I want to revamp Aqoul completely, maybe even reconsider the mandate (broader than MENA?). Definitely invest in a newer, faster platform.

Ideas?

Why would you invest in a faster platform? Is the site really being swamped by the twenty-odd posts that have been made over the last few months?

If you really have time to put into Aqoul, I'd suggest that you work on getting guest authors, preferably notable (or notorious)ones. While your authors, quite understandably, burn out a bit after a while, the readership doesn't, not, at least, so long as their are fresh and interesting posts to read. I think you'd also find that some interesting guest authors would also re-energize some of the current authors. Nothing perks up little C's ears faster than having a new person to excoriate.

As for broadening Aqoul's mandate, that's a big mistake from a marketing standpoint. You need to sharpen your brand, not blur it, especially on the Internet. There are a million (actually, probably more like 10 million) sites for general commentary. But Aqoul, with its classical liberal approach to MENA coupled with commentators who actually had practical experience of the region, was relatively unique.

I agree with Anonymous. Just need to get my act together and start posting.

It takes up to 15 seconds to post a comment, for one thing. It's not the current volume that's problematic, it's the total volume of posts and comments on Aqoul's platform.

From an editorial standpoint, there's lots of work to be done but it shouldn't be hindered by the technology.

Point taken on the marketing/brand standpoint. I was concerned about the same thing.

Hmmm.

Well, as the evil instigator, my thoughts.

First, many thanks to Shaheen for stepping up.

Second, if Eerie wants to revamp, I can hardly disagree. However, I would love to revive the long dormant sub-blog idea for our dear Ibn Kafka, were he still interested, which might also allow a Maghrebine and Francophone (ahem same same...) guest posting option.

Third, on brand and focus, I largely agree with Anon.; we are possibly the only classic liberal blog on MENA around. At the same time we have always been "non-ideological" with posters who are not necessarily classic liberals across the board. E.g. Ibn Kafka, as a key guest. Of course one has to be tough, but I think rather clearly tough audience but fair and not bloody Right or Left Bolshevism is a good quality for a blog.

However, I think I understand Eerie's thinking to be toward broadening mandate to include some areas peripheral to MENA (Central Asia, even India).

This is a tweak. I do believe, just as European Muslim issues tied mostly to the Maghrebine diaspora have been welcome, we should certainly be more open to Asia and Africa, to the extent it touches on the MENA theme - or to put it another way, in MENA any topic is core. On "MENA & Neighbours" it should be clearly linked back to Islam or MENA relevant Emerging Markets concerns, e.g. India and Pakistan market and economic issues w/o any ref. to Islam. This stays core but at the same time opens up added thoughts.

I entirely agree re not becoming general.

Regarding guest authors, I should think we need to sex ourselves up again after our dormant period, before we shall attract interest. Although Anon is quite right in his quest for Truth that I do best when sparring. Else I get bored.

Structure.

Here I have some more fundamental issues.

Due to our front page structure, which is fairly short, we have some etiquette constraints. I have refrained from posting (and then forgotten to post) due simply to not wanting to push down too far the Front Page stories with a short item.

Say, to take my obsessions, MENA Econ, Finance, & Biz arties. Given time constraints sometimes I only can make a one para comment - especially of late. At the same time, the link & short comment reference item we have does not fit my style.

However I like our present format overall.

I would suggest - and this is for the readers, and if Eerie finds it feasible - these innovations:
(i) Creation of major "subject matter" specific sub-blogs (Headliners) - Econ, Soc, Etc.
(ii) Integrate Review posting into this, Book Review becoming a sub-blog, with reviews appearing on main page when posted
(iii) option to post only to the sub-blog (perso, subject) or sub-blogs
(iv) author understanding that main blog is "Front Page" and if rather active, lighter, shorter pieces go to sub-blog and will show up below as the present Perso blogs do (which become just another sub-blog set).

I see the code challenge as being able automatically pull out of a sub-blog a properly identified (for "Main" or whatever) arty/post. I think though that this is not too terrible, we would just need to impose some standardization on the main category level, even with Perso sub blogs.

Some added thoughts:

However, I would love to revive the long dormant sub-blog idea for our dear Ibn Kafka...

The performance problem is why I haven't done this. The platform we're using now was not really intended for this level of blog integration or traffic. It scales poorly, which is why it needs to be fixed.

Re: branding, the only reason I wanted to expand the mandate was to get rid of MENA "fatigue" and give authors a wider range of topics.

Overall, I think Aqoul would start to seem more like a newspaper, with specific topic areas, and maybe feature items in each topic area (a drive-by link should not displace a story that someone spent weeks researching).

(BTW a recent bit of luck allowed me to sit in on the editorial process of a major newspaper, so there is much that could be applied here).

I also want to widen and lengthen the design, to make it less text-heavy and possibly allow for better presentation of feature items, etc.

Re your proposed innovations, I think we can use the Categories function to create topic-specific sections (e.g. Society & Culture, Business, Religion, Politics, Reviews), and have Editors flag entries as "Features" so they appear prominently on the front page (perhaps even with a stock photo). I am oversimplifying, but this approach is more efficient than juggling multiple sub-blogs.

That said, authors should continue to have sub-blogs for a variety of administrative and archival reasons.

By the way, don't let the current platform (or technology in general) constrain your thinking. Dream stuff up and I will make it happen.

Regarding guest authors, I should think we need to sex ourselves up again after our dormant period, before we shall attract interest.

Quite right. A year or two ago it would have been a different story, but now the brand needs some sprucing up and dusting off.

I would suggest that Aquol not be shy in its quest for guest authors. The rule to live by is "Don't ask, don't get." For example, Aqoul should have extended an invitation to Wafa Sultan or Tariq Ramadan, or, better yet and Tariq Ramadan, preferably at the same time. Now there's some good bloggin!

The point is to think big and go for it, at worst, they say no. But eventually, someone will say yes and you'll find that success and notoriety feed on themselves.

Granted, Wafa-wrangling would take a lot of time and effort which, quite likely, Eerie doesn't have to spare at the moment, what with her efforts to assemble her new skull-throne she bought from Ikea. But maybe she could draft someone. I nominate Matthew as he apparently has nothing to do all day apart from thinking up horrible puns. Giving him a proper interest in life would be a kindness . . . to all of us.

If you haven't seen this yet, it's hilarious:
Hillary's Downfall

"I nominate Matthew as he apparently has nothing to do all day apart from thinking up horrible puns."

Do you honestly think those puns required thinking?

Actually I have alot to do all day, some of it word-play unrelated, I just don't blog about it because I have a real name.

I do nominate dubaiwalla for the task because he really doesn't have anything to do all day, except have a good time, as evidenced by his unwillingness to do anything on Sunday a.m.

On scope, I think

(BTW thanks to Shahine for the link, the rendition between German and English is hilarious, quite clever pseudo translation)

They sell skull-thrones at IKEA?
I really have to get out more.
That Shaheen link was totally tasteless, rude, crude, and, forgive me, hilarious. I don't think Hillary will ever live down her speech from the bunker. How tone-deaf can you be?
I truly wonder what her speech tomorrow will be like. I hope she realizes she has to redeem herself.
As for eerie's plans, I suspect a plot to take over the world. Starting with MENA was, I must say, a stroke of genius.

Did Iranian agents dupe Pentagon officials?

Eh, those IKEA skull-thrones are terrible. They don't even use real skulls, just bone particles held together with glue.

In the Iranian story, read between the lines, the foreign intelligence interest hinted at is clearly not the Islamic Republican of Iran (the parties were connected with Iranian exile networks and names like Franklin come up, and they were plotting the overthrow of the Iranian gov't), I think they are hinting at other I-word country foreign intelligence agencies.

If we're still discussing how a new aqoul platform should function, I'd like to see linkable comments. That would be nice. And perhaps a better search function, though I usually use a google site search anyway, so that's mostly for show. And maybe the news aggregator could have collapsable/expandable links filtered by source.

No relation to site design, just stupid/funny. As you may or may not know, the question of Iranian support for the Zaydi rebellion in northern Yemen has been fiercely disputed for four years now, with no solid evidence either way. It is of course very important in the context of constant Washington chatter about bombing Teheran, should Ahmadi-Nejad so much as spit in the general direction of a US ally. Here, the awesome correspondent of the Washington Post manages to solve it just by looking at a government-provided video of rebel leader Abdelmalik el-Houthi:

A video seen by The Washington Post, and confirmed by officials, shows the rebel commander sitting cross-legged on the dirt in talks with Yemeni officials, a few miles from the Saudi border. Teenage bodyguards in green uniforms stand behind him. Abdul Houthi's [sic] dark hair is combed flat to the side, and he wears a dark suit with a dark open-neck shirt and no tie, in the fashion adopted by many Iranian men. The bulge in his cheek, from khat, the leaves that Yemenis chew as a mild stimulant, is the only sign that Houthi is Yemeni instead of Iranian.

Yes! Casus belli overcomb! As for the reporter, I imagine she was wearing some sort of clown suit.

If we're still discussing how a new aqoul platform should function, I'd like to see linkable comments. That would be nice. And perhaps a better search function, though I usually use a google site search anyway, so that's mostly for show. And maybe the news aggregator could have collapsable/expandable links filtered by source.

Linkable comments, easy. I would likely switch to Google search in the future (keep meaning to, but why do it now if I'm going to rebuild everything anyway).

I am still thinking about the news aggregator because back when I first built it, RSS-fetching wasn't very mature as a technology/idea. Now you can do much more, so it should be an interesting exercise. However, I may leave that till last.

Actually Matthew, I'm afraid I'm busier now than when we last spoke. I use my Sunday AMs to catch up with things I've been unable to do during the week. But there is one prominent guest author I might be able to bring in, so I will talk to eerie about that at some point.

Well take a poke at it DW.

Returning to the scope question, I think that keeping the theme MENA & Islam is solid. It allows talking about Ex MENA issues when it is close enough to interest, without excessive dilution. Generally, for Aqoul main blog my thinking is the scope control is that particular nexus (thus we can blither on about French politics like good Maghrebines do, or USA politics like Machreqi depending on the circumstances - although the later is tedious and overdone).

Funny if you're not lebanese.

http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2008/06/09/troubles-sociaux-meurtriers-au-maroc-et-en-tunisie_1055648_3212.html

In French, demonstrations degenerate in Moroccan and Tunisian south. The populace expects daddy government to give them jobs, while regimes are too incompetent or corrupt to dynamise economies. As a result, army, police, the usual stuff, dead folks.

Interesting piece on Lebanon, which may be of interest to some here:
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2008/06/a-visit-to-the.html

Dear Klaus,

It was in Saudi, so it will be filed under "we don't expect them to do things right".

Duaneg,

We'd discussed it a few days ago on Josh Landis' SyriaComment. A very good piece & a rare glimpse into the inner sanctums (sancti?) of the various power brokers by someone who isn't pro or con.

--MSK*

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/world/middleeast/11egypt.html

Comments? Is this a fair portrayal?

Dear Anon,

I think this article should be put up as its own post & then commented on.

--MSK*

MSK,

Nobody has picked up your suggestion. I hope this isn't a sign that the recent flurry of posting here is now over!

See if someone bites on this one then: long story that explains why Ayaan Hirsi Ali = Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave abolitionist hero.

Next week: Survey. Who was most like Ayan Hirsi Ali, Jesus Christ or Buddha?

No fair linking the Weekly Standard.

Next week: Survey. Who was most like Ayan Hirsi Ali, Jesus Christ or Buddha?

Easy. Jesus. He was thin, circumsized and widely known to be full of holes.

Jesus: Rode a velociraptor
Hirsi Ali: Not so much.

Advantage: Jesus.

So, alle...any words on the new Swedish surveillance law?

No. All is well in the Kingdom. I love the government.

And the government loves you right back.

Very good article on Sudan.

Short version: no way out for anyone.