Soul and Meat Handbook
1. This blog is intended as a forum in which all of us can share ideas, write essays, and ask thought-provoking questions. Please refrain from dominating any discussion--try to treat each post as a conversation, not a lecture. This blog is not a one-person soapbox.
2. We reserve the right to vote people off, once it gets out from this "core" group of people (forrest, indubitably, LL, mia, sammee, Sweet Jane, thecrazydreamer and whatyoudream). We also reserve the right to delete posts and comments, without asking the post-er, if there is a consensus by a few of us to do so.
3. Our contributors should write a short essay/post introducing a topic. In this essay, they can take the approach of asserting something or simply inquiring about something. After explaining what their thoughts are, they should indicate what they would like the conversation to encompass, as well as specific things they don't want to include in that topic. For instance, if I were to make a topic about abortion, I might decide to limit the topic of whether a fetus should be considered a human as well as the morality of abortion, but I might restrict the topic by saying I'm not interested in discussing the politics or legality of abortion.
4. When posting an essay or a question, please try to do so only after the previous post has been addressed by those interested in the discussion. Allow about a week for the discussion to die out before creating a new post, so that someone's post doesn't get buried too soon.
5. Take turns posting. If you have an idea that just can't wait, save it as a draft instead of posting. Then we can have a moderator publish the drafts on a regular schedule, so that we always have a queue of topics.
6. We reserve the right to moderate comments so that they are relevant to the topic and productive.
7. When posting a topic, please utilize the label option, so we can organize thoughts. Use whatever general or specific labels you think are appropriate.
8. Until we come up with a different procedure, one person will start a post, and the rest of us will continue the discussion in the comments section for that post. If you feel your response merits a full-on essay, start a new post, but try to wait at least a few days so that the original post isn't buried.
9. Try to comment under the relevant post. In other words, don't comment about a post from June under a topic written in August; if you would like to re-start discussion on a topic, consider writing a new post, phrased in a different way. (If you're anything like Sweet Jane, you'll obsessively check archived posts for new comments anyway, so don't worry about your thoughts getting lost.)
Our guidelines will necessarily evolve with the blog. When we change a rule (after a consensus builds in the comments on this post), we will add it to the bottom, or edit an existing rule by striking through the original, Constitution-style. Please read the new comments for this post every once in a while so that we can make the necessary changes as a group.
2. We reserve the right to vote people off, once it gets out from this "core" group of people (forrest, indubitably, LL, mia, sammee, Sweet Jane, thecrazydreamer and whatyoudream). We also reserve the right to delete posts and comments, without asking the post-er, if there is a consensus by a few of us to do so.
3. Our contributors should write a short essay/post introducing a topic. In this essay, they can take the approach of asserting something or simply inquiring about something. After explaining what their thoughts are, they should indicate what they would like the conversation to encompass, as well as specific things they don't want to include in that topic. For instance, if I were to make a topic about abortion, I might decide to limit the topic of whether a fetus should be considered a human as well as the morality of abortion, but I might restrict the topic by saying I'm not interested in discussing the politics or legality of abortion.
4. When posting an essay or a question, please try to do so only after the previous post has been addressed by those interested in the discussion. Allow about a week for the discussion to die out before creating a new post, so that someone's post doesn't get buried too soon.
5. Take turns posting. If you have an idea that just can't wait, save it as a draft instead of posting. Then we can have a moderator publish the drafts on a regular schedule, so that we always have a queue of topics.
6. We reserve the right to moderate comments so that they are relevant to the topic and productive.
7. When posting a topic, please utilize the label option, so we can organize thoughts. Use whatever general or specific labels you think are appropriate.
8. Until we come up with a different procedure, one person will start a post, and the rest of us will continue the discussion in the comments section for that post. If you feel your response merits a full-on essay, start a new post, but try to wait at least a few days so that the original post isn't buried.
9. Try to comment under the relevant post. In other words, don't comment about a post from June under a topic written in August; if you would like to re-start discussion on a topic, consider writing a new post, phrased in a different way. (If you're anything like Sweet Jane, you'll obsessively check archived posts for new comments anyway, so don't worry about your thoughts getting lost.)
Our guidelines will necessarily evolve with the blog. When we change a rule (after a consensus builds in the comments on this post), we will add it to the bottom, or edit an existing rule by striking through the original, Constitution-style. Please read the new comments for this post every once in a while so that we can make the necessary changes as a group.
