Minor Housekeeping

Hi, everyone. Just a few minor details here...

First of all, thanks so much for all the support and attention so many folks have given this site! Despite initial appearances, I, Reporter is definitely NOT meant to be "The Adam and Amy Show." The lively participation we've had here and elsewhere in response to this project is very encouraging. We think we're on the right track, and we trust our readers will help us stay on track.

Next, a few housekeeping notes about this weblog and the other aspects of I, Reporter...

• THIS BLOG IS A WORK IN PROGRESS: And yes, I know it still needs a lot of work! I had to get the site up in a big hurry to coincide with that fortuitous Christian Science Monitor article on Monday. Although I've been blogging for years, this is the first time I've ever used TypePad as a blogging tool. I'm still learning the picky details of this interface. It's not exactly easy to customize TypePad templates, let me tell you! So if you see something that needs improvement, please let me know. I'm tweaking this site every day

• ABOUT OUR FEED: If you use RSS or Atom feeds to find fresh content online, this is for you. I've created a Feedburner feed for this site, so Adam and I can gather some basis aggregate statistics about how many people are subscribing to our feed. If you subscribed to our feed before last night, we'd appreciate it if you'd resubscribe to this feed address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/IReporter. Our original feed address won't stop working, so you don't have to do this to keep getting alerts of our latest postings, but it would help us understand our audience better so we'd appreciate it.

• WHAT'S A FEED? Often called RSS, this is basically a simple spam-proof way to find out what's new on your favorite sites as soon as fresh content gets posted. It's easier and more reliable than subscribing to e-mail alerts, and faster than ordinary web browsing. If you don't yet know about or use feeds, you really should. They're becoming a crucial channel in online media. Read my non-geeky feed tutorial to get started. We don't plan to offer e-mail alerts for I, Reporter -- so if you want announcements of what's new here, our feed is your best bet.

• YOU CAN E-MAIL US. I've added e-mail links to the sidebar of this site. Please feel free to contact Adam or me anytime regarding citizen journalism and I, Reporter.

• HOW TO POST HERE: Adam and I are open to posting appropriate, interesting announcements or guest articles from our readers. Please understand that this is entirely at our discretion. We reserve the right to edit, and we can reject any submission for any reason (but we will tell you why). If you wish to post an announcement or article to this site, send it to me. One of us will get back to you shortly to let you know whether we will run it, and whether it needs editing. Please do NOT use blog comments to start a discussion on a new topic, or to advertise a site or service. Believe me, if what you have to say is relevant, legal, and civil, we'll find a way to help you spread the word. All we ask is that you work with us.

• COMMENT POLICY:  Adam and I believe strongly in freedom of speech, and we are both opposed to censorship. We also realize that any participatory  forum needs ground rules in order to maintain its core value and coherence. Therefore, we reserve the right to delete any comments which we deem to be advertisements/spam, slanderous, uncivil, or otherwise counterproductive to the goals of I, Reporter.

• NO FLAMING: Further on this point, we're borrowing David Weinberger's comment policy and applying it to all public discussion on I, Reporter: "Criticize ideas? Yes. Criticize people for holding those ideas? No." Spammers and trolls will be banned from this site on first offense. If you have a personal axe to grind, do it elsewhere.

Thanks. And now, back to the blog...

Comments

[Joan Stewart]

Amy,

As a former newspaper editor who has worked at three daily newspapers and a weekly business journal, I wish you the best luck with your new project.

I said so just a few minutes ago in my own blog at http://publicityhound.net/prblog/?p=318

Please let me know if you need my help with any tutorials, tips, advice from old editor, etc. I'd be glad to help.