(1) I know content has been a little sparse over the last few weeks, and thanks for bearing with me on that. I’ve been away from the computer for all kinds of reasons but posting will pick up again pretty soon. Relatedly, you should make a point of checking out the MR Facebook Page and following the MR Twitter feed. The Facebook page is MR’s de facto comments section, albeit with particularly trenchant moderation and banning tools. The Twitter feed has conversations with other bloggers, retweeted links, and breaking news.
Both get stuff that’s too small to make into full posts, plus updates from MR sister blog Is Iran’s Fist Still Clenched, plus anything else that seems marginally relevant. I make a point of updating them with even when I don’t have time to get to MR.
(2) There’s going to be a formal post on this in a couple hours but just as a heads up: on Monday I’m kicking off the first episode of The Omri Ceren Show, part of the One Jerusalem Radio family of internet talk shows. I want to emphasize immediately, as I will over and over again, that this is a very tentative title. As soon as someone comes up with a name that doesn’t echo a carnival shtick I’ll transition to that. In the meantime tomorrow’s interview will be with Dore Gold talking about Iran. I’ll post the rest of the details in a bit but if you just can’t wait to dive in the show’s main page is here.
(3) I’m rolling out a few design changes over the next few weeks, some of which you’ll notice and most that shouldn’t get on your radar. There’s going to be a change in the url naming scheme and category pages will start appearing. If you want to exclusively follow the Israeli hotties category – you can do that now. If you want something a little more weighty, say like “nuclear proliferation,” sorry – didn’t make the cut. I’m also toying around with some backend changes, though the last time I tried to upgrade to MT 4.3 a bad script caused a full-blown server meltdown. CPU usage climbed above 90%. Hosting Matters had to revert the whole account. Peripherals began physically weeping. It wasn’t a good scene.
A lot of changes are being driven by the online business development folks at Salted Stone. They’ve been overly gentle in balancing compliments about MR’s content with advice for improving its structure. Given how good they obviously are at their jobs I’m inclined to think that maybe – just maybe – the site would benefit from their suggestions. Add that to how the design you’re seeing emerged from an “oh honey, no” intervention on the part of the Doc Weasel team [NSFW NSFW NSFW], and you begin to get a feel for how much of your user experience results from the kindness of others.
All of which brings me to…
(4) I’m going to have to start hitting you guys up a little harder for donations. Which is to say, I’m going to have to start hitting you up for donations. I find it as distasteful as you’ll find it annoying but – as VISA and Mastercard have emphasized to me – there’s a salient difference between being a marginally funded graduate student and a not funded graduate student.
After half a decade, almost 5,500 posts, and just under 1.5 million pageviews, the number of people who have made donations to MR stands at four. I’m genuinely grateful to all of them – and for the notes that some of you have sent – but I’m still straining to reach even a “cover the bandwidth costs” level of ads and donations.
Please give generously, lest I start having to replace entire posts with sad CC-licensed lolcats streamed from Picasa over Google bandwidth.
References:
* Mere Rhetoric Facebook Page
* Mere Rhetoric Twitter Stream
* The (tentatively titled) Omri Ceren Show, [Blog Talk Radio]
* One Jerusalem
* Is Iran’s Fist Clenched
Previously:
* Skewz.com Podcast: Mere Rhetoric Gets Interviewed About Israel, Iran, Politics, Etc.
* Marc Garlasco – Is HRW’s Anti-Israel Investigator A Nazi-Obsessed Collector?
* Hate Mail Of The Day
