Wow, a second post from the Editor in a row, and on a Wednesday! This is just like the first month of the site’s existence!

Don’t worry, we’ll get back to the magic soon. But I wanted to give you a little extra reassurance first that I really am back in action.

First off, comments have been turned on globally, under every post. The only reason we had them off was by preference of the old webmaster Smith, and that is of course no longer a relevant preference. So enjoy!

Some basic ground rules for making comments on the Magic Oval:

1. Your comment should be relevant to the post, the site, or something else regarding us. That, or a meaningful personal anecdote. Not just some random comment that would “fit” under any post.
2. Your comment should not self-censor for fear of offense, unless you’re using racial slurs or something. Then maybe censor them. Otherwise, we of course are not of the opinion that anyone should dampen their beliefs in our comment section.
3. Feel free to use a stage name or your real name or a random one-time name. We don’t care, obviously. We’re all pseudonymous.
4. An email is required to help avoid spam. It can be any email, and the only downside of putting an email you don’t actually use will be that you’ll miss any possible prizes we send you for an especially good comment. We will never add the email to our subscription list because of a comment. So go ahead, use a throwaway email to write that piece dissecting our greatest post and pointing out the fatal flaw in it. It’ll just save us money on gift cards.
5. Despite rule 2, we may refrain from publishing any comments that might cause pointless or overwrought debate or arguments with the writers. If so, we will send a cordial email explaining this to the provided address. Other than for this, and for distributing prizes, we will never use the comment form email address.

Alright, now go wild!

Plans for this year…

I foreshadowed some stuff, but I’ll get a little more specific here.

We will publish our first interview, with more to come after that.

Our first collaboration with a well-known magician will release, years in the making. (Before the Oval even existed this was being worked on, in fact.) Predictably, it will be a very controversial magician.

The first non-pseudonymous author with a public identity will likely join us, indirectly due to our Mystify sponsorship.

Plus, much more that’s less certain right now; so I don’t wish to speak on it.

I hope you’ve got some exciting things planned for the New Year too. If so, you can always email us about it. Or comment now instead!

Happy New Year.