Hey Bob and all. Maybe it is worth a shot to contact a few new media websites with a story and see if they will take it?
For instance, I think the Huffington Post, and the Examiner.com might be open to articles from us.
However, I am certain there are many alternative websites and blogs, like Mercola's site that would be happy to take a well written article from us.
With the smaller sites, it is just a matter of contacting one person who can make the decision to allow and post the article. Done deal. Just a matter of us identifying the best sites to approach, and writing a good article.
I would be willing to get involved with this, but next year! Cannot find time atm.
It would be a valuable long term project. The problem would be - publication!
How could we be sure of getting what we write to public notice?
However I think it would be something PRs could excel at. We have honed our writing skills here.
One word: teamwork. Groups can write articles far better than individuals unless its a short project. We also know we can get published. Its not necessary to publish at high impact sites. Publish anywhere, though an article has to be compatible with the target publication.
I think there's a few hurdles to achieving something like this, especially considering our limited capacities...
Such as: our availability over a period of time; our ability or willingness to commit to a project; if we have the appropriate/specific talents needed; if we have appropriate knowledge and insights re journalism etc.; our willingness to lead or organise a project; willingness to stick with a project; ability to put in the effort to see a project through; if we have the flexibility to work in a team; compatibility of personalities etc, etc.
I think these requirements are why ME patients don't get it together very often to do group work.
As soon as we have expectations placed on us, we remember how much time-out we need, and how we can't commit ourselves to anything.
And our illness probably make us inflexible in various ways.
I never feel happy about committing myself to big team efforts because of my insufficiencies relating to some of the items in the above list.
I think it's also pretty difficult, for people who don't know each other very well, to know if they can work together, until they try, and then they quickly realise that they can't.
I suppose, in a good team, there would be various talents and abilities, and each could bring their strengths to the table, so their is strength in a group. And there wouldn't be any pressure to perform, as we'd all be going at a snail's pace.
I think I'm good at coming up with ideas, and brain storming, but I really struggle to write formally (not such a problem to write informally, on the forum, obviously!)
I find it really difficult to write well polished pieces of text, for various reasons.
Partly because I find it mentally exhausting to work with large pieces of text, and partly because my mental organisational skills aren't great, and partly because my memory is so useless, etc. All because of the ME.
I really struggled with my recent PACE report, and I'm not very happy with it.
But it's the best I can do without focusing on it for another few weeks, full time.
I've re-written it, and I'm still not happy with it.
Now I'm trying to write a brief summary of it all, and I know it's going to be a major struggle and will take weeks, if I can face it. Someone offered to help with it though, and it might be much easier working with someone.
Really, a few of us should get together with PACE and write more about it.
It's something many of us are very clued up about, but we haven't done anything as a group, beyond the excellent and constructive PACE Threads, except for the Graham and Janelle project.
We could potentially write multiple summaries and explanations etc., for different audiences/readers.
One other problem is that we don't all know each other very well, personally, and it's difficult to know if any of us would see eye-to-eye on a project, or if we could work together.
Maybe we should set up a private group to have discussions about what we could each contribute, and to see if we might be compatible, and if our ideas are similar?
But I'm not sure if it would work.
Experiences tells me that compatibly of personalities and ideas is the most important issue.
Maybe I'm being too pessimistic, and focusing too much on hurdles. But I think these are all issues that we'd have to deal with.
Anyway, these are just my rambling thoughts, and I'm not proposing anything specific.
Edit: I think I've just frightened myself off getting involved in forum group projects!
(But I'm open to exploring the idea.)