Saturday, April 03, 2004
FAQs
Answers to common questions about 201k:
Q. Is the "we" some sort of pretentious royal op/ed "we"?
A. No. 201k is the collaborative effort of several people (though all entries are posted by the Editor), none of whom are professional journalists. It began as an informal group of like-minded individuals sending emails to each other, grew into a large email list, and then into a blog. Ideas are still bandied about mostly by email, and the Editor turns them into posts.
Q. What does the name "201k" mean?
Originally, in August and September of 2002, 201k concerned itself strictly with the intersection of money and politics. The name 201k was a lame joke from political commentator Paul Begala: that George Bush had "turned people's 401k's into 201k's." Ha-ha.
After a year's hiatus, 201k restarted in September, 2003 as a full-service political blog. We kept the name because it was already linked to by other websites, was in the search engines, and because we're lazy -- but we added the sub-title "A Commonwealth Perspective", which we think is a pretty good name.
Q. Are you a man or a woman?
A. Of the four main contributors to 201k, two are women and two aren't. The Editor is married to one of the two main contributors that isn't a man.
Q. Why do you refer to your readers as "Poor Readers"?
A. That's just a little in-joke that goes back to when 201k was an email list. It's a term of endearment.
Q. You sometimes use the phrase, "Poor thing" to refer to people. Are you some sort of arrogant male elitist?
A. No. That's another little in-joke; it's from the movie "Harvey".
Q. Do you accept submissions?
A. Yes, but we reserve the right to edit. Use the email address under Jack's photo.
Q. You frequently print positive reader email, but rarely negative ones. Why is that?
A. Because we can do whatever we want. Also because we receive 95% positive email (though our email obscenity filter might be the reason for that). And also because, quite honestly, most of the negative emails we get are unbelievably stupid, childish, off-topic, irrelevant, or just plain nutty. Unless they present comic possibilities they're not worth the bother.
Q. If you publish a reader's email, will you print the email address?
A. For positive email no, unless specifically requested to do so. For negative email you take your chances.
Q. Do you ever go back and change previous entries?
A. On a very limited basis; usually only to correct typos and grammatical errors, and very occasionally to fix a factual error -- but only, in that case, if it does not substantively alter anything relevant to the essential point of the entry. There is no professional editing process, so typos and mistakes get through, which we do go back and correct when they're pointed out.
Also, from time to time Blogger makes format changes that require our going back and updating older posts to maintain stylistic uniformity. An example is post titles, which Blogger did not have when 201k started.
But if we discover anything essential in a 201k entry that turns out to be wrong, i.e., factually incorrect, we'll make a correction in a subsequent entry and add a note to the original entry. So we try to have a little integrity, despite our being amateur cranks.
Q. A link in an old 201k post doesn't work anymore! What should I do?
A. Oh No! Sadly, we can't control this. We'll try to include at least some of the text from a link, where possible, so that future generations studying 201k will know what was being referenced if links disappear. But we don't go back and check for this, so if you see one let us know.
Q. Do you grant interviews?
A. Only by email.
Q. Are you affiliated with a political party or candidate?
A. No.
Q. Why do you hate America?
A. We passionately love America, which is why we make time to write this blog. We appreciate our good fortune to have grown up in a free society, and desperately want our children to have the same opportunity.
Q. Is the "we" some sort of pretentious royal op/ed "we"?
A. No. 201k is the collaborative effort of several people (though all entries are posted by the Editor), none of whom are professional journalists. It began as an informal group of like-minded individuals sending emails to each other, grew into a large email list, and then into a blog. Ideas are still bandied about mostly by email, and the Editor turns them into posts.
Q. What does the name "201k" mean?
Originally, in August and September of 2002, 201k concerned itself strictly with the intersection of money and politics. The name 201k was a lame joke from political commentator Paul Begala: that George Bush had "turned people's 401k's into 201k's." Ha-ha.
After a year's hiatus, 201k restarted in September, 2003 as a full-service political blog. We kept the name because it was already linked to by other websites, was in the search engines, and because we're lazy -- but we added the sub-title "A Commonwealth Perspective", which we think is a pretty good name.
Q. Are you a man or a woman?
A. Of the four main contributors to 201k, two are women and two aren't. The Editor is married to one of the two main contributors that isn't a man.
Q. Why do you refer to your readers as "Poor Readers"?
A. That's just a little in-joke that goes back to when 201k was an email list. It's a term of endearment.
Q. You sometimes use the phrase, "Poor thing" to refer to people. Are you some sort of arrogant male elitist?
A. No. That's another little in-joke; it's from the movie "Harvey".
Q. Do you accept submissions?
A. Yes, but we reserve the right to edit. Use the email address under Jack's photo.
Q. You frequently print positive reader email, but rarely negative ones. Why is that?
A. Because we can do whatever we want. Also because we receive 95% positive email (though our email obscenity filter might be the reason for that). And also because, quite honestly, most of the negative emails we get are unbelievably stupid, childish, off-topic, irrelevant, or just plain nutty. Unless they present comic possibilities they're not worth the bother.
Q. If you publish a reader's email, will you print the email address?
A. For positive email no, unless specifically requested to do so. For negative email you take your chances.
Q. Do you ever go back and change previous entries?
A. On a very limited basis; usually only to correct typos and grammatical errors, and very occasionally to fix a factual error -- but only, in that case, if it does not substantively alter anything relevant to the essential point of the entry. There is no professional editing process, so typos and mistakes get through, which we do go back and correct when they're pointed out.
Also, from time to time Blogger makes format changes that require our going back and updating older posts to maintain stylistic uniformity. An example is post titles, which Blogger did not have when 201k started.
But if we discover anything essential in a 201k entry that turns out to be wrong, i.e., factually incorrect, we'll make a correction in a subsequent entry and add a note to the original entry. So we try to have a little integrity, despite our being amateur cranks.
Q. A link in an old 201k post doesn't work anymore! What should I do?
A. Oh No! Sadly, we can't control this. We'll try to include at least some of the text from a link, where possible, so that future generations studying 201k will know what was being referenced if links disappear. But we don't go back and check for this, so if you see one let us know.
Q. Do you grant interviews?
A. Only by email.
Q. Are you affiliated with a political party or candidate?
A. No.
Q. Why do you hate America?
A. We passionately love America, which is why we make time to write this blog. We appreciate our good fortune to have grown up in a free society, and desperately want our children to have the same opportunity.
