Thinking over Blogging Best Practices...

On the mailing list Eric and Kayla brought up some good questions and thoughts on blogging... -- what type of communication works best at a blog vs mailing lists etc, how to open the blog up to additional authors, and what guidelines or best practices there should be for posting or commenting on blogs --  and I figure the blog itself could be a good place for them... Use the "comments" link below to chime in.

Comments

[jimmy 5]

The most important thing, I think, is to keep in mind who's listening to our various communiques. Here on the blog, what we say is open to every person on the planet (or at least, those who have internet connections) - therefore, keeping it "non-personal" (in both the privacy sense, as we've got people with very legitimate concerns about keeping their identity somewhat "hidden," and in the sense of not putting out too much "drama" onto the blog) is to be advised. This is in many ways our public face to the world - and while we don't want to pretend that we don't have issues or problems or disputes, this isn't the right place to air them out.

The TribeLA email list goes only to people who go to Tribe, or far-flung brethren and sistren whom we still count among our number. (Believe me, I'm the moderator, and every month or so I have to turn someone away who's "interested" but who's never been to Tribe.) There are serious limits on the list - when I get someone I don't know, who says they've been, I really do ask around to Rev.Reb, K'Mo, etc. to see if they know the person. The fact that this list is much more limited in audience - though there are still people I don't know on there, from "before my time" - means we can get more personal. That doesn't mean it's a place to resolve disputes or serious issues - I'm seeing another email list I'm on going through that right now, and it's ugly (albeit slightly amusing). But it does mean that things like prayer requests and stuff - of a more personal nature - can be shared knowing that they aren't going to be read by people unknown to us.

As list moderator, I will make an effort (as Kayla suggested) to be aware of when things cross a line, and be proactive in asking that those discussions get taken off-list and off-blog, if and when they do occur.

As to the "guest"-blogging thing, I think we should open that up to any Tribesperson who wants to do it. More authors, more posts, and more content can't hurt, as long as it's within the guidelines of love and reason. I don't think it's technically possible as of yet to have more "permanent" authors - I'm still even a "guest" author - because we haven't figured out how to do that yet. I think we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

[Tim C]

I really like what Jimmy5 wrote here, and agree with every point he makes...

He hit the nail on the head that Blogs cast a much wider and more public reach than than a more "semi-private" medium of email lists do.

"This is in many ways our public face to the world - and while we don't want to pretend that we don't have issues or problems or disputes, this isn't the right place to air them out."

I'd like to riff off of that point...As a public face to the world, one reason I thought the blog would be "A Good Thing" (TM) is that it would help folks in the LA area, who wanted to know what the Tribe Chruch community was like (what we talked about, what we cared about, even simple things like what books or music were we tuned into) would be able to see our real world conversations unfold.

In that sense, blogs as our "face to the world" can be missional. Giving folks who are just checking out Tribe and might be looking for an "emerging church" in LA, a virtual "first toe in the water" to see first hand what the Tribe community is about, and if it were the sort of place they could fit in.

Even in this blogs current state of it's first days it's seeing about 23 pages viewed a day. I'd aruge that this is ALREADY more than just Tribers visiting.

Also, blogs are good places I think for deeper discussion and back and forth than email lists, in which discussion can get lost in a crowded email inbox. The structure of blogs I think make for better places to read, think and discuss issues over time, and they bring a certain organization and history to discussions.

Just my own two cents.

And as to folks who'd like to be able to post to the site, chime in here and I'll kick start that going. And I think some of the language I've used (which was the terms that this blogger software uses) has been confusing...

"Guest Authors" aren't necessarily as temporary as it sounds. That term ultimately means, "Folks who can Post New Articles," but are the Admin of the whole site.

(Admins can do things like change the templates of the site, manage security, etc..)

My one other note is that posting comments on the blog is by no means a "second class" to posting initial articles. On the best blogs I've been a part of it is the conversations between folks in the comments threads that have been frankly the heart of the blog often times more central or valuable than the original article that spurred the converstation.

That said, if you'd like to be a "Co-author" of new articles to the Tribe Blog, let me know by sending me an email ([email protected]) or posting a comment in this thread.