Gentle Reader…

Some issues that have cropped up that require brief address…

• Comment Problems

If there are problems in the comments, as with the recent apparent decision to land every conceivably restrictive word in the “pending” folder, it’s best to hit me with an e-mail right away at the address on the left sidebar. Please make sure to include an accurate username, because Disqus can be a bear with respect to searching for lost comments. The comments here come so quick and get updated so rapidly that complaints that are lodged in comment threads often disappear to quickly for us to address them.

• Unwanted ads

Similarly, if you notice any other problems (as for example the pop up ads that suddenly appeared last week), it’s best to e-mail rather than to mention in comments, except insofar as you’re trying to figure out whether you’re alone in the world as opposed to sharing some small bit of your existence with a community, however fragmented. It is not our policy to introduce new ads without mentioning it, and thus if something new and weird is happening it’s probably unintentional and we need to know about it. In point of fact the problem last week was created when “Do No Evil” Google decided to experiment with a new set of ads, and only inform us three days into the experiment.

• Wanted ads

That said, you can expect to see some new, hopefully mostly unobtrusive ads in the comment threads in the next week or so. These will be through Disqus, and so hopefully won’t introduce any hideous counter-functionality. The reasoning for this is as it ever is; people can make money writing on the internets, and consequently would like to be paid for writing on the internets.

• Podcast Transcripts

We are extremely happy with how our podcast series is working out, and we have some very fun podcasts lined up in the near future. Some folks have inquired about transcripts, and we’ve begun to look into options. Our early forays have not been promising; at some point I may post both the “free” and “premium” versions of an automatically generated transcript from a recent podcast just for the hilarity. The LGM Community is accustomed to a level of intense quality assurance…. hahahaha but anyway you can imagine how bad it was if even we’re not willing to sign on.