For some time I have been considering changing the way Catholic Dads post articles. There are times when a really good article gets buried in a flurry of activity. There are also times when we have three of four posts in one day, and then nothing for a while. There are times when judicious editing may help an article. It will also help us to ensure that we are focusing on the site objectives and values. I have avoided doing this to now because of the added time commitment, but it will best serve the group and the Church online from a Catholic Dads perspective.
Let me know what you think about this, and current members please continue to login and submit articles.
Rob Kaiser
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I dont post a ton on here due to a few reasons:
1. There isn’t a centralized “Focus” for posting here, outside of FATHERHOOD. So anything I post at my blog, is good to go here, for the most part. So I wait until I have something germane to fatherhood to post.
2. The Combined feed serves as a good place to get the posts from #1 out there, for the most part.
3. Your concerns above are exactly right. There is always a FLURRY or DEAD calm. It seems when I post there is a flurry and a concern that I am bumping someones article down.
I would like to see CD’s become more like some of the Catholic MOM blogs in this regard. They have places like Catholic Mom, F&FL, etc… that have a team of writers. Sometimes this changes, sometimes they have guest bloggers, but there is a consistancy in the writing and the bloggers.
What does that mean for us? Maybe we get a team of 5-10 bloggers and have them post on a certain day. Maybe we have topics for days. I think the best plan is to create some type of structure. Especially if you have 1-2 people covering each topic or day, hopefully you will get something posted 80% of the time on that topic/day.
If we wanted we could get super fancy like FFL and have SECTIONS. Fatherhood, Politics, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare, Culture Wars, etc… Then when we post, we put them in that CATEGORY, and it would allow people to go to the section that interests them. We already have that set up a little.
Just some ideas to get the conversation rolling, I have actually thought about this for a while. I use Faith and Family as an EXAMPLE, because LOTS of mothers LOVE IT. I am not 100% a fan for a multitude of reasons, but my wife likes it, and she isnt a blogger. What she likes is that just about everyday the main 5 or 6 bloggers there blog something, and it is all different. She can then start to “pick her favorite” and follow their personal blog. Then when she talks to other catholic moms she talks about that blogger, and and various conversations occur about why they like that blogger or post, and about whether they follow the personal blog etc…
I think we have a good START. We have the blogroll and that is good. And we have the combined feed, which is good. I think that if we had more “REGULAR” bloggers or “Staff Bloggers” it would create some semblance of a site. The “Memeber Blogs” could remain (even the bigger mom blogs have a section for member bloggers) and could be a place for dads that didnt want to commit to the blogging regiment of STAFF to continue to have their posts on the site.
What say you all?
So what exactly are the changes? You say that there are changes but not what they are.
I think Joe has some good ideas that we need to consider. The first change is that articles will be submitted for review. This allows editorial advice and flexibility in timing publication. Many or even most times, it may be a rubber stamp – and publication. However, I have had to remove articles recently that were not quite appropriate or could have benefited from some editorial input. I would rather that happen before it goes out on an RSS feed rather than after.
I would like to move beyond a simple review, and have people “sign-up” to take on more regular writing – but that is purely voluntary.
Rob,
To be honest, when I joined Catholic Dads, I was surprised to see that the submission policy was as loose as it was. I was expecting to see some sort of review process in place. Now I know that reviewing every article that is submitted is a bit cumbersome, but I think that there needs to be more control. I like Joe’s idea of having a core group of bloggers–maybe 5 to 10 who post regularly. That way you will have regular posts on the site
Also, you could set it up so that anyone could submit a blog post. That blog post would then be reviewed by one of the core group (they could take turns so as to relieve some of the burden to the review process) before posting it on the site.
Those are my thoughts.
Tim
Good thoughts, all.
I fancy Joe’s idea of site sections (Fatherhood, Politics, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare, Culture Wars, etc… – as mentioned) and would combine it with his idea of regular bloggers.
In this set-up, one or two bloggers would be responsible for a section. They would write the majority of that section’s articles (on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule) AND they would edit posts related to the section. That way, the regular bloggers would build up the section as they gain/share knowledge related to their subject. By editing for their section, they would relieve some of the burden of reviewing posts.
As someone who occasionally posts here, I would welcome the chance to become a regular blogger for a specific section.
Do we have any volunteers for regular bloggers? Or perhaps those responsible for a section – to either write or go out and find other content to direct others to?
After some comments here are some more solid ideas:
1. A “board” of CDO Editors. A group to make some of the day to day “Decisions” of what goes on around here.
2. Pick some regular writers. #1 could help in this… or we could just take some volunteers/vote etc..
3. Have some game-plan of model to follow. Whether we follow another sites model or create our own, this will help #1 & 2.
4. Rob… this is your baby… you need to be willing to make the “hard” decisions early… I think getting some more creative bloggers on board, and a bigger name or two would help.
5. A “re-launch” would help. maybe a little site “re-design” and start teasing the “re-launch” then make the changes on that day…. get a little excitement back in CDO
Also, I would be willing to write… or do whatever. I think it would be nice to have a second place to write some more “dad” based posts. I think some decisions need to be made before we decided what and who we need.
We had a relaunch last year, and we already have the categories. I could see making changes to the site, but I think that is secondary at this point – what Catholic Dads needs is good content.
The idea of regular authors is excellent. If we had 3 to 5 people contributing once a week, we would be doing well. We would add to that the open submission policy, and we have sufficient content for the site to take off again. What we need is a few dedicated people to commit to posting once a week. Are you gentlemen willing (Joe, Jason, Tim – any others reading)? We don’t need a big name – consistent content will drive interest (and make the big name).
As far as multiple editors, I am open, but not don’t see an urgent need. Right now all that is needed is a second pair of eyes to make sure it is consistent with the CD mission. Right now there are two of us with approval authority (Jason Ward). I have no problems adding others as needed.
Hey all,
I’m here and I’ve been just sort of monitoring the discussion, to see where it would go.
1. I’m on the current CDO Board; I wouldn’t mind volunteering to be a regular writer.
2. A little more editorial oversight is a good idea and will improve the overall quality of the posts.
3. I haven’t seen a consensus on how to throttle the rate of submission, unless it’s Rob’s suggestion of adding regular writers “to that the open submission policy”. That ensures a minimum flow, but not a maximum. Of course if Rob and Jason are the editors, then I guess that’s the gateway control.
4. I still like the idea of periodic themes for the writing or “highlighting” of the season or event, although we’ve had mixed success so far (perhaps due to low submissions).
Nod, I’ll take you up on that. Do you want a regular day for publication, do you want a theme or a title for your series? I think we could do some things to highlight regular features.
As far as max flow issues, I figure we can worry about that when we get it – it hasn’t happened so far. If we could get regular authors to publish 4 or 5 articles combined per week, and then fill in additional open submission (we would space to not be more than one or two, and perhaps change to format of the site to highlight the featured articles), then I think we are golden. If we suffer from too much success, then we can deal with that happy problem then.
I like the themes too. I think regular contributors would enhance our ability to do that.
I would be willing to write regularly. I like themes, but sometimes they can be limiting. I think a good medium might be if REGULAR ie STAFF writers wrote, let’s say weekly that would be good. Then, every so often (every other week? every month? based on certain news/liturgical season/etc…) those same writers could focus on that theme.
Also, if we had other contributors who wanted to add something or write on that theme, that would be a great way to fill the gap.
If we had a few writers that wrote regularly (4-8) and people were expecting a weekly post or two from them, it would bring in traffic. Also, since many of us have blogs we could TEASE our posts here on our own blog, and agree that we wont cross-post our entire CDO article on our blog. We could do what Natl Catholic REGISTER does, and print a teaser paragraph that links them here.
Rob-
I think you have a lot of good suggestions to work with here already. I like Jason’s idea about particular people focusing on a section/theme of the blog. That would serve to improve content and to allow them to be the editors of that area as well. Of course, I would not want to see them “limited” to that area—people should feel free to post in another area if they so desire.
And I agree that big names are not the key. If there is good content for men that they can use in their lives to become better Catholic Dads, they will come and read. I also think the idea of having original content—i.e., not cross-posted on our blogs—on CD is an important part of the equation. If the purpose is to drive traffic here, then we should work on that. Making it the only place to get certain content is an easy way to bring the readers to the site.
Finally, one thing I do like about F&FL is the different themed days they have. I know that my wife makes sure to check what is being written on particular days and not so much on other days. That allows people to use the site as is best for them and to get the content they want or need. Perhaps in dividing up our writing assignments, we could designate days for topics (and we could still have overarching themes for each week/liturgical season/etc.).
And I’ll throw my hat in as a regular writer as well—after the Bar exam at the end of the month. Starting in August, I’d have more time. Let me know if you want me to participate.
Rob, I don’t have a particular theme or title in mind at present. I think the themes should just be periodic to spice it up or bring a particular focus.
We have some good suggestions here. At some point we just need to wade in. Waiting on the word, sir!
I am pulling it together – you should hear from me tomorrow.