Thursday, September 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
2009-2010 Board
We've recent put up both a pre-season commment thread and one addressed to loose ends, the future of the Rumor Mill, and so forth.
Now we've added a board for the 2009-2010 "market." We're updating as new jobs come in to APSA e-jobs, but if we miss something please let us know there. Remember that the comments section of the board should NOT be used for job rumors. For now, those should go on the pre-season thread, as they won't involve interviews and the like.
As always, these posts/threads are available via the nav bar on the right (under the "recent comments" widget).
Now we've added a board for the 2009-2010 "market." We're updating as new jobs come in to APSA e-jobs, but if we miss something please let us know there. Remember that the comments section of the board should NOT be used for job rumors. For now, those should go on the pre-season thread, as they won't involve interviews and the like.
As always, these posts/threads are available via the nav bar on the right (under the "recent comments" widget).
Thursday, June 04, 2009
New Comment System
JS-Kit is a bit buggy when it comes to updating the number of comments listed under a post, however, so you may see "0 Comments" when, in fact, readers have already left multiple comments.
We've also added a recent comments widget to the navbar, which should make it easier to see changes across multiple discussion threads.
JS-Kit does have an analytic feature, but we don't think it displays IPs. If it does, we will have an open discussion about whether to revert to the old system. We honestly have zero interest in knowing the identities of our posters, and I think that those of you have emailed us appreciate how careful we are about preserving confidentiality.
UPDATE: as of now, JS-Kit's analytic functionality is ideal; it allows us to see the number of people viewing comments, but not their IP addresses! So we have some idea of the cite traffic (a lot) but no way for any malicious person to discover the location that a comment was posted from.
Back to blogger comments.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Preseason Thread
Pretty much what it sounds like: a place for discussions of the 2009-2010 market, strategies for getting a job, strategies for coping with the process, etc. etc.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Loose Ends and Pre-Season Thoughts
Not long ago someone posted a request for us to "fill in" the Big Board for last year's job carnage market. We think that's a great idea, particularly if, as rumor has it, the wiki is an unreliable mess.
But we also remember what happened when we made a plea for our readers to help us with such a task last year: almost no one stepped forward to help out.
Please don't make that the case again this year. We're counting on you.
Here's the plan: we've created a duplicate of the Big Board with a clean comments section. Please help us complete the board by leaving information there.
Now, on to other matters.
The major development on the rumor mill front in 2007-2008 was the advent of the wiki. At the time, we asked for opinions about whether we should shutter the mill. The overwhelming consensus was "no," and we must say that you were right. This year not only did the wiki prove problematic, but a significant number of its rumors came from us.
The major development this year has been the advent of Political Science Job Rumors. A rather lively place, in our opinion. And we find ourselves wondering yet again: has the Rumor Mill lost its raison d'être? Should we continue?
To be honest, running the thing during job season is kind of a pain. A big reason is that we make sporadic efforts to contact faculty and job candidates about rumors we receive (we didn't do this as frequently as we should have in 2008-2009, and if we continue we'll aim to ramp up the effort). On the other hand, we think we're a somewhat cleaner, friendlier place than the message boards, and that probably counts for something. What do you think?
Finally, if we do continue, what can we do better? What should we change? And no, we won't ditch moderation.
But we also remember what happened when we made a plea for our readers to help us with such a task last year: almost no one stepped forward to help out.
Please don't make that the case again this year. We're counting on you.
Here's the plan: we've created a duplicate of the Big Board with a clean comments section. Please help us complete the board by leaving information there.
Now, on to other matters.
The major development on the rumor mill front in 2007-2008 was the advent of the wiki. At the time, we asked for opinions about whether we should shutter the mill. The overwhelming consensus was "no," and we must say that you were right. This year not only did the wiki prove problematic, but a significant number of its rumors came from us.
The major development this year has been the advent of Political Science Job Rumors. A rather lively place, in our opinion. And we find ourselves wondering yet again: has the Rumor Mill lost its raison d'être? Should we continue?
To be honest, running the thing during job season is kind of a pain. A big reason is that we make sporadic efforts to contact faculty and job candidates about rumors we receive (we didn't do this as frequently as we should have in 2008-2009, and if we continue we'll aim to ramp up the effort). On the other hand, we think we're a somewhat cleaner, friendlier place than the message boards, and that probably counts for something. What do you think?
Finally, if we do continue, what can we do better? What should we change? And no, we won't ditch moderation.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Economy and the Job Market
Share your angst, your sage advice, or whatever seems appropriate.
(Thanks to P.L. for the suggestion.)
Monday, November 10, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Welcome!
Welcome to the IR Rumor Mill. If this is your first time here, please familiarize yourself our policies as they have evolved in recent years. It will make things easier down the road.
If you want to continue with a discussion from an earlier set of threads, we've posted a list of 2007-2008 threads on many topics. This list extends through the summer of 2008. If you want to keep your queries active, you should re-post them in the new threads below.
We've finally gotten around to adding labels to our posts. This should make searching the Rumor Mill easier.
If you have any comments or suggestions on the Mill itself, you should post them on the relevant thread.
This year we expect to build the "Big Board" organically, i.e., to list jobs when rumors start to come in. If anyone wants to volunteer some time and send us an HTML-formatted table with active job listings, feel free to do so.
If you want to contact us, email us at ir11rumor11mill@gmail.com. Don't forget to leave out the 11s (as in, "these amps go up to") for actual delivery!
If you want to continue with a discussion from an earlier set of threads, we've posted a list of 2007-2008 threads on many topics. This list extends through the summer of 2008. If you want to keep your queries active, you should re-post them in the new threads below.
We've finally gotten around to adding labels to our posts. This should make searching the Rumor Mill easier.
If you have any comments or suggestions on the Mill itself, you should post them on the relevant thread.
This year we expect to build the "Big Board" organically, i.e., to list jobs when rumors start to come in. If anyone wants to volunteer some time and send us an HTML-formatted table with active job listings, feel free to do so.
If you want to contact us, email us at ir11rumor11mill@gmail.com. Don't forget to leave out the 11s (as in, "these amps go up to") for actual delivery!
2008-2009 Job Rumors (September)
This is what it all comes down to: the kickoff thread to post job rumors for the 2008-2009 season. Remember the rules (and to check them if you're confused), such as:
At the risk of repetition, we note that no one has a "legal right" to keep information about his or her interview a secret. If you're tempted to claim otherwise, consider a simple fact: if we find out about your interview, it usually means it already isn't much of a secret.
We often try to accommodate reasonable requests to hold information. We believe, moreover, that our attempts to operate in good faith account for the high-quality information we receive. We are very good about honoring requests to hold rumors by people who send us those rumors.
But do not assume that our team is made up entirely of powerless first-year graduate students (although it might be... we're not saying) and that making absurd threats against us won't engender blowback. We know some people who are very good with voodoo dolls.
1. all comments are moderated;Also, remember that we sometimes inadvertently violate our own policies, that we appreciate emailed rumors, that we will always keep our sources confidential, and that threatening to sue us only makes us mad.
2. we seek confirmation before posting rumors concerning lateral moves;
3. source your rumors, e.g., "I overheard someone in the hall saying that his friend heard from another fellow at Belfer that her friend at Big State University knows the administrative assistant at Small Liberal Arts College who said that they were interviewing...." or, more likely, "source: the candidate";
4. keep it clean.
At the risk of repetition, we note that no one has a "legal right" to keep information about his or her interview a secret. If you're tempted to claim otherwise, consider a simple fact: if we find out about your interview, it usually means it already isn't much of a secret.
We often try to accommodate reasonable requests to hold information. We believe, moreover, that our attempts to operate in good faith account for the high-quality information we receive. We are very good about honoring requests to hold rumors by people who send us those rumors.
But do not assume that our team is made up entirely of powerless first-year graduate students (although it might be... we're not saying) and that making absurd threats against us won't engender blowback. We know some people who are very good with voodoo dolls.
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