Over the several months that I’ve been running this blog, I have had occasional requests to put up posts about one thing or another. Generally, I’ve not been open to these things, even when I was somewhat sympathetic to the writer’s point of view; my position has generally been that the writers have the ability to leave comments after every post, and that this served the same function as letters to the editor did in a newspaper. I’ve been willing to allow, within reason, the occasional off-topic comment largely because I’ve not provided another mechanism to post thoughts on new topics.
Today I received an email that made me rethink this a little bit — it was a request that I post something about a public service event that he was planning. Thinking about this a bit, I realized that it was in fact the kind of thing that I would like to put up if I had noticed it, if I had the time, and especially if I had a few things that I could put into a single post. Thus, starting tomorrow at the earliest, I will at least intend to put up a post containing public service announcements, or PSAs. By PSA, I mean a note regarding activities of non-profit and charitable groups (including government and educational institutions), with notices or reminders of up-coming events, calls for volunteers, requests for input/comment on an event in planning, etc. Announcements will be limited to about 200 words; if you need more space than that please give a link to a web page with more information, or wait until the post goes up and leave a comment. Announcements are subject to editing, and I reserve the right to reject any announcement I consider to be inappropriate. If you don’t manage to get an announcement to me in time to make that week’s post (see note on deadline below), you can of course leave an announcement as a comment. Send your notes to gaithersblog _at_ gaithersblog.net, and please include the word “PSA” in the subject line. Please also make sure to include contact information — the name of a person to contact, an email address, and/or a telephone number.
The second new feature is that I will begin to consider “letters” for publication. Again, to the extent that I have any to publish, these will only be published at most once per week, in a separate “letters” post. Understand that, since readers have the ability to comment on every post I put up, I am thinking here more of standalone essays conveying the writer’s opinion on a particular topic, as opposed to a reaction to a particular post or comment.
To be considered for publication, a letter must be sent to me by and attributable to the author, must be original, and must not have been published elsewhere (I have limited ability to verify these things, but I will reject or pull from the blog anything that I find to have violated any of these rules). Also, the letter must be relevant to Gaithersburg, and must not be something that I feel would have been more appropriate as a comment in an earlier post. I am not setting a specific limit on the length of a letter, but I reserve the right to reject a letter for any reason, including excessive length. Publication of a letter is not and will not be an indication that I agree with or endorse the author’s point of view. Send your letters to gaithersblog _at_ gaithersblog.net, and please include the word “LETTER” in the subject line.
I plan to try to do these posts on Tuesdays, so if you want something (either PSA or letter) included, please try to get it to me by mid-day on Monday; let’s say by 3:00pm.
Letters will be attributed to the author’s first (given) name only or by the “name” typically used to post comments on Gaithersblog. I make no claim to be able to authenticate the identity of any individual and thus, as usual on a blog, the claimed identity of any author should be treated with skepticism.
Persons who submit either a PSA or a letter should understand that this is just a small, personal blog, and is unlikely to ever be able to provide the level of exposure to your announcement or letter that would come from publication in a real newspaper such as the Gazette. However, it is another opportunity to participate in the discussion. Also, please understand that, as I am just one person doing this by myself, I cannot promise that I’ll be able to get to these posts in any given week, or that I will even be able to respond to your request one way or the other.
Both of these features are being adopted on an experimental basis, and may be discontinued at any time at my sole discretion.