9. Dear Fray Poster:

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Originally I relied on the faq--of which this post is now a late addition--to convey to you my belief in this blog’s potential. It is a blog by fray posters, for fray posters, about fray posters and to fray posters. In short, this is your blog, and it exists solely to feature your fray posts. But why would you repost your fray posts here? What’s in it for you?

In a few ways, this blog simply expands your fray audience. It’s not so new that you are the only person reading it. In fact, there are already quite a few contributors, all fray posters, and this blog has been added to the browser favorites of many more. By reposting here, you’re simply reaching a wider fray community. You’re bringing your posts to the attention of fray posters who might not have otherwise seen them. This is an important point because when people think blog, they think blogosphere, and although we’re certainly in the blogosphere, we’re still primarily all about the fray and Slate.

The twist in all this is when I speak of your fray audience; I’m speaking of you too. By taking two simple steps, you (a) expand your fray audience; and (b) become a part of the expanding fray audience. It’s a bit of a leap of faith, and I know it might not seem all that significant, but the single largest hurdle we face is convincing you of how important your single contribution is. Put simply, if everyone who read this post became a contributor, the audience, your audience, would grow exponentially overnight. But for that to happen, you need to contribute your two cents by becoming a contributor (how?), and add this blog to your favorites--using it both to repost your fray posts, and as a hub for accessing the fray and Slate.

You can’t program a community into existence. As such, we are the most valuable commodity on the internet. In a sense, we’re ahead of the game. The only thing that’s missing is that we have yet to take advantage of what we’ve got. Because Slate can’t or won’t, I see no reason why we shouldn’t build our own town square. A place we can post that all of the fray reads, and not just the few posters who happen to click on the fray board where your original is posted.

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