Monday, September 3, 2007

Using this blog

Reading the blog
The blog is open to all to read.

Commenting on posts
All members of the ESSWE can comment on posts.

Making new posts
All members of the board of ESSWE may make posts to this blog for announcements of events, books, etc. Members of the ESSWE should submit announcements and articles to the editor, Mark Sedgwick.

Appropriate and inappropriate posts and comments
  • Announcements of conferences and books are normally made on the main ESSWE website. They may also be made on this blog if desired.
  • Short articles are especially encouraged, usually of about 1,000 words in length. Members might, for example, describe the nature and preliminary results of a current research project.
  • Discussions on any topic related to the objectives of the ESSWE are encouraged, so long as the tone is polite. Comments that are off-topic or impolite will be removed by the editor.
  • Questions concerning sources, information and so on are generally encouraged.

Languages

Postings and comments may be made in any language known to at least one member of the board. The use of English is encouraged in order to maximize the number of readers. The use of a spellchecker is also encouraged!

5 comments:

Mark Sedgwick said...

Members of the board made various comments while this blog was being tested that enabled me to make several improvements. Thanks to all! Those comments have now been removed.

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju said...

Impressive vision and execution. Are the modalities for posting not too cumbersome,though? First, one has to be a member of ESSWE to even read the blog. Then you have to ask a board member to vet and possibly edit your posting, which they may choose or not choose to publish. It seems to me that these modalities are likely to be frustrating to the spontaneity that is central to the use of the internet and blogs in particular.
Having passed through the gate of becoming an ESSWE member in the first place, what really are we protecting in insisting on managing the system like a physical classroom where hierarchy and authority are so important? By the time one goes through all the necessary steps in one’s mind, one might consider it too much trouble to bother even trying to post, particularly in this age when speed of communication is the norm.
Right now, I would like to make a one line posting drawing attention to Terry Eagleton in the London Review of Books on Dawkin's critique of religion. That will have to be routed through the same channels of evaluation. Let’s say I have such ideas every day or every other day, spending so much time online. I go through the same process?
I suggest we make the blog available to the public to read and make comments but only ESSWE members should post and do so freely. The field should be better known to those who are uninformed about it as a scholarly discipline. That’s why I recommend availability to the public for reading and commentary. Quality of postings can be kept high by letting only ESSWE members post.

Mark Sedgwick said...

Thanks for your input, IFAstudent. We'll reevaluate all this after the blog has been running for a while. Meanwhile, why not just email me the posting you have in mind & see how it goes?

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju said...

Thanks.Sadly the stuff was mistakenly erased as i ws trying to place in Prof.Goodrick-Clarke's email.I will summon courage and start again since I had expanded the one line posting.

Mark Sedgwick said...

Courage!

PS

The logic behind the posting rules is that this is a Newsletter that just LOOKS like a blog, not a real blog. So we're applying, slightly modified, the system used for the Newsletter. Initially, experimentally.