This is a test of my weblog system. If you see this post, my transfer to my new host account has succeeded.

My previous web host was a free account from a former coworker. It was a small account and I always tried to maintain a small footprint; static HTML pages, no dynamic features like a comment system, low bandwidth usage, etc. Unfortunately, I drew some fire from a website defacer and caused my former coworker some work. I decided that wasn't polite, so I've switched services to something I'm paying for and can ask for some kind of support.

This means I'm no longer quite as interested in maintaining a small footprint, and while there are a few things I need to attend to first, I will be looking into installing a server-side weblog system, which would include commenting capabilities. Lately it seems like this would see some use. Certainly it would be interesting to see if we can get some dialog going here; I'd love the opportunity to refine what I say here, based on how other people actually read it.

Come to think of it, there is another project I've been interested in tossing together, which may be related to that. I've had the idea for a while now of trying to come up with a three-part essay system, which needs a clever name. Two people would collaborate to produce an essay with three parts. The two people should be friendly with each other and intellectually honest and open, but strongly opposed on some issue of interest. The first part would be the things they both agree on. The second and third parts would be the remaining viewpoint differences that could not be reconciled. Ideally, both such parts would be built on the central core to the extent possible.

The goal would be to make the first part as large as possible.

Obviously, the technical issues for this are pretty minimal, it's more a social problem, but it would require some technical support to work well.

(Some clarifications and updates to the previous post may be forthcoming, pending an email discussion with a reader; I'll post a note above this when that happens.)