[bloghounds] staying cool in the sphere

[This badge is only a mock up and will be reviewed by the steering committee, along with the tag line. If you can think of a good tag line, suggest it and it can be adopted. If there are copyright issues with the pic, it will be changed.]


The events of the weekend, appearing out of the blue and resulting in the shutdown of this blog, were simply an extension of something which has been happening for a long time in another place and I do not propose to comment on that here.

Yesterday, initial feelers were sent out to various BP members as to whether the group could be initially disbanded and then reformed under the auspices of a steering committee. The result below was not intended at the time, certainly not to kick off today but as it all went public late yesterday, there was considerable feedback, mainly along two lines:

1. The logistics of such a move would seem to be prohibitive;

2. A certain amount of feedback supported the idea of setting up an entirely new group, incorporating the best principles of Blogpower plus one or two others.

If you happen to have read the original BP post, you’ll see that it mentions a smallish group of mutually supportive bloggers and a number of the 2006 members have at times referred to the friendly atmosphere which used to prevail.

Contrast that to the past few months and even the last few days and not much more needs to be said.

Blogpower was certainly unique in that it drew together people of all walks of life, of differing political bents, even completely apolitical beings [yes, they exist in large numbers] and certainly from different parts of the world.

This was its strength.

As it grew and changed its focus somewhat, the principles many held dear seemed to assume less importance than formerly. The proposals below attempt to redress the balance. It is proposed that:

1. A new blog group be set up, initially called Bloghounds as a working name and using a steering committee to set up the group and to do the early admin.

2. While it would be nice to see some of the 2006 Blogpowerers plus the current BP administrators [2 in number] represented on the steering committee of seven, it is really open to others as well, however shy, who feel they could play a part.

3. The steering committee would initially assess membership requests according to these guidelines:

a. The blog would need to be of at least one month’s standing and be of an acceptable standard, with clear navigation.

b. The blogger needs to be identifiable, whether using an avatar or real name and be clearly active in the sense in which the committee understands the term.

c. He or she needs to accept and see the necessity for replying to comments, participating as a group member, carrying the banner in the sidebar, carrying at least one form of the blogroll, agreeing to be part of the mailing list and most importantly would make a genuine attempt to link to fellow members at least once a week.

d. The blogger would further need to accept that the group homepage and mailing list are semi-public and not appropriate fora to air personal issues which are not of interest to the group as a whole and he or she should not have a previous history of divisiveness, troublemaking or harassment of fellow bloggers.

4. The steering committee, having looked at the request for membership and if having decided against, is honour bound to e-mail the blogger concerned with both the vote and the reason why. That blogger is welcome to try again after two months.

On the matter of the vote, one dissension would necessitate a more thorough steering committee review of the proposed blogger, two dissensions would need to be taken seriously, three would fairly well end the current bid. Abstentions would be advisable in a conflict of interest situation.

Therefore the composition of the steering committee itself is quite critical and a good cross-section of even-headed, experienced bloggers are being sought for this.

5. The main thrust of these guidelines is not to tie anyone up in red tape but to enable enjoyable membership of the group without petty disputes, recrimination, drawn out issues and other things which often tend to sour what should be a fun activity.

6. Once a group of around twenty bloggers is in operation [and this could take some considerable time, approaching the dead season for blogging], members are asked to nominate and vote for the ongoing admins. When the admins are in place, the steering committee retires.

7. On a personal note, I’d like to make it known that though I am perhaps up for the steering committee, I have no intention of becoming a permanent admin.

Should you wish to be a member of the steering committee, it would be lovely if you were to make yourself known in the next few days.

UPDATE AT 7.57 - first four expressions of interest have arrived so that is encouraging.

Another nice person at 9.05 so we're up to five. I think maybe eight would be interested initially. Any more would be a bonus. Have to get some sleep now - the neighbours' dogs were barking all night.

Initial list

Group name: bloghounds
Group home page: http://bloghounds.org/
Group email: bloghounds@email.com