Topic: Political Literature
Building a Community of Writers - The Nolan Chart Lounge How is the Nolan Chart Columnists Lounge doing? After almost a month of operation, here's a retrospective on this popular hangout for Chart authors, and an invitation to the rest of you to find out what you've been missing.by creator
(Libertarian)
Thursday, February 14, 2008
♣ How is the Lounge doing? Only those who have signed up and begun to participate know for sure.
The Nolan Chart Columnists Lounge - An Exclusive Club for Nolan Chart Authors
After being announced in this article, the Nolan Chart Columnists Lounge has been open for about a month now. I think it has begun to achieve some of the goals I had hoped for. I've certainly enjoyed hanging out here.
I hope that YOU, fellow Lounge member, will also share your impressions of the Lounge so far. If you've appreciated your experience here, please "thumb" this article and encourage other writers to participate by commenting on this article.
Nolan Chart has been a grand development in the realm of political news and opinion channels. The Chart founder, Walt Thiessen, has intentionally opened the doors to writers of every stripe. I know Walt to be very liberal -- in the best and most classical sense -- about allowing freedom of expression here regardless of an author's background or experience. This is truly what I would call a "New Media" site, an outlet where news and views of all kinds may be published. It is my fond hope to see Nolan Chart eventually become more widely read and respected than the traditional "mainstream media."
Participation in The Lounge is purely voluntary. Membership at the time of this writing stands at some 40-plus Nolan Chart authors. We are becoming somewhat of a "mutual aid" society. I've had the opportunity to enjoy other authors' work while pointing out typos and other potentially embarrassing errors. I've also received very welcome constructive criticism from my fellow authors to improve my own articles. In at least one case that I know of, a particularly obnoxious author has been brought into line by peer pressure. We've also been able to provide Founder Walt with some constructive suggestions for improving the site.
Writers have been generous in sharing article ideas with each other. Walt frequently passes press releases along to Lounge members, giving us "first crack" at interesting and important breaking stories. Those releases are handled on a "first come first served" basis, and the first Lounge member to call "dibs" gets to write the piece.
Authors have been able to answer specific questions for one another, and to help each other with the sometimes unbearable frustration of dealing with quirky editors, timeouts, the vagaries of HTML, and other technical issues. Another important issue under ongoing discussion is how to attract and maintain traffic and interest for a broader range of articles on subjects in addition to the Ron Paul Revolution.
While I do try to personally encourage writer participation in the Lounge, unfortunately I am neither omnipresent nor omniscient. Worse yet, I have very distinct personal preferences, and so I am neither able nor inclined to read every article published on the Chart. Therefore, my personal invitations to join the Lounge have been somewhat "haphazard."
When I do have the time to read an article by a new author, if I like what I see I leave a comment inviting them to join the Lounge. However, if you have not yet been "personally invited" in that way, please don't feel slighted: if you write for Nolan Chart, consider this your invitation to join the Lounge. I am sure that you have insights and information that will benefit the rest of us, and we would like to get to know you. You can find a link in your "Author's Control Panel" where you can request an invitation to join.
Note that you may join under any email address you like; however, you MUST let me know the email address under which you maintain your Nolan Chart author's account in order for me to verify that you are in fact a bona-fide author. Be sure to specify what email address you would like to be "public" to other Lounge members.
I personally hope that the The Nolan Chart Columnists Lounge will be instrumental in making Nolan Chart the foremost source of political news and commentary on the internet. If you are an author on Nolan Chart, please consider signing up today! Contact me through the Lounge website:
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2008 creator, all rights reserved.
Published: Thursday, February 14, 2008
Last modified: Thursday, February 14, 2008
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Thanks much for your comment. I feel a personal loss at your absence from the Lounge because I appreciate your work, as I hope you know from my occasional previous comment.
If you are so inclined, I would love to hear from you "off site" sometime - you could easily contact me through the authors control panel by "requesting an invitation to the lounge" but in your email just saying "hello" :)
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2008 creator, all rights reserved.