Boneyard 2.8 Arrives

This month, the Boneyard Blog Carnival pulls into Sorting Out Science, where host Sam Wise has risen to the challenge to organize more than two dozen posts into another solid outing. I'm pleased that there's such a great diversity of subjects. Thanks to everyone who submitted.

If you're new to the Boneyard and want a good crash course in what makes blog carnivals tick, I will refer you to the best explanation out there, written by the blogfather himself, Bora Zivkovic. Will the Boneyard grow and help to build the paleoblogging community? I hope so. Paleontology is an easy sell, being a discipline full of charismatic people and fauna. But it doesn't have the presence in the blogosphere that, say, astronomy and neuroscience has. I'm not quite sure why this is. I hope it changes.

Are blog carnivals contributors to the continued growth of small blog communities? Or are they ways for established communities to connect in a different way? At the moment, I lean towards the latter, but hopeful for the former.

I want to thank Sam again for doing a wonderful job as host, and for letting folks know that more hosting opportunities open. Here's what the hosting schedule looks like for the next few months:

May 3: Life As We Know It
June 7: Project Dryptosaurus
July 5: Laelaps
August 2: ART Evolved
September 6: Open
October 4: Open
November 1: Open
December 6: Open

I'm waiting to hear back from a few high-profile bloggers to get them in the mix for the last quarter of the year, but if you're a blogger and you'd like to take a month for yourself, let me know at boneyardblogcarnival(at)gmail(dot)com.