h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've noticed, here and there, that people are finding this journal-a-day exercise a little overwhelming - and that it's not those of us with the polar opposite of Writer's Block that are suffering.

As an exercise in generating content, NaJoPoMo is working awfully well. The catch is that the aforementioned content is bombarding unsuspecting non-participants.

I've seen two possible solutions proposed:

1. Revise the exercise so that participants post once a day to one particular thread, or

2. Set up an A-page for these journals for each participant, so only people who subscribe to the A-page get bombarded, and on their heads be it.

My problem with option 1 is that it doesn't necessarily generate any content that would be distinguishable from what we all do anyway.

I do prefer option 2 - we still get masses of content, but it's kept under control to some extent.

The drawback with option 2 is - well, what if I set up an A-page and nobody subscribed?

This probably isn't the best place for me to ask in the hope of getting a balanced sample of public opinion, seeing as the unintended victims have already unsubbed from my journal for the duration, but what do people think about this issue?

Ivan.

I honesty Ivan I haven't read anyone's journal but yours. This isn't because I'm not interested in what other people are doing - honestly. I'd love to read them all but I just haven't the time at the minute due to elderly relative among other things and I'm subscribed to you so you're generally about the last thing I read every night after posting my own journal.

I hope to get reading everyone's input at some point yet to be determined in the very near future - in the meanwhile the A page seems like a good idea - pity you didn't think of it on October 31st.

I think we should let it run, and see what happens, we're only 5 days into the event so far. It may be that only a few stalwarts see it through to the end.

Maybe next year, we make it a bit tidier, but this year - I am amazed and delighted to see such diversity and such a big take up. Hats off to Solnushka for hosting this event, and for organising it so well.

I've come across some great bits of writing so far, both from contributors and from their respondents. This gives me great hope for the future, cos we are a writing community when all is said and done.

I'm not sure who had the idea of an A-page - it might have been Trillian's Child, but I'm sure someone wil correct me.

I do have two quibbling issues with creating an A-page. First, I'd hope that there would be a template provided for people like me who ust don't care much for GuideML. Second, we'd have to have a major advertising blitz to convince people to sign up to a few dozen A-pages...

An overarching quibble is that using the existing Journals makes the whole exercise more personal and much less forced than it would be on a specially-constructed A-page.

I have no desire to change how things are operating this year. If I were dictator, we'd keep on using our Journals in future years because I like this arangement. Despite that, I think we do need to be a little bit flexible for the benefit of those who feel swamped.

My main problem is that if I write every day I don't have time to respond to who responds to my journals And there are lots of journals I'm missing.

But I also love that so many people are writing. I seriously needed something very good to happen to this site and this is doing it for me. And not only are people writing, but it's happening in the community not the EG. This makes me doubly happy because I think the future of the site lies in supporting this community as a writers' community (not that that means everyone has to Write, although of course we all write). Having more people write in the EG also needs to happen, I just think it's not the be all and end all of writing here.

Don't know what the solution is. Maybe there is a tech solution for next year, whereby people still write in their journals but researchers have the choice to push a button which unsubs them for the month and then resubs them on Dec 1st.

Later I will repost this as a journal, 'cos I'm a bit behind

Not everyone has everyone in the project on their friends list. I only get a few daily posts on my regular feed and have to go to the daily links page if I want to see more. Are you getting complaints from non-participants?

One of the reasons I say NaJoPoMo in my title is to make it easier for people to decide to skip them when they turn up in their feed.

Same here Mrs Zen. I've warned folk what I'm up and said I'm not going to be offended if they don't read or comment.

I'm trying to get around and read as many as possible, because it's really interesting, but I'm not posting on many.

I like having them on my PS so I'd be loathe to put them elsewhere - I'm trying to write some bigger stuff whenever possible and I think there'll be days in the future when I'll get a kick out of reading it.

I don't say NaJoPoMo in my titles is so they don't just get skipped over... OK, maybe it's entrapment, but people do read before they unsub. Or at least they say they do.

You know, Ivan, you can set up an A page without knowing any guide ml. After all, the journals are in plain text, too.

What you could do, is set up the A page, then post a journal entry with the link to said A page. Once you've added new content (ie once a day) post to the journal saying so. This way, people who are subscribed to your journal will know where and when to find them, and they'll only have this one journal popping up in their spaces.

Oh, and back to Hellbound's question - I've had at least one person unsub from my journal until November's over...

Thanks Bel - I think that sorts things out.

But I must admit that I'm not sober...

*hic*

Think about it once you've slept and are sober again.

I just read your post again Bel, and I honestly think you've solved the problem.

1. An A-page for each NaJoPoMo participant, with each 'journal' appearing as a conversation thread on that page.

2. A single journal from each participant, with the A-page conversation given as a link.

I do think that would fix it.

It wasn't me that suggested the A-page, but thanks for thinking I was capable of it.

Shame the bulldozer is already rolling, it would be rather sad to chenage its course now.

What I did suggest was that a journal should only be posted *to* on the following day, so that the latest ones at least are always at the top of our convo lists. So, if I post something at 11 pm one night, people have all the next day to comment, but then we all move along to the following day.

I've thought the A-page idea through. There would be just as much a danger that people start multiple new threads off it. With the Journal, at least you only have one thread per journal, by definition, and each thread is only related to that particular journal. With the A-page system, there would be a danger of mind-boggling cross-referencing. I can see the advantage of having the journals all together on one page, though. But you get that if you click on "See more journals" on people's PS's

One idea for future projects would be to divide the participants up into groups of four or five (I think I've got my Brown Owl hat on here) and each member is only obliged to read and comment on the journals within his group. That way, everyone would be sure to get read, and have interaction on their daily writings, without having to read more than a few other journals. That is, if we repeat the project another time.

Note: the "group" or "team" system would not mean that you don't have to ignore other journals you're interested in. But you wouldn't feel so bad about not getting round to reading all of them.

Don't ask me how I got "change" to look like that! I'm trying out a new laptop, must find out how to switch off the touchpad.

I thought 'chenage' was a splendid new word.

Post 10 here is the key. We can have an A-page for each participant, and a single journal thread with links to the entries attached to the A-page. We get the new user generated content, and existing subscribers only get a single thread appearing in their conversations. It's simple, it's elegant, and it requires no effort (my favourite amount).

I'm all for it

I am swamped. I haven't complaining about it, but yes, I am.
I like the idea of the whole event but I can't cope with it. So I just sit here and read titles piling up in my convos list and do nothing. Well, perhaps read a posting or two per day.
I have set my convos list on 50 convos and I suppose most of it is the event. I should really go and dig deep in there to see if I should say something in those few non-journals. But it looks too scary. So I just do nothing.
And when the month is over, there will be quite some journals which stay active, because their topic (or otd) is so catchy.
Unsubbing? To unsub from every single journal would be a lot of w*rk. To unsub every single person... sounds wrong. And some might get lost as one day I just forget to re-sub.
Did I have anything to say at all? No, doesn't seen so. Move on, nothing to see here! I just sit and sulk here, I didn't want to do it in my own journal.

Hati - feel free to unsub from me. () if you are subbed that is.