Publishing Update - February 24th
Published by LeadMare • Feb 24th, 2008 • Category: GHC News
Activity around Girls Horse Club ebbs and flows. Sometimes we have a block of time or a burst of inspiration that brings new features, new information, and the buzz of discussion. The activity can trigger a range of emotions, from happiness to sadness, even anger. But hopefully it helps us grow and move one step closer to our horse dreams.
Other times it’s quiet; so quiet you can hear the imaginary sounds of barn mice scurrying about and horses munching away, even smell the sweet, musky fragrance that only appeals to horse girls. The calmness elicits a deep breath, than another, and another. It’s when things are quiet that our senses have time to recover from all the stimulation and emotion that fills our lives. Our awareness becomes more acute and suddenly we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell things we’ve never sensed before.
Although GHC is a virtual barn, there’s lifeblood that ebbs and flows here. At times we see hearts pulsing on the sidebar map, representing real horse girls living real lives. I don’t know about you, but for me it’s a good reminder to stay true and be aware of how our actions (and sometimes our inactions) impact others.
Today is the last day for February submissions. Once again, we have a flow of wonderful submissions in the publishing queue. While blogs and stories are prepared for publication, please see below for updates from behind-the-scenes. As always, thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
JUNIOR BLOGGERS
As we grow and new members populate our virtual barn, there’s more interest from guest bloggers who REALLY want to a spot on the JB roster. This is very exciting! Hearing from new voices with new perspective helps us continue to grow.
We all have busy lives outside this virtual barn. Your family and school always come first, but when something is a passion (like horses!) we usually find (or make) time for it. Although we will never pressure anyone to contribute, if a JB is not active for two or more consecutive months, she will be moved off the roster so others have an opportunity to step up. You will always be valued and respected, even if you’re too busy or have moved onto something else. Thanks for your understanding.
UPDATE 02-28-08: Thanks for the thoughtful feedback/ideas about requirements for the Junior Blogger team. Here are my initial thoughts. I’ll try to be brief, but want to address everyone’s comments, questions and concerns:
JB REQUIREMENTS: Regarding the current rules (or lack thereof), the only requirement is that guest bloggers need at least 3 blogs published to be eligible for a JB slot. Beyond that, there’s no requirement that JBs must have a certain number of blogs published each month, or even submit anything. Like the theme of this blog, we want to allow for the ‘ebb and flow’ of creativity, inspiration, time, etc. Stargazer said it very well in comment # 12 below — we’ve always been about QUALITY over quantity, so if you need a month or two to find your muse, that’s preferable over submitting something that’s rushed or uninspired. But if someone has not been published for 3 or more months and is not participating much, they will be moved off the roster to give others an opportunity.
PUBLISHING SCHEDULE: It does and will continue to require patience from the time you submit to the time you’re published. There are a gazillion sites where you can blog instantly to your heart’s content. We hope the time and skill that goes into reviewing, selecting, editing and illustrating blogs that appeal to our readers also appeals to those who love to write for others. In the book and magazine publishing worlds, it can take months and even years to get published. Here it takes weeks (or less) so hopefully this is good training for when you’re a famous author. B-)
COMMENTING ON BLOGS: Regarding comments on blogs as a criteria for active vs. not, that’s certainly a consideration but not a requirement. Some of our JBs are not big on commenting, but their work still fires up our brains and elicits dialog. Without good blogs to spark thought and discussion, what’s the point? Since we’re about quality not quantity, I want to encourage meaningful discussion not chatter to attain ’status’ that’s meaningless (as Madelaina wisely noted in comment #8 below) in the bigger picture.
COMMENTS ON BLOGS: We certainly want to engage readers, but the quantity of comments on a blog does not affect JB status. Heck, if you had to have a certain number of comments on your blogs to be a blogger at GHC, I’d be kicking myself outta here!
Hope this helps clarify questions about JB requirements and status. I’ll noodle on it a bit more, then will draft something ‘official’ in the coming weeks. Thanks again for your perspective.
SPRING CLEANING
This Spring (right around the corner!) I hope to make some changes to our blog. In addition to upgrading technology, I’d like to create a separate area for updates like this so the blog is focused on content from Junior and guest bloggers, and isn’t interrupted with information that’s specific to contributors. Let me know what you think about this, and if there are any other suggestions to improve the GHC experience.
I like seeing your updates on the blog! If you decided to move your updates, it would be OK, I guess.
Sounds very interesting LeadMare. I was also thinking maybe since every guest blogger is so keen on writing, that every month there can be like a sort of Judge for Yourself competition, only it’s for bloggers. The winner can probably win the title of Featured Blogger and have all her blogs showcased somewhere. That way even guest bloggers can get noticed! :D
I think that is a good idea, madelaina {:D} :D
Thanks for the feedback Allison.
Madelaina, great idea. I’ll give some thought to how we can make that happen.
Guest bloggers also get showcased when they come up with unique ideas, like you Jeanna!
LeadMare, I personally love reading your updates! I don’t mind them being on the blog at all, in fact I think it’s great that you write things like this and post them in a place where we can find them.
Madelaina: That is the most wonderful Idea! I love it. And Guest Bloggers would surely appreciate it!
Just a question LeadMare: How many blogs do you have to have published or submitted per month to be considered “active”. Just want to be sure I’m safe!
Good question Horsecrazzz.
There are no hard and fast rules. So far everyone who was moved off the roster has let me know they want to step down because they don’t have time to write. I’d rather not make the decision to move anyone off, but want to be fair to the girls who are actively wanting to step up.
Junior Bloggers, should we establish some rules for defining active vs. inactive? If yes, what should they be?
I think those rules will definitely clear some things up. Since the time I’ve first joined the Junior Blogger’s team there wasn’t ever so many eager bloggers out there, and at times the stress from having to scrape up ideas and school is way too much to handle. This probably isn’t mainly about being active, but I think it should be clearly stated that being a Junior Blogger does not give you any significant advantages and that it is not going to affect your life whether you’re a part of the team or not. School and other things are much more important.
oh, OMG! I just had an idea for an April blog… :-?
i think we should establish some rules to define what an active or inacvite JR blogger is. It shouldn’t just be how many bloggs u submit per month it should also be how often you vist GHC and how often you comment on others blogs and submit/make your own blogs.
i like Madelina’s idea. it will be fun. and gives us a bit more motavation. it’s also makes us guest bloggers feel included!
um LeadMare my computer/internet has been having a bit of troble whenever i got on GHC. the screen starts to freeze, and the emotions (in the comment thing) flashes, some of the pics flash too. the thing at the top of the screen that has the Goolge toolbar, tab opener, and the http thing becomes kinda like part of the screen and the bottom and the top go black. this is only happening on the GHC website so i was wondering if anyone else had this problem coz maybe it might be the wesite, not my internet!
I really really really super super super super think that we should have rules, but not ones like we used to have. I do not think that it should be how many blogs we get published per month, I really think it should be how many times we submit a blog, and like tash said, comment other people’s blogs. It’s really hard to get 3 blogs per month published, especially since most of mine end up being published the month after I submit them. I also am always worried about the Jr. Bloggers being moved off because of popularity. Your not going to move anybody off because not alot of people comment that blog are you LeadMare? I think that we should vote on the rules. Like the multiple choice poll you put out for christmas, only this time with the different rules we could pick. That would be nice.
Also LeadMare: I voted once on the Jr. Blogger thing and usually we can vote like once a day, but now I can only vote once. Is this my computer, or is it just a rule? Sorry if I broke it when I voted more than once on the other things…I didn’t know! :-S
We could establish some rules, but I have something to say.
When you write blogs or stories, it is extremely hard to write a good one if you try to rush yourself into it. It takes time to develop good ideas. Therefor, I think that a junior blogger should be allowed to stay a junior blogger if she doesn’t write a blog for over two months. I think that as long as she makes an appearance somewhere (comments, the loft, ect.) she should be allowed to stay on the roster. However, if she does not make an appearance at ALL for more than two months, then she could be moved off the roster..
Madelaina, LOVE THE IDEA!
LeadMare: Just wanted to let you know… On my Jr. Blogger biography it says that I am 11…the only problem is, I just turned 12…last month. I am not trying to be pushy…or anything, I just wanted to let you know.
All of those are wonderful ideas, and I think tash’s idea is a really really great one. Generally a Junior Blogger shouldn’t always be about writing blogs, but commenting on them as well. There should be contribution and encouragement.
Horsecrazzz: I don’t know about you, but I can vote everyday for the Junior Blogger finals. It is probably your computer. But I’m no expert.
Thanks everyone. See my update in the blog above addressing JB questions, comments, concerns.
Horsecrazzz, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! I’ll update your age on the roster. The JB finals poll is set up differently than other polls to assure fairness to the finalists. It’s limited to one vote per computer. I’m not going to put JB requirements up for vote, but everyone’s feedback will be given careful consideration. Hope this (and the above update) addresses your questions/concerns.
tash, happy to help diagnose your computer problems if you’d like to use the contact form (link at the bottom of each page).
Thanks LeadMare for the update, it has definitely cleared things up for me. :D
Thanks LeadMare, you update really helped me out. Thanks about the age thing!