I’m curious, why not just make more use of the “dizzy” category here—it’s essentially the “commenters’ blog” section of the bbs, isn’t it? Especially if you want a volunteer thing without money involved, and open to anyone. You have the commenters here that you want to hear more from, and a built-in audience to read and comment.
Is it that people are looking for the fun of DIY, or a greater sense of self-determination, or of risk-taking, or what?
The problem with that is that you’ll never get an audience beyond the Boing Boing bbs community, because there’s no “front page” to point them to. If you want to point someone to “our blog,” it’ll have things on the front page like “WTF album covers.”
To rephrase your question and send it back to you: Why does Boing Boing have a separate webpage from the bbs — why not just make use of the “boing” category?
But you could use the BBS to host the comments 
Wouldn’t those comment threads have to link back to a website which we owned, which is pretty much spam by definition?
Its exactly what the Links category is for, no?
And then submit links to the Boingers for reblogging here, too
I’d think it’d be more “Craft” - it’s something that we’re making, not something that we found.
Indeed. I was thinking maybe the “commenters’ blog” posts could all have a certain emoji at the beginning of their titles…but yes, they’d still be within the dizzy category. (Hmm, could there be a petition for a special new category to be added to the bbs? Links could go to that. It would still be under the aegis of BoingBoing though, so a certain sense of self-determination could be missing, I imagine…)
Let me explain a little about what motivated me to do this; I started visiting BB a looooong time ago. Back when half the articles were about Disney Land. I’ve enjoyed it a lot, but recently the format changes, the advertising, and other shifts have made me not want to visit as much - at least not the blog part. What I found though was that I was coming back for the comments and the conversation. I don’t even visit the front page any more, I only read the BBS.
So that got me thinking that what I’d really love to have is a place that, first and foremost, is a vehicle for the great writing and conversation that happen back here in the comments section. To put the commenters, comments, and conversation first. And I’d love to see the folks who are doing the writing get more attention and credit for it, and I’d like it to be free of the baggage that comes with being part of BoingBoing. I want to be of the people, by the people, for the people, and owned by the people. I don’t care if I never make a red cent from this, I just want to see it happen.
There was a time when I’d visit BB to read Cory’s gleeful posts about Disney, his latest pop-culture discoveries, and Mark’s mad-scientist wackiness; I’d cheer on Cory as he struggled to become an author. Over the years, Cory’s posts got weirder and more bitter and more paranoid, to the point where these days I assume that anything he posts is either made up or mostly delusional. I would welcome a new voice that’s like the BB I remember.
Oh, and let’s bring back Hip Hop Family Tree while we’re at it.
sooooo… more Disneyland posts?
If there was a collective blog with me in it, I would not hesitate to be the paranoid and bitter voice in it. There’s a lot to be bitter about, and a lot of reasons to be suspicious. Edward Snowden demonstrated that in dramatic fashion, and I think going along and pretending there’s nothing to worry about does smack of a certain willful ignorance I wouldn’t want to see anywhere.
Damned kids, get off my lawn.
This is as much a hypothesis as it is a vision. What conditions will facilitate that conversation? What exactly is a conversation in this context? What aspects of this arrangement might cause unforeseen impedance in replicating that dynamic?
All that said, I’m cheering for you (plural ‘you’—god, I hate English) that your hypothesis/vision has some legs. I just think it’s realistic to acknowledge that the first several months of this collective effort are going to be experimental (in every sense of the word) until that dynamic reaches an equilibrium that matches your vision.
That’s what I want TBH. Well that and more things about birds. And also some hedgehog content.
There’s a shitload of stuff in the world to be worried about! Completely agreed. From the time I get up to the time I go to bed I’m hit by every news site on earth about things to be worried about. And there’s absolutely a place for people to post things about how paranoid, angry, and suspicious they are about the world, to the point where they’re literally inventing things to be paranoid about that don’t exist. I’m not convinced that either BB or this new potential blog should be that place.
Well, of course Her Royal Highness will be invited to be a founding member (should her presidential campaign fall through, of course; otherwise, shell be too busy).
is it safe to assume you want something a little more cerebral than the typical fanboy Disney blog, though…?
I agree. I don’t come here to find out how much the world sucks… I come here to see that there are other intelligent, interesting, funny, sane (or insane in a good way) people in the world…
That, but also the observations and thoughts from those same people that make me realize I’ve overestimated how much the world sucks.
Cory used to link to things from Passport to Dreams fairly often, and their analysis is always thoughtful. Also, while I do like things to ponder with great somber seriousness, I’m also happy with a bit of fun, even if it’s dumb fun. Like hedgehogs running for president.
