Last summer I started up the paleontology blog carnival The Boneyard, a bi-weekly gathering of links featuring the best of blogging about fossils. Sadly the carnival has now become defunct, and outside of Will (who has admirably tried to kick me in the butt to get it going again) not many people seem to miss it. Even when the carnival was active there were frequent delays, few actual submissions, and other problems. Many of these complications were my fault as I did not manage it as attentively as I should have, but it was always difficult to gauge just how interested everyone was when hosts had to make most of the selections themselves.
I don't want to see the end of the Boneyard, yet I know that I cannot effectively run it right now. I have too many other draws on my time and I haven't done a very good job at managing it over the past year. That's why I would like to turn over the reins to anyone who would like to revitalize the carnival. This would require the construction of a new homepage for the carnival and a reassessment of how often it should be held, but as long as it still focuses on the best from paleo-blogs I think we would all be happy to see it up and running again.
If you're interested in taking on the task then send me an e-mail or leave a comment.
Enough with the funk! It is missed big time, Brian and not just by me. While we writers have not been as active in dealing with this as we ought, we really need to pull together now for the tBY. Reason being is that people use it as a reference that are NOT the paleo connected like we - or at least most of you - are. It's been an invaluable reference for many people.
I'll take up running it if needs be. Lord knows I'm crazy busy, but this is something I think needs to be kept running.
Try to keep it going. It may take some work and some time, but it will grow over time and take a life of its own.
Hey, we even have a few paleo items last month at DSN!
I liked it, and it seems like there are several paleobloggers. If you are a little burnt out on it (totally understandable!!) then let Will take it over.
I will happily host it whenever the need arises, brother.
I'd be more than willing to help whoever decides to take over the responsibility; I have the time, but not the experience, to do it totally by myself.
I really enjoyed writing the story for the Boneyard XX, it got me back into creative writing and drawing which I haven't done in ages, so I owe a lot to the Boneyard, even though I only noticed it a couple of months ago.
I've discovered the same thing with the Linnaeus' Legacy carnival, which I have to admit is taking a fair amount of effort to keep going - there's an initial spike of interest, then a tailing off. I think you've just got to be ready and there with the sharp stick to prod into people's backs and reminding them that it's there. Fight the good fight!
I thought the last few theme based boneyards were great.
Though the Meeting a Prehistoric Creature didn't have a huge number of entries, I thought the quality of the posts made up for it (plus it was tons of fun to do). Glendon's Palaeo-Art themed BY on the other hand was tremendous in size and quality, but yet no less fun. It took me two days to get through all contributions. I think more themed boneyards is a good direction to go.
I personally would like to host a themed boneyard with material aimed at children. However I'd like to wait till August or September for this as the T-Rex Chronicles is about to undergo a major shake up in its content. Till I get a chance to sort it all out, I'm only going to be able to contribute to boneyards...
Hopefully it survives long enough for me to get the chance to host it...
I won't be able to contribute, since I don't know much about paleontology, but I sure as heck would love to read it.
Soooo...when's the next BY?