Brainstorming, call for contributers, shameless plugs

I've just changed the intro to the Squidoo lens, and wanted to crosspost it here...

A companion page to the Howard-Empowered People blog. If you have any photos you'd like to add to the Flickr section below, please e-mail them to howardempowered at gmail.com. Also, let me know if you have any suggestions for the other sections--YouTube videos you think others would be interested in, links to good diaries, etc.

Also, it's dropped off the front page here, but I'd like to remind you to check in on the brainstorming thread I posted last week. Actually, you know what? I'm just going to repost a big chunk of it here, so that you can comment here...

I was getting ready to put out another call for contributors. But not, contrary to what people have sometimes believed, because the workload of this blog is a big deal and I need help. After the big redesign I did a while back, posting to this blog has never been what I would consider a lot of work. If I don't have an idear for a main thread, I can always just post a few interesting links, or something from Cute Overload, or I can use an open thread to shamelessly promote the Cafe Press products that Demetrius has designed.

What I really want is for this blog to be a community blog, where people feel welcome to contribute what they have to offer, and with a variety of interesting, productive, discussion-provoking content that would make people want to link to it elsewhere, even if I didn't ask.

Ideally, I kind of wish that we could be set up more like one of the Scoop-style blogs where anyone can post a diary. But even though I could repeat the words "Scoop is free" in my sleep, I don't know the first thing about setting up that kind of system. I have tried, and it appears to be beyond me. In addition, just because *I* think that sort of setup would be ideal for a number of reasons, doesn't mean everyone else would like it, and I try to be sensitive to those here who are "change-averse".

I'll repeat the basics as far as contributing front page posts. If you are not currently a front page contributor and would like to be, just e-mail me and I can send you a Blogger invite. If you don't feel like making that commitment, or feel like the "technical" aspects are beyond your abilities (or what you have time to learn), then you can always send a single blog entry to that same address, and I can publish it for you.

But I've said those things any number of times before, and frankly I'm beginning to bore myself.

On my drive home from work today, I started thinking about the Freecycle model as a way to start talking about new front page content.

Wanted: what sorts of posts would you like to see, on what topics?
Offer: if you'd like to offer to post on a regular or semi-regular basis about some issue, let us know
Taken: if you see a Wanted post and think, "Hey, I'd like to do that!"

So...let's discuss.

But, (ducking) speaking of promoting the Cafe Press stuff, we have a new section now, featuring Humanist gear to go along with the talk by Melvin Lipman, President of the American Humanist Association, which I just transcribed in pieces at my Religious Left blog, and have gathered the whole thing onto one web page here.

Click the graphic above to visit the Humanist gear section.

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