UPDATE: Just discovered I had a problem with my gmail accounts that prevented the submissions sent to the carnival's email account from getting to me. It's fixed. Still, response has been light, so for the most part, what I wrote applies.
Yep, not so much a "call" as a "plea." No sugarcoating here. I haven't had a single submission to Boneyard 2.4, which is due to be posted at History of Geology on Tuesday, December 7. I really, really, really want to make the Boneyard work, and so far it has been progressing slowly but steadily. Until now. This is a big hurdle.
There are carnivals dedicated to all kinds of cool scientific topics, and paleontology deserves one, too. I have no intention of giving up on it yet, but I have to admit... I'm a little pessimistic about it, as Brian Switek's first go at the Boneyard fizzled out due to lack of interest. And in the blogosphere, he's an elephant and I'm a mouse. So I have every reason to believe that it might have the same outcome in my hands. I'm certainly not trying to guilt people into submitting. I want its growth to be natural, because there is genuine interest. But I'm willing to do some heavy lifting to nurture it and get it to that point. For a little while.
I'm interested in some constructive feedback here. Have any ideas for how I can better promote the carnival? Ideas for why the paleo-blogosphere either doesn't know about it or isn't as receptive to carnivals as those dedicated to other branches of science? War stories of getting your own carnival off the ground? I have a feeling that the problem is multi-faceted.
Anyhow. Thanks for reading, helping, and advising.
Really? I could've sworn I definitely sent you something...
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this comment, it helped me figure out part of the problem noted in the update above!
ReplyDeleteto start off with i'm submitting all my recent palaeo guest star cameos/encounters. get you the URL links shortly.
ReplyDeletethere sadly aren't any sure fire suggestions for helping the sustainability of the boneyard...
speaking as an "old guard" palaeo-blogger (i've been at it for over 4 years now... which in the palaeo-sphere is pretty ancient... there is a lot of turn over and extinctions in this blogging niche for some reason) there is a reason the boneyard (and similar community based initiatives) died back in the day sadly :(
having participated in many version 1 boneyards and being the host of the last V1 ever, the core problem i noticed was that the novelty of being in a boneyard wore off for people due to a variety reasons.
i personally think one of the BIGGEST issues facing the new boneyard is the timing. every month is just too close together. not that a solution like 2 months is ideal either as it is enouhg time for people to slack off... we've thought about timing a lot at ART Evolved :(
i personally think something more permenant like your Mesozoic Miscellany on one constant site (so people know where to look for it easily), and that gathers content on its own (not requiring participants), but with the OPTION for submission (unlike that pathetic excuse "carnival" dinosaur tracking puts up) is the way to go. of course the issue is the time and effort of the person doing the gathering.
probably not what you want to hear, but just some thoughts i've had about the "evolutionary trends" of palaeo-blogging sphere. community is not an adaptive advantage... for some reason. confusing yes, but true sadly.
No, Traumador, that's the kind of honest take on the problem I'm looking for. Thanks for taking the time to comment. It means a lot coming from someone who has been at this for much long than I have!
ReplyDeleteCrapcrapcrap. I need to post something. Anything. And not something about my new cheesecake figure. Seriously, though, I'll throw something together for the next Boneyard. I missed last time and really regretted it.
ReplyDeleteI've got a review of an old dinosaur kid's record coming up tomorrow morning. In the meantime, would this post about Dougal Dixon fit? http://babbletrish.blogspot.com/2010/12/obscure-dougal-dixon-stuff.html
ReplyDelete^^ Addendum: and here's that record review.
ReplyDeletehttp://babbletrish.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-wanna-be-bob-bakker-professor-jones.html