Lets discuss "blogs" at the forum and whether they would benefit the distro.
First: By way of full disclosure to people who don't know it, I had a "blog" in which I wrote the first chapter of a "story". Some might think that will influence my posting on this but I will try to keep my posts "neutral" and "about the good of the forum/DISTRO".
Second, some folks might like to know about the "history" of "blogs" (nee "web log") a relatively good one is HERE
A) I quite realize that some people really HATE the whole idea of the "blog", others LOVE them and most, probably are NEUTRAL.
But that is not the point of this question.
The point of the question is whether, or not, the presence of blogs would "benefit" the DISTRO, i.e. increase the number of people that come BACK to the forum.
The operative word in the above sentence is that people COME BACK.
B) One should note that KDE now is pushing that the Plasma Desktop is a SOCIAL DESKTOP: KDE: the social desktop starts to arrive.
C) the "blog" is definitely part of the "social emphasis" nowadays. An example being that at another distro, which is now " in a holding pattern", one of the things that we attempted was to make a "Linux Facebook". The problem was, primarily, that the software was not quite ready and then there were health problems etc.
But, the point was, even four years ago, that there is an increasing awareness of the "social" aspect of things.
D) So....one might outline, for the sake of discussion, some of the "reasons" why "blogs" are posted by people:
i) Ego.....they want to get their ideas out.
ii) Information.... they provide an easy way to tell people things about a) family, friends, hobbies, work, etc. but ALSO: b) business stuff.
iii) An outpouring of the troubled soul. A "venting", if one will accept the term broadly, of things that are hard to discuss, or cannot be discussed, in other manners.
iv) The posting of "things" for other people to use, such as: computer desktop wallpapers, patterns for a latch-hook, maps to a good fishing hole or great coffee shop,
iv:a) This gives rise to the obvious benefit of moving things such as "artwork", not necessarily all, away from the "forum itself" and therefore decreasing "clutter". A lot of Linux people don't like "clutter" in their fora. And, also this might change bandwidth useage. A solution might be to keep "show your screenshot" and "buttons" on the forum, and "wallpapers" off the forum and in the blog. Whichever way it might be worked out would still have to be worked out in terms of the overall goal of "increasing eyes on".
v) the list goes on.
E) So.... if one accepts that a "blog" situation occurs then what is the result of that?
a) The people don't come back, possibly to one blog or any of the blogs
b) the people come back to one or more.
F) What is the "consequence" of that.
I) Some moderaters DO NOT WANT a great influx of poeple. For one thing, it increases work load. Another, it probably increases bandwidth needs, which may, or may not, increase costs.
II) Some moderators DO want a great influx of people, operating on the assumption that more "eyes on" is a good thing, no matter what the eyes are viewing.....rather like a "wardrobe malfunction" at the SuperBowl. No matter how much it was decried it did increase "eyes on" in a variety of ways.
III) The increase in traffic MAY, or MAY NOT, increase the number of users of the distro. It may merely increase the number of KIBBITZERS or it may increase the amount of BOTS or SPAM.
IV) The MODERATION of the blogs could be a REAL pain. What if an atheist decides to give a reasoned explanation of why he or she is an athiest. And then, as a COUNTERblog a Muslim, Chrisitian, Buddhist, Hari Krishna decides to post. What if a Neo Nazi, or a Hyper Liberal decides to post ranting about the "other side"? What if someone tries to post about their "business"( or post spam)? These are all of valid concern.
G) So to sum up:
q1) Some history has been provided, a "context" of KDE has been provided, some upsides and some downsides have been provided.
q2) It has also been indicated that the moderators themselves may, or may not, like the "supposed benefit" of increasing traffic and the moderators are already overworked so that is a PRIME consideration.
H) So.....comments as to whether YOU THINK..... that "blogs" would BENEFIT the DISTRO?
Again, to provide context, I had a story chapter in the previous blog part of the forum.
woodsmoke
First: By way of full disclosure to people who don't know it, I had a "blog" in which I wrote the first chapter of a "story". Some might think that will influence my posting on this but I will try to keep my posts "neutral" and "about the good of the forum/DISTRO".
Second, some folks might like to know about the "history" of "blogs" (nee "web log") a relatively good one is HERE
A) I quite realize that some people really HATE the whole idea of the "blog", others LOVE them and most, probably are NEUTRAL.
But that is not the point of this question.
The point of the question is whether, or not, the presence of blogs would "benefit" the DISTRO, i.e. increase the number of people that come BACK to the forum.
The operative word in the above sentence is that people COME BACK.
B) One should note that KDE now is pushing that the Plasma Desktop is a SOCIAL DESKTOP: KDE: the social desktop starts to arrive.
C) the "blog" is definitely part of the "social emphasis" nowadays. An example being that at another distro, which is now " in a holding pattern", one of the things that we attempted was to make a "Linux Facebook". The problem was, primarily, that the software was not quite ready and then there were health problems etc.
But, the point was, even four years ago, that there is an increasing awareness of the "social" aspect of things.
D) So....one might outline, for the sake of discussion, some of the "reasons" why "blogs" are posted by people:
i) Ego.....they want to get their ideas out.
ii) Information.... they provide an easy way to tell people things about a) family, friends, hobbies, work, etc. but ALSO: b) business stuff.
iii) An outpouring of the troubled soul. A "venting", if one will accept the term broadly, of things that are hard to discuss, or cannot be discussed, in other manners.
iv) The posting of "things" for other people to use, such as: computer desktop wallpapers, patterns for a latch-hook, maps to a good fishing hole or great coffee shop,
iv:a) This gives rise to the obvious benefit of moving things such as "artwork", not necessarily all, away from the "forum itself" and therefore decreasing "clutter". A lot of Linux people don't like "clutter" in their fora. And, also this might change bandwidth useage. A solution might be to keep "show your screenshot" and "buttons" on the forum, and "wallpapers" off the forum and in the blog. Whichever way it might be worked out would still have to be worked out in terms of the overall goal of "increasing eyes on".
v) the list goes on.
E) So.... if one accepts that a "blog" situation occurs then what is the result of that?
a) The people don't come back, possibly to one blog or any of the blogs
b) the people come back to one or more.
F) What is the "consequence" of that.
I) Some moderaters DO NOT WANT a great influx of poeple. For one thing, it increases work load. Another, it probably increases bandwidth needs, which may, or may not, increase costs.
II) Some moderators DO want a great influx of people, operating on the assumption that more "eyes on" is a good thing, no matter what the eyes are viewing.....rather like a "wardrobe malfunction" at the SuperBowl. No matter how much it was decried it did increase "eyes on" in a variety of ways.
III) The increase in traffic MAY, or MAY NOT, increase the number of users of the distro. It may merely increase the number of KIBBITZERS or it may increase the amount of BOTS or SPAM.
IV) The MODERATION of the blogs could be a REAL pain. What if an atheist decides to give a reasoned explanation of why he or she is an athiest. And then, as a COUNTERblog a Muslim, Chrisitian, Buddhist, Hari Krishna decides to post. What if a Neo Nazi, or a Hyper Liberal decides to post ranting about the "other side"? What if someone tries to post about their "business"( or post spam)? These are all of valid concern.
G) So to sum up:
q1) Some history has been provided, a "context" of KDE has been provided, some upsides and some downsides have been provided.
q2) It has also been indicated that the moderators themselves may, or may not, like the "supposed benefit" of increasing traffic and the moderators are already overworked so that is a PRIME consideration.
H) So.....comments as to whether YOU THINK..... that "blogs" would BENEFIT the DISTRO?
Again, to provide context, I had a story chapter in the previous blog part of the forum.
woodsmoke
which is good advertisement, imo! Also in my opinion, external blogs have more of a chance of being seen by those outside of Kubuntu, and may help with search engine results as well - more Kubuntu-specific results maybe?
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