Tripod: Messages from the Staff

<body bgcolor="#CCFFFF" link="#FF0000" vlink="#990000" text="#000000" background="../../../tripod/letters/img/www_subdomain/bg.gif"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td valign="TOP" align="CENTER" width="178">  <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="170"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/logo-map.html"><img src="../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/logo.gif" alt="Tripod Map" border="0" height="58" width="170" ismap></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/universal2-map.html"><img src="../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/universal2.gif" alt="Member Services Map" width="170" height="59" border="0" ismap></a></td> </tr><tr><td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <img src="../../../img/www_subdomain/tripod_zones.gif" alt="tripod zones" width="81" height="17" border="0"></td> </tr><tr> <form action="http://www.tripod.com/bin/redirect" method="POST"> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <select name="URL"> <option value="/">Choose one:</option> <option value="/cars_trucks/">Cars&Trucks;</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">Computers/</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">       Internet</option> <option value="/entertainment/">Entertainment</option> <option value="/fun_games/">Fun&Games;</option> <option value="/health_fitness/">Health/Fitness</option> <option value="/home_family/">Home/Family</option> <option value="/jobs_career/">Jobs/Career</option> <option value="/money_business/">Money/Business</option> <option value="/shopping/">Shopping</option> <option value="/society_culture/">Society/Culture</option> <option value="/sports/">Sports</option> <option value="/teens/">Teens</option> <option value="/travel/">Travel</option> <option value="/women/">Women</option> </select><input type="IMAGE" src="../../../img/www_subdomain/go.gif" width="24" height="20" border="0" align="ABSMIDDLE"> <img src="../../../img/www_subdomain/trans.gif" width="1" height="3" border="0"><br><img src="../../../img/www_subdomain/p_member_comm.gif" alt="pod member communities" width="146" height="11" border="0"><br> <a href="../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/pods-map.html"><img src="../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/pods.gif" alt="Pod Map" width="170" height="18" border="0" align="top" ismap></a></td> </form> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" width="170">  <tr><td></td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> </table>  </td> <td valign="TOP"><base target="_top"> <table cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="TOP" width="170"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="170"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/logo-map.html"><img src="../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/logo.gif" alt="Tripod Map" border="0" height="58" width="170" ismap></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/universal2-map.html"><img src="../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/universal2.gif" alt="Member Services Map" width="170" height="59" border="0" ismap></a></td> </tr><tr><td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <img src="../../../img/www_subdomain/tripod_zones.gif" alt="tripod zones" width="81" height="17" border="0"></td> </tr><tr> <form action="http://www.tripod.com/bin/redirect" method="POST"> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <select name="URL"> <option value="/">Choose one:</option> <option value="/cars_trucks/">Cars&Trucks;</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">Computers/</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">       Internet</option> <option value="/entertainment/">Entertainment</option> <option value="/fun_games/">Fun&Games;</option> <option value="/health_fitness/">Health/Fitness</option> <option value="/home_family/">Home/Family</option> <option value="/jobs_career/">Jobs/Career</option> <option value="/money_business/">Money/Business</option> <option value="/shopping/">Shopping</option> <option value="/society_culture/">Society/Culture</option> <option value="/sports/">Sports</option> <option value="/teens/">Teens</option> <option value="/travel/">Travel</option> <option value="/women/">Women</option> </select><input type="IMAGE" src="../../../img/www_subdomain/go.gif" width="24" height="20" border="0" align="ABSMIDDLE"> <img src="../../../img/www_subdomain/trans.gif" width="1" height="3" border="0"><br><img src="../../../img/www_subdomain/p_member_comm.gif" alt="pod member communities" width="146" height="11" border="0"><br> <a href="../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/pods-map.html"><img src="../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/pods.gif" alt="Pod Map" width="170" height="18" border="0" align="top" ismap></a></td> </form> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" width="170">  <tr><td></td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> </table> <center><form name="ebay"> <table border="0" width="120" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr valign="TOP"> <td align="center" valign="TOP" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="120"> </td> </tr> <tr valign="TOP"><td valign="TOP" nowrap bgcolor="#ffffff" width="120"> <select name="ebay" onchange="self.parent.location.href = "http://www.tripod.com/bin/accipiter/tripod_adclick?CID=000024360000033200000000&overrideURL=http://komodo.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?RedirectEnter&" + this.options[this.selectedIndex].value;"> <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://pages.ebay.com/aw/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Online Auctions <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://pages.ebay.com/antiques/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Antiques <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://pages.ebay.com/books/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Books, <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://pages.ebay.com/books/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">-Magazines <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://pages.ebay.com/collectibles/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Collectibles <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://coins.ebay.com/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Coins <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://computers.ebay.com/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Computers <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://dolls.ebay.com/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Dolls, Figures <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://jewelry.ebay.com/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Jewelry <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://pottery.ebay.com/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Pottery <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://pages.ebay.com/sportsmem/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Sports <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://pages.ebay.com/sportsmem/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">-Memorabilia <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://stamps.ebay.com/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Stamps <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://toys.ebay.com/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Toys <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://tradingcards.ebay.com/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Trading <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://tradingcards.ebay.com/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">-Cards <option value="partner=TRIPOD&loc=http://pages.ebay.com/aw/%3FTRIPODSPONSOR">Misc. </select></td> </tr> <tr valign="TOP"><td align="center" valign="TOP" width="120"><font size="-1"> <center>Over 350,000 items</center> </font></td> </tr> </table> </form> </center> </td> <td valign="TOP" width="100%"> <basefont size="3">   <p> <p> <img src="../../../tripod/letters/img/www_subdomain/letter.top.gif" alt="from tripod..with love.." width="401" height="124" border="0"> <br> <p><blockquote> <p> <b>From Josh Glenn, Editorial Director:</b> <p> I'll spare those of you familiar with the Letters from Tripod genre my penetrating insights into the difference between the fast-paced city life of my past 29 years and the bucolic life to which I am suddenly (I started my job as Editorial Director of Tripod 2 months ago) becoming accustomed, and get right to the point of this particular letter: What the hell am I -- the guy who has dreamed of nothing but being in print journalism his whole life -- doing at a Web site? <p> When I was a kid, my dad would sometimes amuse me by drawing our family tree and showing me all the amazing men and women from whom I am descended; ministers and psychologists and educators and explorers and big-game hunters and scholars usually figured prominently. But I always particularly enjoyed hearing about his grandmother's grandfather Fletcher Harper, the man who founded Harper's magazine. I thought that nothing could be cooler than shaping the ideas and sensibilities of people through the printed word, and I used to amuse my parents' friends by solemnly telling them that I would be not a writer, but an editor when I grew up. <p> From the time I was in junior high I never had fewer than six magazine subscriptions: everything from <b>Dragon</b> (a magazine, I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit, for Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts); to the <b>New Republic</b> and <b>National Review</b>; to <b>Thrasher</b>, to ... yes, <b>Harper's</b>. As a high school skateboard messenger in downtown Boston, I haunted the offices of <b>The Atlantic Monthly</b>, hoping that someone would recognize my raw natural talents -- eventually, a sympathetic editor gave me a free subscription. But after college it came to pass that, like many of my peers, I bounced from grad school to grad school, taught kids for a while, and eventually drifted into the world of carpentry, house-painting, and -- by the time I moved to Minneapolis with my girlfriend (now wife of one year) -- envisioned a future happily jerking cappuccinos and bartending in one hip city after another. <p> But somewhere along the line my original impulse manifested itself in a zine called Hermenaut: The Digest of Heady Philosophy, which provided -- and still provides -- the enjoyment for which I had always hoped. Whatever I, my fellow <b>Hermenaut</b> editors, or any of the fascinating people we have encountered in our lives feels passionately about, appears in our pages. And because we love the material, it's always a pleasure to slave away over articles and page lay-outs and distribution hassles, whether or not we ever see a penny in return. Know what I mean? <p> By somehow being in the right place at the right time, a couple of years ago I was hired as an editorial assistant (at less money, I should point out, than I was making as a bartender) by a quirky national magazine out of Minneapolis at which the opinions and fixations of its editors probably came as close to driving editorial policy as is possible at that level of publishing. However, despite the fact that I kept getting promoted, and was soon writing and editing feature and cover stories, being a magazine editor somehow wasn't as fun or fulfilling for me as being a zine editor is. For one thing, although we stressed the importance of community at this magazine, I never felt like I really knew our audience, or that they liked what I was trying to do there. And -- despite the magazine's mission to give a personal angle on everything we covered -- I too often missed the personable in our pages; that tone which tells you, "This is what I really think; not just what our marketing department wants you to think that I think." And, frankly, it got boring being the token twenty-something editor. <p> So that's why I jumped ship to Tripod. From the first time I saw it, I was immediately convinced that this is a site produced by real people neither crippled by the need to please everybody nor (like all too many Web publications aimed at people my age) obnoxiously eager to piss everybody off in the name of being -- or just seeming -- "alternative" or something. Tripod is the real deal: Everyone from the programmers to the designers to the membership team to the <a href="../../../www_subdomain/tripod/staff/communications-html/anchor_kara.html">beautiful lady</a> who sends out press releases is here to help people just like me figure out what we want to do with our lives ... and then provide the smartest tools for making it happen in an enjoyable way. Furthermore, our audience is a real community which participates -- oftentimes vociferously -- in creating the site. And best of all, we're free to inform and entertain in the manner in which we ourselves would like to be informed and entertained: with the most honest, opinionated, eccentric (in the case of one <a href="/">editor who shall remain nameless</a>), and excruciatingly personal stories we can find. Now that's why I got into journalism. <p> <a href="../../../www_subdomain/tripod/staff/editorial-html/anchor_josh.html">Josh</a> <p> <hr width="330"> <p> <center>Read more "Letters from Tripod" in the <a href="../../../www_subdomain/tripod/letters/archive.html">archive</a>.</center> <p> <hr width="330"> </blockquote> <br> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>