A new direction for TXP Magazine?

Bloke · 2015-07-08 09:21:47

This topic exists as a discussion area for Destry’s inaugural textpattern.com guest blog post. Please grab a coffee, sit and read it, then think it over. Refine the idea if you wish. Come up with something else. Discuss. Discuss. Discuss. Then take action.

If the proposal resonates, the future of the magazine may be in your hands and become a powerful international ambassador for Textpattern.

Thank you in advance for your contributions to the community.

zero · 2015-07-08 11:53:02

This is the Internationalisation section, I am a native English speaker and I like to read stuff about Textpattern. But God help you if you don’t speak or read English so well because Destry’s article is so so long! I hope to find time to sit and read it but I’ll have to get my energy reserves up first.

I must say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Bloke for managing to read everything as well as doing all that coding. Sir, I don’t know how you do it! There’s been lots of interesting stuff on the forum lately but I can’t help but think it forces your coding onto the back seat. People, please spare a thought for the Bloke. He’s not a machine.

Bloke · 2015-07-08 11:54:33

zero wrote #292833:

please spare a thought for the Bloke. He’s not a machine.

You sure about that? :-p

Bloke · 2015-07-08 12:01:37

Actually, to summarise the article for any tl;dr (or tl;had-trouble-reading or tl;not-enough-coffee) people, the proposal is:

Remove English content from TXP Magazine. All future English content goes to the .com blog instead.
Make the magazine for international audiences only. Ownership and control of content is entirely in the hands of the International community. A high quality blogging platform, if you will, for those whom English is not a native tongue.
No translations required, just articles about Textpattern and its worldwide community, published on a suitable schedule in the target language. Each language has its own Section, with its own content and appropriate RSS feeds.

Something like that.

wet · 2015-07-08 12:15:29

WHAT A WALL OF TEXT.

Bloke · 2015-07-08 12:19:54

wet wrote #292836:

WHAT A WALL OF TEXT.

The intention was to break it up with images but the server issued a 500 every time I tried to upload one, so had to go without.

zero · 2015-07-08 13:17:17

My RSS feed shows the title and that it was posted by Stef Dawson. It misses the first paragraph, and then shows all the rest of the article. Is it NetNewsWire or the way the blog is set up?

Bloke · 2015-07-08 13:37:35

zero wrote #292842:

It misses the first paragraph, and then shows all the rest of the article. Is it NetNewsWire or the way the blog is set up?

Probably the latter. The ‘contributor’ thing is a hacked-in solution pending site redesign. The RSS feed will be picking up the author who pushed the Publish button (me) not the custom field containing the contributor (real author). Presumably it’s possible to roll your own feed content if it’s used as a container?

Also, the excerpts were only shown on the landing page before, now they preface the article itself. My guess is that RSS isn’t configured to feed the excerpt. It’s not something I’ve ever tinkered with. Guidance from those that have welcomed.

Destry · 2015-07-08 13:59:22

@Bloke: Told ya.

Everyone else,

Yesterday I wrote Bloke and proposed to publish this at my own site, because it is long, I know, and the current shit-show that is the .com blog layout and presentation is poorly suited for longform copy (what I tend to write). It would have looked dapper at my own site (and at the magazine too, for that matter), which has a new reading experience for longform, and I’d have been pleased to use it to bring wion.com out of hibernation. Alas, Bloke begged and pleaded with me to reconsider, and being weak as I am to foot rubs, I relented, partly because I knew my article would stand as a “long” example for what your designer needs to improve the blog for.

Btw, Google loves longform, and longform has long-tail ranking value. And I write good, generally, with the help of a good reviewer. So restrict longform at the risk of missing an opportunity at long-term brand awareness.

The important thing to take away from this, besides the proposal, is that I’ve given Robert my exit plan, duly my resignation as mag editor. Whether or not this proposal merits trying is for the community and leadership to decide, I won’t be taking up arms to defend it. For my part, my time as editor for the magazine is done. An alternative to the proposal might be to replace me as editor, but I’d pity the fool, nor would that resolve the issues I’ve laid out in this piece.

maverick · 2015-07-08 13:59:34

I read the article. All of it. :)

First up. Destry – thank you for the effort you invested over the last several years into the magazine. You were enthusiastic, aggressive, entrepreneurial, and tireless during those first years. It was a good idea and well executed. I am sad our community was not large enough and engaged enough to make it a success. (I realize I am as guilty as any, never having volunteered to help with the project). For your efforts, and those who worked with you, thank you.

Re: the new direction on the magazine (and the dev’s blog)

A tangent comment: I understand the argument that the developer’s blog needs more posts for greater impact. I generally agree with that, and appreciate that posts that Pete and you have already made. They fit since they relate to official Textpattern Community business.

That said, I’m not sure I really want an all community blog (a mini-Txp Magazine) in it’s place. Could the developer blog be improved – perhaps by recruiting a volunteer who is in on the dev discussions behind the scense, and who then regularly posts updates on their behalf? Sure.

However, (obviously I realize this is my personal preference) I’ve no desire for the blog to turn into an amalgamation of TxpTips, great new Textpattern sites, Textattern Planet, (and other similar efforts). When I go there, I want to read development or or community business-related news.

Why the tangent feedback/questions on something that has already been decided and is in motion?

Because while my position is “hey, I’ll set aside my preference and support you whatever is decided”, I have this question rumbling around my mind.

“Why are we segregating the English speaking world from the non-English speaking world?”

If the new Txp Magazine proposal is worthy for our international community, why is it not worthy for the English speaking community as well? Why would we NOT want there be an English section (after all, I think English speakers are part of the international community) that functions just the same as other languages. Then Txp would TRULY be an international community magazine rather than an ALMOST international community magazine.

It seems the current proposal is this: We want to allow more community driven content about Textpattern. Up to now we have carefully curated approved content in English at Txp Magazine. That didn’t work, so now we will carefully curate approved content in English on the real Textpattern website and let those who don’t speak English have a sort of official, but sort of less official, less curated website.

If we are going to offer the same basic community contribution concept to all languages, why not use it as an opportunity to bring us all together rather than to continue to separate us?

Include a Google Translate button in each article and I’ll at least take a look at the articles in other languages.

Okay. I’ll be quiet now. I just wanted to share the one aspect that made me uncomfortable.

Last edited by maverick (2015-07-08 14:05:17)

Destry · 2015-07-08 14:12:46

maverick wrote #292853:

I read the article. All of it. :)

Thank you. ;)

First up. Destry – thank you for the effort you invested over the last several years into the magazine.

Thank you very much. It was fun and a pleasure. Too bad it didn’t work out. We gave it a good try.

And I’d like to thank all those who shared the vision with me and helped on the mag team. You know who you are.

Why are we segregating the English speaking world from the non-English speaking world?

That’s a good question. For my part, I only took English out because there seems to be a effort to put more writing effort at the blog (where English is the official business language), opening it up to more contributions since history has shown devs are not very good at writing regularly. If so, it doesn’t make sense to have two channels for English content when getting contributions is so frickin’ hard to begin with.

That said, sure, leave English in the magazine and bring the other languages too. Maybe that’s where my longform belongs. ;)

Destry · 2015-07-08 14:24:19

I actually thought to include a “TL;DR” at the beginning for struggling bi-lingual speakers, but that would have just made it longer. I decided to rely on the bi-lingual members to step up and show if this idea is really what they want by putting some action to words. Looking at you, Sacripant and Melosevic. ;)

Dragondz · 2015-07-08 14:25:52

Hi

I also goes to maverick proposal, txpmag with all language and keep the txp blog for more techy things ans official things, maybe on the txpblog put time to time an excerpt on what happening in other txp channels!

Cheers

hcgtv · 2015-07-08 14:43:16

I read it all also, though I copied the text into a local default 4.6-dev install, so I could read it easier, my vision isn’t what it used to be.

Damn Destry, I didn’t know all the goings on behind the scene at TXP Mag, you ran it like the New York Times.

Thanks for all your tireless work, maybe one day we’ll have Nirvana.

Come as you are, as you were
As I want you to be
As a friend, as a friend
As an old enemy

Take your time, hurry up
Choice is yours, don't be late
Take a rest as a friend
As an old

Memoria, memoria
Memoria, memoria

Bloke · 2015-07-08 15:06:44

Destry wrote #292852:

@Bloke: Told ya.

Meh!

Dragondz wrote #292865:

keep the txp blog for more techy things ans official things

Just to be clear (maybe my post needs clarifying a bit, sorry) the weblog — ugh, name — isn’t going to devolve into “tips” and “look at my site” content just because it has guest publications. Tips belong on TxpTips. Look at my site content belongs here or G+ or… somewhere else. We still ensure the content fits within the style guidelines and is broadly acceptable as a piece of work. We’re not likely to turn you away, but if you have an idea for a post and you’re not sure it fits, ask first!

Since .com is potentially our stage to the world, it will only be for serious content directly about Textpattern. Examples:

People organising Txp-related things (meetups, calls-to-action, new range of <txp:> spaghetti shapes, etc).
When it saved your bacon.
Why you keep coming back to it.
Some reasons you use it, with examples. Perhaps it’s the way the tags are structured, perhaps it’s the community, perhaps it’s the speed. Just something that evokes a feeling that it’s worth a shot.

The idea behind this is that history shows a handful of programmers / designers are unlikely to supply enough content to make it seem like things are actively moving forward, and worth trying. Yet another post about a release wouldn’t entice me if I was on the outside looking in (EDIT: that goes for search engines too, btw).

I’ve said it before, but back in 2005/6 after being thoroughly disillusioned by virtually every available CMS I tried, I’d given up hope and resigned myself to writing my own templating system when I stumbled upon a Jon Hicks article advocating Textpattern. He said it had its quirks but he kept going back to it and stated why. I gave it a shot, learnt PHP off the back of it and the rest, as they say, is history.

True word of mouth from real people (not just the people with a vested interest in developing it) cannot be underestimated in this era of over-hyped marketing propaganda. Everyone can sell Txp by being honest about what makes it great. We want to capture the enthusiasm people have for this project, bottle it and ~~pimp it~~ put it in a place where it can do good.

Last edited by Bloke (2015-07-08 15:10:25)

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