New Open Comment Thread

I just added a new feature to the blog here, and I'm hoping people will find it useful. If no one does, I'll go out in the woods and throw rocks at small, innocent animals.

No, seriously, in the spirit of "Open Line Friday", I created an Open Comments Page where people can go any time and leave a comment about anything they'd like to see covered here, or to vent, or to exercise their First Amendment rights, etc. You get the idea.

To the purpose of making it as easy as possible to access this wonderful invention, I have posted this cute little picture over in the right-hand column so it is easy to access from the home page or any page of this blog. As you might imagine, I am thoroughly impressed by my own genius.

At this point, it may be a good idea to review our de facto commenting policy here at Est Quod Est as stated five years ago:

Don’t use threatening language toward other commenters or their expensive pets. Not responsible for suicides. Please bring your own ropes and petards.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes....

I'm going to be making a few changes here at ol' Est Quod Est. First off, I'm going to ditch the "Pile of stuff I've been reading" in the side-bar. If I'm reading something which I feel is worthwhile sharing, I'll just throw it in as a blog post. Anyone who cares will still be able to view to old pile here.

Secondly—and I don't think this is nearly as radical as it might sound to some—I'm hereby extending an open invitation to any regular reader of this blog to become a contributor. Just leave a comment here or email me, and I will extend an official invitation with the signup link. There aren't any quotas you must meet to do this, and the "Golden Rule" should suffice as the blogging guideline. Obviously I'm the boss, but I'm the kind of boss that gets a kick out of people "taking advantage" of him. (That guilty look as you sneak a pile of wire bound notebooks or a stapler into your briefcase is... priceless. I know you'll be back tomorrow, laboring slavishly for cheap coffee and pennies on my dollar... MWA-HA-HA!)


Ahem.

Finally, I'm going to be making a concerted effort in the near future to find ways to promote this blog. This will take form in a few ways to begin with, as I see it. I'll probably begin attempting to write something of an editorial nature around once a week with a word count of between 500 and 1,000. This should increase the value of the blog by decreasing the percentage of the blog which is of a purely derivative nature. Also I'll probably be hat-tipping other bloggers more to acheive new traffic. Other ideas: book reviews, product reviews, local news... recipes?

Please think about whether you'd like to contribute to this blog, and don't be shy of giving me advice. This blog, albeit begun as sort of a joke, currently has an average of 40 visits a day. This places it firmly in the underachiever territory, but I think we can all turn it into something bigger and better and... who knows? What say ye?