Recently in Housekeeping Category

As you've probably heard, our Big Cheese Beliefnet Boss, Steve Waldman, is going off to work for the gummint. Read his farewell here. Of course I wish him all the best, but this is a hard goodbye. If you enjoy this blog, thank Steve Waldman, who made it possible. It was he who approached me in the spring of 2006 about starting it. It was he who has supported me in it, financially and otherwise, and who has overseen its growth over three years by literallly 1,000 percent in terms of page views. I can't tell you how much it means to have a boss you can call or e-mail at any time when you have a concern, and who cares enough to get involved to make it right. The last three years have been a great ride for me, and I owe him more than I can repay. Join me in wishing him all the best in his new Washington job, and in making Beliefnet possible.

::::::beat:::::::::::beat::::::::

OK, dudes, Dad's gone now. Let's party!

A lot of controversial things are said on this blog, both by its author and by various commenters on all sides of any given issue. But sometimes people (again, on all sides) are too quick to impute the worst motives to others with whom they disagree. This makes for unpleasant reading, and inhibits conversation. I don't want to discourage dissent here, but I do want to encourage everyone to resist the urge to assume the worst about others as you're composing your response. Speaking for myself, much of the time I float ideas or notions about which I'm merely curious, to see what others think, and in turn to have my thinking on the topic shaped by what people here say. I don't know everything, and don't pretend to. I don't know most things, and don't pretend to. But I am curious about a lot of things, and I know many of you readers are too. It's no fun if people feel inhibited about voicing their curiosities, their doubts and their tentative conclusions out of fear of someone jumping down their throats. Again, that discourages conversation.

It would help if readers approached this blog not as an ideological battlefield, where you are obliged to beat the crap out of those who disagree with you, but rather as an opportunity to convince those who disagree that they're wrong. It would also help if readers approached this blog as an opportunity to have their own minds opened to some things they'd never considered. I, for example, have learned a lot about transgenderism from celtic dragon critter; I can't say that I understand transgenderism, but i have experienced through this blog the reality that there is an actual person there, a likable person, not an abstraction, and I like being in dialogue. I think that's a good thing, and I want to encourage both myself and you to incline more to that attitude.

I know that we will have heated exchanges here in the future. It's inevitable, and a blog that contained no controversy would be dull. Once again, let me underline that I don't want you readers to be shy about dissenting from me or from each other. Still, if we all came at this blog seeing it not as an opportunity to kick each other's butts, but as a jumping-off point for civil discussion and vigorous but respectful argument, we'd all have more fun here.

Apparently a number of comments have disappeared late this evening. No idea what this is about. If they aren't restored by morning, I'll alert the web gremlins at Bnet. Sorry for the inconvenience. To the best of my knowledge, no one has taken them down on purpose.

I'm having a bit of a conundrum. It has to do with something I'd like to post; rather than make an arbitrary decision I thought I'd open up the question, and have people vote on it.

Geoff G., a regular reader and commenter here, sent me details and links to a very interesting story late last night. I planned on posting about this story this afternoon, because I think it has a lot of potential ramifications, and I'd still like to post about it. Here's the thing: tangentially, it touches on the subject of gay marriage. That's not the focus of the story, though--it's actually about an "Eightmaps" style effort, but with an unusual twist that gay activists might not be all that happy about.

But with the New Hampshire news yesterday, and this morning's Catholic Charities in England development that tied in really well to the discussion of religious liberty and the New Hampshire decision, I've already posted twice in the last twenty-four hours on the topic of gay marriage. I don't want to create any burnout on the subject, and I don't want people to think that issue is the only one I care about (believe me, no)--yet this story is really more about privacy rights and unintended consequences than about gay marriage per se.

So, let's take a vote. Would you like me to:

A. Go ahead and post on the story today, because privacy rights issues are important;

B. Post on it, but hold the post until tomorrow to put some space between this story and the two recent gay marriage posts; or

C. Don't post on it--no matter how interesting it might be, we're done talking about anything even remotely tangential to gay marriage this week.

Sorry this isn't an interactive poll or anything--but let me know what you think!

A couple of you have had the "Comment Held" message when you try to post; regulars here know that it's not usually that you've written anything that crossed any sort of line, but the automated spam filter picking up on something in your post and putting it aside for approval--or putting it directly in the spam folder.

Usually, if you let me know about it in the comments, I'll go look for your comment as soon as possible--but I'm obviously not here all the time, and there's the additional issue that sometimes a "Comment Held" message will pop up on your next comment as well, etc.

So if you need to, you can reach me at the following address: erin_manning@ymail.com (with an underscore, not a dash). I've set that one up just for this blog, and will check it regularly during my time hosting here.

UPDATE: A correction: I'm told by someone here at Beliefnet that comments which get held don't disappear, but will stay in the folder until someone frees them (except for actual spam and duplicate comments). You can use the email Community@beliefnetstaff.com to let someone know your comment is being held, as well.