Posted on 05/08/2003 3:46:32 PM PDT by I Am Not A Mod
Hi all.
I know that some people here are fans of Blogs. I am one as well. I had a brainstorm for something new here at FR, and Jim gave me the go-ahead to give it a whirl. The idea is for a quasi~official blog. The Freeper Island Blog.
Why Freeper Island? Because like Survivor, a blogger can be voted off the island.
Basically what I am imagining is that we will have a dozen people who are the designated inhabitants of the Freeper Island Blog. There will be a blog thread each day, and any of the twelve can add items to the blog (it would go in the article section of the thread. How we will handle updating it I need to work out. I have an idea but I need to talk to someone about it first). Anyone could reply to the thread, but only the twelve bloggers could add things to the article/blog portion of the thread. Each time an entry gets added to the blog portion of the thread, it would get bumped back to the top of either the Extended News or Editorial sidebar (this needs to be decided). The 12 islanders would have a month long term.
As the end of the month approaches, we would have a thread for voting for your favorite bloggers (all voting done publically). The 10 who get the most votes stay on (if they are willing).
Who gets to replace the two who didn't get enough support? We would also have a thread where people could nominate themselves (and give reasons why they should be voted on the island). And then a vote- again done publically on the thread. The two highest vote getters get a month on the island.
Who would be the original twelve? They would be picked by the same method- a nominating thread followed by a vote. Any replacements needed for emerging reasons would also be determined in this way.
Who gets to vote? To avoid problems, only Freepers with at least three months and at least 100 replies under their belt would be allowed to vote (or run).
These are my ideas for it. I figure we will give it a shot, and if it turns into a good feature we keep it and if not we won't.
Anyway, feel free to make additional suggestions, or if you are interested in being one of the first twelve, write up a nomination. I'll arbitrarily set Sunday at midnight as the cutoff for nominations, and will post a voting thread for Monday with each of the nomination writeups on it (order determined at random), with 24 hours for voting. You can nominate anyone, but only those who post to this thread saying they want to do it and why will actually make the ballot.
Cheers.
I like the general idea. But if you mean really just ONE thread with blogs, I think that would get to be a bit confusing for people to reply to particular blogs.
If I may make some suggestions, take them or leave them, they are just some thoughts:
1. How about a blog section/topic, to which people post blogs, i.e. multiple threads, then others can reply, and perhaps the number & content of replies,-- whether they are complimentary, negative or neither in particular, but whether the blog generates a healthy discussion -- could be a factor in judging. In fact maybe that should be a main factor and judging should be made by a dozen or so "old time, high level Freepers", whatever that means. Or a combination of this + general votes.
2. Also, I think 12 people would be hard pressed to come up with something every single day, and it maybe a bit restrictive as to how do you pick the 12, and we may end up with just 1-2 blogs a day.
So I would suggest that initially open it up to pretty much anyone, with some basic limitations ( as you mentioned no. of posts,length of membership, non-disruptive posters) and something like nobody can post more than 2 blogs per week, but they can post as infrequently as they like, and those who get less than x (x being a number less than some average no. of replies blogs are getting say in 30 days) replies after 3 blogs get eliminated for at least 3 months, before they can try again, maybe.
I think this would give a large number of people a chance, yet it would weed out the ones who aren't great fairly quickly, and as better and better ones remain, the average replies would increase, so those who can't keep up the interest level would keep getting eliminated. And then you may end up with the 10-15 best ones, but I don't think the actual number needs to be determined up front.
Anyway, as I said, just some thoughts.
No kiddin, how to get blogs and freerepublic to tango is a tricky question.
I, frankly, am kind of thumbs down on the survivor like model for blog handling at FreeRepublic. I have never been a fan of this way of achieving a "best". Still, I Am Not a Mod, of course, I'll support any effort, once implemented. But, it seems early enough yet to still try and shape the landscape.
samtheman, I copy you because I also had this idea of nominating best posts and making a blogfeed/newsfeed of best posts, along with their associated articles. Basically, the freeper board turned upside down. The lead is the Freeper's post and tagging along is the article that spawned it. Also, it'd be a heck of a lot of programming, but if an integrated "nominate for blog" button (fittingly next to the Abuse button? ;-) was with each post, some cool things could be done. Maybe, a raw vote could be reviewed a few times a day by a group of moderators and pretty much posted as is, allowing for need to stay on message and the reality that this ain't a democracy.
Certainly, I am a champion of innovations that promote better freeping. Even more acknowledgment and exposure of the good words written here are great for our cause.
</my-2-cents>
I might get voted off immediately due to lack of time, but it's worth a shot. I love FR. And, given the fact that it's starting to get major attention in the Big Papers -- this *is* real life.
Concept needs to be fleshed out more, but I am not here to dictate process.
Those of you confused about blogs...try looking at www.blogger.com.
Me, too. Only I usually put something up about once a week. Without a hit counter, I have no way to know how many visits it get. A blogspot on FR would be nice. Hope it works out.
A FR blog site should have the virtue that the participants are willing and able to stick to the subject at hand. No moose, ne cheese, no hugh, no series. Maybe regular FReepers would feel lost and cheated. But it's worth a shot. (I'm thinking about NRO's "Corner.")
Congressman Billybob
The first Republican president was born in a log cabin.
To be sure, blogging in those days was very primitive. All the messages had to be delivered by hand, and you had to walk through miles of woods filled with bears and wolves and alligators.
NRO's Corner is populated by a bevy of highly talented professional writers. No offense to anyone on FR, but if that kind of talent could be found here, NRO would be raiding the threads looking to hire them. I haven't seen that happening. Have you?
The "group blog" at NRO is an anomaly in the blogosphere. It succeeds because of the professional (paid) association of the participants. FR does not have the money or the raw material to duplicate NRO's format.
As has been noted above, most bloggers take it as a matter of personal pride to be completely independent editorially. By handing over that independence to some form of moderating or editing board at FR, the heart and soul of blogging is lost, and one is left with what we already have at FR, a forum in which writers of all skill levels say pretty much what they want within certain guidelines. An FR blog will end up looking pretty much the way every thread on this forum already looks.
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