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Barbelith Review

17:32 / 16.03.02

In thinking more thoroughly about the Webzine, I've come to realise that the one major reason it doesn't work brilliantly is that it needs someone like me to do a lot of work to assemble each story that comes out... And that made me think instead about the Spectacle and the nature of 'reviews' and that led me to think about The Haddock Review. This is a site attached to a mailing list and people who write for the mailing list can contribute their own reviews for things...

It occurred to me that this might actually be a good thing to do... We could break it up into Art & Design / Film & TV / Books / Music and Comic Books just like on the board... Could be really interesting...

Just a thought - probably would take forever to actually happen, but it could be kind of interesting...

19:54 / 16.03.02

i'm still on the edge of my seat wishing that we could set up a system to edit the particularly informative threads and turn them into informally-written collaborative articles. it'd be easier than developing pieces, it would make the threads more valuable, and it would create our own unique barbelith style of article.

20:27 / 16.03.02

I think both ideas sound wonderful.

Breaking threads down into an overall thesis of the idea and reactions to it can turn this place into a bit of a resource library, while having topics generate the webzine part in a more direct manner might encourage some of us who know a bit more about one thing as opposed to another to add in.

With this in mind, I'd be willing to add to Art & Design a bit more...possibly either adding more topics, combining threads into fuel for a article, etc.

20:32 / 16.03.02

Making a thread into an article seems fairly simple to me, I don't see why everybody seems to want to complicate things.

To make a thread into a collaborative article all you have to do is elect somebody to delete all the extra bits that have nothing to do with the subject and organize it so it sounds coherent. See? Not too hard at all.

03:39 / 17.03.02

exactly. what he said. that should be part of the moderator job. it'll save us that whole sense that the conversation was better the first time -- cuz we'll have it available, and allow us to move from redundancy into expansion.

Matthew Fluxington

15:36 / 17.03.02

I like this idea - as a music forum moderator, I'd be willing to help out and edit together some articles from our archives there - my question is, how exactly do I do that? Should I cut and paste and work something together as a word document, what should the format for this sort of article be?

00:11 / 18.03.02

maybe we should put together a loose guideline on how to edit these archival threads. i bet once we practice on a couple it'll become more clear. i suppose we would start off by finding a particularly worthwhile thread, pasting it all into a doc, titling and dating it; , then slice out all the bits that are just jokes and conversations, and insert the bits that are clarifications where they ought to go. the main question is, do we run the whole thing together or make each poster's comment and attributed paragraph, seperated by a * or something? there's also the challenge, quite valuable, of cutting together the multiple threads about the same topic.

15:45 / 21.03.02

I was never all that keen on the 'serious essay format only' nature of the Webzine.

I've been thinking that a better way to harness the potential of Barbelith would be:

1. Just about any form of content is acceptable, from a seven line review of a Chicks on Speed record to a lengthy examination of government connections to big business to an ill-thoughtout rant about the poor state of motion picture industry to a bloody great oil painting of a demon that visited you in your sleep last week.

2. Every Barbelith member who thinks they can come up with something at least once a fortnight should sign up for a list. If they don't write anything for a while - bother them until they do.

3. The site should be updated regualrly, once a week, with all the things that have been submitted in the last seven days.

what do people think of that?

The Return Of Rothkoid

16:22 / 21.03.02

I think the only problem with that is that the "form" bit of the webzine is meant to - I'm guessing here - bring people in to barbelith. It's the nice piece of bait that looks like other online stories in order to drag people who're not familiar into the place - it's then hoped that they'll poke around, discover The Underground or The Collective and stick around, contributing. Having such huge variance in the style of content would probably make the place seem uneven or even unprofessional: and I think that on this content side specifically, Tom's going for at least a professional presentation, even if it is the case that it's really the god of Fuck Shit Up dressed in fancy duds.

Otherwise, I think we run the risk of having the webzine turn into a weblog. Which would be taking away from The Collective, in a sense, but would also be like every other site out there.

Right. Back to work. Eep.

13:58 / 25.03.02

I like this thread here as a zine article/review.

Maybe having a difference between articles and review-type stuff (not concert reviews, but general, thread-based reviews) - like a feature with a couple secondary articles supporting it.

Dunno.

15:05 / 25.03.02

About a month back I started work on a Barbelith comics review site, not unlike Artbomb. This was going to be an attempt to have a permanent archive of recommended reading, mainly so we wouldn't have to answer the same questions over and over again. I was going to contribute at least one review a week, and accept practically anything from any member of the board, whether it was original or cribbed from the board itself. Also, if you liked a particular review, you could go to the reviewer's page to see what else they'd recommend. It was also going to have links to Barbelith in general, and for any comic currently being discussed on the board.

It was dropped because I realized that there are really only maybe 50 regulars in that particular forum, and more importantly, with a lockdown on members the odds of someone coming in and asking for help looked to be getting slimmer and slimmer.

Which brings me to something Rothkoid said. The 'Zine was designed to bring new people into the fold. In the New Barbelith, that purpose is rendered obsolete. Any 'Zine entry might as well be in a thread. It's like having a Welcome mat on the step of a house that's boarded up.

The Return Of Rothkoid

15:16 / 25.03.02

Yes, but it's worth remembering that this is largely a for-the-moment boarding up, isn't it? I was under the impression that Tom wants to, eventually, open the place up again, with controls in place to lessen the effects of fucktardery...

16:31 / 25.03.02

Is part of the problem that doing the Webzine requires not only writing and editing, but also a certain amount of designing (layout, graphics, etc.)?

Just an idea, but how about if other persons besides Tom, if anyone wants to, set up spinoff sites & farm Barbelith for articles and the like? These persons would be the responsible godheads for their own sites, which could be linked to the Barbelith main site (say, on the homepage). If important there could be an agreement that these would be zine sites only, not discussion sites.

From a technical standpoint, this would not be too difficult & its main advantage would be that it spreads the work out & also gives other people a platform *and* and an audience. Probably from a community standpoint, there would have to be some issues worked out.

13:35 / 26.03.02

That sounds good.