[Alex Pepple]

Dear Eratosphereans,

Yesterday, we brought you the new look. Thanks to everyone who posted their (rave) reviews about it. And there seems to be more interest in how it looks than how fast it runs!

Today, however, we have the new look plus three new boards, and a little staff shuffle.

I'm especially pleased to welcome & congratulate three additions, who are no strangers in the 'Sphere, to the Able Muse staffdom - Carol Taylor, Jerry H. Jenkins & Tim Murphy.

Carol Taylor Her Duchessness is now 'officially' licensed to crack the whip on the grounds, plus take charge of everything (almost) everything I've been meaning to do to boost our community morale but never got around to ... starting with our Conversation forums.

Tim takes over the Musing on Mastery forum from Alan as our first ever Poet Lariat!

Jerry & Julie, our very own J&J tag team, will run the first offshoot of the Metrical Poetry II, one of the spin offs of the original Metrical Poetry where Mike & Alicia still reign.

Alan will be in charge of Metrical Poetry III, the other spin forum, doing something he's very been doing a lot of anyways - giving you that straightforward, honest, no-nonsense critique he's famous & well loved for.

What's the mandate of the new metrical boards? It's a fuzzy one for now, subject to change based on the dynamics that develop in the three sister boards. I see the interests & personalities of the moderators factoring in with where a given poem gets posted. Julie likes beginning poets, & Jerry likes funny poems, so we'll probably see lots of funny poems from beginners there, or not. ... & we'll probably see a large ratio of revisions on Alan's board. But, the synergy of it all is that you can still expect moderators to roam off their territories to pick & choose other posts to comment as they've always done!

Finally, our FunExecises now have a forum of their own where I expect to see both funny & serious poetry exercises, mostly from our moderators.

I realize it might take a while for everyone to get into the rhythm of the new state of the 'Sphere, but let's have fun getting there.

Thanks everyone for your input & support.

Cheers,
...Alex

[Michael Juster]

Alicia and I want y'all to know that we will differentiate our board by being very supportive of poets who send us cash on a regular or semiregular basis.

[Jerry H Jenkins]

Michael,

I don't have any ready cash at the moment, but I wondered if you might be amenable to some radioactive slag I picked up cheap at the local urban renewal project.

Jerry

[Tim Murphy]

Alex, It's much faster, far prettier. Good job. To stimulate interest in Mastery, the sleepiest corner of the 'Sphere, I'll be dispensing monthly prizes, 1000 rubles each, in bonds issued by Czar Nicholas. And I nominate Marcus Bales and yours truly for Eratosphere Purple Hearts for posting the first poems on Alan's Metrical III.

[wendy v]

Ah, here's where you are, Alex. Big huge thanks for making the site both pleasing to the eye and speedier all around. I was hoping you wouldn't have to sacrifice one for the other. I like the blue, and I'm glad, very, very glad for the three metrical boards. Congratulations to Carol, Jerry, and Julie, too, who never really left. Nice surprises all around this morning.


wendy,
cash poor but slap happy



[This message has been edited by wendy v (edited April 02, 2001).]