by KevinFreitas
on 10/26/2007 @ 8:05am
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So, with a list of currently 31 contributing blogs and about 5 with requests to be added pending, how should FeedTacoma grow? Should the homepage still focus on blogs? Should only headlines of those blogs show or just strictly limit them to two lines each? What about making the homepage more of a daily digest of everything at FT similar to the "top clicks this week" for the blogs that show on the weekend?
I want to keep the site easy to use and informative and want to know what your thoughts are. Thanks!
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by jenyum
on 10/26/2007 @ 9:09am | I really like it the way it is right now, with all of the headlines showing. A two-line limit might make sense, though. |
by AP
on 10/26/2007 @ 9:23am | I like it the way it stands also. Many of the active writers in Tacoma are busy writing their blogs, leaving little time for them to participate in this forum. Somehow these contributors must be enticed to contribute beyond their own blogs.
IMO, improving forum participation would be priority #1. There are 31 blogs participating? Only 1/3 of these people appear to be active in the forum? I would be much more likely to read a long-winded blog entry if I had some sort of chemical reaction to something that particular blogger had stated previously here in this forum.
TGIF. |
by KevinFreitas
on 10/26/2007 @ 10:03am | jenyum: just worked up a solution to the two-line thing. That'll be up later today.
AP: The forums are a great place for anyone to get involved. There's no "format" per say that prohibits someone from just putting up some quick thoughts. No one has to be "composed" to participate. Tacoma has an incredibly welcoming online community that is certainly open to all. |
by NineInchNachos
on 10/26/2007 @ 11:25am | developing the forum would be nice. avitars... profiles... trying to think of other participatory media
possibilities. hmm.
- growing the feed tacoma to suck in exit133 forum/comment feeds?
- an RSS feed for Tacomic?
- Link clouds?
- google-Zeitgeist style summaries ?
- somehow automatically connecting the art listserv emails into a web template?
- pumpkin carving contests?
- more flashmobs
- blog post voting/ranking ? stars? after so many votes a post goes into a 'greatest hits' catagory
- zefrank/talksoup style video blog starring feed tacoma overlord Kevin F?
- set up a system to take note of overlapping blog posts (ie. foundry explosion) and create an event-singularity record.
- establish a 'feed tacoma day' where bloggers gather for a round-table convention to discuss the future of 'the wired city' Illuminati style.
- form an elite militant wing of feedtacoma for clandestine meat-space operations (viz. billboard liberation).
- offer underwriting ad space in right column? |
by jenyum
on 10/26/2007 @ 12:57pm | The art listserv really needs to be online, somewhere. I've always thought it was a crying shame that all this great information was only available through a listserv and not where people could actually find it with a search engine. |
by KevinFreitas
on 10/26/2007 @ 1:42pm | re: listserv
I'm sure I could arrange something. I've wondered about that myself. One more thing to add to the ol' to-do list. ;) |
by Erik
on 10/27/2007 @ 1:09am | Should the homepage still focus on blogs?
Yes, that's the main "content" offering of Feed Tacoma.
want to keep the site easy to use and informative and want to know what your thoughts are.
I would move the "recent chatter" where the pictures on the right are now to give it more visibility.
You might also explain at the top what Feed Tacoma is. Right now you have:
A community resource by people who live and love Tacoma
Pretty ambigous. You might want to explain what the feed actually does. Maybe something like "Blog Information Clearinghouse." Ok. Not that but something that explains what Feed Tacoma is. |
by FunkomaVintage
on 10/27/2007 @ 3:42pm | all good suggestions so far ! I especially love the artlist one --- have a folder to save the ones that appeal to me, but I like the idea of having it here to feed tacoma art events & stuff in one e-z 2 swallow pill ---
and I sure am glad you truly believe and practice this:Tacoma has an incredibly welcoming online community that is certainly open to all.
I think I may have a different viewpoint/style than most who have just arrived in Ttown ---
and I second the idea that bloggers are 2 busy blogging or surfing the internets/snacking or um, actually working in the day job to spend a whole lot of time in forums |
by tacomachickadee
on 10/27/2007 @ 4:55pm | chocolate makes everything better ... |
by Erik
on 10/28/2007 @ 11:37am | Hmmm let's see: events should be lower of the right as well. The text right now is tiny for the forum text link on the main page so you probably want to increase it some.
You could leave the main feeder as is but free up some room by decreasing the huge magin you give it now.
Just a couple of thoughts. |
by droid116
on 10/29/2007 @ 4:44pm | How about having subtopic tags so that archival FeedTacoma entries can be sorted by area of interest. IE sports, arts, billboards, Tacoma History, Tacoma Food, Tacoma Trucks.
Those Feeding the beast can include the subtopic tags with their entry. |
by KevinFreitas
on 10/29/2007 @ 4:50pm | Yes, I would like to split things a bit more by topic. Having original blogs coming directly from FT will allow that and I should be able to pull tags from most external contributor feeds. |
by jenyum
on 10/29/2007 @ 7:09pm | Sadly, Geeklog has no tagging function to speak of and probably won't until after the new year. (And then it will be deeply, deeply geeky to employ and that will take me several more months to figure out...) Since it comes with a search function, I think they thought that would be sufficient and they didn't anticipate the social networking function of tags.
Is there any way I could put marked keywords in an entry and those could be pulled in? |
by KevinFreitas
on 10/29/2007 @ 8:36pm | Either that jen or I could add an optional "categorize my entry" thing here. That way you can add tags to what shows here whenever you want. I can make is really easy. How's something like that sound? |
by jenyum
on 10/30/2007 @ 9:35am | That sounds awesome.
This is going to be great! |
by NineInchNachos
on 10/31/2007 @ 11:07pm | finding the extra clicks from 'recent chatter' to forum to 'full blog post' would be better maybe without the middle man? could you fast forward directly to the fullpost with a redirect or something maybe?
Anyhow I've been playing with the blog. Pretty damn awesome sir! |
by KevinFreitas
on 11/1/2007 @ 8:36am | Certainly could be. The flip side is by first visiting the forum one gets to see what other, non-blog conversations are going on. Hmm... |
by zastica
on 11/2/2007 @ 10:13am | I'm glad that being on the list o blogs doesn't require me to post in the forum. Let people choose how to participate.
I think a calendar of entries would be great, instead of just Today, Yesterday, This Week, and Archive. |
by KevinFreitas
on 11/2/2007 @ 10:42am | Yea, I can also probably tailor the i.FeedTacoma.com blogs to only cross-post in the forums if it is indeed a Tacoma-related entry. I do believe in the cross-pollination that provides to help generate interest in whatever bloggers are posting. A blog's not much of a blog if no one's reading it. |
by Erik
on 11/2/2007 @ 11:58am | I think the next step may be to get the i.FeedTacoma.com blogs in the regular blogrool on Feed Tacoma. Right now they are basically functioning as forum posts. |
by KevinFreitas
on 11/2/2007 @ 12:51pm | Yup. It's in the works Erik. |
