Thanks to you, @tropo and @RatMan for your generous comments! 
I agree that pausing discussion of this question in this thread is appropriate. Blog, onward!
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#Blogward, ho!
So when do we want to do a realtime netmeet-type-conference-ish discussion thing?
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Holy crap, you mean all you other guys are real people? That’ll be awesome and weird.
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Whoa-ho-hoooo! Hold on there! That’s not what I said or implied. I was expecting hand puppets.
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I’m all for having a “meeting” whatever that looks like. Given the nature of this conversation and the people involved, I’d say we should do a slack session. I’d be happy to moderate. I think a realtime discussion of the general items we’ve outlined above would be more useful than this back-and-forth asynchronous conversation at this point, though I think this brainstorming has been very valuable.
The biggest issue that I see is that I think there’s still wide disagreement about the format - some here think that this is going to be a site for them to air their long-form articles, while others are advocating for more short-form blog. The centrality of the commentary - the whole raison d’etre IMO, seems in limbo. We’re going to have to resolve this, I think. For this to be a site that is in any way cohesive, it can’t be all things to all people. I’d rather see us pick one format and do it well than be a random assortment of content and styles all thrown together. If that means that I’m not part of this project, I’m fine with that.
But until that decision is made, I’ll keep on convenin’. I think a weekend session makes the most sense, because some people have day-jobs and might not otherwise be able to participate, but I’m open to a weekday session as well. No time is going to make everyone happy, but let’s pick something that will work for most.
If people want to participate, send me via DM the following;
- email address
- time zone
- time available; can you do weekday during “working hours” or are you only available late/weekend
I’ll take everyone’s info and try to come up with a live meeting time that makes sense. If anyone has a preference for something other than Slack, tell me what and why.
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I actually envisioned a hybrid model, but I feel like this format isn’t conducive to decision making, so I’m happy to move to slack with these things undetermined.
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Agreed.
Plus those are options that don’t have to be finalized until we’ve experimented a little, and we don’t even have to choose between them necessarily. We could do sub-blogs, multiple entry points with different aggregations, and so on. The suite of options is kind of huge.
Heck, I’m not even sure if I formed a strong opinion on the subject I wouldn’t change my own personal preference when I saw things in action.
I wouldn’t discount this idea out of hand at all. I look at Seed Magazine’s ScienceBlogs as a great model for multiple blogger crosstalk before the Great Science Blog Crisis of ~2009. But that site had good cross-pollination.
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Returning the favor of the sysadmining advice I received from @nemomen, @RatMan and @tropo, I’ll pass along this thought about setting a meeting with busy people who live and work far away from each other.
Once there’s an email address (or suitable contact info), use a method that works like Doodle Poll to set the meeting instead of asking everyone to send their available times.
With all the hacker mutants here, a FOSS tool would be nice. I also wonder if the boingboing polling feature here couldn’t be adapted to do what Doodle Poll and similar apps do. Maybe even VoIP or group chat with a transcript for the meeting too?
Maybe that was already the plan or slack can do that stuff. If so, never mind. 
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On the internet, no one knows you’re a bird.
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There are non-birds on the internet??
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Shhh. Don’t reveal our plans.
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Don’t tell @japhroaig about how there are no fish on the Internet.
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Doodle is an excellent idea. I’ll set that up. I thought about doing a poll here but it’s not nearly as good as Doodle for setting up appointments.
Mutants…Mutatis… something there in a name…
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Thank you for organzing everyone. I’ll message an email address to use, but maybe please mention here when the poll goes out so we remember to respond promptly. I’ll also confirm that my account here is tracking this thread.
Just remember that if you’re hoping for diversity in both contributors and readers, you need to remember that not all of us know what a FOSS tool is!
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Yeah, me too. Slightly longer version:
Suggested Blog Names
Sproi-oi-oing!
The Phylactery
ReBound
ChattyChatty
Dopamaniacs
Fundamental
If someone made another blog name suggestion, and I didn’t include it here, and they were serious and really want it, please tell me and I’ll add it. Same goes for every other section in this post.
Suggested Blog Platforms
Ghost.io Medium WordPress RollYourOwn
Suggested Topics
weird nature/biology/critters
science/tech/gadgets
Have You Seen This?
politics
well structured civil debates, (as opposed to endless rants, false dichotomies, boring diatribes, or flame wars)
geek culture
DIY/maker/creator
restaurant/wine/cheese/pub review
cooking raw fish / sushi
outdoor recreation
security / privacy stuff
Possible Funding Structures
Pay-to-play
Patreon
Possible organizational pattern
Holocracy
Anything but coerced/false consensus
Possible platform for internal discussions, copy editing, editing, a board for writers to call dibs on a story or coordinate topics
slack
Commenting platform
Discourse
Possible mascot
hedgehog
Jillhammer Jack
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Oops! I apologize for the faulty assumption on my part. For those who may have very reasonably wondered, FOSS is an acronym used for free and/or open source software.
FOSS generally references software licensed to require that its source code must be shared with others to increase the freedom to use, study, modify and share the thinking represented by the source code.
The term “source code” means the human readable instructions written in a language like C that are later compiled into binary form — zeros and ones — that can be executed by computing devices. The zeros and ones cannot easily be read or understood by humans which is a reason that access to the source code can be important for students and others.
Free or open code can be contrasted with proprietary code which is generally licensed for limited use in its compiled, binary form only. So when we buy a copy of MS Word, we’re buying a license for limited use of MS Word in its compiled form only.
We do not generally receive the right to use MS Word outside the terms of the license and do not receive the rights to study, share or modify the source code of MS Word.
I will pause there since it’s really a separate (totally fascinating) topic. Thank you, @anon67050589 for reminding me to explain what I meant!
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Since there is only one suggested platform for internal discussions, would anyone mind awfully if I were to start a Slack team for hedgehographers and dopamaniacs?
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If there’s no objection, that seems like a good idea and maybe @waetherman and/or @ActionAbe will share the email addresses they receive so you can send team invites?
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