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Revision 32 . . November 28, 2006 10:04 am by Tim Lindgren
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Our working title for this site has been Ecotone, which is a technical term from the field of ecology meaning the borderline between ecosystems. As Fred1st puts it:

::Ecotone:term from ecology. A place where landscapes meet-- like field with forest, or grassland with desert. The ecotone is an area of increased richness and diversity where the two communities comingle. Here too are creatures unique to the ecotone... the so-called 'edge effect'. Here in the online Ecotone community, we hope to create an edge effect, bringing distinct and different places and communities together to enrich our world. Enjoy your visit.


Question -- are the connotations of this term too biological? Our intent is to be inclusive, and to welcome those whose focus is the cultural aspects of place, rather than nature. How can we make this clear? Will the introductory text on the HomePage suffice? I do like the poetic richness of the Ecotone name, at any rate -- Allan






Ecotone is beautiful as a name for this endeavour. It conjurs up the blending of ecologies, the fact that our blogs kind of dwell on the edges of blogdom, the idea that we are connected in an ecology of blogging and the fact that we are making music here together, singing the tones of eco.

I will stamp my feet and protest in the strongest terms if we have to change it! But that's just my opinion...

:-)

-- Chris




I like the definition very much. The notion of boundaries between two things is very attractive. I confess that when I questioned the name I didn't know what it meant. I guess my only question now would be whether others would know it. But my objection is certainly not strong enough to cause me to stamp my feet! ;) --Nancy (Afterthought: Maybe something like 'Ecotone: Writing About Place'?)




Seems like people love the name once they know what it means. Perhaps we do need a short, pithy, quasi-explanatory subtitle, something that will encourage readers to get to the definition. I'm really taken with the implication of "margin" and "border" and "edge," both ecologically and in writing, and would love to see those somehow reflected in the subtitle or elsewhere on the home page. (Nancy, I didn't know what ecotone meant either until I read Fred's definition, and I live and work around ecologists. I don't think we can assume that non-specialists will know this term.)

Otherwise, is there a way to get the definition onto the home page in a smaller, block format? Do people think this is a good idea? It's a bit long as it's written now, I think...

-- Alison




I like Nancy's phrase: Ecotone: Writing About Place . This leaves out references to blogging, blogs, etc which might be exclusive, emphasizes writing, which I think is central. Maybe a link could be placed prominently "About our name" "or Who We Are" which would carry interested readers to a fuller definition of the name and the groups' purpose, stated succinctly in a paragraph (Beth?)

The new template changes make the place more cozy. The earthtone background is right on. The place depicted in the banner, well, there's not that much flat land in the entire county here! Where is it? What do you think of rotating the banner image from time to time (monthly?) with a caption stating location and contributor. A thot for the future.

Thanks again, Allan for pulling this all together. It's feeling more and more comfortable and more exciting as we go! -- Fred




The location of the banner is the north levee of Putah Creek, about a half-mile from where we live. The view is looking west, and there's a freeway in the image, though you can't really see it at the current resolution. I'd be happy to trade some flatland for a few hills. :) I like the idea of rotating the banner from time-to-time. --Allan




Beth here. I like the banner and I like the idea of rotating it every now and then, too. Allan, I can definitely send you some hills, but from here, that long flat road looks pretty inviting!

My vote is to stay with Ecotone and add Nancy's ':Writing about Place".

How about as a subhead, using a modification of the end of Fred's Ecotone definition, in italics or small boldface? Then the full definition could be elsewhere on the page, perhaps as a sidebar, or boxed, if there's some way to do that gracefully. I love the part about the "edge effect", but I couldn't see how to get it into a subhead without either being obscure or including a lengthy explanation.

So how about:
ECOTONE: Writing about Place
"Bringing distinct and different places and communities together to enrich our world"

I'm not 100% happy with "enrich" (we could simply end it after "communities") but either way, this would be broad and inclusive, and either biological or non-biological depending on a person's perspective. We can modify everything as we go along. What do you think?




I'm not sure we really need a subhead. We can just launch into a couple paragraphs about "Why Ecotone?", the history of how the site started, and what some of our interests are here, followed by navigation links at the bottom. I like the open-endedness of just having at the top "Ecotone: Writing About Place". An example of a home page of another wiki that might serve as a good model is the Meatball wiki [here]. --Allan




So does this mean we should be trying to edit down Fred's original paragraph about Ecotone, above, and just use that, along with a condensed version of its history which I somehow now can't find on the wiki? -- Alison (It's at HistoryOfTheEcotoneCommunity.)




Let's just do what Allan proposes. If people are confused I'm sure we'll hear about it! --Beth

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