Well, that didn’t really work out as planned, now did it? I published a call for participation, and then I extended the deadline, but when all was said and done only one person actually submitted something:
Check out the “Prof. Hacker Playlist” from Knitting Clio. Nice work!
I’m left wondering why more readers didn’t take a stab at this. Perhaps the idea of the “mixtape” is too archaic and I should gave gone with “playlist,” instead. Or maybe using a listening metaphor for an act of reading was confusing. Or it’s possible that–given the low participation of our other attempts at reader contributions–there’s just not much interest in such shenanigans.
What do you think? If you chose not to submit a list of your favorite ProfHacker posts, I’d be interested in learning why.
Comments
1. cheryl ball - January 19, 2010 at 02:36 pm
i loved the idea and wanted to post but have been pre-occupied with some significant tasks this past week. we thought about doing a mix-tape column in Kairos for a while, but it didn't pan out (folks are just too busy!). Sort of a recommendation of songs to listen to while reading the journal. :)
Also, I didn't post because, well, y'all blog a helluva lot and I can't keep up! (3x a day? I thought it was 3x a week. Rock on for being able to be so active!)
Still, keep it coming. Love what y'all are doing here.
2. Kaitlin - January 19, 2010 at 03:18 pm
If you're looking for which types of articles had the most impact on people, perhaps you could include some sort of voting or "like" feature (like Facebook) and post the top 10 every once in a while. Is that possible with WordPress?
3. richard - January 19, 2010 at 03:44 pm
The flu, that's why I didn't post one! Blech.
But I've continued to rely on the marking mixtape I set up for myself in December (via iTunes playlist), which ramdomizes these songs: Anna Nalick, "Citadel" The Arrogants, "The Moment's Gone" Ben Kweller, "Sundress" Cat Power, "Wonderwall" Richard Cheese, "Wonderwall" Oasis, "Wonderwall" Dan Mangan, "Fabulous" Dan Mangan, "Western Wind" DeVotchKa, "We're Leaving" Dido, "Life for Rent" Dirty Vegas, "Days Go By" Dog Called Dave, "Popadum" Dolorean, "Beachcomber Blues" Everything But The Girl, "Lonesome for a Place I Know" Garbage, "Only Happy When It Rains" Jonathan Coulton, "Baby Got Back" Keren Ann, "In Your Back" Lily Allen, "Too Big" Lily Allen, "Take What You Take" Oh Susanna, "I'll Keep It With Mine" Plain White T's, "Hey There Delilah" The Rosebuds, "Shake Our Tree" The Rosebuds, "Warm Where You Lay" Solar Twins, "Rock the Casbah"
4. richard - January 19, 2010 at 03:47 pm
Eeew, nice formatting. It looked like a plain list as I was writing it, in Safari on my Mac running OS 10.6.2....
5. Jessica - January 19, 2010 at 04:48 pm
Like Cheryl, I had planned to and then life took over. Maybe we should refer to jbj's time article? I thought it would take me just a minute to do, but then the mixtape anxiety set in. Is this the right grouping? Am I putting forward a coherent list? Etc. Until I just gave up and started prepping my classes.
I think it's a great idea, but I don't know how you can get us to do it.
6. Aeon Elpis - January 19, 2010 at 05:13 pm
I'm all for associating music with the activities of the semester. I didn't post because I typically assemble a mix at the end of the term instead of the beginning, more as a retrospective of what has passed than as anticipation of what is yet to come.
7. George H. Williams - January 19, 2010 at 06:32 pm
@Richard and @Aeon Elpis: I think you're confusing my mixtape metaphor (in which you would put together a list of several ProfHacker articles that would all go together nicely) with Nels' suggestion that you put together a mix of songs that would help you kick off the semester.
8. George H. Williams - January 19, 2010 at 06:35 pm
I think that's probably possible with the right WP plugin, Kaitlin, but that's not what I have in mind (though it's a neat idea, certainly).
I was looking for people to submit a mix of ProfHacker articles that go together well for whatever reason, in the same way that a good mixtape (or mix CD or playlist) features a bunch of songs that go together well, sometimes in unexpected and fun ways.
9. Billie Hara - January 20, 2010 at 02:47 pm
The "mix-tape" has such a powerful and unique meaning in our culture, and it's hard not to conflate the meaning with what you had intended here. Maybe next time, we can call it a "best of" series?
10. George H. Williams - January 20, 2010 at 07:32 pm
Except it's not "best of" anything, no more than a mixtape is the same thing as a "greatest hits" collection.
Clearly this is much more confusing to people than I had anticipated. Back to the drawing board...
11. richard - January 20, 2010 at 07:57 pm
No, not too difficult. Now that my H1N1 haze is fading, I can see that I just posted my songs in the wrong spot! I was looking forward to seeing these, because I'm new to the site and there's such a plethora of goodness that any kind of shortcut would come in handy.
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