HOUSEKEEPING

Please allow me a moment to address an interesting proposal I have received, since it offers me an opportunity to share my thoughts.

I do not accept ‘guest blog’ essays on this site. This is mostly a matter of my not having the time to do the housekeeping of reviewing blogs for style and grammar (I would never censor or ‘demand changes’).

But I very much support the idea of interested persons starting their own blogs on SO matters.

To any persons interested in that, I have a two-step suggestion: First, use the Blogger or Blogspot host that I use to start your own blog. This host is free and has a very simple and well-explained start-up procedure that you can accomplish in a few minutes; nor do you have to be a computer whiz to do so.

Second, advise your local RSOL (Reform Sex Offender Laws) site and they can consider listing your new blog on their site as a blog worth reading for SO matters.

Also, I am very happy to accept Comments to any of my Posts and will try to respond to any interesting issues that such a Comment might raise. I do not ‘edit’ Comments to suit my taste or views. I am very interested in generating further thought on any matter I Post about, and I am not interested only in Comments that ‘agree’ with my thoughts. The SO community will be best served by substantive exchanges that any reader can consider as a catalyst for further thought or action.

I am not particularly responsive to the usual blog one-liner responses that are so often encountered on the Web: for example ‘Gee this is really great’ or ‘This is a terrible thing to say and you should burn in a deep dark place’.

But if there are any thoughts – in agreement or disagreement – that a reader might wish to send along as a Comment, I will Post them and respond with a further Comment of my own. My responsibility, as I see it, is to put up Posts that help stimulate thought, and to allow any Comments that expand the conversation on any points I raise in the Posts.

We are all part of a community with a great and vital responsibility, I think. I want to do whatever I can within the parameters of my site to support and further the Conversation.

As LBJ used to say: “Let us continyuh!”