Review of the Guest Stint at BCC
As the past several posts have indicated, I spent the past week guest blogging at By Common Consent. All in all, I wrote 3 posts (with one other post that was a wee-bit problematic, and thus died an ignominious death about 10 hours after publishing), and sort of participated in the 15th edition of Police Beat Roundtable. Despite my earlier reservations, the experience was great, and I was sorry to see the week end last night after I sent my final post to the admins for publishing. In the name of being self-indulgent, let me now favor you with some disorganized reflection.
-High point of the week: Being asked to participate in the Police Beat Roundtable. PBR is the feature that first hooked me on BCC when (frequent commenter) MM pointed it out to me last Fall. We read several of the editions (this one in particular is priceless) over Thanksgiving, and gst (a regular on PBR) became my non-IRL hero.
-Low point of the week: Participating in PBR. I was at work when it took place, and got hooked into a conference call, causing me to miss the first two thirds of the panel. When I finally did arrive, I was so far behind and out of sorts that I it was all I could do to just catch up with what everyone else was saying. Thus, my comments are mostly out of place, and the one decent comment I had was only accidentally funny, resulting in Steve Evans asking me if “I can has sexual innuendo.” As a word of warning, many of the comments on PBR relate to this post, so I recommend reading it before attempting to understand the jokes.
-Misunderstood Genius moment of the week: The last post, dealing with hypothetical negotiations. It’s actually unfair to say that it was misunderstood; rather, it just didn’t get any kind of reaction from readers at BCC. Of course, I should have expected this, given that my own blog has taught me that the posts which mean the very most to me are rarely the most-commented on. Nevertheless, it was a bit disappointing to go out with such a non-bang. I spoke to soon and said that my post had not elicited any thoughtful response. Shame on me for having an itchy trigger finger.
-Crow Eating moment of the week: Spending a good portion of each day last week in contact (usually via GoogleTalk) with other BCC contributors. I made no secret of the fact that I entered their domain with a slightly suspicious attitude, and generally considered them to be a smug, elitist clique. As each day went by, I had to admit to myself over and over that everyone I had interacted with had been great. Everyone was friendly, engaging, and had a healthy repertoire of YouTube videos that barely passed the safe-for-work line. I still think BCC is a clique, but it’s a very fun clique.
-Awkward moment of the week: If my performance on PBR is excluded, then I would have to go with the long pause in the chat room when The Steve realized that I was a Utah State Aggie and not a Texas A&M Aggie. I had the feeling that he nearly rescinded my invite to guest on the spot, but ultimately he was distracted by an Arrested Development video.
-Best comment on one of my posts: Tie between John C. and John Scherer, both responding to Brother Gatsby‘s comment (“And if I know what the prophets are going to say before they say it, what would that make me?”) :
John C.: A spy for the Jehovah’s Witnesses?
John Scherer: I’d say extremely bored during General Conference.
-Best Haiku: John Scherer (he was in the zone)
Potluck bounty is not my friend.
Who brung that Chili?
-What I’m most looking forward to now that the Guest stint is over: Not feeling the need to stay up until 2 in the morning trying to perfect something that has no hope of being perfected.
-What I’m least looking forward to now that Guest stint is over: The interaction with the community at BCC over my posts, both behind the scenes and and in the comment threads. It was a real treat; if you ever have the chance to pay BCC a visit, I wholeheartedly recommend doing so. Thanks Cynthia, Rebecca, Steve, John C., Brad, and the other permas there for making it so.
I haven’t thought of anything to add as a comment to your last BCC post, but I certainly did enjoy it. It still has me thinking.
Learning to expect silence after slaving over a post while seeing endless comments added to somebody’s throwaway “who’s your favorite TV cop?” post is one of the hardest things I’ve had to learn about blogging. Sometimes silence means you’ve done something pretty special.
Ardis,
Thanks. I agree entirely–the silence also serves as a reminder to me that I blog for my own benefit, and anyone else who happens to enjoy something or find commenting worthwhile is just a bonus.
Ardis is absolutely right. You had some really great stuff and I am glad that you were willing to come aboard. Keep up the excellent work.
Scott,
Remember that the best way to get loads of comments is to say something stupid and controversial. Sadly, you never said anything stupid.
I thought you were great, Scott. Thanks for playing.
I find that my best posts (in my eyes) get the fewest comments. And I find, as a commenter, that I often don’t comment on the best posts, because I’m not sure what to add. I sometimes try to consciously avoid doing that, so as not to set up a backwards incentive system where people are encouraged to write “stupid and controversial” junk. But that’s the natural way these things play out I’m afraid.
I really enjoyed all your posts and it was a real treat for BCC to have you.
Here are two of my signature youtube links, so people don’t have to feel out of the loop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1paYhEDFQIw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJzfVomrpLk
See, we’re an open clique.
Wow. Thank you all for the kind words. Really.
Cynthia, those videos are amazing.
Nicely done, Scott.
Like several others, I hesitate to comment on really good posts. Sometimes I just make jokes referring to other comments, because that’s easier.
There’s a problem here, people. Everyone keeps talking about how they are hesitant to comment on really good posts. What does this say about the relative quality of my other posts, then?
Arrgg!!! And thus it turns out that talking about comment/not commenting as a sign of post quality is as fraught with unintended and unfortunate implications and judgments as talking about righteousness in the preexistence. Sigh.
if I may be just a tad bit creepy, I once tried to compare your stint at BCC with mine at MM. I guess there are distinctions (haha, you’re just a guest n00b, etc.,) but in the end…I think I got absolutely nowhere in my comparisons.
The only thing I came to a certain conclusion on was the fact that everything I write is so awkward, unclever, and not thought provoking.
Fear not. I have added considerably to your fan base, at least when measured in inches.
Your last post was by far the best. In contrast, the prattle that your Police Beat Roundtable interlocutors spewed should give you good reason to celebrate having been called away from it. Indeed, this might be the highest calling such a stream-of-consciousness ramble can elicit. Of course, such a reaction is expected from one who did not get the joke, so feel free to dismiss my uninformed cluelessness. I certainly do.
It has become apparent to me that my judgment of the response to my final post was premature. I have updated the post accordingly.
That other post did not die an ignominious death. It was taken up into heaven and received into Abraham’s bosom.
I am a big fan of all your posts.
Andrew–
Creepy is the key word there.
Dan–
PBR’s content is the pinnacle of BYU-Mormon inside jokedom, and thus there is no real reason you would have hearted it. Even I was entirely out of the loop on some of the comment as a result(we all know my feelings about the Y).
Madhousewife–
I liked that post, too. I just wish I had foreseen the unfortunate reaction ahead of time so it would not have been such a train wreck in the comment thread, and ultimately withdrawn. My bad.
Don’t believe them. I’ve written some crappy posts and no one comments on them either.