I apologize for the small text; while trying to change the slider at the top I accidentally changed the wrong class in the CSS. It should be back up now. I apologize for the inconvenience!
"The Displaced and the American" and "The Dwellers Behind, On, and Beyond the Threshold"
Even just looking at the synopsis of the first:
"This essay presents a brief consolidation of the argument of my class Race and the New Republic – that the American culture, notably of the antebellum period, rests on the trauma of displacement and that Americans have coped with it in a divisive, self-destructive way. My essay explores the use of this concept in Huckleberry Finn and Moby Dick, classic American novels that attempt to symbolically depict, if not reconcile, this division of the American social landscape."
I think that is a little harsh. It is coherent -- not particularly well written, but coherent.
(It is clear that the author has internalized the currently fashionable pomo academic style and is trying to reproduce it. This is, sadly, the only writing skill taught at many colleges. You won't learn to avoid self-reference in an essay, write engaging introductions, and edit sentences for clarity in a class titled Race and the New Republic. Sadly for the student, that is probably a fairly typical class in their English department.)
>I think that is a little harsh. It is coherent -- not particularly well written, but coherent.
When you strip out all the fluff, this is what you're left with:
"American culture rests on the trauma of displacement and Americans have coped with it in a divisive, self-destructive way."
This is sloppy thinking, plain and simple. America may have a divisive culture as a result of the 'trauma of displacement' its founders experienced.
However, American culture certainly does not "rest on a trauma of displacement," whatever that means.
What's worse, if you actually read the full essay, it doesn't even support this claim at all.
Anyway, to be as direct as possible to the original submitter, based on the essays you've chosen as featured writing I think it's going to be really hard for you to be successful at this project. The graphic design of the site is great, but making the actual project work is going to require a certain aesthetic taste in writing that I just don't see here.
As I've commented above, I truly believe that open source projects and voluntary work can change so much. I want to create this because writing and education is my passion, not because I want to make a profit. I don't particularly like sites such as DeviantArt, which bombards you with ads and limited features with a free account. And the premium account is out of my poor college student's price range. Perhaps at some point we will need to do this, but at the moment, we're hoping for some more people to submit essays.
We aren't sure how to scale yet, though we've come up with quite a few solutions, such as adding more people to our "staff". We want the absolute best, and sometimes community opinion is not always top notch.
I would like to think that we're different from Scribd by not having any monetary gain. I truly believe that open source projects and voluntary work can change so much. I really hate advertising such as Google Ads, which are there solely for making money. I want to create this because writing and education is my passion, not because I want to make a profit.
We also don't have a desire to because yet another social network.
So how are you planning to keep the site afloat? If this is something you really believe in and want people to use, you're going to have to come up with a plan to pay for the costs.
I don't think that the Pirate Bay has died yet, but I think once the owners begin to charge for their services, users are going to look elsewhere. I know I will.
