I was pondering if I should say anything about Oi Haiyaku, since its originator has stepped out of the closet. The problem is, a lot of what I think about the endevour is negative, and I don't like being negative. At the moment, it peeves me the most that they nixed their condescending call for authors. Do they realize that they cannot erase things off the Internet?

I know you’ve all seen them before. You may have been part of one, you may run one now. What am I talking about? The generic, cookie-cutter blog.

Someone has to step up and push the limits, create something different, feed a different need, break the mold.

As much as OH! may be a blog, I’m thinking of it more in terms of a magazine. That should give you a good idea of the quality of writing I’m looking for. [...] OH! is an open collaboration blog. What this means is that at any time, anyone can assist or co-write articles and, upon approval from me, switch assigned positions on occasion, etc.

This sort of reminds me about a politician who campaigns on the platform of change, then offers stale recipies which were rejected back in the 1980s. Why change [back] to the failed model of a magazine when even Wired turned into a shell for its blogs?

The model has floundered on the fact that quality opinion flourishes without gatekeepers on the Web. Slaving in the assigned position does not facilitate its production, no matter how much USC Annenberg faculty might argue it. You have to have something other than just smooth writing to win over blogs.

In fact, such something exists. The killer application of the traditional media model on the Web is hard news reporting. Hire someone as fluent as Dark Mirage to read actual media in Japanese, hire Scott VonSchilling to go to conventions and pester "the industry" (well, more often than he does already). This is the kind of activity where an organization can express its power over dastardly bloggers.

But OH has different ideas:

I want to give OH! a much more multimedia feel than your traditional blog. You should love our site because you see it, hear it, watch it, read it, and interact with it.

Any comments are superfluous here.

UPDATE: They roped some strong people, like Coburn, so this is going to be interesting.

UPDATE 2008/10/15: Baka-Raptor replied, for what it's worth — he didn't say anything interesting. Riex himself did not stoop to address my concerns, which may be a good thing: at this point, I think, the long-term success of the OH would be the best reply. If he's busy running the site, it's for the better.

UPDATE 2008/10/17: Lolikit goes around people's comments promoting the point that the removal of the original call for authors was not a big deal. Indeed, under normal circumstances it probably wouldn't be, although it is still very uncool to yank it, IMHO. In this case, the problem was compounded by the tone of the article, written as if to insult the largest number of possible contributors on purpose. Once something like that is taken down, the action takes upon a dimension of cover-up.

Meanwhile, Coburn posted an excellent editorial at his own blog. I don't know why he didn't put it up at OH. Perhaps the topic of it did not match his assigned position. Riex is right to take the high road and not demand exclusive loyalty in exchange for swag, but the story highlights how good authors do good work outside of the official structure, which was my main point above (and if the OH's call was taken down or not is not at all important in comparison).