- Is my time better spent scanning content or reading content?
- Do readers prefer shorter posts that serve primarily as aggregation or would they prefer longer, more in-depth posts with original content from me?
- How much of their post can I excerpt without being perceived as a mooch?
- Should I be linking to “the big boys” as often as I do? Sure, their content is often better, but they have corporate backing, a ton of readers already or both. Should I concentrate solely on highlighting independent bloggers?
- Should I critique local media? What about my own television station’s coverage?
- Why aren’t people commenting at Eye on Blogs? Is it the (admittedly) shitty interface? Is it my own lack of interaction on local blogs? Is it that Bay Area bloggers are already “connected” to existing communities?
- How much nepotism is a bad thing?
- Is this edgy or otherwise possibly offensive post going to bring in traffic or get me sent to the office?
- Should I refer to myself as “I”? Or “we”? Or at all?
- Should post titles reflect the thesis of the post being linked or should it be a reflection of my own opinion? Or neither?
- (more as I think of them)
Questions that Arise while I’m Work-Blogging
April 29th, 2008 | Weblogs, Work Related
12 comments ↓
Re: commenting
May be related to comments not having a link for your blog.
Yep, that is the Number One commenting problem with a bullet. Bloggers comment for lots of reasons, but almost all of them want readers to know where they came from. It’s a traffic game.
This problem has been identified by me numerous times. Prospero doesn’t allow for it. :(
Re: the royal we
I don’t like the “we.” It detracts from your voice and sounds like you’re speaking for someone else.
If you must use it, be consistent.
As for everything else, I always thought you found the right balance at NiT. I know it has to be adjusted for a totally different market, but it seems like you’re figuring it out.
I need to be consistent, for sure, I agree. Think I’m gonna stick with “I,” though initially I got a little push back in using it. I think *writing* the Royal We is much, much more fun than reading it. Duly noted.
Tell your tech boys that even a third grader can handle a hyperlink and they have no reason for that autofill shit to be screwing up every time someone wants to post an http. Just because some top level VP got his dick sucked is no reason you should be annoying people who want to be a part of the community your bosses are claiming they want to build.
We think y’all are doing just fine. If they don’t get y’all it’s their loss.
Fuggem.
I probably can’t point out anything that you haven’t complained about yourself already but let me echo the shittiness of the software interface, especially for comments:
1) no link back as mentioned
2) comments separated from content. requires a second click to see them. can’t re-read the article while commenting.
3) said link is a f*ng javascript link that you can’t bookmark or link directly to.
3) related, no comments over rss
4) Can’t get back to the article from the comment page
5) captcha
6) reverse chronological / top-posting is EVIL
…just off the top of my head :)
Yep, those are all things I’ve expressed my displeasure in.
*deep, sad, discontented sigh*
Also, The Internet!!!
Second Shauna on the “we.” Chattanooga TV station blogger, though I like him, does that too much.
Or, as my sassy wife would say, “Who’s ‘we?’ You and the frog in your pocket?”
In lieu of “I” or “we”, I believe you should refer to yourself as, “this writer”. I.e. “This writer believes, yada, yada.”
It’s just pretentious enough, without overdoing it.
They hired you to write it so use “I”. The pushback will fade away as it did at KRN.
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