What's the blog for anyway?

25th March, 2008

Hello. Hope you're enjoying the new site! There's been quite a lot of activity on the member directory with folios being prepared, bios written and re-written (and some yet to do, but we're hoping peer pressure will see to that) and some further exploration onto the classifieds and news/events sections on the site. Many of you have written to say thanks, some have written to suggest improvements and a few to point out deficiencies in the site. I'm happy with each of these emails, as it's meant the site has provoked a reaction and that it's been strong enough to get you to write.

So far, the focus has been on the flashy new features like the member listings on the directory and how far we can customise them. It's led to features such as being able to specify which fields you wish to view, and to allow you the ability to select specific skillsets to help broaden the scope of the member directory. If there's still improvements to be made we'd like to hear them - skip over to the feedback page in the National part of the site.

But I'd also like to hear AGDA voices speaking about issues outside of the website - the existing live site has been built on good writing and sharing ideas. This blog section has been set up with the intention of providing a vehicle for getting those ideas and words onto the site as quickly as possible for the benefit of members across Australia and beyond.

What have you seen lately that's got you excited. Or angry. Or at odds with the way you've been thinking for years. Has someone's work - be it inside design or somewhere else - blown you away and you want to pass it on? I've had a bunch of conversations tonight with people I've met before and people I hadn't - all of which had me stepping back and taking a second look at where I'm heading. It was exciting and a little unsettling (oh, how much more work we have to do on the site...) but it's given me a smile that I hadn't expected after a back-to-work-after-a-long-weekend day of routine.

So what I'd really like to see is some writing on here as soon as possible. I don't know if it's going to come naturally to a lot of people, but I also think if the writing's coming from a good place then it won't matter if it's necessarily polished first time. I guess we'll all feel our way through this, and who knows what this blog will become? Lets see, eh?

I do think we need a couple of informal rules, though, for those who are writing and those who are commenting:-

• Be nice. Your comments are linked to your member directory listing (Unless you've specified you don't want your member listing shown - in that case it's just your name)


• Sounds obvious, but don't plagiarise and don't just summarise other people's writing without adding your own twist


• Post spontaneously. You can always edit it after a good night's sleep.


• We've got a bad words filter but we're leaving the subjective 'taste' filter up to the community. If a post is knowingly inflammatory, libelous, in poor taste, illegal, etc.. we'll pull it. We encourage members to report these kinds of posts as soon as they see them.
  

  Any suggestions, post a comment. Or go to National -> Feedback and go wild.

  
  

  P.S. Thanks to the succinct 5mins by Penny Modra at '48' whose words are still hovering over my shoulder while I'm writing (hey, not a semicolon in sight!)

  
  

View comments

Hi Guys-

While we at Dreamer are really enjoying your new weighty-stock physical invites to events, is this really the best use of our natural resources?

Could we suggest a nice e-invite sting instead? Or a micro site for each event?

But thanks for the notice of events - see you soon.

JC
Posted by James Cooper Dreamer Productions Pty Ltd on 27th March 2008