The Mormon Archipelago

Revised edition 3.ii.05: welcome to New Cool Thang. In a Bloggernacle dominated by Target and Walmart (or the United States and the Soviet Union, or Manchester United and Chelsea - choose your metaphor), what are the Mom and Pop stores to do? What hope is there for the Lichtenstein's and Andorra's of this world? Should Tottenham Hotspur and Charlton Athletic even bother to show up? Membership of the Archipelago provides moral support to the small blogs and involves: 1. Displaying the logo (courtesy of Mr. Stapley's artistic skills). 2. Being willing (if your blog can do it and it won't totally mess up your site layout) to add a little RSS feed that will display the latest posts within the Archipelago. 3. Giving the Archipelagoan blogs a special subsection in your links. 4. Being open to ad-hoc guest blogging rotations and other collaborations. 5. Generally offering support to the other member blogs in any way you see fit. 6. Subscribing to the tenor of Eugene England's quote: "precisely in the struggle to be obedient while maintaining integrity, to have faith while being true to reason, to serve and love in the face of imperfections and offenses, we can gain the humility to allow divine power to transform." That's it basically. Nothing too pretentious, just a few bloggers offering a little extra friendship. Now, who can join? I hope this doesn't sound too Skull and Bones-ish, but it's an invitation only club. This isn't because we're total snobs, it's simply because we have no desire in taking over the 'Nacle. We think it would be a great idea if lots of the little blogs set-up similar small, strategic alliances. We don't want the Mormon Archipelago to be too big. We think small is good. At this stage, we imagine a membership of about 5. Blogs can come and go, of course, so it will hopefully remain fresh. And because this is a new enterprise we're going to add one blog at a time. We've had quite a few people say they are interested and are honoured. Please be patient, then, if we take things slowly. P.S. New members have to be agreed upon by all existing members. P.P.S. Journal blogs are not what we really have in mind. Welcome to the Mormon Archipelago: for all the little guys in the world. Email ronan at jhu dot edu.