There's a lot of stuff needed. I'm going to submit, in the posting you're reading now, 3 things: I. Bongo Boy's thoughts on specific content, and recommendations for initial CongaZine content, with exhaustively boring rationale, II. Recommendations for the associated processes and software requirements, and III. Tasks that I think need to be done to get started that savvy web-meisters might be able to get done very quickly.
Here goes--my apologies for the length.
I. Content
A. Upcoming Shows.--HOLD FOR LATER. This may be something you open up to the planet--anyone can make a submission. I'd recommend this come later because you'll want to use an online form for the submissions with certain fields mandatory and verifiable. Some fields will simply have to be mandatory and selectable from a pick-list to automate management (show dates, for example, so that the posting can be auto-archived or auto-deleted). SO, I vote for saving this one for later. I have some design ideas tho.
B. ProTips. DO THIS ONE NOW. In Section II. Processes (below), I have some thoughts on how to handle this.
C. In the News. These are the little short, one- or two-liners about new products, announcements of any kind, etc. I can't imagine who would submit them or verify them, but maybe verification isn't necessary.
D. Reviews. Product, recording, show, book and video reviews submitted by anyone who chooses to.
II. Processes.
In general, I think someone has to decide that all submissions either a) become the sole property of CongaPlace with all international rights reserved, and all submitters must agree to that in writing, or b) the submitters of any materials will all be the implied copyright owners. I don't think it's in the site's best interest to leave this unresolved.
I general, if an editor is asked (or volunteers) to edit material, the author should be unknown to that editor, at least until the piece is published. Likewise, the editor should remain unknown to the author. This means an intermediary may be needed from time to time--that could be a mess.
A. ProTips. From the submitter's point of view, it would be nice if they could simply write an email or fill out a free-form online text box such as the one I'm using to write this. It would be great if at least one volunteer editor could get an automated email when the submission was made--that editor's job would be to correct any obvious spelling or typographical errors. Often, people who don't write for a living will put everything in one big solid block of text, and an editor can improve readability without having to change everything (thereby insulting the submitter).
It would be wonderful if the submitter be asked to categorize his/her Tip using one of, say, 4 to 8 categories. This helps ensure that we have variety in the category of Tips. Categories might include: Practice, Performance, Equipment, Going Pro, and so on.
C. In the News. Using an online form, anyone can submit an In the News Item. They have to be a registered and logged-on CongaPlace Forum user, they have to select a category (this helps submitters focus on what their ranting about), an information source (preferably with a valid URL), and the submission is limited to, say, 60 or so words. Intended to provide a reference to the full story, not the full story itself.
D. Reviews. The CongaPlace site will provide a short "Writer's Guide" that provides guidelines on how to write a review, for example, including minimum and maximum length and what's needed for the author's bio. Again, it would be great if a few folks volunteered to be copy editors, just to help ensure clarity and tidiness of the submission.
Here's an idea: using a standard online 'voting' tool, open a poll each month (or each quarter) to allow CongaPlace members to vote on their review topic of choice--or even have them do this by voting from among a number of review 'abstracts' that have been submitted (anonymous authors until the review is published).
III. Tasks. Find, evaluate or select simple online tools that will work to implement at least some of the simplest ideas above. I have no idea what's available or how this can be done.
FINALLY, don't EVER let anyone submit a post that's this long
Edited By Bongo Boy on July 23 2002 at 12:21