like we could get around that by having one of the contributors be the volunteer coordinator who will collect and initially proofread people's stuff. I can definitely do that, but I can't do it on a short turnaround. Like, if tomorrow we put up my American Gods prompt, or chris's Sacred Texts prompt, then I could write a response and collect other people's responses and maybe in a month we can get a final draft to TBAT.

So we could have rolling prompts/collaborations/posts. And then the open threads and This Week updates filling in.

[Mike Timonin]

To the extent that slactiverse has served as a locale in which this particular group of individuals has contact with each other, I think it remains valuable. If there were, for instance, one big open thread for all time, I might check it once or twice a week for new comments, and to keep up to date on what everyone is doing.

To the extent that this is place where group dialogue is taking place on topics which I'm not seeing anywhere else, I think it remains valuable as well. If there were nothing but semi-open threads once a week from now until forever, I would check the site on a daily basis to keep up on the discussion.

[Phoenix]

I don't know if my opinion means much, since I rarely contribute to discussions anymore. I did enjoy writing my two posts for the Slacktiverse, and if nothing else I can honestly say I've learned more from this site than any other in existence. Despite the drama (which is why I've stayed mostly clear of commenting since writing the rape culture piece with April), I'm very grateful this site exists and I check it frequently for updates.

@chris the cynic - I love and very much look forward to your witty comments and mini-stories, and I'd be excited to read posts written by you, if that means anything.

@Froborr - always enjoyed your writing as well.

I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more posts from you two if you're up for writing them. As for specific topics, nothing much springs to mind except that I've always wanted to read a member of Slacktiverse's take on fat acceptance, if anyone cared to write one.

However, I can also understand if this place is winding down. Sometimes that happens. TBAT is to be commended for keeping things going this long.

If that happens, would the site still be available to visit past threads? I link people to a couple of my favorite pieces on here on a fairly regular basis, so would like to know if they won't be available anymore.

[chris the cynic]

if that means anything.

It does. And thank you. If there were one thing I could get across to the people reading my blog it would be, "Say something, damn it!"* because without feedback I am nothing. Ok, that's not quite true, but without feedback I'm left with nothing stopping me from assuming the worst. Which, left to my own devices, is what I will almost invariably do.

So, again, it does mean something and thank you.

-

* I've tried just saying that, more or less, hasn't worked the best. Though it may have helped some.

[victoria]

De-lurking to say i would be okay with the Slacktiverse winding down. Given that i feel relatively comfortable at Fred's site (i ignore the rest of Patheos), that the Left Behind posts are no longer linked here, and that i no longer like the "vibe" here (yes, a vague description, but that's as best i can describe it without fearing i'll be stepping on toes, sorry), i think it's best to close down. (Or, if folks want to keep a more stripped-down, place to post weekly links kind of site, reopen at a wordpress or other free blog site so the problem of cost won't be an issue.)

[Froborr]

Well, I had a big long thing written up about why I, personally, would like very much for this place to continue to exist, but then I wanted to look something up, hit ctrl-r instead of ctrl-t, and lost it all.

Typical, really.

Anyway, uh... I like option 1 best, 2 if necessary, 3 I don't like at all, but if that's the way things go I can't stop it. I'm quite saddened to hear that the members of TBAT don't intend to ever resume commenting/writing here--I miss your voices!--but it's each member's individual choice, and not really my business.

[Nenya]

Looking at some of this, and the new post that just went up--would something like a LiveJournal or Dreamwidth community work? Those are places where anyone who joins the community (this can be moderated membership or open membership) is allowed to make posts, and anyone can comment on them. It removes the step of the mods having to actually do the posting themselves. It could be much more casual than the current setup. Alternately I suppose we could use the existing Facebook group, but FB isn't really set up for actual long conversations (which are what I love about this place).

[Brin]

Nenya: Alternately I suppose we could use the existing Facebook group, but FB isn't really set up for actual long conversations (which are what I love about this place).

Not Facebook. I can't even see Facebook through Dad's firewall (he distrusts them), let alone take part. Besides, I thought Facebook was a legal-name-only sort of place. (I could be wrong.)

[Nenya]

Yeah, Facebook's supposed to be under your offline name (though I've seen people fudge that in creative ways). I have a few Slacktifolk on my friends' list over there, but in general I like to keep things separate.

[kisekileia]

Yeah, I wouldn't want it to be on Facebook unless it was a secret group. There's a lot I can't say on Facebook that I've liked being able to say here, due to the relative anonymity here and the fact that people who don't know this place exists aren't all that likely to find it.

[Ross]

Yeah, facebook, livejournal and dreamwidth are all out for me during working hours.