What content do you most naturally want to read?

[Mr. Subversify]

Vote with your gut reaction, don't overthink this.

[karlsie]

In all honesty, i had to hesitate before submitting an answer. It was as hard for me as deciding on my favorite color. (I think the next time somebody asks me that question, i'll tell them my favorite color is earth) I love all aspects of writing, and almost hit humor first. However, this is why i held back. Humor is only meaningful if you understand why the writer is poking fun. Although i find commentaries delicious, commentaries are evoked by the reception of information. I reflected to myself, when i read the newspaper, what do i check out first? The headlines. The headlines inform me of what the general slant will be for that day.

Stacy, we're on the same page again, but my own thoughts about "continued interest" took off in a different direction. I keep quite a few websites tucked in my bookmarks, and the constant e-mail news filed at my address. I find i use them most often for research or a quick update, but i often abandon my interest in them as a source of entertainment. My question to myself, has been, "at what point do i lose interest".

One obvious answer is when the site begins repeating the same things over and over, along with a petition for money. Repetitive as opposed to re-inforcement; and then comes along another situation; when the re-inforcement is complete.

Purely commentary sites do a lot of re-hashing. There comes a time when the comments become predictable in accordance to the issue and slant of the online site. Those that maintain my interest have a consistent creativity involved. When issues arise, i become eager to see what the opinions will be of the writer; or how those opinions will be presented. I like to be surprised. I like to be delighted. I like to be stimulated into thinking, inspired into acting. I think this magazine has been doing a good job at it so far. I've actively enjoyed all the submissions, but as a progressive individual, i constantly look forward to more. I want to see a constant development of each style within the actve contributors of this little group. I want readers to look forward as eagerly as i do to each new submission; each perhaps for a different reason, but it doesn't matter as long as there's something about the magazine they enjoy. I wouldn't want our magazine to fall into a click and dismiss reiteration like so many sites become. It needs to grab the imagination and hold it.

[Maya]

Whoa! Gut instinct? I tried, but have been influenced by that one vote already posted. Satire humor was my first thought, but too much can get sickening. Nice poll though.

[grainnerhuad]

Look, I think we can roll all the catagories up in a ball and present them all together. A ficitonal, piece that is informative and full of satire, presented in a graphic novel manner along with running commentary. But that could get a little involved... Hmmm. I think it takes all the ingredients to make a nice piece of cake. News I think would be the hardest to present in our current format. Not having a reporter dedicated or funding for said reporting puts a kink in things.
But I vote for diversity.

[TLMW]

The magazine should be publishing voices that are not being heard elsewhere. So take note of what is sacred in American society today: patriotism, religion, capitalism. Anything that runs against the current would be a fresh new voice.

[Maya]

It seems like we are running slim on ideas. I think it's time to cast another thread of angry bullshitting for the hell of it. Maybe we'll perspire something inspirational.

[grainnerhuad]

Thing is, I'm not feeling particularly angry, simply introspective. You got something to be mad about Maya?
Oh wait, I am a little peeved that the world is on edge when there are conflicts regarding religion such as Gaza, Afghanastan, China/Nepal. When I write about these I get all kinds of bickering and talk. Hell even sex trade in Thailand is exciting to talk about....no suprise. But post anything about Africa, which has not truly been at peace for...well forever....and you can hear crickets. Is is prejudice? Collective Imperial Guilt?
As Mike Myers said in his Saturday Night live Sketch "Discuss amoungst yourselves"

[Maya]

Nah, I am not mad about anything. Just sad that the world cannot come to terms when it comes to the happiness of the people. It hurts inside. I can't help but smile at your courteous and thoughtful reply. It makes sense. I've thought of Africa and how it's people are left neglected. It's all about the money I say. People are afraid of Africa, they worry about contracting HIV if they approach the topic, let alone send an advocate out there. Although there are people out there fighting in the name of thy nation.

Gee, I wonder if any of the African power elite can convince a politician or two in speaking on their cause. Forget speaking, acting. I'll hush now.

[grainnerhuad]

African Power Elite? I didn't know there was such a thing. Seems to me it is fast becoming a group of young thugs that overrun everthing every 18 months.

[karlsie]

People generally are the most passionate about subjects they feel might, in some way, affect them. They are most willing to write about an issue if they have a strong opinion and it appears to them that their opinion is being jeopardized. Universally, it's agreed that the AIDS epidemic is horrible, yet as long as there are not storm troopers sweeping into the Western hemisphere with the express purpose of spreading the disease, most minds are content to tuck the problem into a pity chamber within the brain; one of isolation and quarentine. We conveniently and generously lavish pity as though pity is a salve for making all wounds better.

Pity, by itself, is rarely a productive appeal. We might pity the seven million unemployed, but as long we aren't among the number, the chances of actively seeking a solution to the unbalance is pretty slim. We pity the towns and villages so poor, they sought foreign aid to alleviate their energy crisis, but the pity doesn't motivate us to examine our energy program to make it more accomodating to our basic needs, nor does it stop us from appealing to a country whose politics we've openly criticized, in the interest of continuing an aid we've ransacked our treasury too much to care for ourselves. The pitied don't want this licensed permission to wallow in their misery. They want answers.

We all become introspective and quiet at times; when we are processing new information; when we are riding the waves of contentment that are slowly pulling us under the surface of barely defined perturbances into the stormy centers of additional conflicts. A mind that is not constantly changing, re-grouping and re-defining itself is a mind that has fallen into the opiatic spell of stagnancy. The objective writer can't afford this type of contentment as each new generation of readers will have absorbed its life and historical lessons, arranging its own conclusions. The stagnant fall over as dynosaurs of the past, with only the most progressive thinkers; the ones who found truths not only in their present dictums of reality; but their applications for the future, remain as guides into global awareness.

We are currently in the process of tipping over many dynosaurs. In the last hundred years, we've witnessed all the extreme ends of politics and their inevitable outcome. We've arrived at instant, global communications. From generation gap, we've reached many multi-generational understandings. I don't think it's a question of subject matter. The issues are out there to make of them as we will. The question should be; how do we carry people beyond pity, into involvement. How do we change passive acceptance into action? What type of actions would we like to see employed? Under the subtleties of news, commentaries and entertainment, this is the area where the pen becomes its most powerful.

[jen]

Okay, so I selected Commentary. That being said, I agree more with Grainne, and like a little bit of everything.