Magazine to newsletter

hcgtv · 2015-07-15 21:10:50

gaekwad wrote #293283:

I’m in a similar mental health boat (depression, anxiety, bipolar, and more), hence my vague reference to understanding some of his situation. I know I’m not alone with that special cocktail of brain wiring.

This is a new site I’m starting up – BipolarBert – we all have our inner demons.

wavesource · 2015-07-15 22:56:50

May I ask, why all this domain explosion? Is it simply because of lack of access and contribution over at TXP.com?

I think, if pushing TXPs boat out, all the development on the main .com domain… Fracturing the namespace is just fracturing your impact as well as to coherently control content. However, a healthy .com/org/net presence with growing market share should induce people to go TextCrazy.

Aside from the argy bargy (I had to look up “crickets”) around TLDs and the new not-coms, I am wondering if what we have here is a function of TXPs innate inability to restrict a logged in user to managing content in assigned sections. Is there a plugin for that?

I came into the XML tag approach via a commercial platform called Vivvo around 2007, run by some gun-toting Romanians or something, they stopped development in 2010 or so and coming to TXP in 2012 was a breath of fresh air for me as it was everything you wanted Vivvo to have been, plus I was already familiar with the tag concept.

However, Vivvo did have a neat feature restricting a specific usergroup (and you could have as many usergroups as you wanted) to work within any array of sections (multi-select dropdown etc.) And that was the killer feature that my client wanted back then…. Said client wanted to grant a user access to their own section so they could post stuff without requiring approval, and nowhere else. They trusted that user to post publicly, but only in that section.

And you could create roles – that would set the editing/posting permissions. Usergroups were assigned roles, and then sections. I think Joomla runs like that…

Hence, perhaps this why we don’t see more logins for people to be able to manage the .com site? – because it would open access to the whole site?

If whoever holds the keys to the .com kingdom could say, create a usergroup for running the blog and mail list, assign users A, B, C and set a managing editor D, then let them go for it, then that would solve the problem, wouldn’t it? You’d have someone else, maybe D or E who would manage any style/page/form commits to that section, but you could let it be run pretty much as its own little fiefdom without it bugging you silly.

A further note re the multi-lang blog that’s set up – stuff generated for mail list would be offered for posting there, obviously. But not necessarily all of it. I can see that TXP audience is quite variegated, and some of the fluffy dumb stuff that would be an intro puff piece for a newsletter may be edited out for public release on blog etc.

And to Destry and curation of mail list content prior to any work, yes, of course, if I was part of that I would go and scout around and work out a hit list of ideas and stuff to mine across the available sites, set up a big list, and then set up a proposed list of subjects for the next 12 months, put that on the desk for people to kick in the nuts.

And I’m already growing vegetables. I have a cat. Is this early onset senility? Certainly doesn’t sound like rock ‘n’ roll.

Last edited by wavesource (2015-07-15 23:09:32)

Destry · 2015-07-15 23:51:14

wavesource wrote #293289:

May I ask, why all this domain explosion? Is it simply because of lack of access and contribution over at TXP.com?

That’s a relevant notion, for sure, but I think other implications are at play too, like being able to manage DNS zone records and whatnot.

…and set a managing editor, D

Is that a vote of confidence? :)

And to Destry and curation of mail list content prior to any work…

What you’re learning about me is that I aim high, even in my old age, and however unrealistic. Keeps it honest.

I have already inventoried the FAQs, with the help of Els. I will use that doc to start cherry picking the other listed domains too on my own sweet time. I would expect anyone to cherry pick with me (sheet link coming as soon as I find it), but maybe you, David, could shortlist a range of topics you foresee being relevant that we can cherry pick against?

hcgtv · 2015-07-16 00:14:35

Destry wrote #293294:

I have already inventoried the FAQs, with the help of Els. I will use that doc to start cherry picking the other listed domains too on my own sweet time.

Does that include the Tips and Tutorials on the resources site?

Couldn’t Jonathan us those on his TXP tips site?

I’m just thinking out loud, looking at the resources site and wondering who’s going to tackle that, there’s so many dead links to plugins.

Destry · 2015-07-16 00:34:49

Tips/resources on .org are on the list of domains to inventory, but nothing has been yet. The sheet I’ve started would be the place to do it. It will be very helpful to have David’s list of “message” topics first so it’s easier to skim over things. Some consideration of those topics against the different target audiences would be helpful too — so a Topics vs. Audience grid might be the best way to structure that.

wavesource · 2015-07-16 00:50:39

hcgtv @ #293295:

Does that include the Tips and Tutorials on the resources site? Couldn’t Jonathan us those on his TXP tips site?

Use, reuse, redeploy, refactor. What gets blown out the mail list cannon gets forgotten and lost in a few days in any case. But there is nothing wrong with repeating. Good marketing is all about repetition, consistency, essential messages hammered over and over, but like whale song, evolving over time gradually…

And yes to

Destry @ #293297:

It will be very helpful to have David’s list of “message” topics first so it’s easier to skim over things.

I had come to the same conclusion that it is time to do something, so I’ll pull together my own list of 12 months topics (Title, URL) and then respectfully offer it to the TXP altar so we can sift, compare, hum and haw, scratch our beards…

Destry · 2015-07-16 11:05:27

The thing about an inventory of the relevant content that’s out there (undoubtedly in some state of decay, thus needing edited) is that it serves as a reference for any project use, and anybody can use if for idea generation.

We should probably put something in perspective here (for everyone)…

There are two kinds of content:

Content as product (user needs content)
Content as persuasion (marketing/sales content)

They are not the same thing, obviously, though they both work to achieve the same thing — make customers happy so they remain loyal (and spend their money).

Content as product is the real meat and potatoes. It’s what informs people (the targeted audiences), and helps them do what they need or want to do — user tasks. When we talk about content types and topics, we’re mostly talking about product content: tutorials, tag docs, installation procedures, feature descriptions, and so on. Product content is what’s published at the blog, docs, .org, TXP Tips, etc.

Content as persuasion is what gets people interested in the meat and potatoes. This kind of content is not explanatory itself, rather it’s meant to coax people, or anticipate their desires. It often works on values and emotions, then pointing people in a certain direction, respective of audience type and within a focused context (the campaign). It makes use of smart ‘calls to action’ and links to other resources. Content of this type can be short (blurbs on the home page), medium (entertaining routing pieces in the newsletter), or long (storytelling, or community member profiling in the magazine or TXPQ, for example).

So, to my mind, the newsletter is not going to be the place where product content is actually embedded and sent, rather it’s going to be the ‘community news/fun/happenings for the last month’ channel that points to where the various product content things are. But it will include the persuasive stuff, the short value sentiments and stories; each and every one having a call to action or short list of links for readers to follow, back to the blog, docs, forum conversations, people’s personal sites, magazine articles, whatever. The newsletter is a kind of monthly index to everything that’s going on elsewhere. The newsletter should be what TXP Mag used to be when Alex was running it, a hodge podge of community news, links, and whatnots brought to subscriber attention, but organized so that each audience type is addressed by it’s own section of content.

Imaginary newsletter extract…

Hey, Textpattern swingers! In case you’ve been slow leaving the cave, look what’s been published in the last 30 days:

Jane Doe thoroughly breaks down the new custom fields functionality in core with a few examples of use! We’ve been waiting for this! CHECK. IT. OUT!

Boozer Bob has assembled an amazing new theme that responsively flows like beer from one device to another. GET THIS THING and slake your thirst with the tastiest of the fine!

And speaking of themes, get yo pajama-assed self over to the THEMES COMPETITION SIGN UP FORM! It’s on, baby! Bring your colors!

Cont…

That’s a little over the top, but you get the idea. David will have his own way/style and that will serve greatly. In fact, with that kind of format, which is really easy to do, actually, the newsletter could be bi-weekly, or even weekly, since it’s about “news” (thus should be timely). But that just depends on how quickly the product content is produced. It might take a a while to figure out a good rhythm/interval. Still, David can come up with his topic/audience grid and if there’s anything that can be pointed to early on, it should be.

Now, coming back to the usefulness of the inventory, here’s a few ideas how it can be used by the concerned Txp citizens:

newsletter (what to get people to write about and later point to)
forum (what choice code snippets would make better tag page examples than what’s there; many!)
FAQs (Is this item obsolete or can be written in context of a documentation page, and point to that?)
.com blog (I’d like to contribute, what should I write about. Oh, there’s the inventory, that will give me an idea.)
my website (ditto)
.org (Is this old tip already better at TXP Tips, and thus can be trashed?)
TXP Tips (Can that TXP Tip be thoroughly fleshed out and modernized for 4.6 as a .com blog piece?)
Docs (what can be highlighted that answers a common forum question asked again and again and again?)

There are lots of possibilities. An inventory of the content makes it possible to work with what’s out there so we’re not reproducing the same thing over and over. It also helps reveal how these things can be improved — edited, relocated, linked up, etc — so they are working for the project better over all.

As I write this, it occurs to me that a newsletter would make the Latest Happenings part of this forum obsolete, and part of a good communications strategy is to know when to shut one thing down when something new does a better job. Just letting redundancy grow unabated over time results in bad product UX (which is more than the tool itself; it’s the total experience). That’s not the only way the forum could be refined. Many stickies are pointless if you consider a forum section already has a description serving the same purpose.

Last edited by Destry (2015-07-16 11:40:17)

jstubbs · 2015-07-16 11:21:37

Not sure what is needed from me, but if I/we need to add/change content in TXP Tips then that’s a given.

hcgtv · 2015-07-16 22:19:09

Destry,

Spent some time this afternoon with my friend Google, searching different Textpattern related terms.

While searching images, because that’s where the meat and potatoes are, I came across some leader boards from all places TXP Magazine. They are really nice and should probably be added to the GitHub assets repository.

I took the liberty of using one of them on PHPCrossRef – looks really nice, hope you don’t mind.

Destry · 2015-07-16 23:31:29

hcgtv wrote #293345:

I took the liberty of using one of them on PHPCrossRef – looks really nice, hope you don’t mind.

The ad unit creative for the magazine (it rotates through three different themes in the mag as you click through the site) is the property of Stephan Simonis, who created it specifically for TXP Mag use. You should probably ask him, as a courtesy, before sporting it. I doubt he’ll mind, but you should probably make sure.

hcgtv · 2015-07-16 23:39:10

Destry wrote #293348:

The ad unit creative for the magazine (it rotates through three different themes in the mag as you click through the site) is the property of Stephan Simonis, who created it specifically for TXP Mag use. You should probably ask him, as a courtesy, before sporting it. I doubt he’ll mind, but you should probably make sure.

I rotated back to a Debian ad, I see no way to contact him.

Destry · 2015-07-16 23:42:06

Heh. His profile page has a “website” link, which in turn has a “Hello” link. Designers, what can you do. ;)

Destry · 2015-07-17 22:59:47

The inventory sheets.

Destry · 2015-07-19 18:07:20

Regarding a mail list (let’s call it newsletter for sake of function), I’m going through the process with CSF, and there’s a fair bit of legal responsibility you must shoulder and have your ducks in a row for before throwing up the subscriber form.

Many mail list services (MailChimp, etc) require that the mail list owner provide a mailing address (snail mail) on the account, which is required by law, and which is displayed to subscribers in each instance of the newsletter. You can’t create an account with these services without providing the mailing address.

Also, if the list owner (account creator; i.e., Txp) is in the European Economic Area (EEA), they must also make it clear in writing somewhere to potential (and current) subscribers:

how list owner will use collected data (subscriber emails)
that by being subscribed, the list owner has subscribers’ express consent to transfer their info to the email service for use of the system (i.e. that subscribers understand the mail service provider has access to the data, being it’s the service’s system)
that the list owner will comply with it’s own privacy policy

This means Txp must have a privacy policy in the .com website in general, while taking the specific EEA concerns into account too — and there may be others — before making the newsletter public.

For us at CSF, this is challenging because we are not a legal association, organization, foundation, etc. It’s just a grassroots collective of people making shit happen via the inter-tubes. We’re having to get a little creative to pull it off.

So I’m very curious what Txp — notably project “leaders” — are going to do in this case. Who will own the mail list account and what mailing address will be used to represent the Textpattern project? What address will be allowed to be shown to the subscribers of the newsletter?

There’s been a lot of talk about the merits of a foundation, and something like that would solve this problem, but without any “legal” structure, who’s going to own the mail list? Will David use his company’s address? If so, it’s not Textpattern’s mail list at that point, and will make for complicated communication about identity, trust, and privacy. No?

Bloke · 2015-07-19 19:57:37

Good point. That’s typical EU arse covering and red tape for the sake of their mates making money. Having a registered snail mail address doesn’t stop spammers, it just means there’s an endpoint for lawyers to send their exorbitantly-priced letters if it comes to the wire. It’s a barrier to entry for legitimate groups of people to play in the sandpit who don’t pay for the privilege of a formal corporate entity of some kind.

In the event a Foundation of some kind is set up, there’s still the problem of a registered office. Ain’t gonna be my house. And presumably a (costly) PO box won’t cut it. Even if one member’s details were used on the mailouts, there’s still the trust issue, as you say. Assuming anyone scrolls to the bottom of the mail and reads the address.

As an aside, it reminds me of the debacle of countries vying for the slice of the data centre markets a few years back. They offered incentives and ridiculous tax breaks to host your data offshore. But it comes with the caveat that you need to have a registered office within the jurisdiction of the country so that you can be seen from a tax viewpoint to be bringing money “into” the country and satisfy EU regs. Your minimum legal requirement is to have a physical, contactable address and conduct one AGM at that address each year.

To bypass the legislation, and presumably to generate more local income to offset the cost of offering the tax breaks, there are supplementary services you can buy — from the data centre providers if you wish — where you rent a room with a desk and a phone in it. You pay for the (minimal) rent in a crappy suburb, use that address on mail headers, and your money also pays for a local guy whom you never meet to pop in and man the phone for one hour a week and forward you any mail. So it looks like you have a presence. As long as you keep the plane stubs for your “AGM” (which could actually be a piss-up at the nearby pub and some fake meeting minutes) you qualify for the significant tax breaks and lower TCO. A total mockery.

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#121 2015-07-15 21:10:50

Re: Magazine to newsletter

gaekwad wrote #293283:

#122 2015-07-15 22:56:50

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#123 2015-07-15 23:51:14

Re: Magazine to newsletter

wavesource wrote #293289:

#124 2015-07-16 00:14:35

Re: Magazine to newsletter

Destry wrote #293294:

#125 2015-07-16 00:34:49

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#126 2015-07-16 00:50:39

Re: Magazine to newsletter

hcgtv @ #293295:

Destry @ #293297:

#127 2015-07-16 11:05:27

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#128 2015-07-16 11:21:37

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#129 2015-07-16 22:19:09

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#130 2015-07-16 23:31:29

Re: Magazine to newsletter

hcgtv wrote #293345:

#131 2015-07-16 23:39:10

Re: Magazine to newsletter

Destry wrote #293348:

#132 2015-07-16 23:42:06

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#133 2015-07-17 22:59:47

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#134 2015-07-19 18:07:20

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#135 2015-07-19 19:57:37

Re: Magazine to newsletter

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