From: ddrewc@verizonSPAMBEGONE.net   
      
   On 2007-05-08 2:01 p.m., Joseph Nebus verbated:   
   > 	I know that the episode summaries I write are pretty well   
   > appreciated and relied upon, and I'm happy to do them as long as they   
   > are wanted.  (That's not to suggest I wouldn't mind passing off some   
   > days of the week or weeks of the month to volunteers, mind you; it is   
   > really nice on rerun weeks to just sit and watch the show for a change.)   
      
   I suppose I could fill in on occasion, although that's contingent on my   
   remembering to schedule my PC to record the show. Also keep in mind that my   
   turnaround time isn't the greatest.   
      
   > 	But what I really want is for them to serve as a basis for more   
   > and more varied conversation around here, and they don't on average get   
   > much of that.  I realize that's partly because after I've written down   
   > three-quarters of the lines of the show there isn't much else to say,   
   > except when I get something important wrong, but then the question will   
   > remain: how can I change the summary-writing to inspire more conversation?   
   >   
      
   Not to be overly argumentative, but I don't think that the lack of   
   conversation is the worst thing in the world. It would be nice to have a   
   little more give-and-take here, sure. But I'm not going to remark on things   
   just to fill space. (Uh... is that what I just did? OK, I take that back.)   
      
   The best way to increase the amount of conversation, in my opinion, is for   
   more and more varied Conan fans to visit this newsgroup. Unfortunately,   
   Usenet discussion in general is not what it used to be, for sundry reasons   
   such as the rise of spam and Web-based forums.   
      
   > 	It's occurred to me that having daily blocks of 170-line posts are   
   > more than a bit intimidating and it might help to post, say, separate   
   > pieces for the Conologue, Comedy Bits, and Guests, so that each of the   
   > segments is easier to read and requires less trimming to respond to just   
   > a segment of.  Would that be a useful modification on how I do things?   
      
   I doubt it would inspire me to contribute more, but I've never been much of   
   a chatterbox anyway. I see your point about the length of the summaries   
   being unwieldy -- unless I missed the show, I usually race through a   
   summary in a matter of seconds without comprehending much of it. I suppose   
   it would be worth a try to subdivide your summaries into separate posts.   
   Maybe you could keep them in the same thread by replying to your own posts.   
      
   >   
   > 	If not, what would be?   
   >   
   Another suggestion: use smaller paragraphs in your summaries. Although it   
   increases the number of lines to read, it actually makes for faster   
   speed-reading, and it also makes it easier to lift a passage to quote in   
   response.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)