Welcome. So glad to have you on board!

Welcome to The Seminal!

Cool

Woo Seminal! This will be a hell of a full-disclosure line on my next round of Afghanistan-war-opposition coverage.

Hey everyone! Glad to be here. Though I guess I’m always here, but now in a new capacity. I and my fellow authors are very excited to get started!

so, Oxdown isn’t quitting, it’s just “advancing in a different direction” ??

Welcome Seminal !

Welcome, Seminal.

Jane, does this mean we won’t be able to write diaries?

Yeah, I’m not even sure how I’d go about constructing that one.

I can answer!

Diaries will still work as they do, we’ll just be writing on the front page as well. And we intend to put a lot of diaries on the front page. The diaries are definitely a huge part of the site, and one of the reasons we’re really excited about this project.

OK, thanks. Again, welcome.

Wow. When FDL expanded (for want of a better description) I did not see the possibilities that I am begining to see…..new age indeed.

Welcome~I look forward to learning a lot….

HuffPo goes one way, we trot the other way.

Great idea! And welcome Seminal – and especially the younguns.

nice. These certainly are interesting times we live in….

Great to see everyone progressing the blogs together. Also.

Terrific news!

Jane, what was it about Oxdown that you felt you needed to fix through this move? If you wanted to add the Seminal to the franchise, why not simply as its own tab?

Many involved with the site are still in their twenties, and we are really excited to encourage the participation of a new generation of activists in online political organizing.

So you’re saying that the rest of us are old?

Hmmph. That’s it. No more Wednesday Night Matlock blogging for FDL. How do you like them apples?

Wow what a surprise! Bring on the young whippersnappers! hell I’m in my early forties and these grand old fire dog boomers damn near have me checking myself for acne some days. /s Maybe the new kids will recognize some of my newer music posted in Late Late Night’s.

Speaking of music.. old school cover of Seminole Wind.

Will hyperlinks to Oxdown diaries and comments go cold?

I’m one of the older Seminalians myself (38), and thrilled to be here even if my whippersnapping days may be behind me. I started blogging in 2005 when I desparately needed an outlet to vent my outrage over the Bush administration’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina (among other botchings). Thanks for the welcomes–I’m very excited to be getting started.

How will the old oxdown diaries be archived? I never wrote for the Seminal but I did write for oxdown. If my old diaries remain as oxdown, I have no problems. If they are renamed as seminal entries, I would prefer to have them wiped.

The techies are going to work their magic so that Oxdown diary links will still work.

As a Presbyterian pastor, I’m one of the religious/spiritual voices of The Seminal. I don’t dabble so much in policy details, but focus on the broader issues that shape the socio-political landscape. It’s great to be making the move to FDL!

Sounds great

Too many commercials over at Huff Po for me and too much Hollywood

Sorry for being a bit dim, but I was born that way. “Though Oxdown as a name will not exist after the weekend, the Seminal is not replacing it…” leaves me wondering what the name is supposed to be. Did I miss the memo about this?

Whatever the name, I imagine you’ll be migrating the diaries to the new subdomain.

There appears to be some confusion as to what the name will be.
***********
“This move has been in the works for quite some time, and everyone here is very excited about it. We will be joining the community site currently knows as the Oxdown Gazette (the name after we move over will be The Seminal). “

http://www.theseminal.com/2009…..ke-family/

The Bush Administration botched something? Not in their eyes, they didn’t. Intentional failure was their strategy. They were highly successful at it, leaving the Obama Administration in a lose-lose situation as a result. Rumsfeld’s “Losing On Purpose” strategy in Iraq has accomplished the goal of occupation that they had from the outset.

I know what you meant though, and I’m with you on it. I’m all about revealing their alleged failures, and exposing why, in fact, it was their strategy from the outset – to appear to fail.

Looking forward to the free-flowing exchange of ideas.

Yep, that’s correct.

… and don’t forget the tabloid man-eats-eyeball puppy-through-toilet trash.

Thanks. So, it will be The Seminal in name only. Got it.

very fair points. reminds me of something I read in the 80s about one of the Reagan admin’s goals being to run up such huge deficits and generally give government such a bad name that their successors would be forced to massively cut programs.

Welcome to The Seminal. I look forward to reading the work of this new group of writers.

Welcome!

Hey guys — it will be interesting to see how this part of FDL evolves…always good to have some hybrid vigar in the mix.

Some issues that had formerly been avoided by the most heavy hitting bloggers here at FDL opened up with birth of Oxdown. Will any topics be “off topic” with this switch?

So now when I click on “write a diary” I get a blank page and my browser says, “Done”. The URL it leaves me at is:

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/post

Further, the latest posts I am seeing are dated 7/7. I am confused.

My confusion grows as I try to find Oxdown at its old address and still wind up here. Am I to conclude that Oxdown really won’t exist through the weekend?

Must be some hiccups. Just tapped write a diary at the Seminal and went to a blank page. Tried again..same thing. blank page

Okay, so Leen has the same experience. I’m guessing it’s general then. I have to say that a post explaining how the sites would operate/not operate during the transition would have been polite, thoughtful and/or courteous.

Another question

I have often been curious as to who, why certain issues or people are placed on the main screen of Oxdown///now Seminal. Who chooses what goes up on that box. The screener at Oxdwon/Seminal? Jason and Greg have you all ready been involved here at Oxdown?

I have noticed that a blog that a participant has placed at Oxdown and has a flow of folks commenting may not make it to the box. What is the criteria for what gets placed there?

Is it up to the discretion or biases of the screener?

Well. Go to ICU with hubby and all “new” breaks out… welcome Seminalfolk.

I’m a mite distracted right now, trying to muster the creative energy to blog about the urgency of “Patient First” in healthcare reform. I may not get it done, so I implore all of you to make some noise about the importance of the Senators going out and talking to real live patients and their families and their doctors and clinics and hospitals about how health care can work…if we have the will.

The folks here at Mayo in Rochester get it right.

Step away from the lobbyists and the cronies and the charts and graphs, Kent and Max…you know what needs to be done…don’t be wusses, have the will to do it.

~ Sandy Huseby…for my husband and our family and all the families I see here day by day.

Nope, we’ll take things on a case by case basis, not looking to proscribe what issues folks talk about.

And we’re working on fixing the diaries…these moves are complex!

The box in the middle of the page (called Seminal Reader Wire) is a box for recommended diaries, so pieces who get enough votes from the community are listed there.

Now, sometimes the FDL overlords (heh) front page a post, causing lots of comments. That might not be a recommended post. Explains the issue?

get it “overlords” Was basically asking about what has all ready taken place at Oxdown and if you and Greg have all ready been decision makers at Oxdown. How Seminal will be choosing what makes it or does not make it into box.

My question
Will the “overlords” be the same for Seminal that have been choosing for Oxdown? Are they the same folks?

Thanks

Still blank. Jason and Greg if you guys are looking for a story that is not being touched by the MSM not much even on the so called progressive blogs is George Galloway’s convoy trying to get into the Gaza right now being stopped at the border in Egypt.

Viva Palestina activists stranded on Gaza border
Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:36:52 GMT
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British lawmaker George Galloway (C) talks to members of the eclectic group of US activists.
Less than a week after a Free Gaza ship carrying humanitarian aid was seized by the Israelis before it could reach Gaza, a group of US citizens is in Egypt awaiting permission to enter the Gaza Strip with more aid.

At least 100 US activists, said to be carrying $1 million worth of medical supplies for the suffering Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, have been stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing since Sunday, waiting for the Zionist regime to grant them permission to enter the besieged territory.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.a…..d=35102020
———————————————————-
Know you are busy making the switch

I haven’t been involved in Oxdown administration, no. So, I, along with my team, will be involved in what goes on the front page, but the box Seminal Reader Wire will still be completely controlled by the community based on recommends for diaries, not by any administrators.

So, new folks.

And we’re still working on the diary fix, but that story has not been getting any MSM notice, and should.

Ooooooo, smart people and their smarty pants sciencey ideas! Probly don’t bleev in creashun!

Welcome smarty pants!

I kid, I love the smarties! Cheers!

I’m sorry, but I have to enter a word of discontent.

I don’t welcome a bunch of “new voices,” just like I pretty much don’t welcome the endless Oxdown diaries. And I tired some time ago of the ever-expanding number of “buttons” at the top.

I come here to listen to some people I know & respect. If I wanted endless diaries, I’d go to the Great Orange Satan.

I’d prefer FDL to be more like Hullabaloo and less like Huffington.

I’ll now go back to my cave.