I thought this would be a good time to take stock of the blog briefly, and get a sense of how you, the user and raison d’etre of the project, are feeling about it. To do this I have several issues, concerns, and/or questions I’d like to raise. The BIG issue comes at the end, so skip there if you must [points (6) and (7)]
- Do you like the directions the blog is going? I’m wondering if the topics I cover and the way I cover them are generally satisfactory and pleasing. Or not. The pattern I’ve fallen into is to make a post on one thing or another – often in response to a question – and watching that lead into a short thread, as the post generates interesting responses by readers which lead to posts on related issues which lead to other posts on yet other related issues, and so on. Is that OK, good?
- The posts tend to be 1000 words or just over. Is that OK still?
- Sometimes (often?) the posts involve taking an excerpt from something I’ve published in the past that is directly relevant to the topic. That seems to me to be the most economical way to handle the blog to me. If someone raises a question, and I’ve already expressed myself as clearly as I know how, in print, it makes sense not to re-invent the wheel and write out something from scratch, when I’ve already said what I want to say somewhere else. Even if a number of blog members read those paragraphs when they were published years ago, they probably don’t remember them particularly clearly. I know I don’t – and I *wrote* them! Is this procedure OK?
- About once a week I’ll repost a blog post from some years ago, on the assumption that most people on the blog weren’t reading it back then, and this allows me to keep talking about interesting things without simply ignoring things people found interesting years ago. The blog, as you know, is over six years old now, and I have posted 5-6 times a week every week, 52 weeks of the year, over this entire the time. You can do the math: that’s a lot of posts. Seems to me it’s OK to repost older posts. I myself, again, don’t remember them, so I’m sure most people who read them quickly three or five years ago don’t either! What do you think?
- For years now I’ve said (as I just did!) that I post 5-6 times a week; but over the past year I’ve settled into a rhythm of posting almost exactly five times a week, giving myself a day off twice a week, usually once midweek and once on the weekend. How’s that working? Is it enough posts? Too many?
- And now my big set of issues, the one I’m particularly concerned about. The comments. Here are the issues:
- I continue to receive, review, and post comments on every blog post. I have to read all the ones that come in because I am concerned that the comments are germane to the interests of the blog, are not needlessly political or otherwise irrelevant, and do not involve personal attacks on other members of the blog. I assume this is still a good policy. Yes?
- I answer all the ones that ask a direct question of me. As you know, my answers are short and to the point. I simply don’t have time for long disquisitions – I wish I did! But, alas. Still, I hope my answers are helpful. Are they? Or should I change something?
- The problem is that now I’m getting so *many* comments that I’m not sure how to handle it. This week, on two days, there were over a hundred (count them, over 100!) comments on a post. Some blog members submit many comments, and many of the comments are long. There is only one of me, and I have a day job. So I’m not sure how to handle this. I’m getting by now, but, well, what do you all make of the situation?
- I’m not willing not to approve all the comments personally (I don’t feel I can relegate the job to anyone else). And so far it is barely manageable. But I wonder if we will need to make any adjustments as we move forward.
- For now, let me make these strong recommendations/suggestions.
- I would suggest that those of you who make comments continue to do so – especially if you have one or two things that you would really like to say, that you would like me to read, that you would like others to read and interact with. I am always eager to see your thoughtful interactions.
- BUT, I would prefer it if you would pick your spots, rather than rattle off a large number of comments every day. There are nearly 6000 readers of the blog. If everyone made 10 comments of the day, then, well, I would clearly need a pay rise…. (OK, the pay for the blog is zero, but still…)
- As I have said on a number of occasions, I am not able to respond at length, especially to lengthy comments. Short comments of a paragraph are by far to be preferred.
- Moreover, you need to realize that *other* readers of the blog, whom you want to read your comments, in most instances simply will *NOT* read your comment if they see it is long or if they see you have made dozens of them. They won’t. They’ll just bypass them. So if you want to make an impact, you need to make them short and sweet.
- I look at the matter of comments as I do the posts themselves. If I posted twelve posts a day of 2000 words each – who would read them? No one. And they wouldn’t pick ones they were interested in, they would simply say FORGET IT! So too with comments.
- If you yourself have suggestions/comments/solutions about comments, please do let me know!!
- AND REMEMBER: there is also a “Forum” connected with the blog, where members can interact with one another directly, at their hearts content. I don’t moderate the forum, so you can go back and forth as much as you like. I’ll only intervene if I hear complaints and requests that I go in to rule the unruly nations with a rod of iron.
OK, that’s it for my queries and comments. If there are other ways that you think the blog can be improved, anything I can do to make it better, please let me know!
It’s befuddling how this blog keeps getting better when it’s so good it can’t be any better than it already is.
Some of your posts are such favorites of mine that I’m thinking the newer members might want to read them, too. “Why I’m Obsessed with Jesus on April 8, 2014” would be one of many. (Could send you a list should you decide to repeat certain ones.)
Great! I’ll repost it!
By *great* meaning send the list? (Maybe there are other long-time members with favorite posts for the newer members?)
I meant I’d repost your all time favorite!
One of my favorites is something you wrote as to the literary structure of the Gospel of Mark, that the author employed this to convey his arch message about who and what Jesus was
Bless you!
I find the blog to be an excellent informative/educational vehicle.
No need to Dr. Ehrman to reply to each post.
When reply posts are better directed to the forum, say so, and send it to the forum.
In blog posts, invite reply posts to be sent to the relevant forum topic.
Limit blog reply posts to a definite number of words.
Even if only 1% posts on the blog, that’s 60 posts. If they average 200 words,
that’s a lot of work.
Take weekends off. No blog posts, no approval of blog reply posts sent on weekends. Let subscribers
take the weekend off too.
Decide how to make this easy for you, set the rules and everybody will follow them.
Dr. Ehrman, I am a writer who has often contributed posts to blogs, so I have some sense of the daunting task it surely must be to post as prolifically as you do. I imagine the blog has become an umbilical cord you can never really cut. Your blog has become a part of my morning routine—I love it. I have also read all of your books. As far as content and the method you generate it, I would not change a thing. Your books and past blog posts provide an enormous database of cogent essays on the topics at hand, and even if I were to remember a specific passage reposted from a book (I generally don’t remember) I still enjoy rereading by way of reinforcement and as a reminder. In many ways, repetition is the backbone of academic study.
As far as managing the comments section—yikes. I know from experience (although at a much smaller scale than you’re facing) that reader interaction on blogs can be and often is a time black hole. For what it’s worth: I almost never read the comments on your site and only rarely post one. I subscribe to the blog because I’m interested in what you are thinking. But perhaps I’m unique. Perhaps the blog at some level has become a community of readers who enjoy interacting with you and other readers. Regardless, I wouldn’t be opposed to you shutting down the comments section entirely and allowing the forum to continue as the social venue. Instead of an “Add a Comment” section, you could have an “Ask a Question” area. The questions would go to you and not be a part of the public discussion. If you thought the question was interesting and worth of a response, you could answer it in a future blog post.
In any event, love what you do. Keep up the truly amazing work.
Have Larry Hurtado moderate your comments for a couple of weeks. You gotta be tough to survive on his blog.
He doesn’t suffer fools gladly….
Somehow I find the implication of that statement slightly disturbing …
Ah, right. But it’s just a saying….
Keep doing what you’re doing. I joined over a year ago and read from the beginning in 2012, got as far as mid-2015 before I gave that up and now only read new posts. I would be OK with even fewer posts per week if you’re overburdened. As to the comments, we have limits in many areas of life so perhaps a character limit would help. I’m sure your tech guy Steven could easily implement that. It would help you to manage more posts if they are shorter, the forum can be used for longer comments, and help readers who look at the comments more easily consume them. I worked hard to keep this under 500 characters. 🙂
Occasionally a question arises on a given thread that has nothing to do with the topic, and you are gracious enough to answer it. I can somewhat understand why someone would do this…I frequently have a question about something and I’m not sure what the best way is to ask. I also am hesitant to do so, realizing that answering ALL questions would be a full-time job (with OVERtime!) itself. What is the e-mail address for doing so?
Thank you again for doing this.
There is at least one poster who makes an ungodly amount of ridiculously long posts. Maybe Steve could impose a limited number of characters allowed in a single post and limit the number of posts allowed per day. Additional posts should be taken to the forum. I thought you were also personally (at one time?) moderating posts on the forum, but, if not, that should allow for greater spontaneity in individual or small group discussions.
That’s a good idea, Robert. I have a function.php snippet that would do the trick: limit a post to 5000 characters, not less than 60 characters per post. I will run it by Bart.
5,000 characters is still way too much. That translates to roughly 800-1,000 words assuming that spaces are counted.
I also support one post per day maximum and one question per post. I would also encourage people to use the search function as Bart has likely answered the question before, or referred someone to his prior work (books) that does answer the question.
This entire post of mine, for reference, is 149 words and 852 (including spaces) characters. Would we really want posts 6x longer than this? Also, Bart’s actual article (to understand the scope a 5K character limit) is just a bit over the 5,000 character word limit, at 5,928 (including spaces). Think of it this way – By imposing a rather strict word or character count on comments, you can create better writers out of all of us. Basically, we can learn to say more while typing less!
Your methodology is appreciated and your recommendations are spot on.
I feel you are doing an amazing job with this blog, especially given the fact that you also have a “day job”. Keep it up! I personally love the format and the direction. Seeing posts from before I joined is very helpful, as is seeing posts from your books, even if I’ve read that particular book. Thanks for this wonderful resource.
“…to rule the unruly nations with a rod of iron”. LOL! 🙂 Just make sure it doesn’t get smashed, as on the day of Midian (whatever the hell that means, anyway).
Do whatever is necessary to reduce the load you’re carrying. Health first–blog a distant second.
Thanks. Health is fantastic, knock on wood.
Dr. Ehrman,
I think the blog is fantastic! The way you have it set up is great. I am amazed that you can post and respond as much as you do. I am one that ask a question on almost every post. You always respond and I know it is going to be short, but it always answers the thrust of my question.
I think members should not take it personally if you don’t respond to every question (especially if the question is off topic). I am thrilled every time you respond. I think….Here is one of the world’s leading authorities on textual criticism and the historical Jesus responding to an amateur, but treating him with the respect real scholars receive.
Thanks so much!!!!
I think the current status is fine – don’t change it.
And thanks for reminding me about the member forum – I’d forgotten that it exists!
I guess I’m here for one purpose: to get you interested in researching the life Jesus actually had to live in a developed and even somewhat urban first century Galilee. Christians have created and accepted a stereotype of Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus all dressing alike and living alike. But they lived a thousand or more years apart. Jesus lived in the norms of first century Galilee. And once scholars establish what the geographic and social norms were, they can bring Jesus up to date–then they can start on Paul…. (And now I’ve made my point, I’ll quite wasting your time commenting on your other posts. : )
Tricia, You probably kknow, don’t you, that I’ve done research on those questions for forty years? (For many of those years the research has been virtually full time — the thing I do!) If you’d like to see what I’ve learned about it all, one place to start would be my book Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. Or my textbook The New Testament: A Historical Introductoin to the Early Christian Writings?
I checked out my old copy of Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet. Not what I’m talking about at all–just banging around inside the Bible and knocking out walls with logic. What if Jesus had a significant Jewish education in a city environment? What if Jesus, instead of being from Jewish peasant family, grew up in a more urban and significant Jewish community? What if he had a significant rabbinical education? Tiberias, founded sometime around 20 CE was made the capital of Galilee by Herod Antipas. It had a significant Jewish population. And it was established only 19 miles from Nazareth during the time of Jesus. He would have passed it on the way to Capernaum. Sepphoris, perhaps the birthplace of his mother Mary, has now been found by archeologists to also have had a significant Jewish population (40 mikvahs) (see National Geographic Dec. 2017). And Sepphoris lies only 3 miles from Nazareth. If his family life was a carpenter or builder, he would have grown up working in both cities. It’s time to step outside the Bible (box?) and outside the perspective of “rural” Galilee. That’s my point. (No need to post this in your blog. I realize now that it doesn’t fit there.)
But he didn’t. He grew up in a tiny impoverished hamlet, Nazareth. The sources are unanimous and clear on this point.
The “sources” may be clear. But if you look at the archaeology of the time, and the geographical and historical context of the area at the time, the “sources” appear to have been skewed by the religious narrative. The real world in Galilee under the Tetrarch Herod Antipas is separate from what Christian and Jewish writers were endeavoring to promulgate. His capital Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and Sepphoris were undergoing extensive building projects. Tiberias, a spa and trade center, would have been something Jesus grew up near to and walked by or through on his way to Capernaum, the home of Peter.
I’d suggest you read the book by John Dominic Crossan and John Reed, Excavating Jesus. As to walking around in Tiberias (or even Sepphoris), E. P. Sanders is completely convincing to me that it just didn’t happen (his book Jesus and Judaism).
For me, this is comparable to the controversy surrounding the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. The knowledge of royalty and court, the geopolitical and philosophical understanding evident in the plays could not have been created by an uneducated peasant. I tend toward believing the writer was Edward de Vere, Early of Oxford. Similarly, the intricate levels of Jesus’ parables, his understanding of the Temple structure and ability to counter the culture of the Pharisees and Sadduccees (and Samaritans). His ability to orchestrate an encounter with Pilate. And the original thrust of his religious teaching and philosophy–would not be possible for a rube growing up in the dirt of a village with a hammer and twine. I know that some Christians do maintain that, as the Son of God, he wouldn’t need an educated background. But I’m not one of them.
I would suggest a notifications button to know when a response has been done. The blog is fine an interesting for me.
I understand (and as a reader and sometime-commenter, applaud) your goal of making all the responses yourself –I.e. of not “farming the job out”.
But with an eye toward the goal of keeping the overall task manageable, might it be reasonable to go the middle route of using a “pre-reader”?
That is,
— many comments seems to be just that, I.e. Comments that don’t really require a response from Dr Ehrman. The “Filter” could just approve these.
— for comments that require an actual response, the “Filter” could pass these along to Dr Ehrman. (in the worst case, unfortunately –but perhaps inevitably– limiting the number of responses made per posting.)
All of this with an eye toward reducing the need of Dr Ehrman “handling” each and every comment, while still providing a reasonable, but manageable, amount of personal interaction
[The bottom line is that the path to unapproved/unmoderated comments leads toward madness. But Dr Ehrman needs to find a solution that works for him as well. The amount of effort that Dr Ehrman has been willing to invest in this blog and its comments is much appreciated by all its readers. But, alas, it’s starting to sound like this is not something that will be maintainable in the long run, as much as Dr Ehrman –and his readers– might regret this.]
I love the blog. I’m sure you and others have already thought of these, but here are my suggestions for comments.
1. Give a shorter maximum character count. Maybe not the length of a tweet, but the comment shouldn’t be longer than the blog post itself! Maybe 400 characters?
2. Give the user the option to tag the comment as either a question or insight, or just a comment.
3. Consider limiting the number comments/questions per user per month or at least per blog post.
4. Provide additional tiers that give higher paying users more in-depth responses or additional comments.
I realize this would all take work from your computer friend. just some ideas.
Ddormer: I’m good with the first three; not number 4. ????
I have two suggestions which might be more technical in nature. One: I do a lot of searches on this blog from my computer and mobile devices. Usually limited to a few words or a short phrase (ie. Paul, Jerusalem, Disciples). The results take an incredibly long time to return, and sometimes include posts that don’t seem to relate to what I’m searching for. Is there a way to speed this up, or help narrow the results? Second: I often view the blog on my phone. The blog shows up just fine, but the Member Content page first shows the page text, then list of “Archive of Posts”, the Search box and then “Bart’s Recent Posts”. It seems like I have to scroll a long way to get to the “Recent Posts” or Search. May I suggest moving the Archive to the bottom of that list? I’m curious if anyone else thinks these suggestions would help the overall usability of the blog.
1. I am quite happy with the content.
2. It’s OK with me if you post less often. I often don’t get a chance to check the blog on the weekends, anyway.
3. It’s your blog – OK with me if you want to impose limits on lengths or number of comments or questions. There’s no reason to allow someone to piggyback on your hard work by posting their own dissertations. (And yes, I just skip over the lengthy comments.)
4. I forget about the forum – maybe on certain comments you should just insert a message, like “Use the forum for this discussion.”
5. I think you’re doing a great job, but feel free to modify it for your own sanity.
1. I’m grateful for what you do.
2. I DO NOT read long responses to your posts, and there are a couple people who write long ones almost daily. I skip them because I’m not interested in reading diatribes.
3. I really enjoyed the guest on the blog a short while ago. I would REALLY like to get other perspectives once in a while by people you trust (this provides added benefit to me by letting me know who I can trust).
4. I would like to see you discuss major authors and their works, as well as whether or not you feel they add to the field.
While I would like to comment every day, it isn’t realistic and would be inconsiderate. As a personal rule, I try to limit asking questions to once or twice per month. It’s such a blessing that Dr. Ehrman actually answers our questions. I don’t want it to become a burden. So, I set a personal limit.
I’m not saying there should be a broader rule for the blog; but everyone who likes to comment should take a moment to think about how frequent is appropriate. Bart is trying to answer everyone who asks, which is far beyond what we could ever expect. Let’s help him out by keeping comments short, considerate, and appropriately frequent.
As for the length and frequency of blog posts; I’m A-okay with how it is. 1000 words/5x week is just fine. And I appreciate the blasts from the past, and excerpts from your books.
Dr. Ehrman,
I think your posting routine and content is fine.
I used to read all the comments but only do it occasionally now. I don’t know how you manage it.
Perhaps you could put limits on length and frequency of individual member comments – especially if those limits could be applied/enforced automatically. If someone wanted to submit a longer post, they could do it in the Forum.
Thank you for all your efforts to educate others and raise funds for the needy.
I’m good with the blog as it is. Five posts a week, including Blasts From the Past, is good. I don’t want the blog to wear you down; that would be wrong. I never read the long comments. Your answers to comments are helpful – brief is fine and realistic.
Take care of yourself. If you don’t do that, you won’t be able to take care of anyone else.
In most cases where people agree with what you post, I do not see the need for them to post a comment. .Perhaps limit comments to challenges to what you write?
I thoroughly enjoy the blog. I think 5x a week is plenty and the length and the topics are fine as they are. I wholeheartedly agree that the members need to keep their questions and remarks short. So having said that, I’ll stop right here!
It is time for ALL of us — and I DEFINITELY include myself! — to be considerate of Professor’s time.
He’s right about long postings (And I have been an offender!).
Let us resolve not to wear out our welcome(s), and try to be sparing with the frequency and size of our comments.
Professor — Did Jesus genuinely practice non-violence? Was Jesus the Mahatma Ghandi of his time. Was Jesus truly “the Prince of Peace”?
Many Christians think he was. Some of the bloggers on this very site think he was.
Personally, I think the whole idea of Jesus-as-pacifist is 20th century anachronism; non-violence as a philosophy didn’t exist back then, unless I suppose one counts Buddhism, but that never penetrated the Roman world of Jesus. Furthermore, It is possible to argue from the gospels that Jesus was not a non-violent pacifist.
Your opinion, please? Thanx,
He may not have been a pacifist in teh 20th century sense, but I do think that he told his followers not to engage in violent oppositoin to the ruling authorities — or in response to anyone else, even those who harmed them. God would take care of it. I may add this to my list of things to blog about.
Given the subject matter, and in spite of the fact that everyone posting has paid for the privilege (unless it’s a gift membership), I can see how you’d want to review every response. And I do wonder sometimes at where you find the time to do it, let alone respond to many of them.
I try to limit the number of times I make any response of mine a request for clarification from you. In many cases, I only respond as a way of trying to clarify my own opinions on the subject being discussed.
Of course, for any blogger, the worst case scenario is nobody caring enough to respond to an article. You don’t have to worry about that, at least. This is a subject that tends to inspire strong opinions, and sometimes even stronger emotions, positive and negative. Is there anybody who doesn’t have an opinion about Jesus and early Christianity? I’ve yet to meet him/her.
Dr. Ehrman,
I am a subscriber on your blog for the first year, but I can already say first of many to come.
I would like to see more “new” things on the blog, some new thoughts, rather than blasts from the past. That’s my 5 cents. But I am also happy the way things are, and do not want to sound unhappy. You simply are the best !
The members have different backgrounds. Some of us have read most of your trade books, and the topics are often familiar to us from years back. To other members this is not the case. Anyway, the comments and answers are often the most interesting! So repeated blasts from the past are quite all right. I think the members should contribute to the efficiency of the comments section, by first doing the homework on elementary matters, using Wikipedia and other googling options on the topic under discussion, and then try to produce brief, sharply pointed questions. And abstaining from lengthy expositions of personal, idiosyncratic views.
You’re doing just fine. Keep it up. If you want to change something, change it.
Your “big set of issues”…
#1 — A great policy! Moderating comments is a MUST in this day-n-age of internet Bullying. If you let it go or are complicit in its toxicity, it WILL depreciate/dilute the value of your blog. Chalk it up to human nature.
#2 — I feel your answers to Commenters Dr. Ehrman are indeed helpful. Members should always remember how very busy you are and it’s impossible to have 30-min indepth discussions with everyone!
#3 — Would you be comfortable in having 1-3 of your own grad-students filling-in for you (e.g. Proxies?) doing their BEST to represent your most probable replies? If they’re unsure, they defer to you. Those students would get some sort of extra credit for fielding these comments?
#4 — See #3 above.
To your “strong recommendations/suggestions”…
All 7 points are completely valid. The “issues” or struggles here Dr. Ehrman, if I may share my experience, fall primarily on us members — we need to be REALISTIC in regard to YOUR time and efforts! May I suggest you clone yourself into 3 or 4 more Dr. Ehrmans!!! (wink) GOD KNOWS (or maybe that should be ‘All the stars, galaxies, and the Quantum Mechanics that keep it all running!‘) we need a LOT MORE of Dr. Ehrman’s everywhere! Hahahahaha!
I’m afraid my grad students are completely inundated and overwhelmed with their own work. It’s a great suggestion though! Thanks.
What if instead of answering them, they filtered them for you, coming up with the simple questions to answer. This would keep you from having to read everything but could still have the answers.
Hey Bart! I’ve been a member for a few years now and loving it and still read it every time you post something. The content is always great. The only thing I’d like to see more of, as a veteran reader, is information about the second and third century evolution of Christianity. I’ve been watching lectures, for example, that argue John the Baptist was considered a co-messiah by some early believers. Would love to hear your thoughts on those sorts of topics.
Do you mean co-messiah (with Jesus) or alternative messiah (instead of Jesus). I’m familiar with the latter line of thought, but not the former.
Dead sea scrolls mention Messiah of Aaron and Messiah of Israel ruling together. Here’s one article connecting Jesus and John to these figures: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-d-tabor/waiting-for-the-messiahs-one-two-or-three_b_7454860.html?guccounter=1
Yes, but neither one of these is John the Baptist.
I very much support the reposting of earlier posts and see no problem with you pasting excerpts from things you’ve written in the past. Even if I remember it, which is highly unlikely, I get something new or , ah!, I’d forgotten that!
And, as you mentioned, I simply skip over long, long comments. 1. They usually don’t write as well as you do and 2. You usually don’t respond to them so I can’t learn as much. Is there a way to limit the length of comments? 500 characters is probably too limiting but I’ve got to believe technology could set a limit.
Bart.
I know you receive many questions in the ‘mailbag’ section and try to answer as many of them as possible. I’m not sure how you decide which one to deal with in a post on a particular day, but would it be possible for members the see the questions that have been submitted, the ones that are in your ‘In-tray’, so that we could let you know which ones we would most like to see answered?
Im not sure exactly how it would work, but I think it’s a feature you could add without increasing your workload, i.e. it’s a task you could delegate! It’s impossible to keep everyone happy, but at least you’d know what the specific questions *most* members would like to see answered are.
Anyway, it’s just a suggestion… 🙂
Interesting idea. I think I’ll do it!!
I think the blog is going very well and do not see a need to make changes. As for comments, I suggest you just respond to those comments you want to respond to and not feel any obligation to respond to all comments.
I might recommend severely limiting the number of words in a comment. Maybe no more than 100-150. That would keep the reading to a minimum. It shouldn’t be too hard for these very literate people to be succinct and to the point. Any comments that do not fall within the parameters are simply not posted. I know that I do not read the long posts.
You’ve got traction, critical mass. Membership is growing by leaps and bounds. It’s only going to become more time consuming. What started as a blog should now be seen as a business. Consider raising membership costs (generating more revenue for the charities). Hire an assistant: you can’t sustain this by yourself.
As a lurker, I’ve very much enjoyed the way this blog is going. The length of the posts is great. It’s enough to chew on, to get one thinking, and, if I want more, there’s usually a follow-up post or a mention of where to find a deeper discussion in one of your books. And, as someone relatively new, I appreciate seeing old topics revisited. I found my way here from Dale Martin’s New Testament course that YaleCourses has on YouTube, and it’s been a happy find since, of the Bible blogs I’d been reading, it’s about the last one standing.
Even though I don’t comment (except, well, now), I find your comments helpful, both in filling in some of what cannot be addressed in 1000 words and in creating a sense of community. For me, it would still be a great value if there were fewer posts per week, but it would lose something without your interaction. Unfortunately, other than cutting back on posts, I have no advice beyond a half-serious suggestion to pass some of the effort to an enthusiastic student or community moderator.
And now it is time to stop because you’re right, I do bypass walls of text in comments and this is already more than long enough. But, thank you for making this information accessible and for using it to support some good causes.
I’m really enjoying the blog as you currently manage it! I appreciate that you only answer direct questions and do so succinctly.
Since much of your time is spent monitoring lengthy comments, is there a way to automate an upper limit on the length of each comment? I know that I sometimes fill out online forms with a built-in limitation. That way you wouldn’t have to beg commenters to keep their comments short – they would have no choice. (I am certainly one who skips lengthy comments anyway).
I have no recommendations for changes on your end. 1000 words are great and I often read them twice to fully understand them. I’m accustomed and wired to expect 4 posts during the week and one on Sunday. My personal comment style, which I’ve tried to stay true to since the beginning is as follows: For every three comments, two of them will be comments only and one will have a question attached. If I receive a response (general audience), I may or may not respond but if I do, it will only be once. If I comment on someone else’s comment and they respond, I don’t follow up with a reply.
It’s a tricky thing because the heartbeat of success is the blog itself and you, but the comments seem to be the blood that feeds the body.
How about a twitter like character limit on comments. Will encourage people to be succinct with their questions, If people have more to say they can link to a forum post.
The blog’s great, Bart.
I especially appreciate your willingness to answer our questions and your willingness to share with us some of your personal life along with the Biblical scholarship.
If you don’t want to delegate comment review, then start charging a buck or two a comment to hold it down. Or, alternatively, tier your membership: $25/year to read, $50 to read and kibbitz.
You’ve been fretting about the comment load for a couple of years now, Bart. It’s time to take action to get it under control, I’d say.
Many thanks! 😀
You are correct. Even though I am retired, I still log on to read YOUR blog. When someone dominates the comments area, I simply read some of it or skip over their comments. Very long comments are simply skipped altogether.
Less is more, and more is less.
And if a short posting is good, a longer posting is not at all necessarily “gooder.”
Having said that, sometimes a thought or argument requires more space. But I totally get it if a given reader skims through or skips altogether a posting if it appears overly long.
It’s a great blog, very interesting and fair as it is. Given that it’s pretty much a one-man management, I think it would be reasonable for you to reduce it to four times per week and allow yourself a little more time for other things. If the blog continues to grow and the comments increase, before long you’ll probably have as much work with it as you do at the moment anyway. Thank you for your dedication.
I enjoy the blog the way it is – I don’t read quite everything because I’ve read nearly all your books and pick my interest among what goes here.
Vis comments – You could give us a limited number of comments, or words per comment. 240 characters would likely be enough. I don’t read anything longer than a tweet here, and I rarely comment. I’d be fine if you got rid of them entirely, tho, at a guess, I’m minority there.
1. If you are posting 1000 words then a 500 word limit on comments seems almost generous; I think even 250 would be reasonable.
2. As a newer member, I think it would be great to have a “greatest hits” or “start here” section where we could go to see the 10/25/50/whatever posts that are most popular and/or summarize the general content of the site.
3. Love and appreciation for your efforts in keeping this going and your general work to educate the non-specialist public.
Bart, being an academic from another discipline you may wish to consider having more like minded individuals write guest blogs which you could add a disclaimer. This would give you occasional breaks and allow other academics to express points of view. In the blog about the origin of Hebrew you got the help of a nearby scholar. I think allowing him or her to post a blog or two would give the blog more depth. Again the quality would go up with a greater diversity and if you feel a rebuttal would help you could write it
Professor,
First thank you for all you do here. I would certainly endorse, somehow (preferably mechanically), moving the back and forth between members to the forum and shortening posts as well. I usually address questions to you as I have this post… Perhaps the first member post (as a comment on your blog) and posts addressed to you (ie. Professor or your name if you so choose) should stay on the “blog” with all else moved automatically to the forum.
Also, take out that “Send email notification whenever a new comment is posted”! I inadvertently clicked it during the tirade last week and nearly choked my email!.
Best
The Forum is your promised land Bart. To overcome inertia you have to summon a horrific plague. If that doesn’t work encourage adoption.
Your newest blog post will always be the most relevant and engaging topic for that time period. An equivalent forum post will also be the most engaging for that time period as well. But it can’t take 40 years of wondering in the wilderness to find the forum post. And a sprinkling of manna is needed for encouragement.
In short, if there was a link at the end of each blog post. And the link led directly to a forum post related to that same topic. And the forum post contained a short bonus sentence, lead-in question, or some other reward. Then I would visit the forum post every time. That and to avoid a horrific plague.
BTW thanks heaps for the blog.
Professor,
I think that your ultimate solution on having to read through all comments will be two fold:
– Have someone moderate comments and approve them for publishing (regardless if you reply or not)
-That same person then would isolate comments that have questions that you can answer
IF you feel you can go through them still all on your own, and answer them all you still can, but have this as back up.
BUT, I think you should have character length limit on individual comments by users – I am certain that longer comments on here are skipped or skimmed through by about 80% of people – so you end up putting a lot of effort into reading these long comments, occasionally replying, but very few propbaly read the actual longer comment anyway.
Twitter started off with 140 character limit on users posts, because they knew rarely would others read a long post.
Everything that you have said above makes sense to me. I still think you must have a doppelganger or two. I think it would be okay to blog maybe two or three times per week rather than five times per week. Or you might repeat a blast from the past twice a week plus two new blogs each week making a total of four blogs per week. You are amazing, but even superman spent time in the phone booth. And no other scholarly blogger I follow on any subject is anywhere near as frequent or as good a blogger as you. I also wonder if your computer expert could somehow limit responses to a given length such as no more than 100 words and then the response automatically cuts off and no more than one response per reader per column or the response automatically cuts off. Finally, maybe a graduate student might be interested in reading your past blogs and picking the two to be repeated each week.
Perhaps you could add a page on your site which is dedicated to ‘house rules’ or ‘posting guidelines’ to help people understand how to get the best out of the comment section? Maybe with some FAQs also? That way when someone wanders off the path, you could direct them to that page and suggest they acquaint themselves with them.
You could add a touch of humour to them as well – references to the various Old Testament punishments for repeat offenders, threats of being cast into the eternal darkness with gnashing of teeth etc. Your subscribers will LOVE IT! 🙂
Good idea.
Dr. Ehrman,
As a relatively new member, I’m probably not the audience you’re looking for on how to improve your blog. Still, I’m going to take advantage of the opportunity to tell you that I think your blog is great as it is and hope you don’t change it. I skim or don’t read the longer comments, but I read your responses, every one, every word.
The volume of comments will only get more onerous over time as blog continues to gain popularity year after year. Some suggestions:
1) It is worth exploring a two-tier subscription system whereby only premium subscribers are able to post comments – explore the technologically feasibility, and % of subscribers who would feel they are not getting what they want out of the blog if they can’t post comments. All new subscribers can post comments in the first year.
2) Explore setting a limit to number of posts a subscriber can post in a year. This forces everyone to comment only something they are eager to ask about. I think many subscribers would be happy be constrained in the number of comments entitlement in a year, if it allows you a bit more time to write a more detailed response.
3) Set a limit to the number of characters in a comment, forcing subscribers to be parsimonious.
I like the resposts, the blasts from the past. I like reading other reader’s comments. And I’m surprised you keep up with this so well. All of your current policies make sense to me. You are doing so much to teach people how to think about history and how to approach these old fragments and documents. Thank you! –Dan
Hi Dr. Ehrman. I enjoy the blog immensely. If a post exceeds n characters would it be possible to move it to the forum section automagically and not post it as a comment? Then you wouldn’t have to read the really long ones and I wouldn’t have to skip them 🙂
It appears to be technically complicated….
After sleeping on it, here is my suggestion: The best way to reduce comments is to reduce blogs. So, how about four blogs per week consisting of two blasts from the past, one Friday discussion of a recent question, and one blog on something that you are currently working on like the idea of the afterlife?.
Interesting idea.
I enjoy the blog as it is! The only addition I would suggest is a few more posts linking to things produced by other scholars with a note about why they are important. You do this now but I’d like to see more. On the comments section it should be possible to get someone to sort them into ones you will want to respond to, ones to reject and ones requiring no comment. You could also put a word limit on the comment box. If POTUS can manage US diplomacy in 140 characters Biblical bloggers should be able to get by with say 500.You can probably also restrict the number of comments coming from a particular user per month. Thanks for all you do!
A quick comment….
If one of your posts generates tons of comments and many of the comments are similar in nature, instead of trying to answering each question , maybe post a response that summarizes the gist of reader’s questions with one follow up concise answer . Maybe call it , ‘ Final Thoughts . ‘ And note follow up questions can no longer be personally answered . You could consider doing that for all your posts and let your readers become involved more with each other than going directly to you.
We’ll miss your personal touch in selflessly trying to answer so many of our questions , but it might help your blog become more of reader’s blog than a Q & A with Bart Ehrman .
Thank you
1. First few bullets are fine with me.
2. I am not interested in other people’s opinions except yours so I don’t read those posts.
3. There are frequent commenters who are generally long-winded, opinionated and whose comments I have learned never to read – if you read every word of those, they are wasting your time.
4. If I post it is usually to ask a relevant question – occasionally an off-topic Q where I have nowhere else to ask. I thought that was the purpose.
5. Will you ever return to the Cephas/Peter thread you began and abandoned many months ago?
6. Keep up the good work!
In response to yor request:
Regarding ISSUES;
1: Yes, good policy…but we must be considerate of your time…keep comments short and to the point, avoid being verbose…ask your question and aviod trying to make a personal point…use the Forum for personal points of discussion.
2: Generally, for the most part, very good and helpful.
3: I perfer to use the ‘comment’ section to ask a question and try to avoid wordy comments…yes, some people do make worthwhile comments, but I rarely read the long ones unless I see you replied, then I might go back and read.
4: Agree, suggest members separate their QUESTION from their ADDITIONAL COMMENT…clearly ask your question as a stand alone entry, then, if necessary, provide your additional comment which may or may not be read, but the ‘question’ will be answered. Maybe you should impose some limit on number of words/characters.
RECOMMENDATIONS/SUGGESTIONS:
1: Agree…but keep short and to the point…or use Forum.
2: Agree…don’t talk to talk, if you have a question, then ask it and keep it short and to the point.
3: Agree…we should consider this when asking questions.
4: Agree…I do bypass long comments as I don’t know the source vs I do know you as a scholarly source…I will sometimes read the comment if I see a reply from you AND that reply motivates me to do so.
5: Agree
6: Herein
7: Frankly, didn’t know about the Forum…but have now looked and clearly see it…time is limited and just usually visit site to read your Blog entry and then breeze through the comments looking for relevant questions and your answers.
SUMMARY: I appreciate your Blog and postings…we contribute very little to have access to your valuable scholarly knowledge…I like it just the way it is and agree with any changes you see fit to reduce the workload on your end…it is a bargin even if it were just one post a week…Thank you for being so generous with your time and knowledge.
Dear Bart,
Whatever is your preference with respect to the blog is okay with me so long as the blog continues. You deserve high praise and effusive thanks for taking the time to read our comments/questions and responding.
One further thought:
Rather than asking students to simply handle the responses to comments, how about if, occassionally, a (volunteer) student were to appear as a “guest poster”, both writing the post and handling the responses (presumably under Dr Ehrman’s approval)?
To expand on this slightly:
The point is often made that many specialists do not seem to do a very good job of presenting the results of scholarship to the general public (whether in public talks, or books, or even to the person in the next seat on a plane).
I’ve often thought that part of the reason for this was that a grad student faces virtually no training in –or even discussion of– this important issue before they find themselves out in the wide world after graduation. (This is certainly not restricted to NT scholarship. It is equally true in, say, my own field of Physics.)
Perhaps an opportunity like this might be helpful for students who (unless they plan to spend their entire career locked in their office) will no doubt face this situation repeatedly.
(Or to take this one step further, might it be useful to have a small –one credit/one semester– seminar in “Presenting the Results of Modern Scholarship to the General Public”? And who would be better equipped to lead such a course than Dr Ehrman.)
I’ve tried repeatedly to get guest posts from experts in relevant fields — grad students, colleagues, well known scholars. It apparently is just too much work!
I, too, have had this problem with academics (hey, I thought you paper for this class was really interesting, how about a blog post for the school’s blog? It’s a 500 word thing or thereabouts and no list of citations required. I much prefer blogging to papers and got one professor to accept a series of blog posts instead of a paper.
I learned blogging from a climate blogger (Roger Pielke, Jr.) who once told me “bloggers are born, not made” and my experience with trying to extract posts from academics suggests that that may well be the case.
Dr. Bart: My suggestion is to limit the length of comments. If they exceed a set limit, delete the words over the limit, or the complete post. I mean this in the kindest way possible: If a blog reader feels a need to make a long and complex comment, perhaps they should consider establishing their own blog.
Yeah, I’m starting to feel that way too.
I love the blog. I so much appreciate your interacting with us.
Absolutely, limit the length of comments.
I’ve been moderating a blog for 9 years and I agree with nichael’s pre-read idea for moderating and forwarding questions. It depends on WHY you read each comment, Bart.If you want to keep civility in discussion.. well there is a gray area for sure, but if you only looked at the pre-reader’s identified “gray area” comments, you would still save yourself a lot of work. . If you want to read comments to get a sense of what people are talking about, you could but you wouldn’t have a specific timeframe and you could do as much or as little as you felt.
As for me and my house..three, four or five per week is fine. whatever you want. Please don’t stop!
I am one of those “new readers” that have been alluded to above. I am relishing the ease of accessing old and new posts, not always the case with websites that have Archives and/or search engines. Coming from a historical academic background, though not in this field, I admire at your devotion to historical method. Your generosity in sharing your ideas and the results of your research, and also in engaging your posters seriously and with respect, is mind-boggling … and much appreciated.
I’m confident that what ever you decide — and I hope that does not include posting less, if at all possible — will be okay with me. Meanwhile I have started a regimen of catching up on New Testament textual criticism, thanks to Amazon, and the published works of Bart Ehrmann and others you have recommended. My personal theology can be summed up with the slogan, “God gave us the imagination to imagine God.” How rich that process is turning out to be.
I think the blog is great. And yes, I’ve been noticing that some commenters write many lengthy comments expounding their personal theories, which is not always ideal. I’m also bewildered when commenters are, at times, rude and abrasive. Given that you give up a lot of your time to help us learn about the subject, and you’re extraordinarily patient (including with my many silly questions!)
My fitst concern is your health before continuing with any assessment. If memory serves there were back issues so severe that you had to cancel a trip. And continuing in that vein, I concur with decisions, opinions that keep in balance your health. After that, my responses are simple to monotonous. ???? yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It’s a privilege to be able to partcipate and you are extremely generous.
Thanks! Back is much better: doing Pilates and other core exercises, and hoping for the best!
I love this blog and have learned much from the posts and the comments. I take my time with it and am often far behind the most recent posts (as you can tell from the late date of this comment).
I propose a 1000 word limit to comments. Since the compulsively long winded will always be with us, I also propose the option to include more words at the low rate of a $100 donation per 1000 additional words. This rate would be comment specific: for example, a 2000 word comment would require a $100 donation. Want to write 3000 words in the next comment? $200 please! Hey, it’s a win-win. You get to share your wisdom with the world and feed the poor and hungry at the same time!
Interesting idea. We’ll see how the new limits (today’s post) works; and I’ll consider add-on options for a fee! (But I don’t think a single person would go for it. The whole idea is to get every idea you’ve ever had out there for free!)
Read today’s post. Great executive decision! I approve!
I just joined, so here are my thoughts as a new member:
Yes, I enjoy the direction the blog is going. I wish the articles were longer! But I also understand the need to keep them short for some readers, especially mobile users of the site. I’m still getting through the most recent articles, so the blast from the pasts are helpful to me, but I can see how they can be a bit eye rolling from long time readers.
On the comments – I don’t mind long comments as long as they contribute to the article or are thought provoking. I see many comments that get really down in the weeds and focus on the tiniest detail and those should really be placed in the ‘parking lot’ to discuss at a later time or brought up in the forums to hash out the minute details without taking up the blog screen space. One of the best training courses I took for work was on writing effective emails – making my point or statement without all the frivolousness of extra verbiage – although I too often fail at this at time.
My sense is that most people burn out after about a thousand words. On the upside, there are six years worth of posts you can read to your heart’s content. And thanks for the suggestions!
Dr. Erhman,
I’m thoroughly impressed and satisfied with the value you are providing through your blog from my, our, donations. I think that there are not a great many of diligent, distinguished scholars that would take the time out of their studies to post 1,000 words 5 times a week and read every comment besides you. As per the frequency you post and the amount of content, I find that the stories or information that you provide in your posts are succinct enough to deliver a message clearly but briefly.
As was hinted in at least one of the comments, your health and time of day is a large concern for me and I think many other readers as well. Nobody is going to say that you being super active in the blog is a bad thing; but, I think many people Would agree that you taking a break every once in awhile is well deserved. You publish So Much content every year! Especially with your schedule of releasing a book every 2 years, woah! If you thought it was best to focus more time on your personal life as the blog gets to be more work, I think it would be more than reasonable for someone else to parse through comments for appropriateness.
Going along with how much you publish and all you’ve previously published, as a new member of the blog I would love it if you posted topics from previously in the blog or responded with points that you think you stated particularly well in a book or something. Unfortunately, I will likely never get the time to read all of your books; however, if I keep up on the blog, I might catch some of your most key phrases worded how you feel you can best phrase them.
So, with all that, thank you so much for all the content and keep up the great work. Thanks, Bart!