- Site menu:
- Latest Discussions
- Latest Newswire
- Archives
- Submit Story
- Story HOWTO
- Syndicate
- E-mail Alerts
How to Build (and Not Build) an Author Website
As in every other aspect of learning how to self-publish, there’s an endless amount of low-value (and sometimes downright wrong) “how to” stuff out there, as well as an infinite number of service providers that care a lot about getting your business, but little (if at all) about helping you get business. They’ll be delighted to sell you a formulaic site, take your money and say “good luck” (others are very good, by the way, so shop around). Finding the straight story about what’s worth doing and what is simply a waste of time and money is a challenge and a chore. |
|
|
Comments (34)
14 earlier comments in the full thread.
bob wrote:Let's all make a New Year's resolution to submit one quality story per week
How about instead we just make a resolution to only allow one opensource.com/Red Hat/Fedora/systemd propaganda article per week?
gary_newell wrote:I guess my questions to Flufferbeer and other readers in general are What sort of articles are you interested in?
In this case, perhaps we should ask, "what articles are you NOT interested in?"
I am definitely not interested in any "feel-good" BS articles from opensource.com on Red Hat, Fedora and especially on systemd! Also, please stop with the sappy, insincere Jim Whithurst motivational pieces.
I get the feeling that it wouldn't matter what article mix hit this site, someone somewhere would have a complaint about some aspect or other. I look forward each day to editing and checking the pending articles for the queue that will eventually be posted on the home page of the LXer site. And you are exposed to so many articles that you simply cannot keep track of "who's who and which is what and wherever", other than that you DO notice when some authors suddenly hit the site with 5-10 articles in succession.
Once more, as simply one of the editorial volunteers, I'll repeat this suggestion: Read what you like, don't read what you don't like. Remember, something you may consider trash may be crucially important to someone else. Send articles in that you think should be on LXer, it's great when you do because it gives personal variety to the "spider trawls of the Linux web". And last of all, any of the editorial staff posting stories can ONLY react to what has been sent to the site for possible posting. We cannot publish what we don't have.
Once more, as simply one of the editorial volunteers, I'll repeat this suggestion: Read what you like, don't read what you don't like. Remember, something you may consider trash may be crucially important to someone else. Send articles in that you think should be on LXer, it's great when you do because it gives personal variety to the "spider trawls of the Linux web". And last of all, any of the editorial staff posting stories can ONLY react to what has been sent to the site for possible posting. We cannot publish what we don't have.
I generally do tend to skip the systemd articles from opensource.com (they really do seem rather one-sided). However, there are a lot of good articles from the site as well.
I probably skip 80% or more of the articles in the queue. Of the current front page of stories, I think I looked at four.
Of course, people are free to recommend better* choices...
*) ie. the kinds of articles they'd like to see more of, themselves -- that is how LXer actually works.
*) ie. the kinds of articles they'd like to see more of, themselves -- that is how LXer actually works.
cybertao wrote:Why wait for New Years? I posted a an article two days ago, prompted by this thread, and will endeavour to do more in the future.
Ok fellow LXer community members, I'm picking up on the challenge. I hope everyone enjoys the article I found and posted today about the ROS open source robotics operating system.
OK, in keeping with the above, I've submitted a link to an article to the queue. It's not LXer's normal fare, so I'm not sure it will be approved.
On the off chance it isn't, you can find the article I submitted story at http://seekingalpha.com/article/3528746-why-is-the-market-pr...
As I note in the submission, you may have to register with Seeking Alpha to read the entire article.
Added - Ah, I see that it was accepted.
On the off chance it isn't, you can find the article I submitted story at http://seekingalpha.com/article/3528746-why-is-the-market-pr...
As I note in the submission, you may have to register with Seeking Alpha to read the entire article.
Added - Ah, I see that it was accepted.
Two more articles, another one on Red Hat and one on an open source stock prediction framework submitted to the queue. I'll be trying to make time over the next few months to submit (and possibly write up some original, though I make no promises in that regard) investment oriented articles for LXer.
@penguinist and others,
That's great! Now if we can do something or maybe ANYTHING(?) about that prolific self-promoting RedHat/rpm fanperson flooding and downright BESIEGING the current Dump-on-Debian discussion thread....
It's also great regarding distros, to get good non-RedHat/Fedora, non-Baboont2 newswire stories here such as that very dumped-on 7 Reasons Why Debian is the Dominant Distro.
fb
That's great! Now if we can do something or maybe ANYTHING(?) about that prolific self-promoting RedHat/rpm fanperson flooding and downright BESIEGING the current Dump-on-Debian discussion thread....
It's also great regarding distros, to get good non-RedHat/Fedora, non-Baboont2 newswire stories here such as that very dumped-on 7 Reasons Why Debian is the Dominant Distro.
fb
I was thinking today that lxer could do with a mechanism to judge the quality of an article, even though quality is subjective and to the judgement of readers as both individuals and groups. Not an 'upvote/downvote' system, but perhaps a 'like' feature. When a story is posted it's hard to estimate how it was received by readers and get feedback on its strengths and weaknesses.
I was reading 'Embracing open source as a visual artist' and was taken with how good a read it was, but had no way of expressing that other than starting a thread attached to the story on how I liked it - which just seems a little excessive and would get way out of control if every story had a thread discussing how people liked or disliked it. And then there's the lurkers who don't want to participate in discussion but will give feedback in other ways (who might start participating if they already have an account, are logged in, and decide to add their 2¢). Stories people dislike are more likely to have a thread started about them stating so, which creates a negative environment. Not that starting 'negative' threads should be discouraged as they can generate interesting discussions with rebuttals.
A system that creates constructive feedback is important...and tricky. While it would be moderately easy to filter out stories containing specific Groups or posted by specific users, I don't believe self-censorship is constructive. There must be some simple ways of promoting quality even if it's a series of guidelines for everyone to follow.
I was reading 'Embracing open source as a visual artist' and was taken with how good a read it was, but had no way of expressing that other than starting a thread attached to the story on how I liked it - which just seems a little excessive and would get way out of control if every story had a thread discussing how people liked or disliked it. And then there's the lurkers who don't want to participate in discussion but will give feedback in other ways (who might start participating if they already have an account, are logged in, and decide to add their 2¢). Stories people dislike are more likely to have a thread started about them stating so, which creates a negative environment. Not that starting 'negative' threads should be discouraged as they can generate interesting discussions with rebuttals.
A system that creates constructive feedback is important...and tricky. While it would be moderately easy to filter out stories containing specific Groups or posted by specific users, I don't believe self-censorship is constructive. There must be some simple ways of promoting quality even if it's a series of guidelines for everyone to follow.
I use Lxer regularly for about 8 years now. In this "short" time the entire landscape of Free and Open source community has changed entirely and there is no doubt about it. Lxer helped the entire FOSS ecosystem by promoting community projects, small home projects and technical websites which would not have a chance to see a daylight otherwise, thus in its own way Lxer helped LiGNUx and FOSS community to get to the state where it is now. For this it has my sincere appreciation.
However, the days when we called open source an ideology are over. Now, it is business as any other. As a result, the Lxer FOSS community news aggregator has now become a viable propaganda tool to serve corporate ends.
I do not believe that any of the Lxer's visitors need Lxer to keep them in the loop of what is going on at Redhat Corp. or at Linux Foundation, the "non-profit" association comprising of 185 Corporate Members. In fact, if you have just a little bit of interest in the open source, news like these are hard to avoid no matter where you look.
If Lxer is going to follow its current news selection pattern we should not be surprised if in addition to Redhat, RPM and Opensource.com propaganda we will see more news about Microsoft and its open source products, thus leaving even less space for ideology, community projects, GNU and Free Software. Current Lxer's site title reads: "The world is talking about GNU/Linux and Free/Open Source Software". This mission statement as I remember was true 8 years ago and before that. If the title would reflect a current Lxer's front page the title should be changed to "The world is talking about Open Source Software".
Consequently, if there was a purpose for Lxer, now it is lost, and, if Lxer had wildebeest face, now it is sheep.
Just a friendly note from Lxer reader...
However, the days when we called open source an ideology are over. Now, it is business as any other. As a result, the Lxer FOSS community news aggregator has now become a viable propaganda tool to serve corporate ends.
I do not believe that any of the Lxer's visitors need Lxer to keep them in the loop of what is going on at Redhat Corp. or at Linux Foundation, the "non-profit" association comprising of 185 Corporate Members. In fact, if you have just a little bit of interest in the open source, news like these are hard to avoid no matter where you look.
If Lxer is going to follow its current news selection pattern we should not be surprised if in addition to Redhat, RPM and Opensource.com propaganda we will see more news about Microsoft and its open source products, thus leaving even less space for ideology, community projects, GNU and Free Software. Current Lxer's site title reads: "The world is talking about GNU/Linux and Free/Open Source Software". This mission statement as I remember was true 8 years ago and before that. If the title would reflect a current Lxer's front page the title should be changed to "The world is talking about Open Source Software".
Consequently, if there was a purpose for Lxer, now it is lost, and, if Lxer had wildebeest face, now it is sheep.
Just a friendly note from Lxer reader...
> However, the days when we called open source an ideology are over. Now, it is business as any other. As a result, the Lxer FOSS community news aggregator has now become a viable propaganda tool to serve corporate ends.
Which simply means that there is all the more need for user selected and written articles.
Which simply means that there is all the more need for user selected and written articles.
And as we keep on saying......the editors can ONLY post items they have received. Find some new articles; write something challenging. It's useless complaining......DO something - don't leave it to everybody else.
@Ridcully:
Problems are:
Problems are:
- Competition with corporate
- Many people are already employed at maximum time
- News articles are something most people read when the mind needs a distraction
- The comment section is fairly benign and a comment score doesn't really matter
- Publishing something that's actually correct is time consuming -- see #2
- If the 'something' published is good, the bandwidth will be expensive and ads will ensue
- If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk.
- Oops!
Ok, here is my New Year's resolution:
1. Find and post one quality LXer story per week during all of 2016.
2. Write at least one quality original article on LXer during 2016.
3. Starting today.
1. Find and post one quality LXer story per week during all of 2016.
2. Write at least one quality original article on LXer during 2016.
3. Starting today.
@ridiculy,
>> And as we keep on saying......the editors can ONLY post items they have received.
No, that's what YOU may keep on saying! And it seems to me that YOU are disingenuous when you say that "editors can only post items they have received" when we can even see over the last week or so WHICH story-summaries get more complete coverage and WHICH story-summaries get mere one-liners.
Got examples? Here are a nice lllonnnggg run of 'em........
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224263/ A mere TWO sentences on this interesting and very important issue!
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224254/ Two sentences--full paragraph on a less important subject
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224252/ One long sentence
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224239/ One SHORT sentence lead--longer text expansion on this KEY LM release upgrade
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224253/ Two sentences
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224240/ Three sentences--full paragraph on something that is much less directly related to Free/Open Source Software
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224242/ A mere SINGLE sentence!
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224244/ Two sentences with maybe the ALL-TIME RECORD of listed LXer Groups (12)??!!
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224246/ A SHORT single sentence lead with ZERO text expansion on this KEY LM release upgrade
WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH?
I'm totally with reader on this. Right back on YOU current editors and others who continue to digress, distract, and gloss over reader's points in this thread.... got BETTER editors???!!!
(WHERE OH WHERE have tuxchick and dinotrac been over the last handful of years? Could we ever bring 'em back?)
fb
>> And as we keep on saying......the editors can ONLY post items they have received.
No, that's what YOU may keep on saying! And it seems to me that YOU are disingenuous when you say that "editors can only post items they have received" when we can even see over the last week or so WHICH story-summaries get more complete coverage and WHICH story-summaries get mere one-liners.
Got examples? Here are a nice lllonnnggg run of 'em........
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224263/ A mere TWO sentences on this interesting and very important issue!
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224254/ Two sentences--full paragraph on a less important subject
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224252/ One long sentence
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224239/ One SHORT sentence lead--longer text expansion on this KEY LM release upgrade
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224253/ Two sentences
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224240/ Three sentences--full paragraph on something that is much less directly related to Free/Open Source Software
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224242/ A mere SINGLE sentence!
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224244/ Two sentences with maybe the ALL-TIME RECORD of listed LXer Groups (12)??!!
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224246/ A SHORT single sentence lead with ZERO text expansion on this KEY LM release upgrade
WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH?
I'm totally with reader on this. Right back on YOU current editors and others who continue to digress, distract, and gloss over reader's points in this thread.... got BETTER editors???!!!
(WHERE OH WHERE have tuxchick and dinotrac been over the last handful of years? Could we ever bring 'em back?)
fb
@flufferbeer, I'm not sure that you understood Ridcully's point. All LXer content is contributed and organized by volunteers. We are a community and as such we are only as strong as the individuals who make up the community.
I've searched through the LXer archives, flufferbeer, and I find that you did contribute one story to the LXer newswire in 2007. That's great. If you will next take your strong opinions and translate them into a quality second posting, and a third and a fourth, that would be even greater. Seriously, we will all benefit if you would take the time to organize a story for the LXer newswire.
I personally feel a responsibility to be a contributor to this community and I see that my posting of an open source event taking place at CES has hit the wire. I hope it is enjoyable reading for some who are following the role of FOSS in the automobiles of the future, but I also hope it will serve as a model and an encouragement to others to make their own individual contributions to our newswire.
Thank you Ridcully for your many tireless contributions. We appreciate you!
I've searched through the LXer archives, flufferbeer, and I find that you did contribute one story to the LXer newswire in 2007. That's great. If you will next take your strong opinions and translate them into a quality second posting, and a third and a fourth, that would be even greater. Seriously, we will all benefit if you would take the time to organize a story for the LXer newswire.
I personally feel a responsibility to be a contributor to this community and I see that my posting of an open source event taking place at CES has hit the wire. I hope it is enjoyable reading for some who are following the role of FOSS in the automobiles of the future, but I also hope it will serve as a model and an encouragement to others to make their own individual contributions to our newswire.
Thank you Ridcully for your many tireless contributions. We appreciate you!
Thankyou for your vote of confidence penguinist. It is deeply appreciated when these sorts of attacks continue.
Flufferbeer, my work as an editor for LXer is purely voluntary and I consider it an honour to be allowed to contribute my skills as a writer. My work for LXer is not paid for in any way and I am very content that it should be so. For your information, every morning I go through the list of possible articles for posting on LXer. I check the url is active and correct, ensure that the article contents are more or less to do with Linux or FOSS, try to ensure that the Story Type and Groups are reasonably accurate for the article and then post it onto the future queue. I would imagine that the other editors do precisely the same thing. As dotmatrix indicates for himself, I too have a multitude of things to do and spending a morning searching the web for possible articles or writing one, well.....quite frankly, the time isn't easily come by.
Finally flufferbeer, let me draw your attention to this little gem in your last posting:
I happen to know about this one because I posted it. And I specifically set the Story type to "Announcements" which to me indicates that the item isn't a long article as such, but a simple statement that something has happened. Of course you cannot expect a long, serious article with that descriptor. The announcement item also contains a little information about the release and includes a list of mirrors. At least some Mint users may have found this useful don't you think ?
Put it this way, you cannot ignore the settings for a story. We try to tell LXer readers what they can expect in any article using those descriptors and sometimes it is quite difficult to make them fit a particular item that has been submitted.
Flufferbeer, instead of throwing criticisms, write an article for LXer on a topic you would like to see, and submit it. Become involved, rather than sitting back and hurling bricks.
Flufferbeer, my work as an editor for LXer is purely voluntary and I consider it an honour to be allowed to contribute my skills as a writer. My work for LXer is not paid for in any way and I am very content that it should be so. For your information, every morning I go through the list of possible articles for posting on LXer. I check the url is active and correct, ensure that the article contents are more or less to do with Linux or FOSS, try to ensure that the Story Type and Groups are reasonably accurate for the article and then post it onto the future queue. I would imagine that the other editors do precisely the same thing. As dotmatrix indicates for himself, I too have a multitude of things to do and spending a morning searching the web for possible articles or writing one, well.....quite frankly, the time isn't easily come by.
Finally flufferbeer, let me draw your attention to this little gem in your last posting:
Quoting:http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/224246/ A SHORT single sentence lead with ZERO text expansion on this KEY LM release upgrade
WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH? WTH?
I happen to know about this one because I posted it. And I specifically set the Story type to "Announcements" which to me indicates that the item isn't a long article as such, but a simple statement that something has happened. Of course you cannot expect a long, serious article with that descriptor. The announcement item also contains a little information about the release and includes a list of mirrors. At least some Mint users may have found this useful don't you think ?
Put it this way, you cannot ignore the settings for a story. We try to tell LXer readers what they can expect in any article using those descriptors and sometimes it is quite difficult to make them fit a particular item that has been submitted.
Flufferbeer, instead of throwing criticisms, write an article for LXer on a topic you would like to see, and submit it. Become involved, rather than sitting back and hurling bricks.
@Anyone:
>write an article for LXer on a topic you would like to see, and submit it. Become involved, rather than sitting back and hurling bricks.
Sometimes when I feel like too much of a freeloader, I'll hunt down a few answers for newbies on GNU/Linux forums. It's a little easier to handle answering a question than trying to create some content that stands by itself. It's also a good way to learn and to try to keep the sarcasm down to a low roar. I know this comment doesn't necessarily 'help' the current thread direction... but stream of thought isn't picky.
@penguinist:
>2. Write at least one quality original article on LXer during 2016.
Me too.
>1. Find and post one quality LXer story per week 2 weeks during all of 2016.
Fixed it for me.
>write an article for LXer on a topic you would like to see, and submit it. Become involved, rather than sitting back and hurling bricks.
Sometimes when I feel like too much of a freeloader, I'll hunt down a few answers for newbies on GNU/Linux forums. It's a little easier to handle answering a question than trying to create some content that stands by itself. It's also a good way to learn and to try to keep the sarcasm down to a low roar. I know this comment doesn't necessarily 'help' the current thread direction... but stream of thought isn't picky.
@penguinist:
>2. Write at least one quality original article on LXer during 2016.
Me too.
>1. Find and post one quality LXer story per week 2 weeks during all of 2016.
Fixed it for me.
Post a comment
A free account is needed to post. Write your comment here first: your text is kept in this browser while you sign up or log in, and is waiting for you when you come back.
Your message:Markdown: **bold**, *italic*, [text](https://link), - lists, > quotes, $x^2$ for math. Formatting help
Sign up and post (it is free) or Log in and post
What sort of articles are you interested in? What do you want to read more about?