Blogging for DiasporaFoundation.org

@flaburgan … as much as I like you, I would not accept hotlinking images from an external - not controllable - server into the project site. :slight_smile: Please file an issue on https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora-project-site for the upload field. :wink:

Done.

If the blog stays - we really need a post at least a few times a year.

But still, it would be nice to also implement the Diaspora HQ account somehow to the site - since in reality that is where the news is. Some embedded RSS plugin maybe?

Hmm, we’d have to do a bit of thinking before linking the DHQ account to the blog, because not every post made from that account is an announcement that we want on the blog - and we wouldn’t want to include reshares, etc. Also, if everything on the blog was DHQ and everything posted by DHQ went on the blog, we might as well just have a redirect from the blog to DHQ’s profile, as one doesn’t have to be signed in to diaspora to read it.

The problem isn’t transferring material from DHQ to the blog - that’s easy for me, now I have a login - it’s the writing of material. If Fla and one or two others can help with the writing, I can post it. @seantilleycommunit said recently he’d be happy to help with this. I said a while ago that I wanted to start writing, but I’ve had to pull back a lot from doing stuff for D* for health reasons.

Let’s first discuss and decide what sort of material we want to publish on the blog, and then get writing. Does that sound like a plan?

ps: I’ll always be happy to edit, even if I’m not in a position to write.

Let’s first discuss and decide what sort of material we want to publish on the blog, and then get writing. Does that sound like a plan?

To be honest, sounds like “let’s not do anything for a while” :wink:

No action is worse than action IMHO. If we don’t write stuff, let’s just remove the blog and be done with it. IMHO having the DHQ stream somehow on the project page would be great - of course they are not blog entries as such. But worrying about making official communication just means no official communication -> people think the project is dead. Let’s face it - the project site looks dead since it has no changing content. People who visit it think nothing has happened since the last blog post.

@goob I value your attention to detail and the attempt for perfection hugely but IMHO we don’t want to be too careful here. At least that is how I’ve been handling the official Twitter and FB accounts - which is kinda weird that we have action there but not on our own project page :wink: I can stop posting there but… we need to be more active outside diaspora*.

To be honest, sounds like “let’s not do anything for a while”

Not really. We can decide in a matter of days, and that gives us some direction to go on, so there’s no need to question whether each individual post is within the remit.

For example, off the top of my head, we might blog about:

    • news of forthcoming releases,
  • picking out some bug fixes and feature ideas for anyone who would like to start helping develop the software,
  • and news about what’s going on in the community and how the direction of the project is progressing,
  • other important announcements
    (e.g. if we settle on a funding route, if any person takes on particular responsibilities that are noteworthy, or stops, such as when Sean stepped down as Community Manager).

A blog has more of a sense of permanence and feels more of a ‘shop window’ to D* for the world outside than either Twitter (constantly moving) or posting from DHQ within D* (internal), so I think we have to think a bit more carefully what to write. Let’s do that work before we start writing lots of posts. It needn’t take long and would save time (and mistakes) in the future.

Some of the DHQ posts are appropriate for the blog, and when that’s the case we can just copy and paste them to the blog. That way the blog gets active.

Speaking for myself I wouldn’t feel comfortable posting on the blog until we’ve had some discussion and got agreement on what we should be posting, which is another reason I haven’t posted there yet.

@jason what do you think about the drafts I posted above?

I’m sure we can find at least one topic per month to talk about.

I think that diaspora as software isn’t quite ready for having an official blog with the purpose of being a “shop window”. Diaspora is an evolving part of a new social network, and as such the main purpose of a blog shouldn’t be about the next hot release or trying to get people to start using it but to show people that things are happening and that there are visions and ideas on alternative social networking.

I agree with most of the opinions but the marketing thing makes me a bit unsure. I’d like the blog to be a transparency tool and an information channel, not a marketing tool since diaspora isn’t just some cool product - it’s a community project.

Ivan, by ‘shop window’ I didn’t mean using it as a marketing/advertising tool, but the fact that it is a very visible presence for people (including those not involved in Diaspora) to look at the state of the project. At the moment it looks dead because there is only one post, from almost a year ago.

While release announcements are an important part of the communication a blog would perform, this would be to inform people about how the project was progressing, rather than to try to get people to sign up.

Don’t worry, I don’t think anyone involved is trying to do the marketing you’re concerned about.

Thank you, just wanted to clarify :slight_smile:

@flaburgan

what do you think about the drafts I posted above?

They look great to me! As long as they don’t stay as drafts and at least one ends up as a final I’ll be happy to cancel the proposal here (since it’s mine) for keeping the blog :wink:

I modified the first draft about statistics, I would love to see it more formal, the actual style is far from perfect imo. Does someone want to read it once again and then we could post it?

I don’t think that writing a “we are sorry for our long silence” is something we should do, imo.

@seantilleycommunit wanna read the first draft, improve the style and post it on the blog if you’re fine with it?

I’d like to see it posted asap to have the time before the release.

Can someone be responsible for the blog? @flaburgan

Don’t get what you mean, sorry.

I think we should update the blog at least once a month. Someone, who is responsible for the blog, should find new topics, ask people for text, write first draft and publish.

@flaburgan Absolutely, I’d be happy to look everything over and get something posted to the blog!

@diaspeu I’m ok to do that :wink:

@seantilleycommunit https://flaburgan.framapad.org/5
The first draft is ready to review if you can improve the wording it would be awesome.

@flaburgan looks totally cool - don’t forget an image, maybe some cropped part of the statistics page or pod list or something - every post should have an image IMHO :smiley:

Btw, can we post the release announcement for 0.4 out on the blog as well once that happens - instead of directly posting it out on DiasporaHQ account as a status message? Easier to share outside, status message sharing is better these days thanks to awesome people working on cleaning things up, but it’s still not perfect.