Pledge Drive: "Save our Blog!"

(Don't worry, this isn't a post asking for money.)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently attended a conference on "community" and have consequently been pondering how to create this amorphous thing we call "community." Since it is easy to cavil at others' failures, it seemed I should instead think about my own. For instance, in the "Links" section of the website for the past seven months, the only links listed have been "google news" and "edit-me." I haven't exactly been an active participant in the on-line community at large. However, by simply learning out how to throw a few links out there, I have been building internet community!

Nevertheless, upon further reflection, I have realized that this step is not enough. There is so much more to do. Over the past weeks, I have felt a burden on my heart, a burning need to do my part for creating community. I have determined that the way to do this is to have people leave more comments.

I know, I know, you're probably thinking, "But Leopold, surely you don't feel responsible when other people don't post comments to your blog!" but you know, I do. It's the Protestant guilt ethic. Sure, I could feel guilty about not leaving comments at other people's blogs, but I just don't. I feel so much more guilty when it is my own blog, so that is where I want to start. I have visited blogs where there is a delightful back and forth between people telling each other they are wrong, but that they love each other, and that they wish they lived in the same town so they could go to a bar and drink some brewskies. I want to help create virtual reality internet brewskies. And so does WibbityWubbity. But the most important ingredient of the virtual reality internet brewskie is you. And everyone you know.

I figure that if Andrew Sullivan has had a pledge drive for money, surely it is not unseemly for us here to have a pledge drive for something as non-materialistic as more comments. Happily, when we shared this desire for community with some of our closest friends, we had an anonymous donor step forward and pledge that for every comment you leave in the coming month, he will leave one as well, essentially doubling your donation! We rely on contributions from viewers like you. Are pseudoprofundities important to you? Do they make you feel loved? If they do, what better way to show your support than leaving a comment and investing in community?

Now, I know what you may be thinking: "You know, I'm kind of like Moses. I'm slow of speech. I can only type by hunt and peck. I've got nothing to say." But remember God's answer: perhaps somewhere in the world you have a brother named Aaron, and maybe he knows how to talk. Why not invite him to a site that you have found richly rewarding and that provides transformative epiphanies on a regular basis? Perhaps you had an argument years ago with Aaron and lost contact. If so, why not just drop him an email? "Dear Aaron, I saw this site and thought of you. P.S.-Sorry about that thing." Before you know it, Aaron tells you that he is sorry about that thing too, and both of you are reconciled to each other and leaving comments. It is moments such as this one that I have just made up that a blogger hopes for.

Maybe you don't want to leave a comment. But if this blog has meant something to you, think of at least sharing it with your friends, so long as you do not reveal Leopoldtulip's secret identity. Due to multinational conglomerations and big corporations such as Starbuck's and Wal-Mart, the ma and pa blogs that used to celebrate academia, Christianity, and weirdness all together, have been virtually destroyed. If you google "WeirdBlogs4Godandsmartypantsstuff," you will find no hits, except possibly this post. This blog is in the world but not of it, wandering ever aimlessly toward a place where weird Christian people can talk about eighteenth-century scholarship. Because I am unaware of any on-line communities to which this blog could actually "belong," I can only achieve eventual cultural dominance slowly, when my message of weirdness is promulgated by individuals like you.

Another thing you might be thinking: "I've tried to leave comments before, but the site keeps trying to force me to sign up with blogspot. I REFUSE to sign up with blogspot! Never!!!!!" Well, that was due to my own blogging inexperience. I have fixed blogspot so you do not have to join. You can even leave comments anonymously.

Perhaps you are also thinking, "You know, there was that one post months ago that I thought of commenting on, and I did not. It is too late. I am powerless in my despair." For those amongst you who regret such lost opportunities, we are initiating our "Adopt a Post" program. Perhaps there is a blog entry that has changed your life in some special way months ago, but it only has 0 comments. Think how psychologically crippling it must be for such a blog entry when it observes nearby blog entries that may have as many as 5 comments. Daily, that blog entry wrestles with self-doubt and the fear of failure: "I once thought I was the perfect combination of whimsy and thought-provokingness, but I have achieved NOTHING!!!" If you don't want that to happen to your favorite blog entry, maybe you should just write a short comment on it now saying, "You have given my life meaning." Because blogspot automatically notifies us when a comment is left, we will make sure that an anonymous donor named either Leopoldtulip or WibbityWubbity will leave a comment as well. This means that your favorite entry will have at least two comments on it and will not see itself in the mirror and think, "I am ugly!" When you adopt a post, we will send you monthly pictures of your entry so you can watch as it grows in age and stature. Simply visit http://pseudoprofundities.blogspot.com/year/month/
insertnameofyouradoptedentry.html, and you can see your entry at any time.

It's important that we don't take for granted our opportunity to leave comments. There was a time that people had to sign up with blogspot in order to leave comments. Further back in history, there were times when people had to die for community. In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira were willing to sell their house and to lose their lives simply to pretend they were serving the community. How much moreso should we be willing actually to serve community by leaving a comment?