Metanet Forums

So I had this idea the other day, and whether it has been done before or not is not really important to me, but I thought it was pretty cool nonetheless. Anyway, I have an empty journal here, and thought it would be neat to hear from the world. The idea is to write in the journal, mail it to someone so they can write in it, and then they can mail it to someone else, and so on and so forth. When the journal comes to the last page, there will be an address (mine) so that the last person may be able to mail it back to me. Perhaps then I could scan/upload the pages and share with the world, well, the world. Or at least part of it. Here is my plan thus far:

THE RULES
1) When you receive this journal, feel free to write, draw, or put anything you'd like in it.
2) One page (front and back) per person, please.
3) Once you have satisfied yourself, mail this to someone you know, so they may continue the journey.
4) Spread the word! (I may put up a website where we can track the journals journey or something)
5) If you've come to the last page, please mail it back to the address listed.
6) Have fun, be creative!

FORMAT:
Name: (optional, I suppose)
Location: (Vague or specific)
Entry: Write about your day, draw something, put in a photo, whatever comes to your mind. Note these pages may be posted/published online or elsewhere someday, so be discreet if you'd like, but certainly don't be shy!

Comments, suggestions? I may like to start this off by mailing it to a staff member, simply because if I mail it to my direct family I won't get as interesting a response (I know these people already, geez!).

well that's a neat idea! my only problem is that if the journal's intended for anyone in the world to use, it's a slim chance that many Metaneters will get a chance to use it.

bobaga_fett wrote:well that's a neat idea! my only problem is that if the journal's intended for anyone in the world to use, it's a slim chance that many Metaneters will get a chance to use it.

Depends on how many know each other well enough to send it through to them.

This is actually a really awesome idea.
If you can avoid handing it off to people who'd probably keep it or lose it or eat it or something, it may actually work. Maybe it's just my pessimistic side, but it seems to me that having to mail it to someone would deter lots of people, even if you'd get way more interesting results if you try to send it around the world.

Maybe you should put in rules like "every tenth person must send this journal to someone outside of his city" and "every twentieth person must send this journal out of his country."

Tsukatu wrote:This is actually a really awesome idea.
If you can avoid handing it off to people who'd probably keep it or lose it or eat it or something, it may actually work. Maybe it's just my pessimistic side, but it seems to me that having to mail it to someone would deter lots of people, even if you'd get way more interesting results if you try to send it around the world.

Maybe you should put in rules like "every tenth person must send this journal to someone outside of his city" and "every twentieth person must send this journal out of his country."

Yeah, I figured there could be a chance it got lost. Also it would be a really long time before I ever got it back, but I think it would be a fun surprise for when I did. I'll put in some rules regarding location and to have everyone try to send it out to interesting places.

Maybe have something like: "Mail me a scanned copy of your journal entry at (address) when you mail the journal on to the next person." That way, you know it's keeping on going, and you get to see what's being put in it as it happens.

golfkid wrote:Maybe have something like: "Mail me a scanned copy of your journal entry at (address) when you mail the journal on to the next person." That way, you know it's keeping on going, and you get to see what's being put in it as it happens.

Hmm, I think I would rather be surprised, but as I said previously perhaps there would be a website where we could track its progress via notices by people who receive the journal and put it up on the site.

Yeah that sounds like a really cool idea. I think you're best off letting it roam a bit. As long as you make it clear that everyone should try to send the journal to someone who they trust to send it along, it should hopefully make it back to you at some point. You could package it with a bunch or folded up envelopes and stamps to encourage people to send it on. That could make it a bit expensive, but not more than twenty dollars for sure.

Great idea, I look forward to contributing.

Brilliant idea. I'd love to participate in this.

as would i. sounds like a good idea. so this is going out to everyone in the world, then, not just metanetters?

Life247 wrote:

FollowTheJournal.com (available)

Have a picture of it on the first page. The cover should be very distinct; imagine seeing someone say, sitting next to you on a plane, writing in it. It'd be a great conversation-starter.

A few necessary things to have on the site are:

• a list of location the Journal has been
• a Google Map with a 'tracker' to follow the Journal (hence, the title)
• an application to recieve the Journal (more on that below)
• possibly a page with scanned entries

It would be near impossible to ensure the safely of this Journal based on sending it out randomly, so I think people should apply to receive it. You (capt_weasle) would manage a list of possible receivers on the Web site. After a person adds an entry, they should receive the next location to send it, to make sure that the Journal would be placed in good hands. The selection could be a simple random name off a list.

Great idea, I look forward to contributing.

Hmm, I think that would be a great deal of unnecessary work. The point of this is to reach out to people I've never met before, and having people apply for it would only draw in people I know. Even if unkowns applied, there still would be no way to ensure the safety of the journal. I think, despite the risks, it would be best to send it off at random.

yungerkid wrote:as would i. sounds like a good idea. so this is going out to everyone in the world, then, not just metanetters?

I will likely start with a metanetter, likely an Admin simply because they can be trusted with it for starters, and they can send it off to people I don't really know, or even other metanetters. Perhaps we could send the journal off to 5 or so of us to start off, then continue at random.

I was under the impression that this would be a Metanet only project. Like, we'd have this definitive journal where each of the members contributed a page.

Whatever you want though.

Like I said, we could do part of it Metanet-only, but I would like to see this get out beyond our community.

I'd love to offer web hosting (of which I have copious quantities) and design/development assistance on the web end. I can assemble most of such a system from the codebase of another system that's currently running.

I would love to contribute in this; I actually know a few metanembers in my city. I also know a few other people who would love to do this too.