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Teresa has taken a full-time job at Federated Media Publishing, the firm founded in 2005 by John Battelle to provide advertising revenue and other business-and-technical back-office support to a select group of best-of-breed blogs and web sites by putting them together with advertisers who are looking to reach their particular audiences. Federated Media clients include many of the more interesting web sites around, including 43 Folders, Ars Technica, Autospies, Thomas Hawk, Laughing Squid, Digg, Metafilter, and, perhaps most notably, our old friends at BoingBoing, one of the most widely-read blogs in the world.
As an Account Manager in FM’s “Author Services” department, Teresa will be deploying her ninja community-engineering skills, honed in decades of activity in SF fandom and the online world, on various projects with various FM clients, all of which you’ll be the first to hear about as soon as they stop being sooper seekrit kill-yourself-before-reading on-beyond-classified big hot hairy deals. Honestly, I’m not even allowed to know about some of this stuff.
Of course, Teresa will continue to be a consulting editor for Tor Books, because nobody ever stops being a consulting editor for Tor Books, bwa ha ha ha. So Steve Brust can relax; little Vlad won’t be turned over to the understudy at the beginning of the third act.
Yes, this is what was previously [REDACTED]. We expected to be able to talk about it earlier. Humans having been involved, misunderstandings ensued. Reading the comments, we note that even our gnomic silence failed to prevent you from making brilliant sense of our own nonsense. I swear, some days, it seems like this blog writes itself.
Congrats, Teresa! FMP is lucky to have you.
This is splendiferous, and they and she are both fortunate. Woo-hoo!
Congratulations, Teresa. Hope the people around you realize how lucky they are to work with you.
(Signed, Been There, Done That)
Awesomely cool. Congratulations to Teresa, and boy is Federated Media lucky to get her.
Woot!
And let me say that part of the amusement (fromm here, in retrospect) at how well some of this was sussed out, is that something like this, with someone like her is something we've thought would be a good idea.
So, Woot!
Thank you, BoingBoing, for more reasons than I can possibly go into.
Congratulations. Will your new office be in a Secret Building You May Not Photograph?
Congratulations. Sounds like a good match.
I can't help wondering: How would Charles Stross explain your new job to someone in 1977?
Photographs here.
FM seems to be about 35 people, most of whom are in Sausalito and about (my guesstimate) 7 of whom are in NYC. Mostly because someone's got to sell to the NY ad agencies.
Congratulations, Teresa, from a fellow newbie at a workplace.
I hope you're having fun.
Strewth!
Good luck, enjoy, and do good things.
Am I the only one here who's disappointed?
I was expecting TNH to be announced as Information Minister of the post-Cheney provisional government.
Seriously, congrats!
Congratulations!
This job, and this company, seem to be yet another of the many things that are Beyond My Ken, but I understand enough to know that it sounds exciting. So again: congratulations!
"I was expecting TNH to be announced as Information Minister of the post-Cheney provisional government."
You appear to have obtained copies of the Earth-47 documentation. Report yourself for debriefing immediately, citizen.
(Jeez. Some people. It's so hard to staff a dinosaur hunt these days!)
Congratulations, Teresa! It's excellent that you've been recognized for your skills at managing communities full of cats and the occasional troll.
WooHOO! Congratulations, Teresa, and they're very lucky to have you.
Wow--and we knew you when. Soon you will own the (cyber) world along with Cory D. Congrats
Though in my increasingly fewer visits to Tor, I shall miss seeing you at your crowded-in desk.
(Tears)
Jane
Congratulations! Now how do I get that black [Redacted] material off this screen?
Teresa, they're lucky to have you.
Oh, wow, Teresa, marvelous news for you and for the cyberworld (it needs you). I like the look of the place; it's a real startup atmosphere. And tell Scott Beale for me I admire his photos. I can appreciate someone who has an eye for firehoses.
Of all the things you get out of this, I'm jealous of an office with a theremin. How cool is it that you can perform your own eldritch theme music while you work!
Congratulations Teresa! Much happiness in the new endeavor.
*I would do the happy dance on your behalf, but I'm in the upstairs office and I think the people sleeping downstairs would complain at the noise*
Wow. Congrats, Teresa! This is one large step for sanity on the internet. (I'm also glad to hear that she'll continue to be a consulting editor for Tor.)
I wondered if the Flamer Bingo thread was [REDACTED] related, but I didn't know how to ask without being redacted. (Actually, I thought Teresa was writing a book. But this new job is so much more immediate and hands-on.)
Yay! Congratulations! That's brilliant!
This puts her at two amateur -> pro conversions? I eagerly await the day I can pick up TNH-brand small-batch liqueurs at my local bottle shop, and "Sleepy Lemur"-brand premium knitwear at finer clothing stores.
Good luck with the new gig.
Much and many congratulations to you, Teresa!
Congradulations, Teresa!
Much luck in juggling both FMP and Tor (and I am glad Vlad and his friends are still in safe hands)
Patrick @ 11... That building block has a secret garage door for the HamsterMobile, and a secret roof door for the HamsterWing, right?
Elise writes in #19:
Gotta love an office with a theremin.
All I can add is: Wowwww.
Woohoo! Congrats, Teresa!
Also:
Of course, Teresa will continue to be a consulting editor for Tor Books, because nobody ever stops being a consulting editor for Tor Books, bwa ha ha ha.
Just when she thought she was out. . .
Tor's hiring of Michael Corleone was bound to have repercussions.
Fantabulous, Teresa. Many wishes for a fruitful and productive tenure.
This has the peculiar logic I expect of dreamtime - I shall have to check again later, to see that it's really true. Very cool :)
::releases breath::
now, when can we get together, o master and mistress of old and new media?
Totally cool.
#31--Also, the Aunt Sophronia brand of pickles, preserves, syrups, and marmalades. Be careful of the hot chowchow.
Congratulations, showers of rose pedals, and much chocolate.
Tor's hiring of Michael Corleone was bound to have repercussions.
Yup, poor guy, he gets to play with the real masters of the game, for the sake of the game itself.
I give him three months before depression creeps in.
Congratulations, by the way. As already stated, they're lucky to have you.
...
[...]Teresa will be deploying her ninja community-engineering skills[...]
Am I the only one imagining Ms. Nielsen Hayden in full ninja gear running along shall-not-be-photographed-building walls to have a pleasant chat with shrouded in black pie-cooking secret operatives?
Congratulations, Teresa! What a brilliant hiring decision. It sounds fun.
Er, rose petals.
Note to self: do not try to type before cats have been fed.
Congratulations on your new gig!
Aconite @ 47... I dunno. I kind of like your original idea of rose pedals, provided we don't throw them at Teresa.
Congratulations!
I expect you'll be blogging from a high altitude hot air balloon soon, if you haven't started already.
Greg London @ 51... Does this mean I really can wear that red cape of mine?
only if you wear the goggles too.
I think it's perfect.
I still want the book, though.
Greg London @ 53... The problem is that I also wear glasses. They're not particularly big, but they'll still require good-sized goggles for things to fit comfortably. Know a web site that has a good selection?
Congratulations, Teresa! This is the sort of thing that Alvin Tofler made us see as through a glass darkly, back when glass darklies were made on assembly lines and before their manufacture moved to China.
Bob Oldendorf (#9): I can't help wondering: How would Charles Stross explain your new job to someone in 1977? (And how would Terry Pratchett satirize whatever it is you now do?) Though I'm not sure I get it, they're lucky to have you, Teresa! Best wishes.
I thought all the Earths with post-Cheney provos were interdicted, not just 47. Did we expand the debriefing program to cover everyone from an interdicted Earth, or just the ones with post-Cheney provos? IMNTK.
Congratulations, Teresa! What a nifty endeavor.
Congratulations! I was one of those who thought a book contract was in the wings. But this is way cool.
Serge: The problem is that I also wear glasses.
Hm, that is a bit of a bother. The problem, as I see it, is that the goggles are of the "two eyepieces connected by a thin rubber strap" variety. Which would mean there'd be no way to put glasses on underneath.
Contacts, maybe?
Greg London @ 63... I tried contact lenses years ago. Too uncomfortable. Maybe I should have someone make me a visor like the one Cyclops wears in the X-men movies. Glasses could fit inside a visor.
Congratulations, Teresa! From the paragraph on the FMB website it appears they were impressed by -- among all your other skills and talents -- your ability to enforce civility on these comment threads. I picture you stalking the cyberhalls of your new place of employment wearing thigh-high black boots and fishnet stockings, and bearing the dread Whip of Disemvowelling.
-giggle-
It's early, and I haven't finished my coffee.
O, most excellent news! <chortles> “Callooh! Callay!”
One envisions Teresa commuting via zeppelin between Federated Theremin House and the Flatiron. Am sending virtual vibrations of a recipe involving fine chocolate, zesty citrus & malt whisky; a variation of one from Sara, here, earlier.
Lizzy L @ 65... your ability to enforce civility on these comment threads
As for myself, I think of Teresa as an Organian. Didn't you know that's the real reason this site is called Making Light?
Oops! Forgot to mention, for Serge. Are prescription goggles feasible?
Mez @ 69... I don't think there's much of a market for those, unfortunately.
Teresa, congratulations!
Serge #72: you can get prescription goggles for pretty much any activity for which goggles would be useful (swim/dive, motorcycle, safety, etc). A brief google turned up this site (http://www.heavyglare.com/goggles.php), and I'm sure there are many more out there.
Prescription safety goggles are definitely available. A pair of prescription didymium goggles in my (fairly tame) prescription runs about 200 bucks. I haven't gotten one yet because the nonprescription goggles fit over my normal glasses. But I might after a friend of mine got a small chunk of hot glass in her eye while we were blowing together. She's fine, but it was a bit of a scare.
Congratulations, Teresa! I hope you enjoy the new job (and that it comes with a nice increase in pay).
Elise #19: That is certainly cool. Now, what I want in my wife's office (she's the musical one) is an ondes Martinot.
I'd suu\ggest trying prescription goggles first.
if not, then I guess it's cyclops goggles as a fall back plan.
You do realize you won't match the other super-bloggers, though.
Sadly, the theramin is a Horcrux for Dick Cheney, and will be destroyed in Book 4 of the FMP Quintology.
Greg London @ 78... You do realize you won't match the other super-bloggers, though.
Of course. In the world of blogging, I am less like an X-man and more like the wannabes in the movie Mystery Men.
I am less like an X-man and more like the wannabes in the movie Mystery Men.
God's given me a gift. I shovel well. I shovel very well.
Serge (55):
Not much of a selection, but I believe that these are the right style...
John Houghton @ 83... Hmmm... I think these might be perfect, especially for a masquerade. They're not cheap, but as soon as our ship comes in - meaning, when my wife gets her next royalties check...
Congrats, Teresa! (I may be asking you for advice soon!)
J
Sounds really kewl. Congratulations.
How exciting and interesting. Congratulations!
Stefan Jones #80: Dick Cheney's worse than Lord Voldemort; Voldemort's fictional, Cheney's real.
Is this using her powers for good or evil? Or is that something mere mortals minds are not meant to know?
Suuure, the squid is laughing now, but wait until someone's delivery order contains calamari. Oh, the, er, cephalopody!
Serge, wouldn't these be worth going without glasses? Get thee to Hungary forthwith.
(And congrats to Ms. Nielsen Hayden, of course.)
Congratulations and hearty cheers!
But, Good Editor, keep plenty of band-aids at your desk. You'll be working awfully near the bleeding edge.
mds @ 90... Yes indeed, in spite of the risk of my falling off the stage into the orchestra pit - or where the pit would be if the place were not pit-less. They also bring back fond memories of LAcon's 1984 masquerade. I didn't fall off the stage, but I could barely see anything because, after I was stuck wearing them for two hours, they were covered with condensation. That's what I got for playing one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. (Yes, I was Famine.)
(cont'd from #92)
My apologies for taking the thread off topic. Again, my congratulations to Teresa. Today, Tor. Tomorrow the world.
Good stuff Teresa. Hope they don't give you too many reasons to outclass them. Also, hope the posted partnership with Microsoft bodes only well.
Ah! I thought the name was familiar (beyond just my obsessions with Bataille). FMP's CEO wrote the techier of the two Google books.
Congratulations, Teresa! If you can say, is your job heavily focused on the moderation/keeping discussions civil side of things? That seems likely to be something very valuable for the next few years.
Chiming in with yet another "Congratulations!"
All best wishes! NOW can we have a foo camp report?
Of course, Teresa will continue to be a consulting editor for Tor Books, because nobody ever stops being a consulting editor for Tor Books, bwa ha ha ha.
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Seriously: Congratulations, Teresa!
Warmest congratulations, Teresa! Today FM, tomorrow the world!
(Ah, we can only dream - a universally Teresa-moderated Internet.)
Speaking of which (or rather, our current lack thereof), who didn't see this coming?
Congratulations Teresa. You'll doubtless be learning a new value for "interesting".
Teresa's found a day job fits her talents
for keeping cyberspace a civil place.
Her skills in verbal battle 'face-to-face'
will be used to keep the web in balance.
At Making Light we've seen her take on agents
of astroturf and trolls who would deface
our home-away-from-home, our meeting place,
removing all their vowels in moments.
It's good she's found a wider scope that suits her,
the Web needs such as her most desp'rately.
But even as we celebrate her fortune,
and raise a glass as FMP recruits her,
ML's defended less consummately;
we all must attempt to bear her portion.
Congratulations to Teresa. I just tried in my mind to come up with a brief phrase that describes what that job means, and wound up with "she's one of the Illuminated Masters who own the Internet." Probably incorrectly -- Oh, heck. We knew it.
Now it can be revealed! The secret purpose of "Flamer Bingo": constructing a corpus to seed the database for a fully automatic disemvowelling engine, to be rented out to proprietors of web forums all over the Internet by Federated Media, at an outrageous profit!
Now, if we can get the damn thing filtering Fox News Channel, we'll really be getting somewhere.
Seriously, congratulations.
Congratulations Teresa. Best of luck in the new job, and may your calming and civilising influence spread over the entire intarwebs.
Failing that, enjoy yourself, and buy nice things with the paycheck.
Ok, I thought it was cool when my office got a Wii...but you've got a frickin THERAMIN. Awesome.
Congrats Teresa!
Good Luck in your new pursuit.
And because I happened to visit ML today from my latest workplace, and so came in via the Nielsen Hayden home page instead of my bookmark, I happened to notice this little tidbit (emphasis mine):
Teresa is an Account Manager at Federated Media, where she deploys her online community-engineering skills in the service of various FM clients. She’s also writing what she swears will be a “short” book about online moderation.
This group is good...
OK, I can't find where it says FM has a Theremin.
Congratulations! Let me know if you need your new office organized... :)
Xopher,
Follow the link to the pictures on Flickr and step through them. You'll find it there, somewhere past the stairs and the firehose.
W00t! I belatedly join the chorus of congratulations & hope showering down from around the Global iTubeworks. (Can the combined resources available through the Web of Influence from FM put some extra pressure on the Cylert front, do you think?)
Xopher @ 111, if you're still searching. Laughing Squid's photostream on Flickr has a set called 'Federated Media New York Office', wherein which are these two pix of the Theremin. Once't you're in the area there, you can look around for other photos & tags of interest.
#73: A brief google turned up this site (http://www.heavyglare.com/goggles.php)
Googling for goggles.
Or, from your hot air balloon,
goggling for googles.
Serge -- if you cultivate a good optician, (s)he can do amazing stuff with eyewear. My optician is currently working on fitting modern lenses to a set of antique pince nez for one of my co-workers. George has done prescription scuba masks and ski goggles as well. The big limitation seems to be whether the increased thickness of the lenses (compared to flat) can be accommodated in the frame. (Thank you, Making Light spelling reference.)
Victor S @ 117... Even if your glasses's lenses are progressives? Anyway, before I get goggles like that, what I'd really like is what I can best describe as John Lennon glasses. Such frames are really difficult to find. They'd go well with my Victorian Time Traveller's hall costume. Besides I like those, period. Unfortunately, my wife emphatically does not. Ce que femme veut, Dieu le veut. What one's wife wants, God won't argue with.
Serge (#118): To this 50-something, Lennon glasses would be much cooler than the nasty, dark narrow frames that are currently in vogue. I think they make the young folks look ghastly.
Epacris (#114): Thanks for the direct link to the theremin pix. Downloading the whole set of photos by dial-up took so long, I just glanced at the thumb-nail versions and gave up before I really got a good look.
Theresa: Any further comments on the job, or is that verboten?
Faren @ 119... You and I probably feel that way because we are fifty-ish. As for my wife, she's almost in that age group, but not quite. Must be a generational thing.
Mary Dell @ 121... My wife is going to hate you for this. Heheheh...
I'm just curious - what does FM do, and why are they not as evil as, say, the people who would run pay-to-post-comments advertising schemes? I will admit that I am sufficiently socially clueless as to not understand what this type of back-office support entails. Patrick's one-sentence description appears to me somewhat like the speech to Ginger in that Far Side cartoon: "blah blah blah blah boing-boing".
Does anyone have a more geek-friendly explanation, especially for someone steeped in GSF 1 and 2?
The only thing I know about Federated Media is that they were somehow behind this, which sets off most of my "scummy marketing sleezeball" alarms.
That aside, yay on the new job. I just accepted one of those (an offer for a new job) myself. And, I should note, with a company which itself lives off advertising revenue, and which is routinely accused of everything from being the 1200-pound gorilla, to being the new big brother, to unfair trade practices. So I'm well aware of this glass house I'm sitting in over here. I just honestly don't have a mental handle on what FM does.
Congratulations and good luck.
#123: As far as I'm aware, FM doesn't run any "pay-to-post advertising schemes." Mostly what they do is drum up ads for blogger clients, in return for which they take a cut. "Business and technical back-office support" is just what it sounds like: along with the ads, they try to help their clients get their business and technical act together so they can focus on the actual business of blogging and building up their audience.
#123 My impression (based on not much more actual information than has been posted here) is that FM is a "boutique" advertising middleman, in the same market that Google is a generic one. Google deals wholesale, with a lot of sites that each get relatively few hits, and pays a little. FM handles a few popular sites, and can go to real advertising agencies and get ads they're willing to pay more to show to targeted audiences (the blog readers).
Congrats! What will Tor without the Nielsen Hayden good cop/bad cop combo they've had all these years?
Seth has it right. The "federated" in the name refers to the fact that they put together packages of thematically-connected weblogs and websites, and sell them to advertisers who are pushing products and services relevant to those categories. This is all pretty much explained on the FM site.
The other thing FM appears to have is a solid sales force, grounded as much in ad-industry experience as in the new-media world. Of course they can't compete on numbers or scale with Microsoft's giant underground facilities where sales reps are grown by the thousands in vats, or with Google's mile-long crystalline automata gently wafting into low Earth orbit from their remote launching pads in the American West, but there's always a place for an agile, knowledgeable boutique operation staffed (mostly) by unmodified Homo sapiens. That's the theory, at any rate.
Tor will be fine. Teresa is still editing a bunch of authors for us, and her FM office is a block away.
#129: "Of course they can't compete on numbers or scale with . . . "
But they do have the Theramin:
"It's kind of a shock the first time you see it glow black and smell the sulfur and hear it dispensing advice in a guttural voice echoed by a choir chanting in Latin, but dang, that thing is right ten times out of ten!"
The Theremin in those pictures isn't set up. The pitch antenna is not attached. What good is that?
You don't think they set it up for just any drop-in visitor, do you?
#123: As far as I'm aware, FM doesn't run any "pay-to-post advertising schemes."
Maybe not, but if you put this phrase in your comment thread, Google Ads offers up a bunch of PPP links in the sidebar.
How annoying is that?
I was going to complain about all the ads on the Internet, but most of the blogs FMP lists look like compilations of press releases for gearheads and quasi-magazine advice columns ("life hacks"? hoo boy. Silicon Valley much?).
I can see how this would be interesting in a professional sort of way, but I was actually wondering whether they were aiming at inducing the Arthur Silbers of the world to advertise on their blogs. (Thank goodness, not.)
Not a lot of them have much going on in the comments either. One of the writers actually complained of being lonely and never getting any feedback.
I can see that my idea of "conversational" marketing is not their idea.
Probably a good thing, that.
Serge @ 118 -- Progressive vs. standard lenses shouldn't affect this kind of thing at all. As I understand the process, George orders up circular lenses with the appropriate prescription in the next standard size larger than the frames, then takes careful measurements and uses a small milling machine to cut the edges of the lenses to whatever profile you need. Then he installs the prescription lenses in the frames.
The tricky bits appear to be in the careful measurement, the removal & installation, and making sure your prescription lens is thin enough (or thick enough, I suppose) to be held properly in the frames.
firefly, #134:
#123: As far as I'm aware, FM doesn't run any "pay-to-post advertising schemes."
Maybe not, but if you put this phrase in your comment thread, Google Ads offers up a bunch of PPP links in the sidebar.
How annoying is that?
I dunno, how annoying is that? More to the point, what do the ads served up on our Google adstrip have to do with whether some entirely different company runs some sort of "scheme" or not?
I was going to complain about all the ads on the Internet, but most of the blogs FMP lists look like compilations of press releases for gearheads and quasi-magazine advice columns ("life hacks"? hoo boy. Silicon Valley much?).If you're talking about Merlin Mann's 43 Folders, the one whose capsule description on the FM site uses the phrase "life hacks," that's a rather good blog you're slagging off. Then again, I tend to like "gearheads," and while I grasp that "Silicon Valley much?" is supposed to be a withering put-down, I don't actually get what you mean by it.
Firefly: Not a lot of them have much going on in the comments either.(Also, check out Ars Technica: that blog's as gearheaded as they come, and they have excellent comment threads.)Teresa: Hmmmmmmmmmmm ...
Patrick 133: Why not? I do. But then I haven't had a visitor since...
...um...
...well, a long time.
Victor @ 135: For progressive lenses to work well, they need to be leveled and centered properly.
Think about standard old-fashioned bifocals for a second: the line separating the distance lens from the close-in lens needs to be horizontal and somewhat below the straight-ahead line of sight. The same is true of progressive lenses, except instead of one clear line like that, there's a whole gradient series.
At least, that's my non-expert guess, based on the extra measurements the fitting person took for my progressives, and how much more finicky they are about where on my nose they sit than my old glasses were.
Xopher, I needed a new loveseat for my living room and consulted my friend who owns a furniture store (going out of business in five days -- the landlord doubled the rent*) and he asked how often people would sit on it. I said three or four times a year and he recommended a brand that will handle that, but would fall apart in a few years with daily sitting. I feel kind of silly buying something for so few people to use, but I suppose the cats will sit on it, too.
*I stopped by the store today to tell him I'd ordered the loveseat I wanted and there was a gang of little aliens with truncated cone heads standing around.
Victor S @ 135... Thanks for the info. I mentionned that my glasses are bifocals because I was told that there is a minimum diameter for lenses to handle that. I think. I may be remembering incorrectly something I was told while I had little caffeine in my bloodstream. Meanwhile, I think that the Girl Genius web site has mad-scientist goggles for sale.
Congrats. I just took a new job myself at an internet ad exchange. Perhaps our companies will end up doing business some day.
Yeah for Teresa!!! Congratulations!!!!
Who would wear reactionary lenses?
theophylact @ 145... Shame on you. And, yes, I wish I had thought of it first.
Theophylact #145: Anyone who works for Faux News, for a start.
Wait, aren't reactionary lenses the ones that darken when you go out into the sun?
Xopher @ 149
No, reactionary lenses always have a dark view.
Bruce 150: So they see only as in a glass, darkly?
Xopher,
Those are reactionary mirrors.
Wonderful news. Congratulations to Teresa. And good news for the rest of us that she'll keep a role at Tor, so she can continue to polish novels to a gemlike sheen.
Congratulations for the umpteenth time.
Re: "Of course, Teresa will continue to be a consulting editor for Tor Books"
That's good - very good, actually, but I noticed it wasn't:
"continue to be a consulting editor AND co-edit the 'Making Light' blog."
Surely a small oversight?
Yeah, that was an oversight! Yes, absolutely, Teresa isn't leaving this place.
Awww, Patrick, you gave in to that one too easily. With a little manipulation, you two could have cleaned up on bribes, or at least avoided some very interesting fates.
(My contribution? Threat: the exit prize for Making Light moderation is a tribble.)
abi... Am I going to get a chunk of kryptonite for my own moderation attempts?
Serge, if I had one, you would.
We're way down here in a quiet corner at the bottom of the thread, so here's some of the story: for a while there, I was getting all sorts of interesting inquiries and offers. I think we'd reached the moment when lots of businesses and other organizations realized that all this Web 2.0 user-generated-content online community hoohah doesn't work unless you have a moderator -- and almost no one had a business card saying "moderator." Why I wound up where I am will become more evident later on.
I had an odd realization during that period: all the really good moderators I know are connected to the science fiction community. Maybe that'll be our ethnic industry, like Greeks running diners, Koreans running corner groceries, and Russian women doing database backup and storage.
Another bit: remember when I was slagging off a couple of major news organizations for not bothering to moderate their discussion threads, and I mentioned that a top-notch large-board moderators of my acquaintance was available? The news organization that contacted me wasn't one of the ones I'd been writing about, and I wasn't the moderator in question. Don't feel obliged to state your conclusion when it occurs to you.
The most frustrating thing about that particular episode was that Linkmeister's uncle turned out to be acquainted with the person who contacted me, and I couldn't say so when we were telling the Linkmeister story. But it's true: there were even more coincidences than we reported at the time.
Thanks, Teresa. I guess I'd better stop comparing myself to General Zod then, in case some lead-wrapped package shows up in my mailbox.
So this all goes back to Linkmeister, once again. There is even more to this gent from Hawaii than I had thought.
Teresa @158:
I had an odd realization during that period: all the really good moderators I know are connected to the science fiction community.
I wonder why?
Two possible theories, off the top of my head (not much more than the top is rising above the moving boxes).
1. A significant proportion of SF fandom has been online longer than a significant proportion of other groups. So we've simply had longer for natural selection and survival of the fittest to breed communities and moderators that work.
2. A significant proportion of fandom goes to conventions, and has a shared mental model of what a long discussion on a given topic* should look like. Both the successful con panels and the failures go to build a communal Platonic ideal of a discussion. This allows moderators to focus on steering communities into that mode, without having to be distracted by inventing the goal as they head for it.
You'll note that both of these theories are about the evolution of the communities as well as the moderators. I admit that this may be like Suetonius' assertion that historians are as important as the doers of great deeds** - the observer taking credit for the acts of others.
-----
* or off of it, if the digressions are amusing enough.
** because historians preserve the memory of heroes beyond their lifespans
Abi, #160: "A significant proportion of SF fandom has been online longer than a significant proportion of other groups. So we've simply had longer for natural selection and survival of the fittest to breed communities and moderators that work."
True enough. But I think it's really because SF fandom was instantiating the internet decades before it rode over the wires in IP packets. We know a lot about virtual community. When Teresa and I first met, we were sheets of mimeo paper in a monthly apa mailing.
abi:
Those are good insights, I think.
I'm not sure what other communities have long online experience, but I would not be surprised if certain other RL communities with a long history of consensus-oriented decision making and operations, like the Friends or American Buddhist communities, were also to turn out good moderators.
Serge @ #159, "There is even more to this gent from Hawaii than I had thought."
You're ascribing more influence to me than I've got. This is the first I've heard of that little detour, too.
Linkmeister, you don't have to KNOW you're a coincidence magnet to BE one.
Congrats on your new position, Teresa, but count me among the people who hope you're still working on "The Troll Whisperer" or whatever your online civility book is called. The world *needs* it!
Xopher @ #164, would now be a good time for that theremin to be turned on?
Linkmeister @166
would now be a good time for that theremin to be turned on?
What turns on a theremin? Another, slightly shorter theremin?
Patrick @161
When Teresa and I first met, we were sheets of mimeo paper in a monthly apa mailing.
Well, I know you were thin, but I had no idea you were actually mimeo paper.
That's cool.
abi @ #167, nah. Tall slender harps.
I don't know, Linkmeister. I think my Theremin wouldn't mind rubbing its pitch antenna against another pitch antenna...but only if they were both upright.
Oooo! May I cast my vote now for the title to be "The Troll Whisperer"? That will keep me giggling all night!
The theremin, the theremin,
it reads yer thoughts, ye know it c'n,
with godly powers past owr ken,
that strange devyce, the theremin.
Bwahaha.
Slainte, Teresa!
abi (#160): Interesting thoughts, indeed. One bit -- to build a communal Platonic ideal of a discussion -- makes me think of Teresa in charge of classical Greeks in discourse, disemvoweling Socrates or one of the others for impoliteness. And if anyone gave away details from one of Plato's works before publication, those would promptly get translated into gibberish!
Congratulations, Teresa!
Does this mean you're *not* doing the moderation book?
Michael, I sure hope she's still doing the book. I thought that was the s00per-seekrit project, under a cone of silence until the contract was signed. Of course, I was wrong.
Oh, and Teresa, congratulations!
I actually am bummed that Teresa is not running for President of the USA as some people had originally suggested. I was all set to make bumper stickers...
"Making Light... for America!"
abi @ 167
Notice that the antennae on either end of a classical theremin are different shapes, one a ring (not necessarily circular) and the other a rod. This makes theremins hermaphroditic, so I don't think they're turned on by physical dimorphism as much as humans are. I suspect it's the sound that gets them.
Patrick @ 161
I think that's a large part of the reason*. There is another, I think, that dates from a little later: since the late '60s, at least, fandom has diversified considerably in the backgrounds and personalities of the fans. Many SF communities are much more diverse than most interest groups, and so have had to work harder and learn more to develop reliable ways of attaining consensus, or risk even more spectacular ways of melting down.
* It's scary to think that fandom is older than I am (though not by a lot).
I thought it was clear that what turned on a theremin was an Ondes Martenot.
I heard (and saw) a theremin be played last night, at the Auckland International film festival. There was a live score played for the silent film Cat and the Canary. When the ghost/monster came on the screen the whole audience craned over to watch the theremin player instead of the screen.
Belated congratulations, Teresa!
Look carefully at your dental benefits from both Tor and FM, dental benefits are (or were when I managed this trick) based on calendar year. So you may be able to double-dip for this year (assuming you can get an appointment(s) before your Tor insurance runs out). No guarantee, the loophole may have been bricked in, but worth looking into.
As I believe Teresa said upthread, she's still working on a book on the subject. This question is also answered at our calling-card home page, which really truly honestly does get updated, if not instantaneously in all circumstances.
Teresa #158: There's another obvious reason why the really good moderators you know are connected to the science fiction community: a disproportionate number of all the people you know are connected to the science fiction community.
129: The parenthetical seems to have slipped. Wasn't it supposed to be "but there's always a place for an agile, knowledgeable boutique operation staffed by (mostly) unmodified Homo sapiens"?
Xopher @ 170:
I think my Theremin wouldn't mind rubbing its pitch antenna against another pitch antenna...but only if they were both upright.
Aren't you worried that Baptists would accuse them of dancing?
Serge @55: I'm assuming that your putative goggles will be used in air; otherwise, you'll need to have your prescription changed, since the index of refraction of the exit medium makes a difference.
(My dad had bifocal SCUBA goggles back in the '70's sometime, and the prescription wasn't quite the same as the one for his normal glasses. He probably had rather an easier time finding someone to make them, though, since he was an optometrist.)
Oh, and to bring this a little more on-topic, congratulations Teresa! May the reach of your awesome moderation powers never grow shorter!
