My post on Monday in which I speculated about the possible end of H-Net has certainly generated a fair amount of discussion, both in the blogosphere and, I’m told, on the H-Net editors internal listserv. To see where the conversation is going, you can read the discussion on Cliopatria, read the multiple comments added to the original post, or read the AHA blog.
Since I haven’t been an H-Net editor for a number of years, I don’t have access to the private conversation going on among the editors (they do not link that discussion to their website). If you are reading this and are a subscriber to that list, I’d love to read what is being said and would be more than happy to post the conversation, complete and unedited, here.
One tidbit from that discussion did get passed along to me, however. Apparently, someone (or someones) among the editors didn’t think it was right that I was writing anonymously here at edwired.org. Given Dan Cohen’s recent posting about anonymous blogging, I find it more than a little ironic that I stand accused of hiding behind the shield of anonymity. Right there on the front page of the blog–so you can’t miss it, it’s under the heading Me–are links to my home page, my personal del.icio.us feed, my flickr photostream, my group podcast, and even video of me lecturing and a radio interview I did last year. Short of providing readers with my date of birth and social security number, I don’t think I could be any less anonymous. Do you?
Professor Kelly:
I’m afraid you ask the impossible. The H-Net editor discussion IS private and cannot be posted here. It would be a clear violation of our bylaws.
I would invite you and others who would like to have the discussion in a public forum to join and post to H-Info–it would be perfectly appropriate there.
And yes, one can miss your name. Click the “about” link. That’s where I expect to find the statement of responsibility–it has your titles, but not your name. The titles link to your institutions, but not you. It seems odd. Take that for what it’s worth. The expection folks may have is that “about” will include the blog author name. Your “me” link is well down the page after your blogroll.