As focused as we want to be.

Meryl says this about the Blog Sisters blog over at Shelley's place: "It turns out that Blogsisters' problems are exactly as I feared: It lacks focus and coherence, and there are too many authors--who probably don't have a lot of time to spend outside their own blogs. If I had my druthers, I'd rather see a women's issues-oriented version of Metafilter, where women AND men could post links to a wide variety of such issues and create comment threads to discuss them. And not feel guilty about lurking for long periods of time. But I think you need the Metafilter format, not Blogger, for something like that. And frankly, most men head for the hills when a discussion about women's issues is raised. So I'm not going to hold my breath."

Meryl goes on to say some good things about what we're doing here, and she has participated--there is a comment below by her of recent. But I look at it this way: Conversations are not mutually exclusive. You can discuss women's issues over on metafilter AND post on blogsisters, or another team blog, or make a second blog of your own. And if some folks take a breather here on Blog Sisters and don't post for a while, then step in and SAY something. Passive aggression will not do. And I've seen way too much of it online lately.

As for the "lack of focus and coherence," in the last few days we've shared links and opinions on the rights of gay adoptive parents, women in education, blogging, women and sex, online relationships, and more. Do these strike anyone as unfocused and incoherent? This is the kind of comment that makes others reluctant to post, for fear they will be perceived as incoherent. Or won't be good enough. And I won't have that. Not here. Anyone who posts here has the perfect right to say what she thinks, to invent as she goes, to wish she'd said something differently and try again, and to do so without repercussion.

I made Elaine co-administrator of this blog earlier today, before I read any of the negative posts out there. Elaine, hope you still want the job. :-)