We were bloggers once
For a while, the internet had a lot of places for long-form public writing: forums, listservs, blogs. A lot of these conversations have moved to social media, centralized in corporate platforms and atomized through the replacement of communal spaces with algorithmic curation of individuals. Blogging still exists, but it’s not where the conversation lives.
The purpose of this site is to provide a public, semi-open space to post longer writing than fits on Twitter or Discord. I’m most active on the Ranged Touch Discord community, so I expect a lot of overlap in users and in topics, particularly media, games, theory, and fandom. That’s by no means a hard rule though; the space is open to writing from most anyone on most any topic.
If you’d like to post here, please read over the guidelines below, then fill out the Contributor Signup form.
Site Content Guidelines
The point of these guidelines is not to police, or to create a system of rules to be manipulated. The intention is to set community standards, which are upheld subjectively based on the spirit of the rules. If you do something that doesn’t explicitly violate these guidelines but that we find bad, we will delete it and potentially remove you from the server.
- Post in good faith. Don’t insult or personally attack anyone, don’t intentionally pick fights, don’t respond ironically to a bad situation.
- Consider your tone. Online communication is slow and lacks nonverbal information. This can contribute to misunderstandings. Sarcasm and irony are not universal, so try to signal your earnest opinion where possible, and consider restructuring your post if it seems unclear.
- Don’t post just to “dunk.” If your post is primarily about performing or eliciting negative feelings, this isn’t the place for it. It’s a very common online behavior, but it’s self-sustaining and adds very little to a community. Posts that are critical of a subject are allowed, just make sure you have something to say other than “this sucks.”
- Oppressive speech is not allowed. This includes racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and any other form of discourse that denies the humanity of another person. We all have blind spots and it’s okay to mess up, but if that happens your priority should be to restore the situation. If you double down, we will remove your account.
- Post as safely as possible. Don’t post flashing images or videos or very loud audio. Don’t post anything radically NSFW like pornography. If your post deals with difficult or triggering topics, flag that early for the reader, with an explicit content warning or in plain language.
- Prioritize privacy. If you want to post about a private conversation or experience with another person, get their explicit consent beforehand. This includes online communication, and semi-private spaces like Discord servers. When in doubt, always get consent.