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Googling 'Barbelith'.

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21:04 / 22.02.06

When you google the word 'Barbelith' what comes up first is, interestingly, the Barbelith.com site but with a description as follows: Weblog-style columns provided by regular contributors. I'm intrigued about this description. Where does it come from? It's obviously not current or correct since we don't (as far as I am aware) write columns; or maybe some of us do, but it's not the goal of the site, per se.

I wonder if our description should perhaps say: "Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century..." as the homepage does, and if so how do we go about changing it?

Next on Google's listing is the Jay Babcock site about The Invisibles, then Plasticbag, then the new Barbeblogs site hosted by Fridge. It would seem that as far as Google is concerned the community 'Barbelith' has overtaken the original 'Barbelith' word with reference to The Invisibles. I don't have an opinion either way on that, other than feeling vaguely pleased that we appear to be doing something right in the eyes of Google, but I do think the description of the site is wrong and could do with some kind of amendment. If we're going to be the top listing we might as well be described correctly.

21:09 / 22.02.06

Ah, that's from when the webzine was on the front page.

Heh. 'Regular'. Wasn't accurate even then.

21:21 / 22.02.06

Can we change it?

13:26 / 23.02.06

That's an interesting question. Basically that description comes from Dmoz. If you changed it there, it would eventually filter through into Google, although I'm not totally clear how to change it in dmoz. Maybe you guys can figure it out?

16:22 / 23.02.06

Found how to do it. Have changed it to Lula's suggestion - seems the most sensible thing to do, really, seeing as how that's the description that visitors to the board are provided with here. Is now awaiting approval by a dmoz editor.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

17:02 / 23.02.06

Talk on a variety of topics by very smart people. Sometimes they talk about sex and punching people in the face.

Sorry, not much of a contribution.

17:07 / 23.02.06

Use the "Subcultural..." subhead. I doubt anyone'd have a problem with that.

17:10 / 23.02.06

I updated the description at their update page, but also included a note saying the listing should probably be moved out of the "e-zine" category.

17:12 / 23.02.06

Oh, Randy -- you did it before I did!

I hope you didn't end with an ellipsis. They don't like them. I nearly did before I noticed.

17:13 / 23.02.06

And, of course, I hope the duplication doesn't screw the pooch. At least it'll be from different email addresses.

18:03 / 23.02.06

I hope you didn't end with an ellipsis.

Nah. To be honest, I didn't know if that was just Lula forgetting how the rest of it went, so I stuck a full stop on the end of it to be on the safe side.

Shouldn't think the same request being put in twice will cause any hassle - it looks like they go past a pair of human eyes, rather than being an automated thing, so they should be able to realise what's happened.

20:18 / 23.02.06

Not mine, I just copy/pasted what was on the page.

13:45 / 24.02.06

I'd recommend adding keywords and a site description to the php pages of barbelith on top of hitting up a refresh on dmoz. I noticed that we don't have any of those featured in our meta-tags.

The secret to being findable (if this is what we're trying to do) on search engines, is to write descriptive words that people would actually search for. Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century... might gel with the overall feel, but doesn't reflect in language how people would end up looking for us.

What I would suggest for Barbelith would be something like this...

Barbelith is an online community promoting meaningful conversation on topics such as philosophy, culture, politics, technology, science, medicine, ethics, faith, art, literature, and media.

I'm sure there's a more elegant way to write this (I'm not a copyrighter), but it is descriptive and contains words that would have us show up here and there.

14:23 / 26.02.06

I think you're right.

Can some one write a decent search description using Banshee's suggestion?

17:47 / 26.02.06

Postmodern community based discussion forums - underground reflections on subculture and society.

Abstract is the key here.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:53 / 26.02.06

Of course, if all we're gonna do when people actually find us is yell at them, then it seems a strange exercise.

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:49 / 28.02.06

I still think "The internet's finest subcultural pissing contest" carries a lot of clout.

ONLY NICE THINGS

13:06 / 28.02.06

Barbelith - come for the chat, stay for the making everyone's life wretched.

Stoats - has it really been that bad? In terms of newbies, the only people we've had problems with have been the actively awful - those with no real interest in using Barbelith as anything other than a place to pump their own egos or indulge their obsessions...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:30 / 28.02.06

Yeah, perhaps that was a bit strong. There does seem to be a teensy bit of not letting people find their feet, and assuming them to be irredeemable cocks from the get-go rather than people who've just acted a bit cockish, but on the whole I guess you're right.

I think I was drunk when I posted that.

Tryphena Absent

13:53 / 28.02.06

There does seem to be a teensy bit of not letting people find their feet

I perceive myself as having been very, very pleasant to newer members who've massively generalised whole sections of my gender in the last two weeks.

14:00 / 28.02.06

Newer members generally?

Tryphena Absent

14:32 / 28.02.06

Noooo, newer members who've massively generalised whole sections of my gender in the last two weeks.

Tryphena Absent

14:34 / 28.02.06

I think you may have read a comma where there was nooooo comma.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:39 / 28.02.06

To an extent, define "newer members". Shadowsax has been a member since April 2005, John the Exploding Boy since September - the only genuinely new new member Nina has mentioned in the "Feminism 101" thread is Chief Baobab.

14:39 / 28.02.06

Blimey. What have you been like to the ones who haven't?

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:45 / 28.02.06

I'm sure Saltation will get round to sharing the views on women, as expressed on his blog, on the board sooner or later...

Tryphena Absent

14:46 / 28.02.06

I count all of those people as newer members, it's why I didn't use the word "new".

20:35 / 28.02.06

If I get a vote, I would like to vote for making it harder to find us, not easier.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

22:41 / 28.02.06

Or at least harder to find us whilst looking for comics and chaos magick.

Tryphena Absent

23:10 / 28.02.06

I agree with Fred and thus I feel we should desribe ourselves as a beastly place full of people who hate you already.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

00:37 / 01.03.06

Is there any way in which we can somehow tie that phrase to a Gorey illustration? Because that would so be us.

13:01 / 01.03.06

A series of unfortunate opinions.

14:34 / 01.03.06

I couldn't resist.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

14:50 / 01.03.06

I think that should be our new front page.

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:07 / 01.03.06

The guy with the beard is definitely Jack Fear, and girl with the enormous collar probably Nina...

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