Herding cats...the future of dotnetweblogs.com

ScottW wrote:

Paul is absolutely correct when he says, "I can't think of any reason telling people to shut up when they "for what they believe" give solid arguments why_they make statements like the do.".

This is the huge dilemma. Blogs are personal. You should be able to write about what ever you want. Even if I and most of the free world disagree with you.

But in the case of .NETWeblogs, there is a catch (there is always a catch). Here you are part of a community. This not just you writing. This is 150+ people.

The bigger issue is not just related to language postings. Its the sheer size and lack of focus sometimes that is the real culprit. How can we filter out the noise, yet allow the blogs to still remain personal?

[ScottW]

I can sympathize somewhat with Scott's dilemma, but I also think that a lot of what he's concerned about is what gives a community it's "flavor". So here's what I'd suggest (and what I suggested to Scott via email)...

Create two feeds:

- One "pure" .NET-oriented feed

- One free-for-all feed, that includes everything from everybody

It's simple, and it satisfies what you are looking for. People only interested in .NET can subscribe to the "pure" feed, and people who want all of the personality, tom-foolery, argumentation, and just plain nuttiness, can subscribe to the "gimme everything" feed.