Denver-based "everything for nerds" site Nerdivore is taking the great leap into Web 2.0. From now on, you, the nerds of the world, can contribute to Nerdivore.
Until now, Nerdivore had been the more-or-less sole province of political columnist, New York Times bestselling author, Denverite and, apparently, giant nerd David Sirota, currently ranked #41 on Mediaite's Power Grid in the Newspaper/Online Columnist category. The site's mission is summed up nicely by these lines from the About page: "For years, nerds have been oppressed and pushed underground. But no more. This is the home base for a Nerd Renaissance. So again, just admit it: You are a huge nerd, and love to consume all things nerd. You are, in short, a NERDIVORE." And now, you can be a Nerdivore who contributes your own keen nerd insights on all things nerdy
After the jump, read the full press release from Sirota about the how, what and why of opening up his blog to the general nerd populace.
Friends, and Fellow Nerds:Now that I'm back from my extended trip to China, I'm hard at work on my new book about 1980s movies, television and toys. Last month, in conjunction with writing the book, I launched Nerdivore.com -- a website/blog about pop culture and technology. Now, I've wanted to let you know I've moved Nerdivore.com into it's second phase: the phase whereby readers, writers and fellow nerds like you get to control the site's destiny. If you haven't checked out the site already, go to www.nerdivore.com.
As you will see if/when you become a registered user of the site (free and easy, by the way), you can now post your own entries to the site and you can also post "Quick Hits" at the top of the front page (If you haven't used or posted to a blog before, then go to the extended entry where I provide very specific instructions on how to login and post). Don't be shy: Remember, you don't have to be a professional writer to contribute, and the more content the better.
It goes without saying that I'll continue to anchor Nerdivore with daily front-page posts and that I'll monitor the site to make sure inappropriate content is removed (I'll have a light hand and the rules are pretty basic around here: don't publish deliberately libelous/untrue, racist, pornographic or otherwise inappropriate stuff). That said, though, I really want this to be as much your site as mine.
Indeed, I've always planned to give more control of the site's content to the audience. After all, what's the point of this fancy schmantzy Interweb thingy if its two-way crowdsourcing merits aren't being used? We've got all sorts of one-way media like radio, TV, newspapers that serve as glorified bullhorns yelling and screaming at us (and it's not a coincidence many of those media are the ones that are now struggling in the age of interconnectivity). The computer allows us- and especially us nerds -- to make our own content and build our own communities. But only if -- and this is a big if -- some of us are willing to give up some control.
I, for one, certainly am. I built this site with a community in mind. I hope you'll take advantage of these new tools on the site to not only comment on my posts, but to write your own posts and discuss with all of us your own nerd interests, whether they're movies, books, aquaria, cameras, gadgets, video games or anything else that exists in Nerd-dom (and Nerd-dom is a big, amorphous world).
So have at it, nerds!
