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The Directory is going to need your help to sustain, fellow ‘Sloggers’, since there’s no automatic way to capture new Salon Blogs, or determine which ones have become dormant (i.e. haven’t posted in more than 30 days), or which have been reactivated, left the Salon community (e.g. switched to another blog tool). Many new numbers in the blogs.salon.com sequence are never used. I’m suggesting that we only list active Salon Blogs (those with at least one post in the last 30 days), of which there are about 190 at any one time. If you’re going to be away for over a month but your blog says you’re coming back, we’ll keep it on the active list. I’ve found about 140 active Salon Blogs so far — help me find the missing 50!

Here’s how it will work: I’ve set up the first draft of the Directory (very incomplete) on my blog as a sortable Excel file with the permanent URL http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/images/ActiveSalonBlogs.xls and highlighted it in on my left sidebar. I’ve also set up a special e-mail address called SlogUpdates@hotmail.com which anyone can use to notify me of changes. I’ve asked Scott Rosenberg to publicize the Directory’s existence and location especially for new Sloggers. Once a month or so I’ll post the key fields from the current Directory as a daily article (as I’ve done below) to give it greater visibility.

Now here’s where you come in:

1. The most important information has to come from you, the blog owners. The information needed for each blog is:
• Name of the blog, Salon Blog number and URL.
• Author’s name, geographic location, e-mail address and author’s age (disclosure of these is entirely at the discretion of the author; I’ve shown it only when it is listed on your blog).
• Author’s own description of their blog (max. 40 words). I don’t believe any of the suggested blog ‘categorizations’ are meaningful, especially around here. A short description in your own words is a more flexible way of capturing the essence of each blog. I have used the ‘blog description’ from your blog for now, but you are welcome to send me some alternative wording for the Directory.
• Usage data: I have posted, and will update each month, the date of first post, date of most recent post, number of hits in the last month, and number of inbound blogs for each blog.
2. Please send me details on any missing and new Salon Blogs, and errors in the Directory. I promise to post any updates I receive at least once a week.
3. Please publicize and/or blogroll the Directory, and feel free to publish all or part of it on your own blog.
4. Tell me how this Directory can be made more useful. For example, if you’re willing to help new Sloggers by e-mail with technical and other problems, let me know and I’ll add you to the ‘Help Team’ (column L).

That’s all there is to it. The very incomplete first draft is here. Let’s see if we can make Salon Blogs a real community.