Anyone can write on Room Eight -- just set up a blog here. The editors, Ben Smith and Gur Tsabar will, at least initially, choose which posts appear on the site's homepage. The headlines for all blog items appear in the left hand column in the Recent Posts block.

We encourage bloggers and commenters to choose a "handle" or two -- like some in our first group, "Gatemouth" or "Yoda" -- and stick with it, so we can get to know you. Or just use your real name.

The house rules boil down to this: Don't be defamatory or hateful. We'll delete offending content and ban its authors without notice. Kos has a pretty good, fuller set of guidelines for the blogs on his site.