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Moira Redmond

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Posted Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2001, at 12:19 PM ET

Who is this person?

Today I wrote the “Best of the Fray” column, so it may be a good moment to explain how I find the best posts. I’ve said that I don’t read them all, and I don’t only use the stars. So, faced with a page of posts by unknowns, how do I choose which to open? Well, I have a few tricks. It’s a big decision to share these with Diary readers, because they are professional secrets and because I am about to get slaughtered in the Fray.

1) Women called Carol and Caroline are always pro-guns and write heartfelt posts in defense of the Second Amendment.
2) If the posting name is something like Maudie May Darling, a real sweet-old-lady name, the post will be incredibly rude and full of intolerant abuse.
3) Anyone who puts Ph.D. after his name in the “From” line can usually be ignored.
4) An exceptionally stupid Fray name does not mean that the post will not be worth reading. I wish this were not so, because it would make my job much easier if I could ignore posters called Bill Clinton and Hot Sexy Chick.
5) People who post under three initials (NBW, BML) are often worth looking at. I have no idea why this should be.
6) There is a rumor in the Fray that I will always read any post with Satanism or Ayn Rand in the title. I am not prepared to comment on that.

When I’m choosing the posts, I’m looking for short and snappy, for something original or funny, something that moves the argument on or adds new information. Reading as many a day as I do, originality is probably what I look for most (though making me laugh will get you a long way). I do get accused of bias (by all sides—I am believed to hold political positions that I am as far from as is imaginable) but, hand on heart, all I want is to find great posts; I don’t need to agree with them.

Readers e-mail me recommendations for their own and other’s posts, and that’s a terrific help and makes me think: I get the question about choosing posts all the time, but the same decision faces readers. So I’d like to turn it round: How do you decide which posts are worth your time opening? I’d love some more helpful rules. Let’s interact …

The Fray is also calling for more description of Slate. So: It’s a small, friendly, laid-back place. Being spread over three offices means that you just never see some people, though we’re all in contact all the time. I was used to honest-to-God newsrooms in the past, like something out of His Girl Friday: rambunctious, loud, busy places, people yelling into phones, fighting over editing machines, running with late-breaking stories, everyone (of course) smoking and drinking coffee. Well, Slate is nothing like that. It is almost unnaturally quiet and self-contained, with everyone in separate rooms.

Many of you asked about this: The writers have differing relationships with their Frays, and some embrace and others don’t. This is a mean hint to drop when I’m not going to follow through, but the mail I get from Slate writers about the Fray can be even stranger than the stuff I get from readers—and contains odder requests. But, sorry, all of it is confidential. Occasionally a writer will sidle up to me (or the e-mail equivalent of sidling) to ask, very casually, how his or her Fray compares with other people’s. It’s usually easy to be tactful.

******

Meanwhile, in home news (as we used to say in radio), my son is going to be Link from Zelda (either you know who that is, or you don’t need to know) for Halloween. I am particularly proud of his hat, which I made in five minutes out of the sleeve of an old shirt of mine, a safety pin, and an elastic band. Link’s sword and shield were easy: My son already has toy weapons, many of them homemade. He is obsessed with fighting and war as only the child of lefty, feminist, unmilitary parents can be—this is a boy who at the age of 3 got a zero-tolerance-for-weapons warning at an elementary school he was merely visiting (with me) to pick up his sister. (What were they going to do—suspend him for two years till he was old enough to attend the school?)

My daughter’s bunch-of-grapes costume—a large cardboard sandwich board covered in purple balloons—is causing problems. It is undeniably cute but is awkward to transport, uncomfortable to wear, and needs major reconstructive surgery (new balloons) after every social event it attends. A witch next year, I think.

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Posted Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2001, at 12:19 PM ET

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Moira Redmond is Slate's Fray editor. E-mail her at .

Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum

What did you think of this article?

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 (2^nd 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)