TWiki.org Blog and Newsletter

The Blog

The blog, one of the things Koen promised to champion at the Rome summit, is set up. Check out the Blog web.

The Newsletter

The Newsletters are also in the Blog web. See Blog.TWikiNewsletters for a list of past newsletters or to create the next one.

Ideas and Wish list

Now, some points i want to discuss / ask (KoenMartens 25 Aug 2007)

• It would be nice to have the titles of the last x posts on the front page. This raises two issues:
  • Where should this overview be? Somewhere in the left bar? In the content area (which is mostly continuous text atm, should there be a box or something inserted?) resolved
  • How do we go about this. I don't know how the page is generated, if it is generated from some TWiki topic, a search like below would do the trick. resolved
  • At least, it should be linked in the sidebar under Sitemap resolved

• Formula, editorial vs wiki
  • Do we want anyone to be able to post his story unmoderated or should there be some editorial control to keep the blog in line with our TWikiMarketing posting is unmoderated but posters must join TWikiCommunityGroup

• For the newsletter, i would like to start out with a simple text-only email, some issues:
  • Distribution:
    • We need a new mailing list (request posted on TWikiListManagerRole) - currently sending to twiki-announce
      • The first newsletter will contain sign-up instructions to receive the monthly newsletter, and should receive wide distribution:
    • Send it over the announce mailing list
    • (or) I can harvest the email addresses of all TWiki.org users, and send the first edition to those

• Do we need to work on the layout of the Blog more?

%SEARCH{"[T]opicType.*value\=.*(BlogPost)" web="Blog" nonoise="on" excludetopic="*Template" type="regex" casesensitive="on" format="   * $formfield(Title)" order="created" reverse="on"}%

-- Contributors: KoenMartens, VickiBrown

Discussion

• for the overview, I suggest to do like http://twiki.net : a box on the right
• for the Formula, I guess it depends on the "mission" of this blog. I guess allowing write access to this web to a group of people could be sufficient. To be a member of this group, you'd have to submit your first post to review by the group.
• We should made the changes in the Blog web published to twiki IRC via the TWikiBot

-- ColasNahaboo - 29 Aug 2007

Koen, I was wondering why we don't just use the existing twiki-announce mailing list? A once a month 'whats happening in the land of TWiki' newsletter seems a perfect fit.

-- SvenDowideit - 30 Aug 2007

Sven, that is absolutely fine with me too. Even better in fact. I was a bit apprehensive about using that list, as it is now only for new releases and important security alerts. But once a month doesn't add that much traffic indeed. Let's go for that! Perhaps you can mail me the details about how to post on the list...

As for the formula, in my eyes, the blog is mostly a PR/marketing tool for us to put TWiki and what is going on in the community more in the picture. As such, some editorial control makes a lot of sense to me.

+1 on the TWikiBot

-- KoenMartens - 30 Aug 2007

I am also for using the TWikiAnnounceMailingList. In the first newsletter we can ask if it is better to separate out a new newsletter list. I suspect the majority would be OK with a monthly newsletter. I would not commit to "monthly" newsletters, just "no more than one a month".

-- PeterThoeny - 31 Aug 2007

Thanks Koen for preparing and sending out our first newsletter!

We got feedback from 3 people (out of 1900) that do not wish to receive newsletters. Should we duplicate the twiki-announce list into a twiki-newsletter list and remove the ones from the newletter mailing who do not want to receive those? (Not sure if SF does that.)

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Sep 2007

If it is only 3 out of 1900, i say we shouldn't fork the mailing list (with apologies to those 3). 3 out of 1900 is not even half a percent.

-- KoenMartens - 28 Sep 2007

With the announcement of the youtube video contest tomorrow, we should get a new newsletter out of the door. It would be nice if we could include something about the community summit, anyone up for writing a blog article on that?

I also plan on writing something on meetups, announcing some of the coming meetups. Is there already a new date for the silicon valley series?

-- KoenMartens - 17 Feb 2008

I have received an email from PeterThoeny, indicating that my access to the twiki announcement mailing list has been revoked, so i can no longer post newsletters directly. I have to pass these newsletters through Peter first. I'm sorry to say that i do not want to work under censorship (unless perhaps when it is community sanctioned, democratic censorship), and therefore hereby step back as TWiki blog and newsletter champion.

I hope someone will take over the initiative! I came up with the idea of a blog and newsletter because i think it will greatly improve the involvement of the community with twiki. It attracts attention from the major part of the community out there that does not hang around on Codev daily. So please, someone, step forward and take over my role in this!

-- KoenMartens - 18 Feb 2008

This is a sad thing to read...

-- RafaelAlvarez - 18 Feb 2008

No, this is not sad, this is a shame...

-- CarloSchulz - 18 Feb 2008

My personal opinion is, that it is okay if Peter (or anybody else who feels competent) looks over every newsletter that is to be sent out. I do not fear personal motivated changes. This is not censorship. It is one of the simplest quality assurance instruments: a four-eye principle.

A problem derives, if Peter turns out to be rather a censor than a quality assurer. I do not doubt, that he will do a good job.

-- MartinSeibert - 18 Feb 2008

Why did you do this, Peter?

-- MichaelDaum - 19 Feb 2008

If that would be the motivation, i would probably be fine with it. It's not how it was presented to me though, hence my decision.

I'm all for quality control, which is why I posted the newsletters on Codev 1 or 2 days before posting them on the mailing list for interested community members to review. Perhaps we can formalize this a bit more, with a well-documented review process in place.

Anyway, the current reality is such as it is, and we need someone to pick up this most rewarding task! Don't hesitate you all, it is fun to do! Meet new people, spread the word, feel good!

-- KoenMartens - 19 Feb 2008

If Koen decides not to come back, I will volunteer to be Blog & Newsletter Champion (I say without really knowing what that means!).

If Koen changes his mind, I will most likely gladly return the reins of power.

-- VickiBrown - 24 Feb 2008

Thank you very much Vicki for offering to step in as the blog/newsletter editor, an important role! Let's discuss that on tomorrow's TWikiMarketingMeeting2008x02x25, I am sure the TWiki community is supportive.

Although not specifically written down, we have a solid review process for the newsletter: The draft gets posted and reviewed on twiki.org, then sent to the mailing list. May be the new editor can formalize the process by writing it down?

I revoked Koen's rights to post directly the twiki-announce mailing list, and I would not call this censorship since we do have a review process. Sending out the vetted newsletter is simply a mechanical process. I stated my reason in the private e-mail sent to Koen (based on stuff that happened recently; to avoid a flame war I do not want to go into details). I respect Koen's wish to step down as the blog/newsletter editor, and I thank him for the effort he put in so far. I think everybody in the community, including myself, would love to see him active again as an editor.

-- PeterThoeny - 25 Feb 2008

Vicky, excellent! Basically, being the champion means you're the one who should keep it going. That means getting people to blog (keep an eye out on things going on in the community, for example recenlty we had the TWikiStandAlone project starting) and ask those working on it to write a blog about it. That is, i think, the most important thing.

Next to that, there is the task of drafting the newsletter on here, and get it posted to the announce mailing list. My aim was a monthly newsletter, which mainly consists of blog articles. Of course, sometimes there are just not enough articles to post, so there will be a longer time between newsletters.

In writing the drafts, I usually just copied the first paragraph of each blog entry, sometimes rewriting it a bit so it is more of a summary. Some blog posts can be left out sometimes, because they are not relevant anymore at the time the newsletter goes out.

That is basically it. Apart from that, there'll sometimes be technical issues re the blog, but that is usually picked up automatically by eg. Arthur (who wrote the blogging TWiki app we're using).

The most important thing, in my opinion, get people to write blogs!

Another thought I had, that i think i will also drop at tonights marketing meeting, is that we should have a planet (like planetpostgresql.org, planet.gnome.org, http://planet.xbsd.org/ (planet freebsd), etc....).

-- KoenMartens - 25 Feb 2008

I have posted TWikiNewsletter2008x03x07. Never having done this before, I made some editorial decisions. Holler if you don't approve.

• Mostly, the entries are in reverse chronological order.
• Exceptions: The YouTube Contest and the request for feedback wrt RCS subdirectories are shifted to the top because they ask for reader response.
• I've shortened the version that appears in the newsletter. Older articles are more shortened. There's text to that effect, reminding people to be sure to visit the complete entry.
• I added the stock "please contribute" message at the end.
• If this is all reasonable, I can make a template...

-- VickiBrown - 06 Mar 2008

All good points. You are the editor, this is up to you!

You might even want to introduce yourself at the end of the newsletter as the new newsletter editor (with a short bio).

-- PeterThoeny - 07 Mar 2008