Monday, January 21, 2008

Basics

It starts the way it always starts.  You find yourself reading story after story after story.  Site after site, they've all got the news, they've all got some different turn or spin or view.  The different points of view, it's what makes the internet absolutely wonderful but it also makes getting a clear idea as to what's happening and what direction things are going in, amazingly difficult.  

That's where I come in.  Think of me as a news aggregator with some intelligence - more than simple links, more than bare, light, sparse descriptions.  

Some rules:  
1) I'll work with links from a wide variety of sites - stories from Wired, the latest from Mr. Masnick and company at Techdirt, random pages that I find at one in the morning when I've been woken up for the billionth time by my little nephew and my son waking up at the same time for a bottle and some Wonder Pets action.  
2) I won't accept links from certain websites.  I've got a mental blacklist that I'm going by and there's some reasons behind these, more than just ideological in some cases.  I don't want to use links from any NBC associated pages because, in many cases, I know and work with the people who write and research these stories and I don't want to give the appearance of impropriety by linking to them - if it becomes a big story and multiple other sites are referencing it, I'll make an exception and mention it.  Otherwise, if it's from MSNBC's website or any other NBC-created/sponsored/associated/owned-&-operated page, it won't be on here.  I won't use information from any New York Times website, because I believe there is a strong tendency to encourage beliefs, that I quite emphatically disagree with, and I do not wish to encourage them in their pursuits.  
3) I'm a real, flesh-and-blood person, with a family and a job and keys and credit cards, and while I certainly welcome criticism and comments, I will delete anything insulting race, religion, sex, or anything resembling the above catagories.  I believe in freedom of speech, of course - but I also believe in responsible speech.  In addition, if I should miss a comment somewhere and it comes to my attention later on (say I post something, come back three months later and find someone's insulted Baptists in some fashion), I'll delete it.  
4) On the same token, I'm a proud supporter of section 230 of the United States' Communications Decency Act, which provides a "safe harbor" clause - basically, if I ever miss something like I've said above, if that Baptist insult somehow makes its way through, I'm not responsible for what the person said.  I'll make every effort to keep the conversation stimulating and refreshing without being condescending and aggrivating, but remember that I'm not the one at fault for the Baptist insult - the person who wrote and posted it is.  
5) Lastly, I'm going to do what I can to post early and post often - I'm going to try to have something ready for you every morning.  I'm aiming for this because I know I like to read stuff on my Blackberry (and in years past, my Palm III, IIIx, m105, HP iPaq hx2800, and Samsung a930) on the way to work, and online once I get to work.  The aim right now is three to five stories for you in the morning, three more by noon and five more before you head out the door at 5ish.  Believe it or not, this is doable - but please remember that things happen: sometimes I have more time to write than others, and sometimes I don't have time to post at all.  In the event that I don't have time to post, I'll at least give you, my readers, a heads-up beforehand.  

So what do you think so far?  I'm thinking I'm on the right track but the comments section is there for a reason!

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