Open commenting has been around since I joined the site in 2004, and it really falls under the umbrella of creating a wide open community that is open to multiple viewpoints and that has as low a barrier to entry as possible.

Because of the increased menace of spam, we may one day have to require membership for commenters, but for now we can maintain this arrangement as we always have.

Vision

Tell me a little more about the vision you have for BC.

Whew... that's a big one! Blogcritics is in a very exciting phase right now in that we're expanding into a suite of sites that we call the BC Network.

Desicritics, our first network site, is now a year old and is thriving as a platform for people who live in and are passionate about the Desi world.

Now we are looking to create specialty "niche" sites that can capture a new audience that isn't necessarily into the more magazine-style format that BC presents

GlossLip has now launched under the direction of Dawn Olsen and is a fantastic place to check all things celebrity and gossip, subjects in which there is an insatiable audience for new stuff, and particularly when it's done with style and attitude and savvy, which basically sum up everything that Dawn is about.

We've also just within the last few weeks launched BC Forums into private beta and will very soon go wider with it. Just in testing, we've seen the explosive potential of this area — which provides yet another way for our community to communicate, interact, joke around, or just hang out. (Since this interview, the BC Forums have been launched.)

So that's really the vision right there — providing new ways for our audience and potential audience to learn, interact, and communicate, creating cutting edge content-community networks online.

Eric, I was talking to the other Eric - 'Olsen' - and he was telling me of he quickly realized that he would have to assume responsibility if the site has to go anywhere. There are always key actors in a grass root organization. In a way, I am questioning how grass root is a grass roots organization? You are creating a media company from bottom up and I am interested in understanding how norms and policies are decided.

Yes, Blogcritics is as grassroots as it gets — most people don't realize this!
The only full-time employee is founder and publisher Eric Olsen, so he is the "man at the helm" for emergencies, trouble shooting, fire patrol, you name it!