Notes from a Publisher - Site News

My how time flies. It seems a lot of people like the new software on the backend of MFP. I think it makes it easier to contribute. On top of that, the open house and subsequent training sessions (for free of course) will help even more people get involved.

We're going to take a big hit in traffic this month, I think, until the search engines catch-up with the new site design. Perhaps I should have planned more, but it's done, it's a good thing, and I'm positive about moving forward. (And sorry, grandma, about the lack of the weather for a day. ;)

Some new new things:

• images - should be a lot easier to add to stories and blog posts now - embedded.
  • you can also add an image seperately if it's really good and/or newsworthy or you want to highlight just the photo
  • i'm working on finding the best gallery solution - stay tuned THM!

• User Points - This is just kinda cool. Everytime you post a comment, you get some points. Everytime you post a photo, you get some points. Etc. Etc. Etc. For the moment, the points don't actually mean anything, but they might be useful to find a 'top 10 contributors' so we can have vote every month (in the future) for the MVC (most valued contributer) with maybe some cash or prizes. Ideas on this welcome. Just wanted to let you know it was there if you were wondering, though.

• Columnists/Bloggers - We have three new ones - two anonymous (Mayor Buckwheat and Secretly Tuneful) which is fine - and one using his name - Brian Howey. (The Star Press' Editor told me they would let me know how much it would cost to run a print ad announcing that Mr. Howey's column would be running in MFP, but as has happened many times in the past, I haven't heard back from him or anyone else at TSP. I guess I'll take my ad money elsewhere? In any case, we're still looking for writers. I can't pay at the moment, but it's something I want to do in the future (again, unlike TSP.) We may be a ways away from that, but we'll get there. I have hope for journalism. So if you want to write, email me or just create an account and submit something (all stories go through a cadre of editors...but blogs are pretty much open...) We're listening.

• Meet-up - We have a couple maybes, I think. Still a couple weeks to decide at least. I'm hearing that a lot of people already have other things going on that day. I'm sure the first one will still be memorable.

That's about it for now. Check my blog for more details/info as it arrives.

Your friendly publisher,
K. Paul Mallasch

Technorati Tags: Community Groups kpaul kpaul blog notes from a publisher