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Moira Redmond

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Updated Monday, Oct. 29, 2001, at 12:31 PM ET

Who is this person?

I may be the first ever Slate diarist to be pre-empted in "The Fray," the magazine's reader-discussion area. A while ago, a few Fraysters decided to write my "Diary" for me. There was much discussion over whether one of the entries was tasteless and offensive: It was but still made me laugh a lot. ("Thursday: Took 3 Valiums … am now ready to go into Ballot Box. Friday: I think I'll call in sick today.") It is a hard standard to live up to, but I'll try.

I'm the Fray editor at Slate. It's my job to run the board, to encourage good debate and maintain order, and to find the best posts and promote them into the magazine. It's been a particularly busy few days, because Slate launched a major redesign on Thursday. There were big changes in the magazine's layout, but this was unimportant to Fray posters whose big question was "WHY CAN'T I POST?" There were some, um, teething troubles, the main one being that any post with an apostrophe in it failed to make it. I got a couple of polite e-mails saying, "The error message says I have to debug, but I don't really know how to"—no, no, we don't expect Fraysters to do it themselves. That particular problem is, I hope, solved now, but there are still a few bumps in the road being worked on.

Even if I didn't know all this, I would guess there was something up, because of the amount of e-mail from readers in my Fray editor account. A normal week might produce 150 e-mails. Last week I was getting 100 a day, and there are an accumulated 100 in my mailbox now. I read every e-mail I receive from readers and answer about 85 percent of them. Some of it is urgent, some of it waits till I have an answering session once a week. What constitutes a Fray Emergency? Well, this does: A reader who innocently thought she was sending a private problem directly to Prudie, Slate's advice columnist, but was actually posting it on the Fray, to be read by the whole world, complete with her full name, e-mail address, and the words "of course, my husband knows nothing of this." I worked pretty fast to remove that for her.

My job corresponds roughly with being letters editor at a print magazine or newspaper except that a big city newspaper might get 1,200 letters a month. Slate can get that many in an hour and in recent times has been getting more than 60,000 reader postings a week (100,000 in the week of Sept. 11). So, no, I don't read them all. That's the first question people ask me. The second is: "So how do you get to be a Fray star?" The answer: Make great posts, make a lot of posts, and—as the star, once awarded, is added automatically to posts—don't write stuff I wouldn't like to see a star next to. (Obviously the person who offered Producers tickets for a gold star was only joking, and if he wasn't then plainly this would be corruption of a despicable nature, and if he wants to contact me directly, I will of course tell him so.) The stars are part of our two-tier Fray. Some people want the full, unfiltered, unadorned Fray: wild talk, weird posts and all. Others have less time and want a little sifting done for them, and they can click "Fray Editor's Picks" to pull up a list of checked posts (ones I've read and recommend) and posts from the stars.

In my first job as a journalist, with the BBC in England, I worked on a manual typewriter; there were no computers in the building; and one of the foreign news agencies still offered its service in Morse code. Now I can sit in my house near Seattle and change Web pages that are instantly visible to people all over the world. One of the pluses of the modern technology should be that it makes life easier for working mothers, but sometimes I wonder. Though I'm very lucky: I have two children in elementary school, work part-time, and partly at home, at a very flexible job, with very friendly employers. A colleague still predicts that one afternoon I will find a post in the Fray saying, "Mummy, please come out of your office and make us a PBJ sandwich." I hope not this week.

******

Slate diarists (understandably) vary in how much Fray interaction they're up for, but this week I can promise you full and frank exchanges. Ask me a good question and I'll try to answer it here, and I'll include or link to some good comments.

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Updated Monday, Oct. 29, 2001, at 12:31 PM ET
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Moira Redmond is Slate's Fray editor. E-mail her at .
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POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES

Answers to Questions:

Ender: First, I noticed you replied to a few posts as Fray Editor. Force of habit but it occurred to me that it might be more appropriate to post as Moira Redmond for the duration of your diary.
MR: So noted, so implemented.

Do you have an all time favorite post?
MR: About ten or 15 of them. I might feature them in Best of the Fray sometime.

Do you ever have a desire to post on topic or join a discussion? Are you restricted from doing that?
MR: Only by my own conscience. I have strong views on almost everything, but think professional ethics require that I bore my friends with the political ones, not foist them on the Fray. (People who disagreed with me might find it hard to trust me.) I do occasionally post on music and books and suchlike subjects, giving my own opinions and getting into discussions. I just posted on Arthur Stock’s dogs.

If you took a better job tomorrow, would you still read the Fray, i.e. become a Frayster? MR: Could there be a better job? I can’t imagine life without the Fray now. I would certainly read. Posting: it might be unfair on whoever took over my job to do that (especially if I kept my fabulous Fray superpowers--double star for my every post etc.)

Name a current Frayster whose style/politics/demeanor/etc. is most similar to you if you were to become a Frayster.
MR: No comment (go on, you’re dying for me to say Amber aren’t you?)

Have you ever experimented, posting anonymously, just to see what it is like from the other side?
MR: No, I would feel obliged to be transparent.

Do you spell check yourself?
MR: yes on Fray Notes and Best of Fray, not on email. Don’t have enormous faith in spellcheck anyway. U.S. spelling still occasionally catches out this Brit.

Have you ever written a caution to posters who are behaving badly, thought twice about it and decided that it was too harsh and opted for a more composed warning? If yes, do you still have it and can we read it?
MR: No, what I think is what you get. There was a famous open letter to a certain poster: I put it in the Fray, and people saved it and re-circulate it from time to time, saying “This is what she’s like when she’s really angry.” I have, however, occasionally written email to other Slate people, saved it in draft, and thrown it away the next day. I hope that will please those who wanted more tough talking and anger

Which Frayster do you feel you know best?
MR: There’s a bunch of star posters that I email with. Not saying more than that.

If Fraysters were the last men on earth, who do you think you would be happiest with?
MR: No comment.

If you had to choose one of us to fill in for you the next time you went on vacation, who would you pick?
MR: Well, there are those (possibly including those who have filled in for me) who would think I should pick someone I dislike (2nd prize: two weeks as Fray Editor!) so I’d better not say. I will always have a soft spot for Claude Scales for writing his ‘Moira is away’ haiku (and generally for being a great human being).

Do you think if you gave the ghost of a-z a star she will leave Publius alone?
MR: No

Do you think we are too hard on Robert Wright sometimes?
MR: No comment. Or possibly: yes but he doesn’t care.

--Ender and Moira Redmond

(To find or answer these two posts, click here and here )

(11/2

Notes From The Fray Editor:

[Conflict of Interest Declaration: I wrote the diary, I’m choosing the comments.] RonK hit us where it hurts, and we like the Frayster’s diary. We’ll try to find some tough talking for Reader—no-one has ever accused us of being too mild before, it’s very disturbing.

Reader Comments:

100 emails a day, huh? But far fewer Fray posts to read! Things always work out for the best, don't they?

--RonK of Seattle

(To find or answer this post, click here.)


Your explanation that it caused an overload in your email box was mild. I think you’re fooling your diary. Don’t you have any harsher words?

--Reader

(To find or answer this post, click here .)


Eventually there'll be a Frayster's diary up here:

Monday, bored at work, decided to see how my posts from Friday were doing. The exegesis of those Shinto texts wallowed ignored in Chatterbox, but my quip about Renee Zellweger had a checkmark next to it.

I clicked around Ballot Box and the all-but-abandoned Breakfast Table Fray, trying to dig up an interesting thread. Amber was doing something sexual; the ghost of a-z had something on crystalline structures. I jumped over to Frame Game, where Zeitguy had gotten 63 responses to his thoughts on the Carter administration. I thought I might add my own. 30 seconds later, I was on fire.

--BML

(To find or answer this post, click here .)

(10/30)

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