ek hornbeck, Edger (of Antemedius), and I have recently assumed administration of Docudharma in addition to The Stars Hollow Gazette which has been active since July 4th, 2010.
We've come up with an exciting group blogging idea, the Port Writers Alliance I'd like to share with you! I'll explain it below.
The Port Writers Alliance is a collective effort of Antemedius, DocuDharma , Firefly Dreaming, Ignoring Asia, The Dream Antilles, The Stars Hollow Gazette, Wild Wild Left, and writing in the rAw.
About The Name
A little to the left of starboard if you get the drift. A harbor or anchorage.
About The Concept
There's a lot of news and commentary that could be receiving more attention.
Rather than crosspost on a single central site what we'd like to encourage is crossreading and commenting.
We'll be using two mechanisms to accomplish this-
- Firedog Lake style links to affiliated sites across the banner (props). I've always admired the way Jane and her crew have been able to maximize excitement and can only hope to emulate it.
- Regular cross promotional digests of associated sites' content.
How Does This Work?
Each site will decide for itself the content they want to feature and how often. They'll produce a digest and publish it on the affiliated sites. It will be promoted by the host or not whenever, depending on the desires of the host site.
Authors must choose for themselves if they want to crosspost, though they should expect requests to do so.
The point is to increase visibility and impact.
Independence
Each site has it's own vibe. Formula One and Le Tour and if you ever think it's about Politics you are sadly mistaken.
Content that is acceptable in some places is not in others and it is up to the host to decide. Port Writers Alliance sites enforce their own polices which are not uniform.
Success
The objective is that we'll drive some traffic and raise some awareness. Expectations should be realistic.
What you will see as a reader
Below each site's Banner you'll see some buttons that take you to the Front Page of each site. Fairly frequently you'll see a digest post from the individual sites that provide links to content they wish to highlight. Sometimes it will have been crossposted but often not, so the pieces may be of special interest to you and you'll want to click through and read them. Even for crossposted pieces the reactions will be different.
If you wish to comment or contribute you'll have to register independently at that site. We just don't have the technology Jane does at Firedog Lake.
If you are used to the pace of Daily Kos what you will find is that our blogs run quite a bit slower. You can't expect instant reactions or high volume responses.
On the other hand we're attempting with this project to expose you to a wide range of diverse content so that there is plenty for you to read and explore.
I'm interested in your reactions to this initiative. Please let me know in comments.