I really liked "Rate Your Students." It was a fiesty little blog that was a great place to read rants about student idiocy, the terrors of the job market or the general state of the academic profession without all the pseudo-news of say, the Chronicle of Higher Education. It was anonymous, it was personal, it was cathartic.
It also collapsed after about five years. It is evidently difficult to find people willing (and able) to moderate all the stories of pure and unadulterated hatred for students/peers, woes of burn-out, bouts of depression, soul-searching, questioning if its all worth it, etc.
But it's been reborn (sort of) in College Misery.
There are no moderators there - it's simply a blog where people can ask for posting permission and then write (or not) as they see fit. Some people post more frequently than others and the site is getting some sense of rhyme and reason together. It is still chaotic at times, still catty and divisive - and I doubt that will go away anytime soon. The big difference between College Misery and RYS is that College Misery allows comments on the posts. And it's the internet, so assholes and drama-seekers abound.
Still, I'd like to see the site succeed. It's good that there is a place for people to vent about the woes of academia to an audience other than their coworkers. Because it's probably not a good idea at your next department meeting to ask if anyone's ever failed a student just out of spite.
So I signed up for posting access. I'm not sure how frequently I'll post there - likely not terribly often - but if I find myself writing something that would easily be at home on College Misery, I may post it there instead of here.
If I do, I'll be sure to let you know. Like today. My inaugural College Misery post is right over here. It's a sequel to Libanius' bitch-fest about students. I hope you enjoy!
6 comments:
Ooooh! I think some good stuff is going to appear on that one!
I loved Rate Your Students. I thought it was Cathartic, funny, witty, etc. etc. I had it on my RSS feed, and read it regularly. When I found the group had shifted over to College Misery, I quickly added that one.
I have since deleted College Misery from my RSS feed. The utter bile I'm seeing over there isn't worth it anymore. I responded to a recent post, which later claimed to be satire, which whole-heartedly advocated the sexual harassment of students.
I don't think that's funny. My apparent lack of humor drew ad hominem attacks I should probably have expected on a completely unmoderated site, but which for some reason still surprised me coming from academics. That post, and several others recently, have been so utterly misogynistic that I realized it was simply stressing me out too much to read the blog. Which I'm sad about, as I really used to enjoy the other one.
So yeah. I'll read it when you post, because I love your writing. But I'm glad you'll link from here, because I just can't take that site anymore. Sign me "too sensitive."
Squeeee! Heading over there now...
Checked it out -- love your post, loved the conversations in general going on over there.
(Although I didn't see the one Procris mentioned during my intial visit! That would have stressed my out, too.)
TKW - I sure hope so!
Procris - I'm with you 100%. There has been some utter shit posted at CM. Majorly out-of-line, beyond the pale hatred directed at people with little or no justification. And you're right, it's not the amusing "Oh, this student was such an idiot" but more in the "I fucking hate all of them I can't believe I have to look at their faces and treat them like humans instead of the lowly gutter scum I know they are." Crazy stuff. I've really had to moderate my level of reading over there, especially in the comments. I totally understand why you left. I can only hope that some of the true douchebags will wander elsewhere.
Ink - Thanks! Glad you liked it! The nice part about CM is that there are a decent amount of posts per day, so some of the truly awful ones get lost in the archives fairly quickly.
I very much enjoyed the "That's 'Professor' Uptight to you, Johnny" Facebook page. The author wrote status updates that were supposed to be sarcastic replies which she would love to give her students, but, of course, never did. Fans could post their own, too. One day it inexplicably disappeared. I assumed it got reported or something, but I can't find anything about it. Too bad, too, because it was hilarious.
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