Laelaps to Join About.com?
posted in Current Events, Geology, blogging |I don’t have any inside information about this, but it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. Brian Switek, a.k.a. Laelaps, a prolific paleontology blogger, dropped a big hint on his blog today:
This blog, as you and I know it, will soon become extinct. I know I’m using on of the oldest tricks in the book and that I’m terrible because I’m going to leave you all hanging (at least for a little while), but some big changes will soon be going into effect. I think you all will be pleasantly surprised, but for now mum’s the word. In time all will be revealed, but I’ll still be writing regularly until I can divulge the secrets in my possession.
And then, lo and behold, Andrew Alden announces (LiveJournal, About.com:Geology) an opening for a Dinosaur Guide at About.com:
Some of you may know that I write about geology on About.com. What none of you know is that I’m not crazy about dinosaurs. I follow the news stories about the latest dinosaur discoveries and feel no urge to blog about them or anything. So when I saw just now that About.com is looking for someone to cover dinosaurs, rivalry is the last thing on my mind. I would love to have a colleague there focusing on dinosaurs–heck, you could even write about Mesozoic mammals and everything else. So if you love to write and have some credentials and time, check out About.com’s “Be a Guide” page at http://beaguide.about.com/
Seems to me the ad is merely a formality. I suppose if I were a reporter I’d contact the two of them for comment. Well, why not…
So how about* it? Care to comment Andrew or Brian?
[Update: Sometimes coincidences are just coincidences. Laelaps responds in the comments.]
*pun intended
That definitely is interesting news, Ron; I didn’t expect to be the focus of some paleo-gossip when I got up this morning.
Kidding aside, I actually didn’t know that there was an opening at About.com, nor their need for a dinosaur guide. Maybe I’ll get in touch with them provided that someone more qualified doesn’t step in, but my big news (which I will hopefully be able to fully announce today) is in a somewhat different, yet no less exciting, vain.
“In vain”? Is that another unintentional pun?
It could not be Laelaps, because the training “prep” for an About.com Guide takes several months, and even after that you may not be accepted. Therefore he would not be referring to this opening, which to my knowledge is only a few days old. But thanks for spreading the word, Ron–I really want to have a good stablemate.
I was part of the initial crop of About.com people in 1997, when it was known as miningco.com. My training was a real dot-com boom experience: write us a couple HTML samples and know how to use FTP. Today About.com is quite rigorous and the amount of work can be daunting if you’re not a quick writer. Kind of like the geology profession itself.
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