Friday, March 21, 2008

Magic Smoke - Opening up

I
wanted to share some info about the future of Magic Smoke, the journal.
Up until now, Magic Smoke has been your Friday pit stop, to get
Blogplugs and Guest Editor entries. This has been great on Fridays but
we would like to give you reasons to visit Magic Smoke, on other days
of the week also.  In short we want Magic Smoke to be
a community hub.

To that end, we
would like to have the JLand community participate
in this evolution of
Magic Smoke. So, we invite the community to host
their games, contests, photo challenges, trivia etc, on Magic Smoke.

You can also use Magic Smoke as
a bulletin board to announce events or activities
that you host on your journal.

We
would also like to hear from you, if you have anything to share with
the community at large, be it a shared journal that would be of
interest or some upcoming event that you would like the community to be
aware of.

Just send email to
journalseditor@aol.com and we can add you as a writer to this journal.
Just let us know what you want to
convey.


Questions, comments
welcome

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds great!  We will have so much fun!

Krissy :)
http://journals.aol.com/fisherkristina/SometimesIThink

Anonymous said...

Sounds dangerous.
-Paul
http://journals.aol.ca/plittle/AuroraWalkingVacation/

Anonymous said...

I really like this idea. I'll have to think about a topic to share.
Lisa

Anonymous said...

Itused to be a community hub when Joe had it.

Anonymous said...

The community Hub was the Blogfather, John Scalzi. And the front page of AOL Journals where you had the "photo of the week" listed, the Weekly Journal picks, quick access to the jnl. chat rooms. I understand all about the need for change, but it should be changed to something better!

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with the negative comments below.
We don't need an 'open' format, which in my mind will eventually feature the same repetitive voices over and over. There's enough of a 'cool' group/'outsider' mentality around here anyhow.
To me, that's just another AOL copout. We need an active journaler to RUN the site and make it a fun place to visit, just like Joe did. Isn't there someone at AOL willing to spend a half-hour a day making Magic Smoke viable?
I'm reasonably sure my suggestion will be ignored, but it still doesn't mean I'm wrong.

Dan

http://journals.aol.com/slapinions/Slap-Inionscom

Anonymous said...

Guido, is out of the country, but the internet closes that gap.  I believe he has created a more hub(or pub :-}) environment.  
With all due respect, this seems to be a PR effort on an official AOL journal asking:  Why don't you guys make our blog more popular?
(not that I should be totally against that, since I own Time Warner stock)

If it is run very well & interesting, it will become more popular on its own. ~Mary

Anonymous said...

It is a good idea, Vishy, but like some of the commenters below have stated, someone has to pull the cart to keep it going.

Anonymous said...

sounds like a good idea :o)

Jenny
http://journals.aol.co.uk/Jmoqueen/MyLife

Anonymous said...

The fairy tale is over.

Obama's pixie dust is wearing off.

A few in the corporate media are finally starting to reveal some details about this man's judgment.

I speak of Obama's long association with his spiritual advisor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Obama says he didn't know Wright was far, far left. While that is hard to believe, it says that Obama is not a very discerning judge of character. And it shows poor judgment for a presidential candidate to allow such an extremist to serve on his campaign.

Rev. Wright says AIDS was created by the US government to kill black people.

Come on!

"I didn't know about that man, Rev. Wright." Is that what Obama is telling us?

But there is more to come.

Obama's friend, William Ayers, is an unrepentent terrorist.

An Obama fund raiser, Rashid Khalidi, supports terrorists.

Wait till these tidbits come out. Maybe they won't release them till after Obama wins the nomination.

These associations with radicals show that Obama does not yet have the judgment nor the experience to be at the top of the ticket.

Anonymous said...

sorry. i didn't mean to post that twice. go ahead and remove one if you want. i guess you could remove both and this one too. it's your blog. but, freedom and democracy, freedom and democracy...

Anonymous said...

Hi scottsoperson,
How does your comment relate to the topic of the entry ? In my opinion, your comment does not belong here.

Vish

Anonymous said...

I think this is a grand idea.  Being as the once very appealing Journal's Welcome page was deleted we lost a lot of of the little stuff that I for one loved.  With the approach of Mother's Day a few select blogs featuring a mother's point of view or adventures would be highlighted.  The same for Father's Day and other occasions.  And sometimes, during a slow month, a random subject would be drawn from a hat or where ever the Blog-Gods kept them, and some blogs that fit the theme would be featured.  
There were features, spotlights, highlights but mostly it was recognition.  Everyone likes a little recognition now and then, especially when it is totally unexpected.  Like the Guest Editor spot here, although folks will congratulate each other for getting it, is a voluntary role, one must request it.  The AOL Journal Welcome Screen Features were selected by AOL and was in a sence an honor (at least for most of us bloggers) to be selected.  The trick was to keep the selections fresh and not keep featuring the same blogs or bloggers.  That I recall ruffled some feathers more than just once or twice.
I was disappointed in the loss of features that the Journal community has suffered over the past couple of years but I appreciate your efforts in bringing the sense of community back up.  It really was a grand thing back in the day and with the many talented bloggers out there it can be that way again.
Dorn~

Anonymous said...

Hi,there. I would like to say firstly that I don't know very much about Computers,!
I found "magic smoke" tucked away on our news blog.     AOL UK NEWS BLOG
we started on one particular subject on 2nd  August 2007. Since then it has become more interesting to such a pitch that the entries have just passed the 5000
mark.! Is this some kind of record for a "BLOG"? I don't think that any entries have come from "overseas" but all are welcome ! As I hope we are welcome on "MAGIC SMOKE".? Why not have a  'look-see'on us.? Even stop to say "hello"by making an entry!  my web address is    yorkfergy@aol.com   please call in.  Thank you. (This would really expand your community hub.) Greetings from England.....