It is my pleasure to announce that The Harmonist is online and ready to roll
We are only announcing it to our Sanga at the moment, as a sort of preliminary launch. Please have a look around. GM would like devotees to make thoughtful, articulate comments to help encourage discussion once it is released to everyone.
If you spot any inconsistencies in any way please let me know by email.
Well, not much else to say... Check it out : The Harmonist
Nice! Thanks to everyone involved.
Nice! Thanks to everyone involved.
Thank you for your comment Babhru. We look forward to some articles from you.
The web design is wonderful! It is very well conceived and a great service to the gaudiya vaishnava world and humanity in general. It is so different than any other gaudiya web site - simply fantastic!!!!
The web design is wonderful! It is very well conceived and a great service to the gaudiya vaishnava world and humanity in general. It is so different than any other gaudiya web site - simply fantastic!!!!
Thank you too! Please praise here and comment there.
For purposes of comparison, I clicked between the Harmonist and Shambala Sun. This design holds its own -- and then some! And when it comes to content, we're already way ahead. : )
Thank you for your comment Babhru. We look forward to some articles from you.
Just now coming. But first, editing others' articles is my game.
looks great
the only suggestion I would make is to have a box to click for becoming a registered subscriber by committing to a montly paypal donation no matter what the customer feels that amount should be. As an example they agree to 1 dollar and we get 20,000 clicks you get the idea and if it is only .01 we still make an income stream that will never die. They should be allowed to start and stop it at any time. I would bet that the amount will average much more than 1 dollar.
They should also be allowed to be donor at any amount if they do not want to commit monthly. This would be extra gravey.
Nice format.
Keep up the great works.
I really like everything about the site. It was probably a specific style choice, but I'm wondering about the title line, head line at the top. Could Harmonist be more prominent, or maybe less dwarfed by the "oh my friend" ad, or have a background graphic... Just a small thought... something that would make it stick out a little more. Though the minimalist thing is kinda cool too.
Sitapati put a link to the Dawkins article on his Facebook wall. He has about 650 "friends" on FB, so that'll give the site some exposure. He hasn't put Harmonist on his Planet ISKCON site, though.
And Amara has a link on his GALVA list.
A small note: some acknowledgements are still missing.
Any way to make GN's cartoons a little bigger?
The website is great. The choice of topics and openmindness in presenting them is stunning.
I've got only technical comment (already mentioned earlier): I think that name "Harmonist" should be more prominent on the main page, and should have some particular, easly recognizable , unique character, and "O My Friend" banner could be smaller, or at least moved somwhere to the other part of the page.
The major news sites like CNN, BBC, USA Today, Google News, and Reuters all have small mastheads on the left like our Harmonist site. Actually the design trend for all kinds of major sites is to have an unobtrustive masthead. I may play around with something larger though, perhaps removing the ad.
As for the comic being larger, Gurunistha drew it to that size. It could be resized, but it would have to come out of the sidebar. The text could be larger in its present position, but that would require redrawing the comic.
As for putting a unique character in the Harmonist like an om symbol or something, my sense is that this look is dated (in America at least). Others can feel free to weigh in on this though.
I just noticed the "Sakhyam’s Razor: A reply to Dhanurdhara Swami" article is not on the front page even though it was recently released?
How can I keep track of new articles on the front page?
God I love the site. I was particularly excited to see the new article "the Bhagavat leans left". Such a cool approach to preaching. I kind of remember reading that, I think it is in his 10th canto preface. Great points. I've also enjoyed watching the movies on there, though I wish those raw milk guys carried a more authoritative aura. My sincere thanks to Vrindaranya for the design and to all the devotees helping to amplify the voice and spirit of our sanga through this media.
I "get" your message about the title Vrindaranya. Whatever you think, I always know that you've got good sense behind it.
Like Shyam Gopala I would also like to know the best way to keep on top of everything posted. Right now I go and refresh several times per day, but if there are enough comments, the "recent comments" section does not show them all. Any way to get RSS for everything?
-harmonist addict.
I was also happy to see "The Bhagavat Leans Left," although I'd guess some reactionary readers may not appreciate it. When I was at Madhuvana, I noticed that Gaurasundara had Advaita Acarya's book. I found myself wondering how he might explain presenting the 10th Canto alone, so I read his introduction. I found it delightful--just enough devotion presented in a way that academically inclined readers can appreciate. I was very impressed.
My sincere thanks to Vrindaranya for the design and to all the devotees helping to amplify the voice and spirit of our sanga through this media.I "get" your message about the title Vrindaranya. Whatever you think, I always know that you've got good sense behind it.
Like Shyam Gopala I would also like to know the best way to keep on top of everything posted. Right now I go and refresh several times per day, but if there are enough comments, the "recent comments" section does not show them all. Any way to get RSS for everything?
-harmonist addict.
After working on a design for a while, I realized I could save a lot of time by going with a Wordpress theme, so the design credit goes there. I had enough trouble tinkering with that, so I'm really glad I went that route.
As for the RSS for the comments, I'll have to look into that.
There is now a link to subscribe to a feed of the Harmonist comments. You can also get email notifications of comments on particular articles (whether you comment or not). I have also increased the number of recent comments shown in the side bar.
You can also view all the comments without subscribing to the RSS feed by clicking on Comments (RSS) at the footer of every page.
Ys,
Vrindaranya
Just beginning to familiarize myself with the site and its content. Even though this site is the newest Gaudiya site on the internet, I think it is already the best in terms of the depth of content and the quality of the layout. It is easy to navigate and easy on the eyes to look at. Thank you so much! This site will definitely become the premier Gaudiya site in due course.
There is now a link
You rule!
You rule!
Of course she does! Was there ever any question? And it gets better: Vrindaranya rules by serving unconditionally.
Any stats on how Harmonist is doing, hit count, or something like that? Are people looking at it?
Harmonist site is down
Any stats on how Harmonist is doing, hit count, or something like that? Are people looking at it?
Yesterday we had 13741 hits, 9060 pages, 292 unique visitors.
Yesterday we had 13741 hits, 9060 pages, 292 unique visitors.
Wow! That sounds great for such a new site.
Wow! That sounds great for such a new site.
yes that is true. Only thing that is disappointing is people outside of our Sangha are not commenting much on the site yet. Only other website that has good content is bhakticollective.com because it has contributions from a lot of scholarly devotees, even though their website design leaves a lot to be desired. That website also does not have many comments. Looks as if people like to more only in chakra etc!
I have been looking over the comments on The Harmonist and I think such comments on site content, etc., such as Brahma's comment cited below should be kept in house and would be more appropriately posted on TV.
"I hope I’m not ruffling any feathers by saying this, but in my opinion more articles like these are needed in order to balance out the preponderance of scholarly articles on this site. Indeed, after slogging through Dinkins and Dennett I was feeling the Harmonist a bit too ‘Heady’ for me.
And yes, there are plenty of folks like me out there—80% of the population has an IQ of less than 120—and are more apt to read People or Time than they are Scientific American or the Utne Reader.
This means that deeply philosophical articles need to be balanced with news and emotional human-interest stories in order to keep the majority interested and involved.
So in my opinion, finding the right balance of heady—hearty—and newsy (not necessarily in that order) is the key to the success of the Harmonist.
Brahma"
The Harmonist site is well balanced in its articles in my opinion. It has only been live for a few weeks and so far there has been a wide variety of articles to read and discuss. There have been 13 comments on the Dawkins article.
The Harmonist site is well balanced in its articles in my opinion. It has only been live for a few weeks and so far there has been a wide variety of articles to read and discuss. There have been 13 comments on the Dawkins article.
I concur, there is a good balance. This site shows that we can face the heat from people like Dawkins who feel in Hemminway's words that every thinking man is an atheist. I think bhakticollective.com also has these kinds of articles. We want people to think deeply about the tradition and its interface with modernity.
In my opinion there is a good balance of articles as well, but if Brahma thinks there's a need for more articles like the ones he mentioned then perhaps he should write some.
You can also view all the comments without subscribing to the RSS feed by clicking on Comments (RSS) at the footer of every page.
I signed up for the email of comments, but then canceled because it seems to only come as a daily digest format; which I'm much more likely to check 5 times in a day before I get the email. Is it possible to make the "recent comments" side bar even longer? If there are enough comments it fills the sidebar up and is not easy to find what comments I've missed. Am I whining?
I signed up for the email of comments, but then canceled because it seems to only come as a daily digest format; which I'm much more likely to check 5 times in a day before I get the email. Is it possible to make the "recent comments" side bar even longer? If there are enough comments it fills the sidebar up and is not easy to find what comments I've missed. Am I whining?
No, I also think the sidebar should be longer...
At last! VINA finally posted our announcement for The Harmonist's launch. They apparently have their own sense of time.