Dave

Blogging Wiki

I have started to plan a new site which will aim to collect together all the information anyone could ever possibly want to know about blogging, from introductory stuff for the beginner right through to techinical articles for the experienced web wonk; taking in personal and corporate blogging; and offering hints, tips and hacks for every blogger out there.

I’m planning that it will be a Wiki, so that once it is up and running, bloggers can come in and add points and discuss entries at will. Hopefully it will be pretty well populated with content by then, so the ground can be hit running.

Where’s the content going to come from? Well, some of it will have to be written fresh, but I am wanting the vast majority to come from blog posts from the blogosphere. Each will be linked to and quoted at length. So, you want a quick summary of how to write a corporate blog? You will be able to read Robert Scobles’s Corporate Manifesto, with a link to the post, and therefore the blog, in question to follow it up.

There is a vast amount of information out there, some really, really good stuff and this will be a way of bringing it all together.

The first thing to do will be to come up with a name for this project, and register the domain. The other will be to decide on a Wiki engine.

Any suggestions will be greatfully received. Likewise, any offers of help. If you have some great blogging articles saved away, let me have them! Send me links, either through my comments or through email. If anyone wants to help put the site together with me, that would be extra cool too.

Cheers!

Blogging at the BBC

Great article on the use of RSS, blogs and wikis at the BBC.

Just a few minutes ago, I got an email with the title “Your blog could cost you your job.” Needless to say, I sat up and took notice. It turns out to be a link to this article, which paints a dystopian picture of the institutional blog. However, there is more positive news out there, if you look. Late last year I paid a visit to Euan Semple in the BBC DigiLab, and he has graciously allowed me to interview him about the very forward-looking way in which “Auntie” is taking the new on board and putting it to meaningful use.

How To Write Killer Blog Posts

…and More Compelling Comments.

How To Write Killer Blog Posts

Some very good advice here. Here’s the first 3 to give you a flavour:

Writing Blog Posts

  • Declarative sentences are good. Web readers demand them.
  • Link like crazy. One thing that distinguishes blog posts from dead-tree journalism is that bloggers link prodigiously. Link to any mentions in your blog to other blogs, websites, articles, books, products, bios or explanatory materials on other sites. Always provide links to information that clarifies or gives background on information and opinions in your post.
  • Write less. Omit all unnecessary words. The best advice I ever got about writing was from my first boss, the late “press agent” Leo Miller, who taught me a game to play with sentences. He’d keep taking out words until removing one more word destroyed the meaning of the sentence. Taking this last sentence for example, the sentence would end up like, He’d take out words until removing another destroyed the sentence meaning. Aim at keeping your posts at about 250 words.

A Few Changes

I have made a few changes to the blog layout, all on the strip down the right hand side.

Most noticable is the list of recent links from the Link Blog, which is created using FeedRoll. Not entirely happy with the presentation at the moment, but it might be useful for casual readers to see what I’ve been linking to.

Also, I have added a new subscribe button for users of My Yahoo! Not entirely sure if this works properly as my experiences with My Yahoo! have never been terribly positive.

The other day I added a link to an image of the cover of the book I am currently reading. This links to an Amazon associate account for Palimpsest, the book discussion community I help run, for which any financial help is much appreciated. This will obviously be updated as I get to read more books…

Lastly, links have been added to BritBlog, which is a directory of British bloggers; and also Technorati.

Blogger Cancels Comments

Stephen Pollard, a UK based political journalist and quite regular blogger, has sadly been forced to remove the comments facility on his blog:

I’m afraid I have had to disable all comments from now on. I do not have the time to monitor the site for the abusive, defamatory, racist and anti-Semitic remarks which some people seem to think are fine to write in the comments section. Even though the overwhelming majority are sensible, as always it is the minority who cause sufficient trouble to end up penalising everyone.

I’m sorry to have had to scrap comments. I might reconsider, but don’t hold your breath. Life is too short to spend hours scrutinising the rantings of morons.

I’m not certain what facilities he has on his blog system for moderating comments, but it seems a shame that this has had to happen. Perhaps if someone were to volunteer to do the moderation on Mr Pollard’s behalf he might reconsider?

Have attempted to trackback to his posting, but it isn’t clear whether that part of his site is disabled too…

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