Eric, you've said it so well. I have really enjoyed my time here, and I am so impressed by the quality and variety of the posts.

Also, as primarily a fiction writer, Blogcritics has inspired me to write much more non-fiction than I ever have before. Not only do I find it enjoyable, I am glad for the chance to take my writing in a different direction.

I wish you and Phillip continued success.

thanks so much Victor, your input in both content and comments is greatly appreciated!

Hooray for BlogCritics!

Hey Eric, it was nice to learn more about Blogcritics than I thought I knew. And even nicer to be here. Over 20 years as a freelance writer in Bombay, I've had over 1850 bylines for front-page news, reviews, feature articles and columns, in almost every major publication in India. I'm now steadily working my way up to the 2,000th byline--right here on Blogcritics. And I have to tell you, there's more satisfaction writing here than anywhere else. Maybe it's the fact that we're hosting a 'world dialogue' or just the fact that there's such diversity and freedom of opinion. I love it. And I enjoy the work of all my fellow bloggers and most of all, this isn't just sucking up!

Can anyone put together a count of how many of the 1100 authors are still active - as in having posted at least once in the last month?

Dave

Excellent!

Dave, I can do that. In fact, I think I've got such a report laying around somewhere, but I have a tendency to name them using my initials, so I'll have to figure out which one it is...

I'd be curious about whe most prominent place BC writings have appeared. The New Yorker? The New York Times? National Enquirer?

Dave:
In the last 30 days, 282 Blogcritics have posted articles.
In the last 90 days, 460 Blogcritics have posted articles.
In the last 180 days, 643 Blogcritics have posted articles.

It seems to be exponential, or at least a curve of some sort.

Scott, I'm pretty sure our most prominent exposure is wherever those kids are finding that B5 review.

I can tell you in round numbers the effect writing on BlogCritics has had on my blog. 13000. I restarted my site counter after 5 months of writing solo, and dumped all of 300 hits. Coincidentally, I had started posting on BC, and in the following 7 months, I have accumulated nearly 13K hits.

Not bad for a blog focused on books!

So thanks, guys, for providing a way to amplify my voice!

I think b5 - whoever the hell they are - should send a shout out to us on their next album given how much time is spent on them here.

I'll join in the love fest and say how much I've enjoyed contributing to Blogcritics. I used to write exclusively about politics, but here at BC I can explore other areas, and am enjoying writing about the media and pop culture. An audience of 50,000 or so is a nice bonus. So, thanks to Eric and the editors for providing a forum for so many of us to take advantage of. Now, if only we could be paid in booze...

thanks to you all! much appreciated, and it should be known Eric B wrote most of this after I mumbled a bunch of stuff - credit where it is due!

Scott, our actual writing appears here and on the Advance sites, but we have been featured in the NY Times, NPR, BBC, Washington Post, Guardian, AP, Forbes, NBC, Fox News, etc etc.

And see the Awards and Such list above

Did BC ever break a story?

That's great. Thanks for answering. I have a question about the new foramt which I'll also email you but I'm not sure if the problem is the browser/computer I'm on or the re-design but I can no longer copy and paste chunks of text.

If I try to highlight and copy a sentence I want to refer to in a post I can't do that. And that makes me grumpy.

Ideas? I'll try it again later with another browser.

Suss, I know there have a been a couple of times that people flat-out disbelieved what they read here because it was so far out in front of everybody else, but the only one I can remember off the top of my head is the death of Mitch Hedberg.

Hi Eric,
Love the redesigned BlogCritics home page. Very nice job that's made a great site fantastic!

Just a comment:

I'm probably in the minority, but...

New Format Sucks.

Badly.

Non-linear chaos. Way too much info.

Useless info.

Sorry.

No way this is an improvement.

==========

Related Quotes:


"The food here is terrible!"
"I know, and the portions are so small!"

"Make it simple, stupid."

*"The world is over-designed and underedited." -- © 1996 by Shark


* Shark's Infamous copyrighted mantra re. Contemporary Design

Hey, I really like the new look - it's been a while since I dropped by, and all the things I used to wish for have appeared - like, now you can jump to the bottom of a string of comments by clicking on Fresh stuff, and the Post field is right above it. That's great for when you are having a drawn-out conversation about a post!

And the site doesn't make me scroll right any more to see comments. I also like the magazine feel to it now - especially that there isn't this big gap for the google ads.

It took me a second to figure out where the columns went - but I found them eventually. Thanks for the great site!

Thank you for this great community! Love the new design. Would like to see a tab for Editors' picks. :)

In regard to my most recent Post about U.S. Taxpayers paying for Palestinian bombers families you (Blog Critics Editor) attempted to put in my links which I appreciate. (See comment number 8). But it did not take. There are 3 links. If you will send me an email I will send you the links to add. Also can you give me instructions on how to add links to a comment or article I post? Thanks

My name is Paul Blackborow with Source 4 tickets. I came across your website and thought your site would be a great opportunity for both of us. Source 4 Tickets is an international ticket broker specializing in all sports, theatre and concert events. Customers can currently purchase tickets for all four major sports as well as for the World Cup, all Broadway shows, and today's biggest concerts.. As an affiliate you would receive 8% commission on all sales through your site. There is no cost for you to sign up, and you can have your own account within minutes. Please visit our website, www.source4tickets.com, for more details or you can contact me via email or phone. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.



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Dear Friends
I noted that you have used the wrong term of "Arabian Gulf" instead of the historical and internationally recognized term of the Persian Gulf in one of your recent stories:

I would like to point out that according to all historical/geographical documents, also United Nations' directives, the name of this waterway which separates Iran (Persia) from Arabian Peninsula is the PERSIAN GULF.

PERSIAN GULF is also the only term used by the U.S. Department of State.Same to the National Geographic Society.

You can visit this page for some maps & documents and see even Arab scholars until 1960s used "Al-Khalij Al-Farsi" (Arabic name of the "Persian Gulf");

"Arabian Gulf" in fact is the ancient name of the present-day "Red Sea" (located between Arabia and Africa).

Please imagine that all nations start to rename the historical and legal names of seas and oceans: African people try to change the name of Indian Ocean to African Ocean, American people rename Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America or Pakistani people try to use Pakistani Sea instead of the Arabian Sea !....

Also please be aware that Persian (Iranian) people never tried to use "Gulf of Iran"/"Gulf of Persia" instead of "Gulf of Oman" and never tried to change the name of "Arabian Sea" into "Persian Sea".

May I ask you to kindly use the proper term in that article? I do not wish to see such huge mistakes from a website based in Switzerland; a countrty that is famous for respect to international rights and laws.

Thanks so much for your attention.

Sincerely,
Pejman Akbarzadeh
Member of "ARTISTS WITHOUT FRONTIERS" (Tehran Chapter)

i'm having trouble finding who to send this to, so i figured i'd just post here.

the world's biggest choka (japanese form of poetry, related to haiku) is in the making. VERY pop culture, very cool. sorta funny:

http://www.bigpoem.blogspot.com/

I've always like blogcritics...I just don't like how some unknown entity can just change things...such as a catagory on a writer...I think the writer should be the only one who can touch the work once its been approved for publishing.

In fact, most people would agree that only editors should be able to change anything once it has been published, and if anything is changed in the future, it will be in that direction, not the other. :-)

Hello Joan and Natalie,

Have you had a chance yet to visit www.chewednews.com? After running 1280 pages alone for the last 3 years, I'm now offering reprint agreements for those interested.

But, heck, interested or not, please do visit. It's worth the trip just to see me in a Scottish kilt.

Thank you for reading.

Andrew J. Hewett

Review Material Overlord? *snort*

Glad to join.

That's nice... wear a sweater.

I just wanted to say WOW!!! goose bumps and e-motions, the design of your web page really got me!!! Check my sites ;)

Blogcritics is a nice place to visit and probably a nice place to live -- in Sci/Tech with a view of the heavens, near the Books and not too far from the Movies with Music playing in the background and some Culture around the corner. Yup, a nice place to live.

Always appreciate TRUE news (minus gossip) about
Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Her show-"Ghost Whisperer"-is kind of interesting.

A program about the occult that rose above the odds to become #1 (and had been expected to be
cancelled immediately).

Remains to be seen whether this success will
continue...

white rarely as Bill's beard into see ... vajefowo

I would like to participate. As you can see I have dipped my toes into this amazing information revolution courtesy of my weblog and wish to develop further. I love soaking data from many sources, and relating that back to people.

It is my pleasure to invite you to read my interview with 3 BOOK REVIEWERS on my blog Getting Medieval. If you are a writer you will absolutely need to read it and if you are a Reader, I know you will find it extremely interesting. Join me!

Cheers,
Jeri Westerson

I really enjoy your site, however I think it's really ugly. I think you need to update the look, maybe something more creative or professional. You'll likely draw in an even bigger fan base. Keep up the good work!

you forget a fabulous story of nuclear war between North Korea and World.

why not all friends are allowed to paricipate not only by comments but by articles?the site will be transformed into a trust of knowledge !

Interesting site. Enjoyed reading.

DEAR AMY AND ISABELLA
I WANT TO SAY I AM SORRY
THAT I CANT GO YOUR PARTY
FOR BIRTHDAY BUT I ALWAYS
REMEMBER TI IS YOUR DATE BIRTHDAY
I AM SO BUSY WITH MY FAMILY
AND A LOT TO DO IN MY LIFE I NEVER
FORGET YOU IF WANT COME AND
VISIT ME AND ISABELLA. ANY TIME
YOU WANT TO PLEASE LET ME KNOW
WHEN YOU CAN COME AND VISIT US
OKAY I REALLY MISS YOU I LOVE
YOU TAKE CARE BE GOOD GIRL
MELISSA
LOVE

Leave it to Eric Olsen to find a job that he can do in his jammies. Hmmm.

Yeah but Dawn confiscated all the photo negatives and video tapes... darn her

Eric was always ahead of his time. His guitar amplifier really did have an 11 on it, despite his bandmates objections. Pity, Rick always wanted his solos to be heard.....

Every time I try to post a reply, I get "Page not found." Is there a link to notify a webmaster?

Yeah, me too.

Hey, it works again. Ummm ... nevermind.

i have a qustion, my qustion is who are the symbol of bees and honey farm related to the way the main characters interact in the novel

Wow.. great site.. You're a service to the Blog community!

Dear Sir,

I really respect your blog and i read it from time to time however I recently came across an article that really made feel bad and sad :(

The article is 'Islam's Culture War Against Society', this article twists the facts and it will do more harm than good between different religions ...

I would really appreciate it if you can remove this article and avoid proof reading such poorly written articles which aren't based on any facts neither mention any sources.

Thank you so much for taking my comment into consideration.

Fascinating site. Enjoyed reading.
Tried to send a mail but failed.
Please help.

DIGGING DEEPER
By Ivan G. Goldman
Sweetly liberal Huffingtonpost.com has an ugly underside. Sometimes readers are puzzled why this famous, well-funded blogsite that provides columns from top-drawer people like novelist and thinker Jane Smiley also gives us muddled thoughts of Hollywood types like Alec Baldwin, a man who apparently can think a little, but just can't put the results into a coherent piece. Read him sometime and you'll see what I mean.
Huffingtonpost plays grateful, kow-towing host to great bunches of these Hollywood voices eager to ramble, and in our celebrity-crazed, dumbed-down society, it works, sort of. But it is to Paul Krugman or Bob Herbert as Britney Spears is to Miles Davis. Crichton to Dostoevsky. You get the picture. Some of the Hollywooders acquit themselves okay. Others show why they need someone else to write the scripts.
Anyway, my underground sources confirm that from time to time readers have posted complaints about the site's choice of celebrity over cerebellum. Because, after all, it's supposed to be a progressive site, they figure their voices will be heard. What happens is they are henceforth banned from future posting. That's right, this self-appointed paragon of liberal thought is, Internet style, a book-burner.
Ariana Huffington has hired a squad of cyberspace vigilantes that punishes even the mildest of questions about the way they run things over there. You don't have to point out, for example something as crass as the history of calculating Ariana Stassinopoulos who married gay Republican California heir Michael Huffington (with full knowledge of his sexual preferences, he says) and subsequently walked off with an undisclosed but apparently huge settlement, thereby creating the jet-setting, born-again liberal talking head Ariana we know today. The celebrity slant of her site is representative of her name-dropping, climbing self.
Light queries about how she runs that cyber-shop earn the posting enquirer a ban that will follow his/her name and computer into, apparently, the next life. They've got some heavy-duty software over there. Maybe it's the same stuff the Chinese regime uses to trace dissidents. After I was tipped off to their banishments, I tried a little light basting myself and - you guessed it - I'm outa there.
Ariana has been blasted from time to time for switching her politics from far right to comfy left, but I find that perfectly acceptable. Converts are welcome. Trouble is she seems to have taken some of those nasty, illiberal habits from the right and brought them over to what's supposed to be a forum for progressive, tolerant thought.

I'd advise the next President to at least think it over before making her Minister of Information.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Peace be with us all. Someone said, generation is to be lived and loved.

Brazil, Jamaica, Asia, Italy, United States, Africa, Spain, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Iraq, United Kingdom, and so forth, wherever we are on earth we do depend upon each other, a dependence that requires individuals, groups, nations and mankind responsibility and which influence the surrounding environment.

Human existence restriction has been performed and approved by humans and their comprehension of the planet and its inhabitant's evolution, as the self-evident reality enable us to perceive or know.

Global issue such as war, poverty, violence, climate change and so on, lead us to the understanding of the present situation, which expose the relation, approach mankind has applied to itself, the planet and life, attaining in summation the struggle for survival.

Understanding the vitality of the case, decisions, determination and focus in developmental action-process orientated to the achievement and establishment of Peace all around the globe and participation and representation of all people and culture are required now.

There is an industry of wasted energy dedicated to war. This energy can be redistributed through the means of global disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration to be redirected towards dialogue based processes by mutual education and campaign awareness and the establishment of the civil society.

An other source of wasted energy is fixed apart to the medicine drug interchange merchandise developed on a global scale, which can be turned in means of support as material resources such as food, water and shelter and social resources such as education, health care and access to information to the actual less developed countries.

No violence, no war, no conflict and all negative aspects of life that lead to separation are headed to evolutionary consequences or accomplishment.

Under the appropriate, precise and careful observation and consideration of mankind and its surrounding environment development and attainment, is of fundamental and remarkable importance the fostering of a culture for peace through education, promoting respect for all human rights, supporting participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge through the advancing of understanding, tolerance and solidarity in view and promotion of international peace and security.

Brothers and Sisters in unity can see marvellous things happening, but against each other they can only experience suffering.

In realization of the actual possibilities such as the promotion of general and complete disarmament, the promotion of dialogue among civilization, the effective use of media and mass communication, focusing upon the special need of chidren and the promotion of education for all, it is of primary importance and concern the acknowledgement from the analitical point of view of the existing UN General Assembly Resolution 55/282.

This called for everyone, governments, civil society, the media, parents, teachers, politicians, scientists, artists, NGO's the UN, to assume the appropriate responsability for taking action.

Subsequently, the approach and invitation explorable on Peace 365 are of considerable and of great consequences.

Effort and cooperation from all countries is needed in order to come to this end, please.

In Peace

giuseppe, marek and supporters

Isn't there supposed to be an earth shattering ka-boom right about...NOW!

Huffington's accent is so hot.

Very nice site and collection of articles.

Enjoyed reading this...

Hi Blog Critics. One thing that is not clear to me: Can blog authors submit a blog for review? If so, how do I do it?

Thanx,
Galina

interesting site man

Is it me or has the site been kind of slow lately?

I noticed that there aren't any stories or pieces done on the recent raid in Eldorado, Texas, which is capturing headlines. Could I write something and submit it to you?

If the internet were a newspaper, is BC doomed to only be in the middle or back sections and never the front page?

I mean think of it, on what subject do readers actually come to us first-instead of a few days later?

I'm not putting us down, I'd just like to see some way of putting us more on the "cutting edge" of things....

Jet, BC isn't "doomed" to be anything! BC is exactly what the writers of BC create. To see front-page style news coverage, write some front-page news coverage! :-)

While that's a brilliant idea there Phillip, the problem is that every time I write opinions on breaking front page news, it turns into back page news by the time it's published...

The techo-problem with this website is getting intollerable. I cleared my cache, deleted my temp files, and did a disc clean up, then rebooted and came on line. I can DSL instantly into any and all of my "Favorites" but it takes up to 2-3 minutes with this one, posting a comment is an adventure in waiting and usually getting a screen that said the page can't be loaded, and clicking on an article at the moment is an ecersize in frustration.

What gives...

I knew we had this problem some time ago when people would hit publish and nothing would happen so they'd keep hitting it, causing 5-6 coppies of the same comment to appear a few MINUTES later, or not at all...


but I thought it was fixed.

It can't be just my computer...

can it?

No, Jet, it's not.

I frequently find myself sitting waiting for a page to load at the speed of a racing glacier.

Where'd that shotgun go?