Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

by Midnight Freemason Managing Editor

WB Darin A. Lahners

SEND MORE ARTICLES!!!!!!!!

I have recently been faced with a dilemma. As the managing editor of the Midnight Freemasons blog for the past several years, I have been trying to keep the blog afloat by either recycling old material, writing my own material for the blog, or begging for contributions.  When Todd Creason started the blog on October 7, 2009, I don't think he knew that it would grow into what it is today, which is a blog that gets over 40000 hits a month (not that numbers matter), and has served as one of, if not the premier Masonic blogs on the internet.  However, the job of being the Blog's editor is time-consuming, thankless, and sometimes frustrating. Todd did this job for a long time, Robert Johnson took over from Todd and served as well, and I came on as an assistant editor, and then graduated to become the Managing Editor. 

However, a blog is only as good as the material it is providing. I had tried to keep the blog on a regular schedule of its Monday/Wednesday/Friday publication.  However, unfortunately, contributions to the blog started to dry up, so I started to recycle old material on the blog.  I switched to publishing on Wednesday, thinking that would help keep the blog fresh and that I wouldn't encounter the issue the blog is currently facing, which is, a lack of contributions.   I began to think that it was time to say goodbye, and maybe it still is, I don't know.  What I do know is that I sent an email to Todd basically saying that we're not getting new material and we should probably just stop the whole thing.  Something happened shortly after I sent the email to Todd. 

I was at Villa Grove High School in Villa Grove, Illinois to support Heritage High School's Scholastic Bowl team in the Masonic Academic Bowl when I was introduced to a Mason from Tuscola, Illinois who asked if I was the guy who wrote for the Midnight Freemasons blog.  I  said that I was, and he commented about how much he liked the blog. So, I took it as a sign from the Great Architect that I still needed to labor in the quarry of this blog.   However, I also need to make better use of my 24-inch gauge.  

I recognize that the blog is a repository of great articles, all of which can be used for Masonic Education.  However, I also recognize that the blog isn't getting contributors to contribute like it once did.  I don't want to be forever known as the guy who killed the Midnight Freemasons blog, but I also have to recognize that the blog doesn't need to have an article every week to still serve its purpose as a repository for Masonic Educational material.  So, henceforth, when I have a new contribution, we will publish it. I don't know when that will be.  But if something happens in the world of Freemasonry and spurs articles, we will be here.  

To help make the dissemination of information on the blog easier, I will be trying to find a new theme that will allow better search or indexing, so please be patient as you may see the blog look different in the coming days as I look into this.  To quote one of the articles here: "We're not dying, we're refining".   

I'd like to thank all of the men and women who have contributed to the blog up to this point. I'd also like to thank the readers. If you are interested in helping refine the blog, please submit your material to: editormidnightfreemasons@gmail.com  

A Mason Who Forgets

by Midnight Freemason Editor

Robert H. Johnson

So once in a while, we forget. We forget lines, we forget names, we forget ritual. In my case, you may have noticed, I forgot to schedule a piece for last Friday. Being a Freemason, an active one, is something that takes a lot of cognitive discipline and sometimes, we falter. I felt horrible about not getting a piece up this last Friday but I know that stuff happens, not my first choice of words when describing the situation.

But we can use this as a slight reminder that whenever we forget something, the best course of action is usually to just pick up where you left off and in some cases, own up to your short comings. As men and as Masons, we do this already...usually.

In ritual, we just keep going and don't miss a beat, the local lodge lecture expert approaching you after to tell you all the words you missed, or perhaps the turns you did wrong. It's okay, Brothers. Take it in stride.

Enjoy your Sunday! We'll be back tomorrow morning.

RHJ

Lighten Up Francis

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

WB Adam Thayer

With apologies to our ever-patient editor, Robert.

I recently enjoyed a discussion with some of the other Midnight Freemasons, regarding page views (which is the only solid metric we have to measure our success) and how we had noticed a correlation between the depth of the topic discussed and the amount of viewers that we reached. Of course, if you’ve ever been involved in any organized Masonic education, you’ve had this discussion too; in fact, the Nebraska Grand Lodge Education Committee has it ever year when we’re planning our topics!

As educators, we all want to dig deep into the guts of Freemasonry and teach how it ticks, but unfortunately this turns off many of the people we are trying to reach, who would much prefer something lighter and more easily digestible. Those few scholars who do brave the depths of our more advanced topics are rewarded with a wealth of knowledge, but the more average Mason wouldn’t get past the headline “A Judeo-Christian Examination of the Middle Chamber Lecture”. (That was not a random example, it’s a paper I’ve been dying to write)

As entertainers (and let’s be honest, that is a part of our job as well), we are under the constraint of giving the public what they want, even at the cost of sacrificing some of our deeper esoterica. If we do our jobs perfectly, you will be entertained, and you will learn something in the process. If done poorly, we either write something fun with absolutely no substance, like we’re the pop musicians of Freemasonry, or we write something so dense that nobody can understand it, like modern day Albert Pikes.

The issue becomes this: what level do we write at, to pull in new viewers, to keep our current readers coming back, and to bring back viewers we may have lost. Does that sound familiar? What if we substituted “viewers” for “brothers”? Isn’t that the same issue that most of our lodges are having right now? In my Scottish Rite valley, it is referred to as “The Three R’s”: recruitment, retention, and reinstatement.

In education, if you’re very lucky, you have someone with a big-picture view to balance out the needs of the viewers with the needs of the writers, and we’re blessed to have an editor who keeps us in line but still gives us the freedom to write what we want, and for that I am infinitely thankful.

So, now I’m going to turn the question around to you: what do YOU want to see here? We have this great feedback section at the bottom of every post, we would love for you to use it!!! Let us know if there’s something you want to read about. If you read one of our papers and want more like it, tell us. If you think we’re completely wrong about something (it happens more than you think), tell us. Page hits is only a useful metric to track how many eyeballs we reached, but what we really want to know is how many minds did we reach!

~AT

WB. Bro. Adam Thayer is the Senior Warden of Lancaster Lodge No. 54 in Lincoln (NE) and a past master of Oliver Lodge No. 38 in Seward (NE). He’s an active member in the Knights of Saint Andrew, and on occasion remembers to visit the Scottish and York Rites as well. He continues to be reappointed to the Grand Lodge of Nebraska Education Committee, and serves with fervency and zeal. He is a sub-host on The Whence Came You podcast, and may be reached at adam@wcypodcast.com. He will not help you get your whites whiter or your brights brighter, but he does enjoy conversing with brothers from around the world!