We are in the process of figuring out how to get Docudharma more….actiony.
The thrice beloved On The Bus, whose official title is Chief Technical Wizard, has recently added a box on the far right hand side of the page for hot tags. Now I am EXACTLY the wrong person to try to tell you about anything technical. I only got on the net a couple of years ago, before that, I was a carpenter. If it is made out of wood, I’m your man. Silicone and ones and zeros and code and stuff? Not so much. I like Number Two Ticonderogas. They have good erasers.
But here we are, all digitalled up. Which means that we have a ton of info passing through teh blog everyday, much of it is actually useful and important! And since one of the marvels of digitalness is the ability to store and access info, we should do all we can to take advantage of that…as well as taking advantage of the mediums possibilities and opportunities for action.
These two intersect in the use of action tags, and the opportunity to have access to action items through the Hot Tags box. OR through some other systems. Or both. Since the admins here are smart enough to admit we aren’t that smart we are, as we try to do with just about everything, throwing this out to the community for general input, ideas, and to receive your brilliance.
Consider this an open thread on both tagging, and how to facilitate and make it easier to engage in various Action! items.
Personally speaking, I am bad at tagging, mostly out of laziness. But I do see their value. Probably due to this, tagging has been haphazard here, and hasn’t really been addressed. That and over in Naranjistan, some folks got, imnho, a tad obsessed with the tagging process and the enforcement got to be a little strict for a while there. But the tagging crew there does do very valuable work. So…
Question one, do we want a tagging crew here? Do you want to be on the tagging crew. And in general, what are your ideas on tags?
And no, I have no idea what being on a tagging crew means or entails…that is up to you guys!
Question two. How can we facilitate the posting, access to, and participation in action essays? There has been some scattered suggestions and ideas, but here is a opportunity to get all of these into one thread for easy access. If you have already made a suggestion, please repeat it here, both so we can discuss it and to centralize it.
Banner stuff!
A week and a half ago, we announced a banner contest, and got some good replies. This is generally just a reminder that it is still going on. Since good art takes time, we don’t want to rush this. But if you have a banner idea, you can either post it here, or…I will be posting another banner thread on Sunday. Follow the link above for more info.
This is just a starter thread, for brainstorming and haphazardly throwing out out ideas, and there are no stupid ideas…general site stuff and suggestions are welcome too, so don’t be shy….yell louder!
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tag illiterate but I am intrigued to know I have a new resource for all of my wood and wood product related questions.
are zoning out to the training videos (yes, yes, it’s going straight into my subconscious for easy access, there is no slacking going on here!) so i’m just going to copy and paste what i posted on your, “Doom and Gloom” essay. I’m techno-challenged myself.
Budhy:
a daily or tri-weekly “action alert.” Post it on the front page. Let everyone contribute their own essays and/or links and/or spread the idea/essays around.
doesn’t have to stop any of the other essays or topics. just something CONCRETE to take action on as many times a week as the community thinks is possible.
it will become clear very soon who wants to work on what issue and who isn’t doing anything, which is fine with me, as long as they provide food and music. @;-)
Action Alerts
Two things I can think of, that are probably soapbox (software) issues.
One is keeping the action of the day (or week) at the top of either the page or the rec list. Nothing large, just “up there” where it can be seen with every page load. Maybe on the side like an ad, I don’t know.
Two is an easy way to source all the various essays on any given issue.
It’s your blog, Buhdy, you get to vet the issues. 🙂 Anyone who wants to post an essay on the subject can, just like now. People who want to cross-link their posts can, just like now.
Right now, there seems to be a NOLA focus. I would hope to see Veterans issues and Homelessness issues. I’m sure there are peace issues (Iraq Moratorium) as well.
Mainly, everything is as before, there is just a prominate placement of the issue of the day/week along with whatever essay and actions people want to post.
Them’s my idea off-the-cuff.
need help!
it’s hard enough to come up with a title. then to be crippled by making sure i have the right tag… arghhhhhhhhhh
i know put all their tags on the side of the blog. that way, readers could pick and choose their topics AND diary posters knew what to put on the bottom of their essays.
…just to be a smartass…
i wont do it again.. 😉
I personally have this weird thing against tags on my stuff. I actually really enjoy the fact that I don’t have to tag here. I like the idea of having all the information stored and cataloged, but definitely don’t think it should be mandatory. If you don’t want to be cataloged, you shouldn’t have to be. If I’m going to use them at all I’d like to use tags that are somewhat random because if I wanted someone outside of the site to find it, I’d rather it be through a particular, broad thought. Dk wouldn’t let you do that (or didn’t want you to). I’ve debated going back through my stuff and adding my personal one random tag, but haven’t done it yet because I wasn’t sure what the ‘rules’ were going to be on it. For the news type essays though having standard tagging procedures would be a good idea. For the more artsy/personal stuff I think it should be up to the individual. Honestly I would be pretty upset if I had to tag my stuff here. Makes me feel confined :p
Action something or other would be great, maybe by state. I’ve often wondered if everyone who blogged walked outside at the same time one day and saw each other if it would make it easier to get together and create some action and community locally 🙂
https://www.docudharma.com/show…
This is something I think the blog would want to highlight each month. How? I don’t know if there is a way to put a banner up a few days ahead of the Friday, or a way to put something up on the side like an ad? This in addition to the essay.
Remember the Martin Luther King banner? Something like that?
Of course then banners would have to be made for NOLA and Veterans issues and whatever else we want to highlight actions to take. Is there anyone who could or would want to create those?
My thought is there is always something on an action essay or ad or banner that is available for anyone to take an action on… either a petition to sign, a dedicated website, a way to donate… a link to something like that.
Maybe start small and see what sorts of things develop?
Tigana around? She is a great artist and a strong advocate for taking action… I would love to see what she thinks could be done.
What is needed from SoapBlox is a better search engine.
I used to like tags, but after the self-appointed tag authorities on another blog started to edit out tags they didn’t like, I changed my mind.
I see no benefit to an organized tag effort.
A short summary. This is a tag:
You put it in a cow’s or sheep’s ear when it’s small so you know which cow or which sheep you’re dealing with. You don’t take it out. That’s it.
I trust this doesn’t mean that I need to start wearing one of these.
So, ummm… where’s the action? 😉
Now I get why my essays are showing up on the side. I was freaking out about that.
I try to end every diary in a call to action but I think diaries that are entirely focused on action should be applied.
Maybe the tag “action alert” would be better. Cuz my DE, O and T essay isn’t really a action alert.
I’ll work on a banner right now.