Mark the date

[serene]

If you're like me, it goes like this:

First you go here, to papersky's post.

Then you read the post she links to in sfwa.

Then you decide having an LJ or two makes you by definition a pixel-stained technopeasant.

Then you glory in it on April 23rd.

Who's in?

(Truthfully, I sympathize with those who feel the internet is Ruining It All, and I have always loved the Lead Pencil Club, especially the line in their manifesto that says "If our computers develop a virus, we will not seek a cure." But I love those things hypocritically, because being online has been huge in my life, and has helped me create the life and the art that I love.)

Comments

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

These things work differently in writing. John Scalzi explains. (http://community.livejournal.com/sfwa/11289.html?mode=reply)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

And I will bow to superior knowledge and own my own ignorance; I have never felt my writing was good enough to promote in the first place, and I'm more than willing to take the word of you and serene and John and everyone else trying to get and succeeding in getting their work seen (and paid for!). Admittedly this pushed a lot of buttons for me, as it very clearly explains some of the problems we've had over the years competing with inferior talent using inferior equipment and charging a cut rate.

Thanks, Lynn.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

One of the many sad things is that newspaper revenues are declining because people go to the web for news, and a lot of primary story-digging is done by print reporters. However, the great news blogs can help a lot with stories that the Authorities are trying to bury. I've forgotten which government scandal this was, but a few weks ago the government dumped 3,000 pages of documentary evidence on a Friday night, confident that nobody could wade through it all to the meat of the scandal. Individual blog readers worked overnight on fifty-page chunks. The government was not happy with the results of this freelance parallel processing.

Then there was the proposal to stop funding NOAA, because everybody could get the weather forecast from the Weather Channel.

We have to work out new ways to live witht the new technologies. Andf it's damned hard.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

We have to work out new ways to live witht the new technologies. Andf it's damned hard.

I'll drink to that.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

And -- for the sake of completeness -- another huge issue in newspaper revenue problems is the rise of websites like Craigslist, cars.com, and Rent.com, which have gutted classified ad revenues.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

It was the Federal Prosecutor scandal, and it was effort coordinated by Joshua Micah Marshall over at Talking Points Memo. This is exactly the sort of things blogs do well. And then there was the George Allen "macaca" incident. Blogs helped make that a major story.

But yeah, it's a tough balancing act, integrating new technologies in ways that don't hurt people's livelihoods.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

So the short translation of Hendrix's rant is "How dare you be more successful than me?"