WE POST, THEREFORE WE ARE
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“Community" has become the latest buzzword in the online industry. Everyone from specialty publishers to Web mall operators is coming to understand that the Internet is, ought to be — and needs to be — a social space as much as it is an informational medium. At Salon, we called ourselves "an interactive magazine" from the beginning — but we weren't thinking of pushbutton menu choices. To us, interactivity meant person-to-person much more than machine-to-machine. We wanted to build an online space, open to all, where our readers could mix it up with our writers and with one another. We knew that no foolproof formula for ensuring the success of such a venture existed. And we knew that once we opened the doors, the participants in discussions would take the whole enterprise in many more different directions than we could ever devise or plan for on our own. Table Talk, our interactive forum, has turned out to be every bit as lively as we wished when we started it, exactly a year ago, with high hopes and buggy software. Sure, we've had problems: in the first few months the biggest glitches were technical; later, we became embroiled in controversies over the deletion of flames and a set of Community Standards that strove to keep discussions civil. In the meantime, Table Talk began to attract as articulate, thoughtful and diverse a group of talkers as you're likely to find on the Net. Its members began to recognize themselves as a community, and to wonder what that might mean. As any such enterprise must be, Table Talk is a perpetual work-in-progress; from the time we write these words to the time you read them, it has already changed some more. We've got some software improvements still to come, and some ideas for better knitting together Salon's magazine with its discussion space. But as always the most important innovations will be those introduced by members themselves — as they pursue essential questions like "Why are we here?," "Can't we just get along?," and "Do men have PMS?" To celebrate Table Talk's anniversary, and as a small gesture of thanks to every Table Talk member who has ever posted a thought or comment, an idea or a complaint, we'd like to offer a couple of special features. Enjoy! Table Talk hot spots: Posts on posting: |