I think we need to set a few deadlines.
By X day we will have a mission statement, by Y day we will have figured out hosting, by Z day we will have a list of people participating, etc., until the final deadline of when the blog goes live.
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Here’s a few more suggestions to help move this forward:
Platform: I’d say going for ghost at 230 USD for a year and 25000 unique page views per month is more than sufficiently ambitious for now.
Funding: I can pitch in 20 bucks or a bit more (we could always accept @Donald_Petersen’s generosity but we’re not talking about a lot of money split at least 10 ways)
Review in 6 months
Teams: Maybe it’s a bit early to define formal titles and or positions but we should at least get an idea of what some of our strengths are and where we can best help out. I’m probably not the guy to go to for proofreading since english (lowercase e to emphasize the point) isn’t my native language but I’m pretty sure that if the blog breaks in the middle of the night I could jump in and fix whatever’s wrong.
Follow up in 3 months.
Next steps: Get together and set a date
We should set up a meeting in the next couple of weeks, Skype, google hangouts, there’s a lot of technologies for this, just pick one.
Topics: Socialize, talk about ourselves and what we’d like to accomplish. Just make small talk.
Lets let that meeting inform what we want this to be.
Setting a date: I actually like deadlines, they are the one thing I fear more than the blank page. I don’t mean to push us beyond anyone person’s comfort level, but setting a date will go a long way towards making this real.
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I do think we need the following types of deadlines:
-
Decide who’s going to be “The Person” who sets up the account, manages the primary email address and goes to the figurative and literal Post Office and make on-the-fly decisions. Done: @waetherman is “The Convener.”
-
Decide who’s going to handle any money. No one seconded or voted, but if there’s no objection, @Donald_Petersen is willing to handle it, and a shared spreadsheet and receipts with contributions, funding, and costs is going to be our best transparency. Potentially Done
-
Decide who’s going to be at least nominally charge of the backend. @Japhroaig is willing, again if there are no objections. Potentially Done.
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Define the scope of the roles “Lead Editor” and “Content Lead.” I propose 8:30 AM Wednesday GMT. (~24 hours from now.)
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Vote on said roles. I propose 8:30 AM Thursday GMT (Another 24 hours from the previous item).
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With these roles decided I propose a grand meeting. Can I all those interested in attending to state their A) Time Zone relative to GMT, and B) preferred availability stated in GMT? If we can get a reasonable timespan down, I’m sure the particular forum is relatively easy to decide once we know who’s down to show up and when. My schedule is relatively open.
Okay, can I also just add,
I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really hate everything about, around, near, notionally of, connected to, that smells like, that walks the dog of, in proximity to, and/or related to Tumblr. I would honestly rather do Wordpress and be responsible for the admin, is how much I don’t like Tumblr. I can’t nix it for the group, but I have to put my very dirty, rusty, corroded two cents in.
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I mention Tumblr on as an example- not as “the” example.
It’s ok for what it is (and it has a very low threshold for non-techie folks). Within it’s (limited) wheelhouse it works ok.
I would rather lean towards one of the for-pay options- Squarespace, Ghost, etc…
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I’m EDT, which is GMT-4 (or rather, BST-5).
I don’t have much time this week (I need to prepare to be camping this weekend), but next week (and most weeks), I’m free Mon, Tu, Fri, 2100-0230 GMT, plus all day (let’s say 1200-0400 GMT) next Saturday and Sunday (June 18-19), and most other weekends.
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Maybe I have a different vision, because I disagree. Maybe it’s just floaters, but I see you* in it.
* or the Princess, at any rate. You’re a necessary evil, I suppose.
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I like how this is shaping up (and that I’m not the only one pushing 
)
I think which tech platform we use matters, since I think it needs to be something we can make our own, and use as its own standalone site. I’m not a fan of Tumblr either. I don’t mind Wordpress - it’s what I’m most familiar with, and it seems flexible to me, but it also seems others here hate it. I’m fine with Ghost. As I mentioned, I have a hosting account on Media Temple that I can offer space in, if we use a platform that can be hosted on our own instead of paying a service.
I wouldn’t mind moving this whole discussion to a slack channel if people thought it were more expedient, especially for the discussion/voting around roles etc. Or we can use BB private group messaging. My only caveat is that if we use a private group or other service, I think everyone who is participating in this thread should be invited to attend.
I’m Eastern Standard Tribe, and generally pretty flexible during the work hours to participate.
I know that there has been very little discussion of names, and I don’t want to commit to anything at this point, but I’m going to propose we use Commentariat Collective as the working title. I’ve secured commentariat.co just so we have it if we need it. Commentariat.com and .org are both taken, but I’ve also secured commentariatcollective.com and .org.
#slack slack slack!
Also, whatever platform we use - I would prefer it to have the ability to schedule posts.
- If we have an overall editor, then they can approve and publish
- Scheduling posts allows for time-shifting; I can’t do a post everyday, but some days I can stack them up.
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X Day is coming pretty soon:
http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/fun/devivals/19XDay/19X-Day.html
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Oh yeah, scheduling’s a good idea. Smart call there!
Also, I hope this is obvious but whatever format we use MUST have an easy to use WYSIWYG article writing engine that allows for easy text enhancement, inserting and formatting of images and such. When I’m in writing mode the last thing I want to worry about is trying to use code to format things.
I remember HuffPo being all excited about one of my articles and making me an account, that interface was such a PITA I never wrote anything for them. Even trying to cut-and-paste an article in there was pretty much impossible.
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Why Not?</title>
</head>
<body>
<p style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Comic Papyrus';">
Why don't you like using code to format things?
</p>
</body>
</html>
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hey, thanks
When I was in Texas i found out that ‘Y’all’ also can be used on just one person.
I was confused at first because I didn’t think they could see the voices.
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So much this.
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Heh. Nice touch.
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Obviously. The plural is “all y’all”.
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good points, here.
I am that unusual Boinger in that I don’t do tech, but if we get our own domain that doesn’t need a lot of tech babysitting and we can use Discourse, then it sounds like Ghost is the way to go? Tumblr, from what little I know, seems a bit of a walled garden and there’s no comments, just re-blogs?
If the $10-20 figure is realistic, then I’m in for that, and if I, broke as I am, can swing it then that seems to be a realistic due to pay; though not mandatory to participate. Keep contributions private and nobody ITT should be turned away, certainly.
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I’m fine with this as an interim title while we organize it, but I’d like to note that it would not be my preference as a permanent name.
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Bloggy McBlogface?
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