Relevance, and a posting challenge.
Apr. 17th, 2009 11:43 pmThis was supposed to get written up yesterday, but I've been working my way through transferring a bunch of stuff into a new laptop, so it's happening now instead.
See, three days ago,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
willowbl00 made this brilliant post on relevance online. And it got me thinking (as you'll see in the comments should you scroll down that far in the original post.) We need more content. The lot of us are a bunch of crazy individuals, some creators, some just plain observers with good thoughts, others just happening by here- but all of us can do something- work at changing the signal to noise ratio online- make things have some meaning in our own way- by doing it through the content that we control- specifically the content posted on our online presences- LJ, facebook, twitter, what have you. So, that said, I'm going to take part in a bit of a posting challenge, and I invite any of you willing to join in to join me.
From May first to the seventh- I'll be doing the following:
1: Increase the Signal- Create a minimum of one post per day that features original content. By original, it can be thoughts on any subject, a reaction to something else on the internet, new media, something- anything, but it must be original- it must have come to the post with some level of thought and effort behind it.
1a: The content must be relevant. Yes, the fact that you're in the kitchen in your underwear content. However, it's not likely to have a smidgen of relevance to anyone other than yourself. And I doubt you even need that record, unless you're developing an alibi for something. Neither are posts like "Look! I'm being original!" put some effort into thinking and typing about things. Notice and post details.
1b: No news is good news- if you don't have something to say, don't say it. Resist the twinkie. Don't feel like you have to force things to make even one daily post. Conversely, don't flood stuff- if you've got an addendum to a previous post, then put it in that post, rather than a new one (obviously, this doesn't apply to non-editable formats, like Twitter).
2: Decrease the Noise- No aggregation. No hotlinking lolcats, no youtube embeds, no one-link posts to content someone else has established. No memes, aside from this one. Both you and your readers have google and other search methods- they can use it. You don't really have to post it- if they want to see something like that, they're perfectly capable of searching it out on their own. In short, post no content that is not your own.
2a: If you're posting a reaction to someone else's content (say, a news article) it's within reason to link to the article- there's relevance. There is no necessary relevance to posting a bunch of random youtube clips to LJ without comment.
2b: You are, of course, perfectly entitled to aggregate your own stuff between different sites.
3: Silence is not the goal- don't make it a week where you post nothing, excusing yourself becuase youthink you don't have something relevant to discuss- find something relevant. Make something worth generating content about. Create. DO.
3a: Do it so that others can see- post these guidelines up if you're participating, and re-post them at the start of the week- let your readers know what's going on.
3b:Do it publicly- content that isn't available to all comers is not necessarily content- it lacks relevance due to its inaccessibility.
And finally, go check out that original post I referenced- read through the comments. If you see other good ideas to include in your own version of doing this, then add them in as well. Just make sure you're still doing your bit to add to the web, rather than just repeating what's already up.Carry it on in your responses- don't just reply to a post with "THIS!" or somesuch- debate it, discus it, hell, argue, rattle, and rail about it- but make your responses just as relevant as the original material you're reading/writing. And if you're participating? Drop me a comment and let me know- I'll try and see if I can't get a decent list generated of people involved, just to track what all's going on with this.
See, three days ago,
willowbl00 made this brilliant post on relevance online. And it got me thinking (as you'll see in the comments should you scroll down that far in the original post.) We need more content. The lot of us are a bunch of crazy individuals, some creators, some just plain observers with good thoughts, others just happening by here- but all of us can do something- work at changing the signal to noise ratio online- make things have some meaning in our own way- by doing it through the content that we control- specifically the content posted on our online presences- LJ, facebook, twitter, what have you. So, that said, I'm going to take part in a bit of a posting challenge, and I invite any of you willing to join in to join me.From May first to the seventh- I'll be doing the following:
1: Increase the Signal- Create a minimum of one post per day that features original content. By original, it can be thoughts on any subject, a reaction to something else on the internet, new media, something- anything, but it must be original- it must have come to the post with some level of thought and effort behind it.
1a: The content must be relevant. Yes, the fact that you're in the kitchen in your underwear content. However, it's not likely to have a smidgen of relevance to anyone other than yourself. And I doubt you even need that record, unless you're developing an alibi for something. Neither are posts like "Look! I'm being original!" put some effort into thinking and typing about things. Notice and post details.
1b: No news is good news- if you don't have something to say, don't say it. Resist the twinkie. Don't feel like you have to force things to make even one daily post. Conversely, don't flood stuff- if you've got an addendum to a previous post, then put it in that post, rather than a new one (obviously, this doesn't apply to non-editable formats, like Twitter).
2: Decrease the Noise- No aggregation. No hotlinking lolcats, no youtube embeds, no one-link posts to content someone else has established. No memes, aside from this one. Both you and your readers have google and other search methods- they can use it. You don't really have to post it- if they want to see something like that, they're perfectly capable of searching it out on their own. In short, post no content that is not your own.
2a: If you're posting a reaction to someone else's content (say, a news article) it's within reason to link to the article- there's relevance. There is no necessary relevance to posting a bunch of random youtube clips to LJ without comment.
2b: You are, of course, perfectly entitled to aggregate your own stuff between different sites.
3: Silence is not the goal- don't make it a week where you post nothing, excusing yourself becuase youthink you don't have something relevant to discuss- find something relevant. Make something worth generating content about. Create. DO.
3a: Do it so that others can see- post these guidelines up if you're participating, and re-post them at the start of the week- let your readers know what's going on.
3b:Do it publicly- content that isn't available to all comers is not necessarily content- it lacks relevance due to its inaccessibility.
And finally, go check out that original post I referenced- read through the comments. If you see other good ideas to include in your own version of doing this, then add them in as well. Just make sure you're still doing your bit to add to the web, rather than just repeating what's already up.Carry it on in your responses- don't just reply to a post with "THIS!" or somesuch- debate it, discus it, hell, argue, rattle, and rail about it- but make your responses just as relevant as the original material you're reading/writing. And if you're participating? Drop me a comment and let me know- I'll try and see if I can't get a decent list generated of people involved, just to track what all's going on with this.
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