Of course, a lot of that depends on constructive interaction from the entire community.

I’m not much of a commenter (maybe a handful of times in the years I’ve been coming to Neatorama), but I have been thinking of posting to the Queue because it intrigues me. And, I think, that’s what the Queue is all about. Getting all the Neatos out there to participate on the blog, not just by reading the blog.

My 2 cents

It will be interesting to come back in a year or so, and compare the content then to the archived content from before the change (to the bot), and see what the spawn of the Queuebot actually grows into.

IMHO noting good ever comes from anything with “bot” in its name.

I’m just sayin’

That’s certainly reasonable, and I wouldn’t argue that Queuebot posts are necessarily of lower quality as a rule; it’s just that with a limited amount of time to spend reading through blogs for fun I would prefer to at least have the -option- to only read the postings of ‘official’ bloggers. I just like having some means of divvying up my blog-reading time based on knowing whose blog posts I generally like or dislike. True, scrolling through Queuebot posts isn’t a -hugely- onerous task, but it is one more thing I’d rather -not- take on if possible.

As you say, though, if offering a secondary, Queuebot-free page is technically out of reach at the moment that’s understandable; I do hope that it can be placed high on the list of “Nice to Haves,” though <=)

could this be at least an option to keep everyone happy?

“I love the “closed” system of blogging where a single or group of bloggers act as gatekeeper. When we readers find a gatekeeper we like, we become faithful readers of that blog. It is why we are here.”

I read Neatorama and Boing Boing for the quirky choices of specific personalities. Blogs have a “feel” or sensibility of sorts that is a result of the individual bloggers.

blogs have an open community of readers not writers.

While we don’t yet have the ability to match identity to votes, please be assured that an editor will look through each and every one of the submissions and may promote your post even if it got downvoted out of the Queue.

@AJ – it’s a delicate balance to maintain friendliness of the blog as Neatorama grew over the years. Our “troll be gone” background picture in the comment box seems to help somewhat, but its effectiveness is wearing down …

I’m a firm believer that more openness is a good thing. I still think the Upcoming Queue will be good for the blog.

@twit – automated promotion has been de-emphasized, though it will remain a factor in the Upcoming Queue.

@Front page sans Queuebot posts – this is more difficult to achieve. I’m not convinced that quality and Queuebot are mutually exclusive – so please give it some time. I think we saw an irregular spike in dubious post quality that has been fixed. We can implement a “secondary front page” for those who dislike the UQ if warranted in the future. Maybe (I don’t know technically how to do that yet)

@Johnny cat : keep them Youtube videos coming! ;p

I keep thinking that it is the automation that is bringing down the quality that folks are used to on this blog. I just don’t know how an automated program could ever determine whether something is actually “neat.”

I’d love that too! I may not use an RSS reader but Im still sick of sifting through all the posts on here! Though we’ll have to wait and see if there’s a problem now with these new changes implemented….

Again I think a lot of the posts are pretty cool and neat but just need some “finesse” from the pros in terms of quality writing/descriptions.

Dan~rellimz, Neatorama fanboy.

A community-voting platform changes the voice of Neatorama and thus runs the risk of shedding Neatorama’s established readership as the community steers the blog in a new direction.

The perceived problem the Queue fixes will be replaced with a new one — maintaining Neatorama’s identity.

Keep up the good work!