Views on "What deserves to be on the site"

Based on: http://weblogs.asp.net/rchartier/archive/2005/12/28/434142.aspx, http://weblogs.asp.net/jmoon/archive/2005/12/28/434110.aspx, & http://weblogs.asp.net/wallym/archive/2005/12/27/434046.aspx

There has been a lot of talk about the contents of this site recently.  Lets look at some basics:

  • This site is a weblog site.  Weblogs are effectively individual diaries.  Individual is a key term.  Typically, weblogs can have just about any content.
  • Keeping multiple weblogs is hard and downright painful.  Deciding what should go where is crazy.  Having one is the best thing.  The question becomes how to divide the content out.
  • This site is a .NET community site.  .NET oriented content is fairly important to the concept of this site as a community.
  • This site is a technology community site.  Technical content is fairly important to the concept of this site as a community.
  • I never signed any kind of contract or made any type of agreement that I can remember to get a blog here.  I just asked ScottW for a blog here back in 2003 and got one.
  • I haven't seen the first documentation on what the features on the admin section mean.  I've been able to figure things out, but there are still things I don't understand.  If anyone does have some documention and would share it, that would be great.
  • Developers and technical types are hard people to work with.  They are typically very cynical.  We spend too much time working with technology and too little time working with others.

These requirements are sometimes in conflict with each other.  We need to realize that. 

We also need to realize that there are people on the other end of each one of these blogs.  As developers and technical types, we have not fully developed the interpersonal skills to deal with others the way that people in other industries have.

I'd like to ask that if you post anything, within reason (and no pr0n or other adult content), on the blogs here.  If it is technical, then great.  If it is not, then put something in the post title that shows it as being Off-Topic, Not-Technical, or to not post the content into the main feed.  The next question is obviously how to properly put something in your blog and not have it show up in the mainfeed.  It seems that everything I try either appears in the mainfeed anyway, or doesn't appear on my blog at all.

This is just a starting point, so what's your view on this?

Wally

8 Comments

  • I agree. Once we migrate to Community Server how about having the aggregate page display only .NET 'tagged' content.



    Everyone who has a blog here has the right, within reason, to blog what they want to blog about (I don't always blog on .NET topics either). However, it would als be in most reader's best interests to setup the aggregate page for .NET content only.



    Thoughts?

  • I think that I never signed on to be a ".Net blogger", I simply got a blog that happened to be written in asp.net from Scott, like a lot of people here. The site at that time wasn't under the domain weblogs.asp.net. But now with it falling under that domain people feel the need to keep you "on topic".



    I don't define myself by a technology, I'm a developer. I go to work and churn out 8 hours of c#/t-sql per day. When I go home I use debian and code in C, php, etc. I build robots, my own UAVs running linux, etc. I'm not pigeon-holed into some idea of what a ".Net developer" should be.



    So I think that since it's my blog and there are no content guidelines when I signed up no one should be telling me what is appropriate and what is not. The post that the coward thought was "inappropriate" was actually technical, detailing the potential safety problems with a new type of battery, lithium polymer.



    So what was his problem? Because I used a cuss word? Last time I checked I wore big boy pants and could say what I wanted.



    But for me it's a moot point. I'm done here. I still read the blogs here because I'm interested in the community and where it's heading. But what I'm not interested in is whether I offended someone because I posted on robots, electronics, batteries, java, C, linux, how MS sucks, my family, or my large left foot.













  • Ian I don't think anyone is stating that you must change what you blog about - your blog is your blog.

  • Eh ... whatever. There's usually only about 1 blog entry a day that's applicable to my work or interests, so if people want to post why they deserve to be Anime Fanboy of the Decade or about the latest Microsoft MVP gathering, that's fine with me. I still check the feed at least once a day, and will continue to do so as long as my company keeps paying me every other Friday.



    I post when I've got something to say, which is why I don't post much.



    I like the technical posts, the posts about things that people built in their spare time (whether that be a cool .NET app or a robot that runs BeOS or whatever), posts in foreign languages (yeah, I said it. I like when people post in languages other than English), or about good books that people found or wrote. I actually tend to get tired of reading 600 posts about the same thing, which is why I don't post much about AJAX, despite the fact that I've spent the past 86 weeks in a row building and upgrading a huge AJAX-driven site (it wasn't called AJAX when I started).

  • Ian. I didn't have a problem with anything that you said. I am on your side. I am saying that people need to be a little more understand of others. I agree with you and RobC. I also define myself in many ways. My blog is my blog. I talk a lot about .NET. I also talk about other things (golf, exercise, personal interests).



    I also recognize that the site is a .NET oriented site. That means it is also a technology focused site. I attempt to respect that also. I try and stay on target and I think I do for a good number of my posts. For posts that are clearly outside of the technology field, I attempt to mark them with NT (Not Technical).



    Wally

  • Um... you guys are aware that you can control which posts go to the main feed and which don't, right? So what's the problem?

  • Just to chime in, this is also what post categories are for...of course it's up to the individual blogger to maintain these categories. Point is, if you don't want to hear about personal stuff, subscribe to the categories that interest you, and tune out the rest.

  • I vote for a un-filtered "Main" feed. Rob's suggestion is good, but make it an option.

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