Good Morning!

Well, the long weekend sure threw me for a loop! Definitely going to have to spend some time today setting up the daily journal articles to publish themselves each day. When Newsvine announces that they've developed software that will write for us based upon reading our minds and knowing our intentions, all my problems will be solved. Except for the problem of the guy sitting behind me at Starbucks who seems insistent upon wiggling about in his chair so that it bumps into mine. The only solution for this is a sharp look.

Anyway, though I haven't been updating my own word counts, I am writing, though it's been a great deal of rewriting and moving and reviewing and line edits and other maintenance issues. Though this kind of work is incredibly worthy and productive, I've also found that in use it as an excuse to procrastinate the new writing that needs to be done. This is the week for me to start pressing forward.

Today in your journal, work on place. Pick a place from your current story and really see it. Move yourself around the room. See it from up high, down low, every corner. From the outside looking in, and the inside looking out. What takes your attention now that wasn't before? How does the place affect the people in it, and what they're doing? Look at the objects in the place--which are characteristic of the place and the people in it? Which objects are you just now noticing, for whatever reason? How are the objects in the place moving the story along?

Use this sense of place as a springboard for movement.

Yikes! I missed posting a journal exercise yesterday because I was busy with other stuff. Fortunately, that other stuff was my regular paid writing gig--a weekly column for my local paper.

Anyway, you're all doing great so far!

Today, try writing dialogue only in your journal. I often get practice writing dialogue by heading to a coffee shop or restaurant and eavesdropping on those sitting near me, so you can try that. But work on a scene or moment that is almost entirely dialogue. See if you can make sure that you're reader can differentiate between each person speaking without having to add "so-and-so said."

If you can do it without being too obvious, try to work some gestures in as well--how are the people moving or holding their bodies during the conversation?

Good Morning Writers!

Today, whip open your journal and write about what you're noticing about your writing process. Where do you write best? What time of day or night works best for you? Do you need a messy desk or clean? Do you dive right in to the work or do you need to warm up, or think/ponder about it a bit first?

Start paying attention to what's happening in your mind when the writing is coming the easiest and is working the best. I get really anxious, physically and emotionally, and my mind feels very busy when something good is about to hit. And I've learned not to ignore those sensations, and to get my butt down in front of my notebook or computer.

Just write about process--whatever that means for you.

Summer Writing Challenge Links:

Newsvine Summer Writer's Club (group page)

Challenge: Newsvine Summer Writer's Club

Summer Writing Challenge: Ramping Up

Summer Writing Club: Challenge Eve

Summer Writing Challenge: 5/23/11 Journal Warm-Up and Word Count

Summer Writing Challenge: 5/24/11 Journal Warm-Up and Word Count

Summer Writing Challenge: 5/25/11 Journal Warm-Up and Word Count

Good Morning!

Today, open up your journal and start making a list of verbs, and have the story you've been working on in your head as you do so. Keep pushing for more and more active verbs, and try to see something in  your mind for each as you go.

If you see something that catches you, go ahead and stop your list and journal briefly on what you're seeing. If that takes hold, go with it for a bit. If not, return to your list of verbs. Don't just madly and blindly create this list, though. Be sure to take just a moment to see something in your mind for each verb.

Was alerted by Scott Butki that I haven't posted my own word counts yet since the challenge started! I will do that later today.

Summer Writing Challenge Links:

Newsvine Summer Writer's Club (group page)

Challenge: Newsvine Summer Writer's Club

Summer Writing Challenge: Ramping Up

Summer Writing Club: Challenge Eve

Summer Writing Challenge: 5/23/11 Journal Warm-Up and Word Count

Summer Writing Challenge: 5/34/11 Journal Warm-Up and Word Count

Whip that journal open to a fresh page, people! It's time to write!

Write for 15 minutes about the things you won't write. The topics that make you uncomfortable just thinking about, let alone writing about, even though you're finding yourself constantly drawn towards bringing them to the page. What makes you cringe? What makes you too sad?

And include your word count below once you're finished.

Summer Writing Challenge Links:

Newsvine Summer Writer's Club (group page)

Challenge: Newsvine Summer Writer's Club

Summer Writing Challenge: Ramping Up

Summer Writing Club: Challenge Eve

Summer Writing Challenge: 5/23/11 Journal Warm-Up and Word Count

Hello all,

Below, please post your word count for the day.

If you'd like to warm up to the writing in your journal, try this (also helpful if you're not quite sure yet what you're going to work on for the challenge):

"I remember"

Open up your journal and write "I remember," then write about the first memory that comes to mind, regardless of what it is or how long it is. Once you've finished with that memory, start again. "I remember," and the next memory. You can be as lengthy or pithy as you like. You may end up writing several pages about the first memory, or an entire list of one-line memories. Whatever works.

Write for at least ten minutes before moving on to your daily 500 (or more) words.

Feel free to post your journal entry as a comment below, or as an article of your own.

Hey all.

I'm thinking that one thread containing every daily word count total will very quickly become unwieldy.

Instead of that, I will post one article each morning that contains a journal "warm-up assignment." And in the comments of that daily article, you may post your word count, as well as an excerpt of your day's work, or whatever you wrote for your warm-up. You can solicit input or advice if you wish, or post a link to an article of your own if you're choosing to post your work each day.

Some advice: Tonight, and each night during this challenge, take a few moments to plan what you're going to work on the next day. And decide what time you're going to get your butt off the internet and focus on the writing. I get up around 6 each day (I'm an early-riser against my own will--it just happens), walk my dogs for an hour or more, come home and feed them and myself and my kids, do a little bit of housework, then head down to my desk, so I'm writing by 9 a.m. at the latest.

Once it's time to write (whatever time is best for you), do whatever you can to remove distractions. Turn off the phone. Disconnect yourself from the internet. Make note each day of the things that distract you so that you can eliminate them the next day.

However you work this challenge is entirely up to you. Set yourself a goal and push yourself to reach it. Don't compare your own 500 words to someone else's 2000 words. Allow what others are doing to inspire and motivate you--not discourage you. If you miss a day, don't give up. Get up the next day and push to 1000.

You can do it.

This is Parker, whom we adopted from the local humane society this week. To get pictures, I mostly had to walk fast around the house with him following me, holding the camera down by my knees. But he stood still a couple times. I definitely need to get him out in natural light to take pictures, because the flash shines off his fur.

Supposedly a lab/chow mix, but his two brothers who were also in the shelter had completely different fur. So who knows. He's adorable and sweet and loving. And is lying at my feet as I type.

Later today, I'll be picking up a new member of the family: Parker.

On Saturday, my daughter and I poked in to the Hinsdale Humane Society to check out the dogs (and kittens--lots of 'em--it's kitten season!), and fell in love with Parker here, who had been transferred from an overcrowded shelter downstate Illinois. We fell in love. He's a Lab-Chow mix. He's got this great lab face and fuzzy chow hair.

We returned on Sunday and took him for a walk behind the building, and it wasn't so much a walk as a "hop." He bounded about everywhere just like a puppy who's been confined to a cage for the first few months of his life should. He's definitely going to need some work (not housetrained yet! Likes to counter-surf!), but we're so excited to have him join our family.

Got to bring our 2 1/2 year old Border Collie to meet Parker, and after a little curious sniffing and a "get off my butt, puppy" yip, Finley started picking up toys and bringing them to Parker. Hilariously cute. Then they discovered a pull toy. Finley picked it up in his mouth, waved it around in Parker's face, who grabbed it, and they played tug-of-war. Which was great, since apparently Parker hadn't yet got the concept when humans tried to tug with him.

We adopted Parker yesterday afternoon, and will be picking him up from the vet after his neutering surgery later today. Can't wait.

We've got some eager participants, and certainly hoping for more. Feel free to join us. Here's the original Challenge article, if you haven't read it yet.

To clarify:

1. This isn't a contest, just a challenge. And less about me challenging you than it is about you challenging yourself.

2. Starting May 23rd, you will write a minimum of 500 words/day on whatever your little heart desires: a novel, short-story collection, creative non-fiction, whatever. Challenge ends on September 20th, at which time you will have at least 60,000 words in a row that make story. That's novel-length, people.

3. Each day, you'll post your word count and maybe say a little something about your process. You'll encourage other participants who may be struggling, and cheering those who are having good days.

4. If you like, you may post excerpts of the day's work, or the whole 500+ words. That's entirely up to you. You may want to excerpt a paragraph you're really proud of and include that in your word-count post, or you may want to post it as an article itself (like Tyler has begun to do already, getting prepared to start the Challenge). However you want to work it.

5. Along the way, I'll post daily journal exercises to get the blood flowing. These are entirely optional, and you can do them offline in your notebook, or on Newsvine as an article. Nothing you need spend a great deal of time on, but I always journal a little to get the rust out before I sit down to do the "work." And usually journal a little when I'm done with the "work" to reflect on where the story is going, to get ready for the next day.

6. As we go, we'll talk about the roadblocks we come across and help each other over them. We'll talk about story structure and scene, how to put it all together, how to find the end, and much, much more.

7. If you'd like, put up an article detailing your project/story idea/novel idea prior to the starting date of May 23rd, or go ahead and leave it in a comment below.

8. Try preparing yourself by journaling about your project ideas. You can sit and stare and think all you want, but it's going to be far more beneficial to write down your thoughts.

There's no prize at the end except for the big stack of pages you're going to have, and a tremendous sense of accomplishment. If you write every day, you will get better and better. Don't worry about quality at first--just get the words down and start moving through the story.

As I mentioned in a comment on the Challenge article, we'll then perhaps move into an Autumn Rewriting Club, then a Winter Submission Club, then a Spring Rejection Letter/Acceptance Letter Club. We'll see how it goes.

If you have any questions, please include them below.

So, my friend and colleague at Columbia College in Chicago, Sam Weller (author of The Bradbury Chronicles, the biography of Ray Bradbury, and Listen to the Echoes, a collection of Sam's interviews with Bradbury for the book, as well as the editor, with Mort Castle of an upcoming collection of stories inspired by Ray Bradbury), challenged a bunch of his friends and cohorts to write a novel last summer, and again this summer. Though I completely failed last summer, I'm already off to a running start as of today. And who could ignore a challenge from someone with Sam's list of accomplishments?

500 words per day, every day, starting today, May 16th.

I thought it might be cool to challenge my Newsvine friends and cohorts to join in. I've created the Newsvine Summer Writer's Club for this purpose.

Here's the challenge: 500 words per day, starting May 23rd and running through September 20th. If you do it, just two double-spaced pages per day, you'll have 60,000 words strung together in a row. That's a novel. That's a short story collection. That's a great collection of essays.

It won't be perfect (unless it is, in which case, I'll be very jealous). But it will be DONE.

Along the way, we will update each other on our word count for the day (I'll put up an article for that purpose, and we'll just add to the thread). We'll encourage each other, discuss issues, problems, triumphs, share advice and excerpts of the day's work (if you'd like to--not required). It'll be awesome.

It can be anything: a novel, a collection of short stories, an essay collection, a creative non-fiction novel-length work. Whatever.

500 words is nothing. Up to that period right there, I'm already more than halfway. Boom. Done. 500 words per day.

Who's in?

If you're interested in participating, leave me a comment. Join the group. You've got one week to decide what you're going to work on. Dust off that novel-in-progress that's been yellowing in your filing cabinet. Get started on that great idea that's been poking you in the back of the head.

The writing begins in one week.

This thread is for general questions regarding the use of Newsvine. Newsvine Guides lauhal, Red Wolf, Rottlady and myself will be tracking the thread and will provide answers where possible.

Previous Ask the Guides threads are here and here. You may find the discussions in those threads useful, informative or entertaining.

Any and all questions are permitted here, within the Code of Honor of course, though we may have to at times ask you to submit bug report directly to the tech team if we're unable to provide an answer for technical problems you may be experiencing.

Please feel free to direct other users who seem to be having issues using the site to this thread so we might help them.

If you're uncomfortable asking a question publicly in this thread, feel free to email me directly at victoria@newsvine.com, contact one of the other Guides via their Contact the Author button on their columns, or to use the Contact form.

Thanks.

This by no means applies to all group owners and admins. Some do a very good job of keeping their groups on-topic--free of articles and seeds that have nothing to do with the group purpose.

Many do not.

The complaints about group spamming are increasing. There are lots of users who do not take the responsibility of proper categorization, which includes posting to groups, seriously. They either don't know what the purpose is of the groups they belong to, or they don't care, and just spam their content to every group to which they belong, in the hopes of getting more attention. That's spamming. And it's more than merely annoying.

We've had articles asking users to stop spamming groups. Didn't help. We've had articles talking about proper categorization. Hasn't helped. Groups continue to be spammed.

I see articles and seeds posted to 10, 20 groups. That's too many. Political articles posted to groups about race and ethnicity, when the article has nothing to do with race or ethnicity.

This group spamming habit, this self-promotional crap, destroys groups.

Unfortunately, we can't solve the problem of group spamming just by exhorting users who do it to stop doing it. We should be able to, but we can't. Who we really should be pointing the finger at is group owners and administrators, whose job it is to keep their groups on-topic.

I'm charging you, group owners and administrators, to start paying attention to your groups. If you have too many and can't monitor their content, find someone who can, let me know, and I'll transfer ownership for you. It is your responsibility as a group owner, and/or as a designated group admin, to maintain the group properly.

Dump content that doesn't belong. Boot users who repeatedly spam your group. If you can't or won't do it, you shouldn't have the privilege of owning a group.

Group members who see content that doesn't belong in your groups--you should be contacting the group administrators and asking them to remove it. Post a comment on a group thread of an article that doesn't belong in the group and say "Hey, this article about Obama's smoking habit doesn't belong in Rightwingnutjobs. Please edit and remove it from the group. Thank you."

We may, in the future, have to start taking a stronger stance on this issue, by going in and dumping relentless group spammers from the groups they're spamming. Or even by removing the ownership of the groups, perhaps going so far as to just delete the group entirely.

Group ownership should be viewed as a privilege, not a right.

And as for you group spammers: cut it out. Start paying attention to the guidelines of the groups to which you belong. If you belong to so many that you can't keep track of what the purpose of those groups is, then you need to remove yourself from the group.

I'm a little embarrassed that it's been nearly a year since we put up an Ask the Guides thread. Here was the first.

Rather than attempt to summarize everything discussed over there, I've decided to make this a brand-new effort.

So, what are your questions?

How do I post a photograph? What is the Not News category all about? How do I create a group?

Whatever your question, feel free to ask it below and one of us Guides (lauhal, Red Wolf, Rottlady and myself) will do our best to answer it, or figure out how to get the answer.

You need one to drive a vehicle, you need one to hunt and you need one to serve liquor in a restaurant. And by 2016, you're going to need one in order to be allowed to have a child.

The little-known Center for Parent Licensing has successfully, though quietly, lobbied Congress to pass the Parent Licensing Act. The Act will require that all people, regardless of age, who wish to become parents must first pass a Parent Licensing Qualification Exam in order to receive a Parenting License.

Still undecided is whether to allow for a Birth Control Use Exemption certification, wherein those using accepted birth control practices with a success rate of 99.9% or higher may still be allowed to engage in sexual intercourse without first obtaining a Parenting License.

In addition, lawmakers are divided regarding how to enforce the Parent Licensing Act if conception has occurred without the required license, or if circumstances arise that indicate a parent or parents may have cheated or lied on the Parent Licensing Qualification Exam.

According to sources deep within the ultra-secretive Center for Parent Licensing, who spoke with this reporter only on the condition of anonymity, the initiative to pass the Parent Licensing Act grew out of frustration with continued reports of child abuse in the news.

"Once I realized that I had made the same comment on numerous internet news discussion boards at least a thousand times, I knew it was time to take action," claims the source. The comment? "There should be a license for parenting!!!! LOL!! You need a license to use a gun!!! LOL!!! And to drive a car!!! LOL!!!"

The source went on to outline how the movement gathered members from these "internet news discussion boards" by contacting others who agreed with their comments regarding the need for licensing.

"Before you knew it, we had a whole coalition! LOL!" Long before officially becoming the Center for Parent Licensing, members gathered to discuss the topic in various discussion groups on the internet, like this one on user-generated news-discussion website and msnbc.com property Newsvine.com.

Members of the Center for Parent Licensing believe that issues such as the possibility of forced-abortion for unlicensed pregnant women, forced sterilization, or other means of enforcement of the law will work themselves out, and that the Parent Licensing Qualification Exam will deter child abusers from having children.

Opponents of the initiative include everyone from Pro-Life groups to the Westboro Baptist Church to women's rights groups to the ACLU. "Frankly," said our source, "I have no idea how we got this passed. But we did! So there you go. Excuse me. I have a box of wine and a cheese platter waiting for me at the victory party! LOL!"

Risking expulsion from the group, our source provided us with an advance, working draft of the Qualification Exam as she skipped off to her box of wine:

Parent Licensing Qualification Exam

1. Your child is born with a physical disability or develops a physical ability during childhood. You (check all that apply):

    a. Work your ass off to discover every possible medical, therapeutic and/or holistic cure or treatment for their disability.

    b. Work with state agencies to get the best publicly available care for your child.

    c. Work six jobs to help pay for his/her care after your insurance benefits run out.

    d. Kill her and cut her up into little pieces and drop those pieces all over North Carolina.

2. You have a roll of duct tape. You (check all that apply):

    a. Duct tape the child to a chair and post photos to the internet.

    b. Because you think it'll be funny, you duct tape the child's hands, feet and mouth, take pictures and text the photos to your friends.

    c. Google "duct tape child abuse" and promise to never, ever do any of the things that parents have done to their children with duct tape. Sign here: __________________.

    d. Seal off the windows and doors of your home in case of a nuclear or biological weapon attack.

    e. Make some impromptu plumbing repairs if necessary.

3. You have a pantry and fridge full of food. You (check all that apply):

    a. Feed my child nutritious and wholesome meals 3x per day and snacks 2x per day.

    b. Occasionally allow my child to indulge in fun treats wholly lacking in nutritional content.

    c. Starve my child, starve my children, oh Christ this is really depressing (ed. note: remove last sentence and add more links after copious wine consumption).

Ed. Note: Not sure I can continue working on this. Please help!

4. I will lock my child in a closet, basement, dog cage, kitchen cabinet. (Check all that apply)

    a. Never

    b. Only during the evenings and weekends when the child is not in school.

    c. 24/7

5. I will operate a meth lab in my home in addition to brutally abusing my child over a prolonged period of time, leading to his death by cardiac arrest. (Check all that apply)

    a. Never

    b. Only during the weekdays when the child is at school. Except for the abuse, which will happen whenever the child is within arm's reach

    c. 24/7

6. Chemicals! The best thing to dump all over a child's body. (Check all that apply)

    a. Put down the wine, lady. And get off the internet for a while.

    b. Um, no.

    c. Heck yeah! Let's see what happens if we light them on fire, too!

    d. Store the dead child's body in a plastic bag in the back of your pickup whilst the other child is convulsing in pain in the front seat.

    e. I am reassessing my desire to have children. Or for anybody, ever, anywhere, to ever have children ever again.

The copy of the Parent Licensing Qualification Exam we were provided becomes unreadable at this point. Most of the questions are blurred out with what could be tears, but with what smells like wine and/or vodka.

While the Center for Parent Licensing has their hearts in the right place, it is clear that the Parent Licensing Act may bring with it more issues than it solves. This reporter wonders, when is this @!$%# going to stop?

I created the group Off Topic just over two years ago for a specific purpose.

Here's what the original group guidelines said:

The short and the sweet of it: this group exists solely for the purpose of having a place to take off-topic discussions yet remain linked to the article under which it began.

Kinda the equivalent of "You wanna take it outside, buddy?" or "Let's chat over coffee after the meeting's over."

For instance, I really enjoy sitting on my bed in a mountain of covers when it's -5 degrees outside and wind is howling, eating double-stuff oreos and surfing the internet. It doesn't mean I need to tell you that in the middle of a discussion about the economy.

Perfect for when someone comes onto one of your threads and keeps bringing up totally unrelated issues and won't stop doing it regardless of how many times you delete his or her comments for being off-topic.

The group is not meant for articles and seeds, just discussion threads.

Someone showing up on your article about glass-blowing techniques in indigenous tribes in southeast asia and asking how to thread a needle? Start a thread in Off Topic and give them patient instruction.

Someone in the discussion thread of a seed to an article about Rod Blagojevich's creepy hair and special comb keep bringing up how some other user keeps deleting their comments or not allowing their articles to be seeded to groups inappropriately? Start a thread in Off Topic and let them know what's on your mind. For the eight hundredth time.

How?

1. Simply click on the "Start New Group Discussion" tab.
2. Choose the group "Off Topic."
3. Choose "Public" or "Private" Discussion. If Private, only group members will be able to read and participate in the discussion. If Public, everyone will be able to read the discussion, but only members can post to it. If non-members wish to post, they may, and then a notification will be sent to the group owner (that'd be me) and the non-member will become a member and their post will go live.

That's it! Easy-peasy!

It didn't really take off, unfortunately.

Keith in DSM just published an article expressing a similar idea. There's clearly a need amongst many users to see off-topic discussions being taken off-thread.

However it's done, it can only work if everyone works together to make it happen, and does so respectfully.

I'm interested in your ideas how to make this happen, if you believe it is necessary, and also what you think of Keith's take on the concept (I'll see you over in his thread).

Off Topic will, for now, return to its no-seed, no-article policy, though I do think there may be room to post some articles or seeds you see will more than likely spawn a fun, crazy, silly, thoroughly off-topic thread. But I'd like to hear what you think first. That could get difficult to manage.

I spend a great deal of my time fielding reports about miscategorized articles and seeds. In addition, I spend a portion of each day looking for miscategorized articles and seeds within the various category modules and pages. What I've noticed over the last couple of months is that miscategorization, incorrectly chosen news types, and inappropriate tags has become a bit of an epidemic.

So much so, that it has become necessary to simply take these miscategorized articles and seeds down and send a notice to the user. There is simply not enough time to contact each user, ask that the item be fixed, and follow up to see if it's been done. And repeat offenders have been and will continue to receive suspensions.

I don't want that to happen to you. I also want every item posted to Newsvine to be properly categorized. Yeah, it's the right thing to do. Why? Because it means that other users--the people you want reading your stuff, will be able to find it easier. It also means that you won't be pissing people off by trying to shove everything you write and seed into their face.

So, let's talk about what proper categorization is, and how to achieve it.

Means of Categorization

There are three means of categorization on Newsvine: Categories, Tags and Groups

Categories

When you post an article or seed, you need to choose the correct category. These are pretty straightforward. To see what they are, look up above in that silver-gray bar beneath the main Newsvine header. The main categories are shown. There are more to be found by clicking "More."

Go here to see more information about the Not News category.

The two categories that are most often chosen incorrectly are US News and World News (coming in a close third is Technology), so let's talk about those.

US News should be chosen when the news item you are seeding or writing about is about something that happened or is happening within the United States, be it an Event or an Opinion (we'll talk about News Types in a minute). However, this does not include EVERYTHING that has ever happened, is happening, or might eventually happen on US soil. For instance, if I wrote an article about the merry band of cardinals that greet me each morning in my back yard when I take my dog out and have my morning cigarette, it would not be US News, even though it does happen every day here in the United States.

World News should be chosen when the news item you are seeding or writing about is something that happened or is happening in the rest of the world outside of the United States, be it an Event or an Opinion.

Just because you believe the item SHOULD be of interest to everyone in the United States, or to everyone in the entire WORLD, doesn't mean that it's actually US or World News.

News Types

There are only three to choose from: Event, Opinion or Other.

An Event is something that happened or is happening.

An Opinion is your opinion about an event, or, if it's a seed, the opinion of someone else.

If it's not an Event or an Opinion, it's Other.

Groups

Groups allow us to further categorize items that might be of interest to users of Newsvine. Different groups allow different levels of appropriateness. Some are incredibly specific (like Metavine, for instance, which allows only articles that are specifically about Newsvine itself, or Newsvine Photographers, which has very clear guidelines for what is appropriate for the group). Some are more broad and will let you dump pretty much any fargone thing into the group that you like.

I won't derail here on my feelings on the subject (short and sweet--I think groups should ALL be subject/content-specific). But suffice it to say, that you should only post something to a group if that particular item is allowed by the group's posting guidelines.

So yeah, don't post a political item to Firefox Users.

Tags

Tags allow for more specific categorization than is allowed by categories. In addition, adding appropriate tags to your articles and seeds will help search engines provide your article or seed to appear in search results to the world at large. You know--all those people out there who aren't on Newsvine.

You know who abuses tags? The same kinds of people who abuse sweet and cute and little defenseless animals like baby bunnies. Also, spammers. Spammers will add tags to the garbage they are posting to the internet in order to sell cheap, knockoff crap made by small children in China, and they will choose those tags from whatever "popular" stuff is going on in the world. So, to sell a knockoff Coach purse or Manolo Blahniks or Ed Hardy t-shirts, they will add "Lady-Gaga" and "Justin-Bieber" and "Lindsay-Lohan" as tags, because a whole lot of people are searching the internet for those terms.

You know what this does? It @!$%#S UP THE INTERNET.

Say you were watching the Grammy Awards last night, and you, though you've been previously critical of Lady Gaga because she is a bit of an attention whore and wears dresses made of raw meat and shoes that no human can actually walk in, you were incredibly moved by her seriously amazing performance (I mean, really! Fame whorishness aside, this woman is incredibly entertaining!), so you decided to pop over to Google to see what you could find out about her, because you wanted to find some little nugget that would help you to understand where she's coming from, and maybe why she chose to show up on the red carpet in some kind of alien pod, and why she had weird pointy things coming out of her forehead.

However, your hopes were quickly dashed, because you were greeted with a gazillion results that were trying to sell you knockoff Ed Hardy jeans. Which you don't want. Also, I'd venture to guess that Lady Gaga wouldn't be seen dead in anything Ed Hardy.

So, choose your tags appropriately.

Add the names of the people mentioned in your article or seed. Perhaps the location of the event you're describing, or was described in your seed. The political party you're writing or seeding about.

But don't go overboard. Don't @!$%# up the internet, and Newsvine.

What the Code of Honor has to say about all this

It's in #3:

Headlines should be supported by the information presented in the article/seed, rather than used primarily as a means to draw attention. Chosen news types and tags should be accurate and informative - not used to provoke or make a statement. More +

1. The ability to categorize content, including clipping, is a privilege that carries with it a responsibility. Inappropriate or malicious use of news types, tags and clipping is prohibited.
2. Until additional News Types are supported, indicate the nature of your article/seed in the headline, when appropriate, following the form: "[Type]: [Headline]". This standard applies to the following non-exhaustive list of News Types: Satire, Rumor, Poetry, Comic/Illustration, Review

Violating anything in #3 can get you suspended and eventually banned. And all of it is easily avoidable.

See something that's miscategorized?

Report it. Please. You can take the easy route and click the "!" at the top of the article or seed and choose "Miscategorized/Off-Topic." Or, take a moment to click the "Report Bug" button in the top right or the "Contact Us" link at the very bottom, choose "Report Spam or a Malicious User" and include a link to the article/seed and the reason why you're reporting it.

I have a certain stock of phrases I type out so frequently that I don't even have to think about them. One of them is: Newsvine is a user-driven and generated news-discussion website.

That doesn't just refer to the fact that Newsvine users post the stuff (or, most of it) that's discussed here. It also refers to the fact that moderation staff relies on users to report behavior that violates the Code of Honor and User Agreement. Newsvine staff needs your help to make Newsvine a better place.

A word about inappropriate reporting: Don't do it. The system might take the article/seed down, but if it was report inappropriately, it will be put back up, and you'll lose your reporting privileges and get a note on your account, and it will be taken into consideration if and when a decision needs to be made whether or not to ban you.

In conclusion, this is a long article about a very simple thing. Proper categorization helps keep Newsvine, and the internet at large, organized. It helps to ensure that your articles and seeds are seen by the people that are interested in reading and commenting on them, which is what you actually want.

The About page of Newsvine Community has been updated to the following:

Newsvine Community is a group reserved for articles (NO SEEDS) about the Newsvine community itself.

You are welcome to post:

1. Ideas for nurturing or improving the Newsvine community.
2. Articles detailing real-life get-togethers (VineMeets).
3. Articles detailing online-life get-togethers (NDC, "parties" held on one's column)
4. Announcements of contests or challenges (like Newsvine Photographer's monthly challenges) to be carried out by the members of the Newsvine community. The entries into these contests or challenges should NOT, however, be posted here.
5. Interviews with or articles about other Newsvine members (that comply with the Code of Honor).

Do not post:

1. Seeds (unless it is an article posted elsewhere that specifically discusses the Newsvine/msnbc.com community of users)
2. Political articles.

Essentially, the Newsvine Community group is a place to post articles that are about improving and nurturing the Newsvine community.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

These guidelines may be clarified in some way following discussion, but this is essentially it.

Going forward, I will continue the practice of removing items that are posted that do not follow the above criteria, and leaving a comment in a group thread for the user advising them that the item has been removed from the group.

Repeated violations (for lack of a nicer-sounding word) of these policies will result in users being permanently booted from the group.

There's a lot of snow out there, and it's falling pretty hard right now, though not blowing like it was all night. My driveway has 1 1/2-2 feet of snow on it. No idea how much snow we actually got. The news reports are saying 2 feet in my area, but there's a lot of really high drifts, so who knows. At this point, who cares? I can't get out of my house!

Interstates and highways are closed all over the place. People were stranded in their cars all night on Lake Shore Drive.

Just watched someone cross country skiing past the news cameras, then some firemen on a snowmobile.

This is heavy snow, so shoveling is dangerous. And drifts are higher than most snowblowers. I'll dig my out a little at a time today. Or not. I might just stay here until it all melts.

At the time of publication the Weather Channel is warning the following for my home area:

.. BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM CST /4 PM EST/ TUESDAY TO 3 PM CST /4 PM EST/ WEDNESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A BLIZZARD WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM CST /4 PM EST/ TUESDAY TO 3 PM CST /4 PM EST/ WEDNESDAY. THE BLIZZARD WARNING REPLACES THE BLIZZARD WATCH.

* TIMING... SNOW WILL INCREASE IN INTENSITY AND BECOME HEAVY AT TIMES SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 80 TUESDAY AFTERNOON... GRADUALLY SPREADING NORTH INTO NORTHERN ILLINOIS BY TUESDAY EVENING. SNOW... WHICH WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES... WILL CONTINUE TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING. LAKE ENHANCED SNOW SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE NEAR LAKE MICHIGAN IN NORTHEAST ILLINOIS WEDNESDAY MORNING... SHIFTING INTO NORTHWEST INDIANA DURING THE AFTERNOON. NORTHEAST WINDS OF 25 TO 40 MPH WITH STRONGER GUSTS WILL RESULT IN BLIZZARD CONDITIONS DEVELOPING LATE TUESDAY AFTERNOON AND CONTINUING THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT HOURS.

* ACCUMULATIONS... SNOW ACCUMULATIONS IN EXCESS OF A FOOT ARE EXPECTED OVER MUCH OF THE AREA FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. LOCALIZED TOTALS IN EXCESS OF 18 INCHES REMAIN POSSIBLE... ESPECIALLY NEAR THE LAKE.

* HAZARDS... WHITE-OUT CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED AT TIMES TUESDAY NIGHT AS VERY HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WINDS RESULT IN BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. SNOWFALL RATES OF AT LEAST 2 TO 3 INCHES PER HOUR ARE POSSIBLE... ESPECIALLY WHERE THUNDER SNOW MAY BE PRESENT.

* IMPACTS... CONDITIONS WILL RAPIDLY DETERIORATE FROM SOUTH TO NORTH ACROSS THE REGION TUESDAY AFTERNOON... WITH TRAVEL LIKELY BECOMING VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE AT TIMES TUESDAY NIGHT AND INTO EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO FALL SO HEAVILY AT TIMES TUESDAY NIGHT THAT PLOWS MAY BE UNABLE TO KEEP UP WITH THE SNOW... WITH MANY SIDE STREETS AND UNTREATED ROADS BECOMING IMPASSABLE.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT CONDITIONS... MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRAVEL. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL... HAVE A WINTER SURVIVAL KIT WITH YOU. IF YOU GET STRANDED... STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE.

&&

More Information

... DANGEROUS MULTIFACETED AND POTENTIALLY LIFE THREATENING WINTER STORM TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY...

First of all, snowfall rates of multiple inches per hour get me really excited. I love it. And the term "Thunder Snow?" Seriously? What is THUNDER SNOW and why have I never heard about this before? I mean, I've heard thunder during a snow storm and just thought I was crazy. But THUNDER SNOW is apparently a term (possibly made up by the Weather Channel), and is now something I will be on the lookout to hear. Maybe even in the summer.

Look, I'm a weather freak. I don't know all the Latin names for particular cloud formations or anything, but even on the clearest and most beautiful of days, I check the weather via the internet or a variety of apps on my iPhone about a million times a day.

I love extreme weather. I don't like being out in a car in the middle of it, but I do love sitting around watching it happen through my window.

When I was a kid, my father, who is an electrical engineer, loved watching intense thunderstorms. We can get some doozies here in Chicago. He'd unfold a lawn chair for himself, with a matching, smaller version for me, and we'd sit just inside the open garage and watch for lightning.

Once our family company's plant was struck by lightning, though, he started making me sit a little further inside, and had lightning rods installed on our roof.

Every place I've ever lived, one of my requirements was a safe place from which to watch storms. I love my little house that I've been in now for a year and a half, but its biggest selling point was the screen-in porch off the back, which I improved by adding sliding glass doors so I can sit out there in the winter to watch the snow (and because the 50-year-old aluminum louvers didn't open anymore).

My first blizzard was the Blizzard of '79. Partly as a result of the City of Chicago's woeful response to that crazy snowfall, Jane Byrne was elected mayor. While we do have a mayoral election coming up, there's no one to respond badly that might lose, as Daley is not running. But you can bet if the city comes to a standstill, our mayoral candidates will be stepping over themselves to present plans for making sure it never happens again.

I was nine years old during that '79 blizzard. No school, Dad out of town on a business trip (family lore says he was on his way driving to Ohio, got turned around, and ended up in Iowa--just stayed on the road and kept driving, unable to see any signs). I remember shoveling from the front door to the mailbox with my mother. In memory, the snow was above my head, though we got no more than 2 feet. I remember the drifts in the backyard, several feet high, against the bushes, and my brother and I tunneling back there--Mother Nature made our snow fort for us. We used the air conditioner compressor as an "oven" and made snow-meatloaf and snow-baked-potatoes.

On Valentine's Day 1990, we had an unusually fast-falling snow (but not a blizzard, apparently). I had to dig my car out of its spot, and it took me two hours to drive the three miles home.

In 1999, we were slammed with 18 inches of snow. My kids were pre-schoolers, I was a stay-at-home mom, so I wasn't as affected by the snowfall as others were. I didn't have to go anywhere but outside with my bundled-up kids to tromp through the snow half as high as they were. I have photos of them plopped atop huge piles of snow at the end of our driveway--from the plows and the shoveling. I rummaged up some spray bottles and filled them with water and food-coloring, and we created great forts, painted brightly. I taught them how to pack the best kind of snowball and how to flop backwards into a drift and stare at the sky, how to catch snowflakes on their tongues.

It's scary to read "life-threatening" on your weather warning. It's only life-threatening, though, if you're not prepared, or if you insist on getting in the car and trying to go somewhere, or if you're forced to shovel your way out when you've got a heart condition.

Unfortunately, I'm slated to attend my fiction writing class on Tuesday evening, and teach one on Wednesday afternoon, in the city. No word yet on whether anything will be canceled, though I did just get a preemptive email from my son's school superintendent updating us on the possibility of a late start or snow day on Wednesday.

As the snow begins to fall (if it does--I've been through far too many false alarms to fully believe this is going to happen), I will update here as necessary. And you can bet I'll be outside taking pictures and catching snowflakes on my tongue if I can.

Rottlady is updating about the storm in her area here.

Author's note: I originally wrote this last fall, after the end of my son's football season (his last as a "youth" football player--next year, high school!), but never posted it. I don't know why. I think I was waiting until he completed the editing of his season highlight video, and then I forgot about it.

We make jokes at the expense of mothers whose children play sports. In general, they seem an overbearing species--loud, sometimes obnoxious. They scream at the top of their lungs their child's name whether that child is speeding towards the goal line or milling about in the backfield picking daisies (or their noses, as is sometimes the case).

I've been a football mom for six seasons now. Proud? Of course. Obnoxious? At times, sure.

I videotape every game, so though I'm there, I'm really only seeing every play via the 2x3 screen on my video camera. But after I edit the highlights, I have to remove all the sound. Because no one needs to know what I'm muttering under my breath, and no one needs to hear me scream. It's not space, after all. Everyone can hear me, surely to their dismay.

Today was the last game of my son's junior football career. Next year, he heads to high school. It's a bittersweet end, really, as the league he's been playing for is essentially an "instructional" league. There's less emphasis on competition and more on learning how to play the game and play it right. Our coaches are mostly dads of players, and while there are some heated moments on the field, overall the atmosphere is one of making sure the kids are learning the game, learning how to navigate the field without incurring penalties or injuring themselves or others, and learning good sportsmanship. There's no scoreboard, and in fact the refs, all high-school kids, don't even keep score. (But we do, we football moms).

All that lovely stuff aside, I gotta tell you.

My kid is @!$%#ing awesome.

Put the ball in this young man's hands, and he tears down the field, dodging left and right, straight-arming his opponents, yanking his body out of tackles that would bring anyone down. It blows me away, every time.

I've asked him what he's seeing when he's moving towards the goal line. Is he conscious of what's coming at him, or is it some kind of sixth sense? When he sees the hole, what does it look like? What's going through his mind when the goal line is just feet away and there are three guys hanging on the back of his jersey?

He doesn't really have an answer, and I guess he really shouldn't. Not yet. I don't want him analyzing anything. I just want him out on the field doing what he does.

But it makes me think of some of the things Michael Jordan used to say about getting in the zone--not thinking, not planning, just moving and reacting. It's this beautiful and fluid thing.

Truthfully, I'm a little jealous. The only sport I ever officially played was volleyball in 8th grade and I sucked at it. I can't climb stairs without bumping into something.

So watching my son is a little wondrous for me.

People have asked me, "Aren't you afraid he'll get hurt?" I hate answering that question, because it feels like walking into a jinx. But no. I'm not afraid of him getting hurt, not any more than he is. I'm more afraid that he'll allow doubt or uncertainty affect his game. Or worse, ego and pride. Despite the fact that he puts together his season highlight reels and posts them to my YouTube account with the title "The Next Walter Payton," so far so good.

Something happens inside me when I watch him play. It's this wondrous mixture of pride and joy along with this odd sense of a connection with him as he moves towards the goal line. I feel the forward motion. I sense the herk and jerk of his muscles as they seem to instinctively react to what's coming at him.

At one game this past season, I stood on the sidelines, filming. Behind me was a gaggle of kids around his age, watching the game.

One said, " Damn, he's fast."

Another responded, "No one can catch Gonia."

Yeah, I was beaming. It was all I could do not to turn around and say "He's MINE."

It could have been anything--writing (he's good at that too, bless me!), soccer, swimming, science, math. Seeing my child discover that he has a natural talent for something, and watching him grow in skill, feeling the heart break when he doesn't perform as well as he would have liked, learning to overcome the way his skill falters when he gets frustrated--it's an amazing thing.

So yeah. I'm a Football Mom. And damn proud of it.

A friend posted on Facebook today, asking her friends to reply with the date and event of something that has forever stuck in their minds for whatever reason.

I don't think she intended this to happen, but the ensuing thread has turned into a really amazing trip down memory lane--a long list of really touching, personal life stories around these big moments. Those responding didn't just spit out a date and the event, but included small stories about what their lives were like at the moment it happened--deaths of well-known people, disasters here in the US and all over the world. One stated the date he quit drinking. It's not all doom-and-gloom, but also the big successes--the moon landing (I was just barely a month old--my Dad woke me up and held me on his lap to watch the landing. He'd worked on the Lunar Module). Almost without exception, those responding provided the little memoir of that moment for them. Some have been heartbreaking, some touching. Some, rather funny.

It's been rather fantastic for me to watch, and to participate in. Helps, I suppose, that Megan is a storyteller by nature and by trade, and many of her friends are as well.

What's been most remarkable for me (and, it really shouldn't have been) has been the way these little personal stories of big moments have taken me out of my own head, out of my own perspective of these events.

I remember what I was doing when Reagan got shot--how old I was (11), where I was (school), how I heard the news (announcement over the loudspeaker in Mrs. Krebs' science class--she was old and crabby, and was constantly blowing her nose into a tissue that she kept tucked into the sleeve of her blouse. She was actually a Dr., but wouldn't let us call her that, because she wasn't actually a "doctor"--we didn't get it). I remember feeling a profound sense of fear. At that time, our "tornado drills" were really "atomic bomb drills." We would cower under our desks as if that was going to save us from radiation, and the attempt on our President's life was terrifying.

But that's not the same experience that my parents had. Nor anyone who was in college at that time.

So, I ask you... share. What are the dates that stick with you? The events that changed your life, your perspective, your belief system? Those moments that may have changed the trajectory of your own life experience?

This is the first in a series of articles I have planned for the coming days and weeks regarding trollish behavior on Newsvine (which can certainly apply to the internet in general). The series is called Under the Bridge. If you'd like to follow the articles, please watchlist the tag under-the-bridge.

I've been reading lots of articles and comments (and emails as well) in the last few days regarding bad behavior on Newsvine. Many seem to think that it's all coming from one side or the other. I thought it might be amusing, and interesting, to kick the series off by looking at some comments, with the political and ideological references stripped away, and ask you to figure out the political/ideological belief systems of the poster.

If you care to guess, please note which by its number. I'm stripping out as much as I can, replacing with innocuous words, but some will probably be rather obvious. My changes will be green.

I've chosen comments that are clearly political in nature. Outright trollery, I didn't bother with. Also, where the poster changed the name of the party or politician they didn't like into something stupid (like "republicant" or "odumbass"), I didn't bother. Although I now need to wash my brain with lye and meditate about the inherent goodness of human nature (right? It's inherent, right? Please say it's INHERENT!). And, if the context of the discussion or article was absolutely necessary to being able to figure it out, I didn't include it.

1.

I'd rather read two two paragraphs than two thousand pages full of French Erotica....or wait did any of the bills that the puppies actually get read or did they "Need to pass them so we could find out what's in them". You sound a @!$%#ing moron! go ahead put SpongeBob Squarepants" dick back in your mouth and keep your trap shut you bird wing opinionated scum.

2.

OK Darlings, just shut your yaps and put your vehicles in park. You sleezebags had it all the cake and entire dessert table and you did not squat. Now it's time for real ice cream.

3.

Reading all of the 'insightful' comments from the Puppies & Kittens Crowd below only proves we really have lowered the bar in this country when it comes to education...

Not an original thought out of a one of them just more parroting of the daily television 'buzz' words! lol

Such compassionate baby bunnies... *insert snark*

4.

no I said I have never hired a kitten yet.

however
if I ever need an unskilled servile toadie - I will hire a kitten then.

of course that would imply that kitten got off welfare or their 100+ weeks of unemployment and actually looked for a job.

also that is assuming KittenLove is a dead law.

cheers
:)

That one's probably pretty obvious.

5.

How about we take a crucifix and shove it up each puppies ass! You all are cold and inhuman.

6.

Spongebob Squarepants-are you mentally handicapped? Do you have a reading comprehension problem or just delusional?

THERE WERE NO KITTENS IN THE KITTENLOVE BILL-THERE NEVER WAS-THAT IS A BIG FAT LIE.

geez-how do you get through the day?

You need to buy a lot of aluminum foil-you definitely need a bigger hat.

7.

The dumbest animal of all is the puppy.

8.

Listen to all the kittens squeal like pigs when their mouse is killed. Kittens are for feline totalitarianism. They want to control what you eat, what you drink, what you learn, what you watch, what you listen to, where you live, how you live, and where you work, etc. There are no bounds to their need to control.

9.

Hey you PUTRID SMELLING PUPPY ZOMBIES, go chat with someone who actually gives a Flying F**K about what you have to say!!! Have a @!$%#t* Day!!! As*holes!!!

~(:>)

10.

Do you not read, or do you just choose to not understand what is written? Many of the names on that list are contemporary business men, entrepreneurs, capitalists and at least one was a ultra cute president. Did you not get that far, too much reading for you? Or did it not fit your asinine comments about it being a cute puppy mill? What a twit.

11.

SpongeBob, stop sitting on your a** and go out and make your own money and stop whining and complaining. You want more money? Go out and make it. At least the KittenLove Party doesn't support a small group of people that are bankrupting cities and states.

12.

The only clowns are the clowns that under estimate SpongeBob. He was and will continue to be a major force in driving the bird wing kittens back to the FARM where they belong. Tell all the redacted historical figure, redacted historical figure, redacted historical figure, redacted historical figure, redacted historical figure, loving puppets we said drop dead!

The purpose of this is not to start a fight between liberals and conservatives to see who are the biggest trolls. The purpose is for us to see that this crap comes from both sides. These comments were all reported within the last 12 hours or so. They are recent. This is 12 out of about 30 comments I had to choose from. And, as I stated above, I only took the ones that would work. I didn't pick and choose to prove a point.

Other than to show us that instead of complaining about "all liberals" do this or "all conservatives" do that (or whatever label you want to stick in there), we need to start looking honestly at comments. Even if we agree with the user's opinion, if they're presenting it like any of the above, report it!

Rather than babble on about this, I'd like to see how this discussion unfolds.

I already pretty much have my mind made up. I don't believe that gay/lesbian couples should be prohibited from entering into marriage. In the last few days, Illinois has passed a civil union law that "will provide same-sex couples in Illinois with sweeping protections and benefits, many of which were previously unattainable or required an expensive array of legal paperwork."

It awaits the Governor's signature, which he has promised.

Today, I learned how the lawmakers in my local area voted. Mmmm. None of them voted for it. Not surprised, considering where I live. A little annoyed about one of them, since I voted for him, and since he's my cousin's husband, but not unexpected.

Questions about how civil unions would affect pension payouts. Claims that medical decisions could be provided for by living wills and other legal means.

But why should gay/lesbian couples have to go to lengths beyond what "traditional" married couples have to go to in order to enjoy these same "privileges?"

The loudest voices I hear in opposition to the notion of gay marriage, however, seem to be claiming that legal gay/lesbian marriages would somehow erode or destroy the "traditional" institution of marriage between a man and a woman.

Here's where I stumble.

I don't get it.

I'm willing to accept that I may be ignorant of some facts here. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

I see "traditional" marriages crumble around me all the time. I have a friend in the midst of a bitter, years-long divorce, full of acrimony and accusations and underhandedness and vindictiveness. I'm in the midst of my own divorce, which frankly is the most absurdly friendly and loving divorce on the planet (my husband and I just laughed the other day about the fact that it's possible we're just being too nice to each other, just trying to look out for the other, and are being impeded by law).

But I just don't understand why it's a problem for gay/lesbian couples to marry.

And this is where you come in.

Educate me.

Is this about pensions and benefits and who should be eligible? If so, is this all about money? How much?

Is this about who can visit each other in the hospital? Who can make life decisions for us if we are incapacitated?

Is this about those of us who don't understand or don't approve of two people of the same sex loving each other trying to keep those people from doing so as much as possible?

Educate me.

What, pray tell, is "marriage" all about? How does religion enter into this, and why should it?

Educate me.

Over here, a discussion has been had in response to a seed listing suggestions for improving Newsvine. At over 1000 comments, lots of derailing and a dash of drama, the thread has become all but unusable.

And certainly ineffective for real discussion purposes.

I've gone through just the first page of the thread with a fine-toothed comb and have gathered here as many of the suggestions for improving Newsvine from Newsviners as I could find. If I've missed a few, I apologize. It's not intentional. It's just a really long thread. You're free to make your suggestions below.

In order to keep this thread as organized as possible, I'd like each subthread to focus on one of these suggestions. To help facilitate that, I'll place comments regarding each suggestion. Please respond to the comment focused on the suggestion to which you have something to add.

If you have a suggestion that is not mentioned here, please start a new comment thread for the purpose of discussing it. If you have questions about this method, please feel free to pop onto the Metavine or Newsvine Help threads that I have created. If you feel like going off-topic, goofing around, being silly, or whatever else, please take it to the Off-Topic thread.

I'd like this also to serve as an example for how my biggest suggestion (the user of group tabs for side discussion) for how to improve Newsvine can work. I think it was very effective over on the original discussion, despite some resistance, and I'm hoping to encourage others to use this Newsvine feature to help improve their own and others' experience.

How WE would fix Newsvine

1. Use group discussion threads to better facilitate on-topic discussions
2. Moderators on the weekends (Cookin' Mama)
3. Self-restraint/self-control, personal responsibility (Norcal2, menmy2)
4. Zero-tolerance for CoH violations (from the seed-Brian Ford, lots of support by those commenting for this notion)
5. The possible need for a Community Liaison (Dennis McCann)
6. Support and "promotion" of high-quality original writing on behalf of Newsvine/msnbc.com (multiple suggestions/lots of discussion here too)
7. Articles that offer nothing more than a generalized attack on the side in opposition to the writer's views (VerbalBarb, GG). What good do these do? What harm? How should they be handled?
8. Rewarding good Vine behavior--RAV, badges, etc. (some discussion of that here)
9. Customizing your front page to better reflect the experience you're looking for (out of a discussion)
10. Poor moderating, moderating to suit an agenda--what's the effect? What can be done about it?
11. "Fun and fluff" What does this mean? How/where should it be categorized? What happens when it breaks out in a thread? (from the seed and multiple comments, VerbalBarb +)
12. The collapsing of articles and seeds via report (bitemore and others). Should this function be suspended? Also, should users be alerted via email when their article/seed has come down? (bitemore) Requiring users who are reporting an article/seed to provide a statement as to reason (nonStitiousZealot) Increasing the number of reports required to take down an article/seed (bitemore) Censorship via collapse of comments (GG)
13. Better group administrative functions, including being able to mass-email the members of a group (bore-head)
14. Warnings for "explicit" content (Spikegary). How to enforce?
15. Using group discussion threads (Me, Larry Crehore)
16. "Peer review" or "peer jury" (tiredofit, G. Bud)
17. "On-topic" and "Off-topic." What do these terms mean? (G. Bud, others)
18. Suspending the ability of others to comment on an article or seed if the thread moderator has to be absent and can't moderate (CL1)
19. Additional news types, or "categories" (Dowser)
20. Blocking the ability to re-seed (hsquared) Duplicate content via articles (Little Sure Shot)
21.

arguing of opinions as opposed to arguing personalities

(Spikegary)
22. The proliferation of spam comments (jwc2blue). I'm interested to know how that affects your ability to comment. It's being worked on from a technical standpoint. How would you all feel if you had to fill out a captcha every time you had to comment, though?
23. The Leaderboard (Scott Butki). What purpose does it serve if it does nothing but list the most prolific, rather than the highest quality?
24. Over-long headlines that are articles in themselves (Spikegary)
25. This concept of "cliques." Is it real? What affect do "cliques" have, both good and bad? (s. heraclitus)
26. Anonymity/Pseudonymity/Real names (from the seed, also Sgt. Pepper)
27. Changing the headlines of seeded articles (Spikegary)

The above are just the suggestions gathered from the first page of comments on the original seed. There's more than enough meat and potatoes for us to gnaw on here, so let's get to it. It's likely that additional suggestions gathered from the original discussion will have to be posted in a 2nd article. I included links to the discussion on the original thread wherever possible (I think I may have broken my brain with this exercise).

And hey, there's no rush here. Read through the ideas. Give them some considered thought. And then come back and comment.

Off-topic, rude or inflammatory remarks, and remarks that do nothing to add to the discussion, will be deleted. Thanks in advance for your input, and for your cooperation.

 After joining the Newsvine Summer Writer's Club, my mind was filled with words, thoughts, ideas, re-forming old ideas and making new ones from the old. Viki's Club again stirred that writing muse that really bites at me now.

"If we are all still alive after May 22nd, I'll take it as a sign from Jesus that America needs me now". Dr.

It's time to PRE-REGISTER FOR THE VINEMEET! Pre-register now for your spot in the VineMeet Group Fun! Pre-registration forms are due by: Deadline: April 1, 2011

This is incredible. Dowser has set up a heck of a schedule and some really smooth pre-registration. Looking forward to meeting a lot of you. I'm going. /self-importance

The original intention behind Newsvine Photographers was to increase collaboration between photographers and writers.  In fact, the creation of the group was a result of a Newsvine Photo Pool on Flickr.com.  The pool, despite being an excellent idea, is not likely viabl …

Hello, everyone. I'm an Apple user. My name is Luke Dorny and I started working at Newsvine last week as your new designer.

It’s been a long time between RAVs here at Newsvine. Recent and not-so-recent arrivals may not even know what the top right stem of Vineacity stands for. The description reads: Earned for an exceptional moment of greatness on Newsvine.

The Newsvine Team is thrilled to award a Random Act of Vineness to Ben Josephs for his unparalleled administration of Newsvine Photographers.

The prevalent mood in our great country these past few years is that it is easier to belittle, to condemn, to tear apart anyone who doesn't think like you, act like you or share your beliefs.

This is a rememberance of the loved ones that were in the wrong place, at the wrong time; shot and killed.

Here's something you might not have noticed about the internet: Some of the conversations taking place there are less than civil.

To the Newsvine community. Whether you are left, right, or middle of the road, we all come on Newsvine to shout out our frustrations about politics, share recipes or jokes, argue with each other, or just simply to share a slice of life with others.

You've decided to post an article to Newsvine, only to be confronted with a text editor and a lot of confusing buttons. This is the Microsoft Word of Newsvine, the interface you'll need to use to publish the brilliant idea that is brewing in your head.

From the Code of Honor: Newsvine's primary purpose is to provide a place for people to share and discuss topics relating to the news.

Talking shop with Sally this first week has been great. I've enjoyed trading ideas, training her on Newsvine's admin tools, and for once in my life, cranking out knowing chuckles as the grizzled veteran. Think Tom Berenger's character in Major League*.

5,000 word maximum, submissions are open from now until Nov. 20, 2010. Entry fees are $3 for non-critiqued work, or $5 for entries that will be critiqued by Black Heart editor Laura Roberts.