Magazine to newsletter

Destry · 2015-07-13 11:18:04

We know Txp’s history. That’s not the same thing as answering why does Txp exist now? (And I don’t mean because people use it and will scream bloody murder if it goes away. That’s just code maintenance.) That’s why I tried to nudge the idea with What does project want to be when it grows up?

As you suggest, Bert, I’m talking about leadership bellying up to the table and deciding if there’s any ambition for this project beyond being a weekend hobby to practice PHP coding.

Textpattern’s mission at this point is for the core developers to get together, look each other in the eyes, and decide how far they want to take this. Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.

Right. It has to be addressed that way, by fact they are current leaders of the project. And even if they decide Textpattern is nothing but a weekend hobby, then that’s what should go in writing for the public to see and evaluate whether or not they want to get involved. And the mission/vision statement needs to be sincere!

Not to make waves, but let’s point out the elephant in the room…

Depending on a given project’s mission, Txp or otherwise, leadership requires certain skills and ambitions, and a developer may or may not have them. If not, they might still make great dev/code leads (keeping core dev clean and true), but not helping the project in terms of growth and prosperity, in which case you may have a situation like what Bert implied: “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”

But that just depends on what the mission/vision of the project is, and how the community feels about. If the project is just a php hobby, then a “code maintainer” is a satisfactory leader. We all know Textpattern doesn’t have any mission to speak of, currently, which is why things currently work as they do (if an inconsequential CMS project is what you call working).

So, yeah, current leaders really need to have that retreat by the Austrian lake and decide what this project is really about. Put that in writing and the community goes from there. Because unless that project mission — no matter what it is — is actually stated for the public to see, people in the community that are fired up to help in some way can’t really do so with purpose or value back; they don’t have a goal to work against. Especially when it comes to content, message, and brand; its just spitting in the wind without a goal.

zero · 2015-07-13 12:28:22

Textpattern is much more organic and flexible than any imaginary hierarchical leader/follower system imposed by someone’s mind. Textpattern is the software, the code, the core, the plugins, the developers, the designers, the users, this forum and everyone at all interested in Textpattern. When I write here, I lead for those few moments. When you write, you lead.

I keep seeing people putting pressure on the very people who are already doing so much. They’ve all heard it many times before, they don’t need someone keep nagging them. I find the “php hobby” insinuation very disrespectful to developers who are obviously very passionate about making Textpattern into the very best CMS software.

Let it be, oh let it be. Let it be, oh let it be. ALL IS WELL!

Destry · 2015-07-13 14:55:02

The point of this conversation, as I’m sure developers understand, is to take some of the pressure off of developers by helping them with tasks that they don’t have time to do, or don’t have skills to do, or simply don’t want to do. But to be able to help there, a point of reference is needed, and with respect to content and message, that reference would ideally be a goal that the project wants to achieve.

Development and design are related but different conversations…

To the former, I have nothing but respect for the devs and their dedication to keeping the software clean, flexible, and secure. That’s why I still use it. Robert, in particular, single-handedly saved this project years ago when all the former developers abandoned ship. We probably wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for him. That’s not lost on me. Saying that php might be a developers hobby is not disrespectful in the least. It might in fact be true.

To the latter, the appearance of Phil in the team as the first designer says a lot of about Txp’s concern with the project’s outward appearances. And I could even say, thanks to Robert giving Stef and I a thumb up with the magazine once upon a time, that the associated marketing is appreciated too. So there’s obviously a desire for this project to be something more than it currently is, even if that desire is not put in writing and there are limits to what it can be.

Going back to the drawing board to find what can be done under the constraints is smart, and that’s where this is all coming from. Sometimes it demands shaking the tree with poignant questions, but the devs are all big boys (sadly no girls) and should expect such things once in a while if they’re going to be in the position they are.

What I’ve been getting at in these last couple of posts, however uncomfortable, is that for others in the community to help more effectively — if that help is wanted at all — and particularly with communication where devs typically don’t like to dwell, those people need a point of reference from which to gauge how to do it. Again, for communication reasons, that reference usually comes from a goal — even short term — that messages should try to support. Nothing wrong with giving some thought to what that goal is.

zero · 2015-07-13 16:16:17

OK, you’ve stated that in a clear fair manner, Destry, no insinuations there. But perhaps the point of reference already exists quite clearly on textpattern.com? A few years ago it was decided that the main message was, and you were quite heavily involved if I remember correctly, that txp was for publishers, designers and developers. I don’t see that this has changed in any way.

Perhaps you are looking for an underlying goal or more tangible objectives such as ‘to be the 3rd most popular CMS by 2020’ or something? I think maybe you could possibly sum up the goal yourself or give a choice of goals that you feel may fit the bill because you should have as good a grasp as anyone else as to what is needed goals-wise. People will agree or disagree with you accordingly. You may then get what you are looking for?

hcgtv · 2015-07-13 16:20:18

zero wrote #293123:

When I write here, I lead for those few moments. When you write, you lead.

Let me lead by saying it’s been 8 years since Wet got SVN access, eventually he became the head coder after Zem left for Automattic. I appreciate what Wet has done over the years, TXP might well be dead if it wasn’t for him, it’s just I have no idea what Wet intends on doing, and he holds the keys to the front door.

wavesource · 2015-07-13 21:17:35

zero wrote #293123:

Textpattern is much more organic and flexible than any imaginary hierarchical leader/follower system imposed by someone’s mind.

+1 for organic and flexible

There are so many other issues that can be stitched into this discussion – focus is required just on the task at hand.

My original pitch was, I would like to help with promoting TXP and building user base.

We have discussed a rough structure. It is possible to start looking at content and delivery.

But I agree, respect to the TXP dev team. So let me ask them directly: is this something that the dev team really want to have happen?

What do the dev team need done that I can help with? Maybe that’s the question I should have asked originally!

Thank you.

Last edited by wavesource (2015-07-13 21:20:08)

gaekwad · 2015-07-14 08:59:54

wavesource wrote #293144:

What do the dev team need done that I can help with? Maybe that’s the question I should have asked originally!

Docs, support triage, translations, marketing, evangelism, QA, code that Makes Things Better, pick an issue and solve it.

I grabbed Textpacks as a thing and I’ve started to beat it into shape. I can’t code (yet), but I can write words and cajole people into helping write in their own language that helps everyone who uses Textpattern. That’s important in the same way code is important. If you have time and a computer, you could take a look at the bunch of projects that exist on the Textpattern GitHub page, poke around in the issues and see what you can fix. If you can’t fix anything that’s an issue, can you help with porting some docs from the wiki to the flat file system that Phil’s spearheading. This has the extra benefit of learning about the specifics of tags, which is always helpful, and helps you support/triage people who have problems.

One thing I’ve learned from the last 6 months is that no permission is needed to work on this stuff. Just grab it by the proverbials and make it better. Want to write words for Textpattern? Grab TXP Mag by the haunches and steer it. If you’re not ready for that yet, write some words for textpattern.com and form it into a blog post.

Last edited by gaekwad (2015-07-14 09:08:21)

wavesource · 2015-07-14 12:22:48

Hats off to Destry and contributors., this is not about TXPmag v2.

This is about a newsletter – a shorter, less intensive, more engaging format via email, posted to blog-like section with RSS on TXP.com, with Twitter riding shotgun. No author. Just a single anonymous voice. Simple stuff. Short and sweet.

I have offered license for mail script, sending via Amazon SES which I will pay but TXP devs own lock stock and barrel. I would also cover sending costs, all 9 cents a month to start with, though I hope it would become more expensive :-). Sendy is just my personal choice of platform for email marketing, but if you want to use Mail Chimp or Constant Contact or Aweber or whatever, I don’t care. I just know Sendy costs much much less over the free account limits and as I have put my hand up to pay for this, that’s how I’d do it.

TXP would have zero risk. It would own the list script. It would own the subscribers that would aggregate. If TXP decided to migrate to another system or methodology, just export current list members as CSV, nuke the list subdirectory, and move on.

You have the TXP.com site.and I trust would put a section up that content can be made live in when/if approved. Just need that section and list sign up forms that I have predigested code that uses Sendy API and some txp;php tags. If that’s too loose, Sendy has standard HTML signup form, and that works fine for single list deployment, which is all TXP needs currently.

The other component was guerilla stub content based from newsletter posted to Twitter with keywords etc. So that requires twitter access. That’s entirely optional, but I just think that helps with the immediacy of posting = buzz

Content emailed out would be with responsive designed template.

We would need an approved branding and consistent appearance, suitable for modern audience. Just need to knock up TXP approved template with TXP dev approvals etc. using TXP approved graphics etc. Or some other contributor could do that.

Re content, I would imagine basing one third on how to use TXP, ie. unpacking tags, so it’s just a friendly rewrite of the stuff that’s already up on TXP.com

I would probably try to use another third to put forward plugins that are current that usefully extend TXP.

Comments about the future for TXP are still interesting for a certain audience, but I would keep dev fairy dust light and make a big deal about it when official announcements come up so that retains impact.

And the other third, I’d probably make up as I came along. Fudge factor, organics. It’s in the mix.

But it’s the tone that is all important. Light. Engaging. In and out. See you next time. And I would personally scout for new angles and material, in forums, poring over stuff, talking to people with their hands in GitHub etc. and I’d pull in SWAT analysis from my partner re keywords and what strategies to use to grow audience share. All subject to TXP approval, I would be exposing methodology and asking for feedback all along the way from the TXP family.

and from there, you just respond organically.

Last edited by wavesource (2015-07-14 12:29:03)

zero · 2015-07-14 18:31:23

Wavesource, you sound like you know what you’re doing and have a solid plan. And you’re keeping it simple. Great!

You know reasons why TxpMag stopped and I’d just like to say that TXPQ stopped also because of lack of enthusiasm for a magazine from the community. But also lack of enthusiasm from me in the end. I enjoyed the writing and especially the interviews but when the readers almost dried up and the last dozen or so people I asked to do interviews declined, it became clear that I would either have to put a lot more energy into my own writing and thinking of good article ideas or pass it on to someone else. Because of various time commitments, I tried advertising for someone else but there were no takers. I resurfaced for a few months. But when TxpMag was relaunched I decided to stop and leave TXPQ as a kind of archive of some good Textpattern stuff.

I’m telling you this so you don’t expect too much to come from a newsletter. Sure it will be different and you are a pro whereas I am an amateur. But I think the bottom line will be that you’ll do a lot of work for very little reward. I don’t suppose that’s news to you and you’re probably prepared for it, so call it a confirmation to expect the worse and hope for the best. I wish you good luck and will be very interested in how the newsletter pans out. I’d love to see you make it a success.

But perhaps I’m being presumptive, perhaps the devs have enough on their plates and would rather not have to cope with a whole wave of enthusiasm that would mean they have even more coding to do! I hope you get an answer soon. All the best.

hcgtv · 2015-07-14 19:07:15

zero wrote #293183:

You know reasons why TxpMag stopped and I’d just like to say that TXPQ stopped also because of lack of enthusiasm for a magazine from the community.

Zero, I don’t think it’s lack of enthusiasm from the community, I think it’s the small size of the community, coupled with the fact Textpattern is used as a tool by most users (developers).

Were Textpattern to grow, and bring in more regular users, then you’d have a larger pool of people to interview and to read said copy.

We need users, end users, or else you’re just trying to get developers to get enthusiastic about their hammers.

zero · 2015-07-14 19:19:30

Yes, sorry, I put that badly. Smaller numbers = less enthusiasm overall, but the hardcore community is still enthusiastic about all things Textpattern.

Bloke · 2015-07-14 19:23:50

I like where this is heading. Great discussion.

For reference, there’s already a good Style guide which covers tone and voice. If that’s deemed too formal, spice it up a bit: it’s work in progress.

There’s no point waiting for blessing from someone like me on branding and direction. You’re better off poking our chief designer. I’m Emperor Procrastinator. King Sit-on-the-fence. I like everything if it takes the project in a positive direction and attracts more people to it. If your vision is that .com needs a new Section for newsletter content, then someone who has an account will do it for you. Just say what you need. Say how it needs to work. I don’t have full server access but if I can do it and it’s safe to do so (no increase in attack surface from SQL injection, etc) then I’ll do whatever is necessary.

Technically, my aim is to keep the spirit of the project the same. In buzzwords:

Lean. Agile. Nimble. Lightweight. Airy. Insert simile here.
Just Write.
A platform upon which plugins can build.
Convention over configuration where possible; striving for sensible defaults (difficult to achieve with backwards compatibility in mind, but sometimes you just need to break stuff for the good of the project).
For publishers, designers, and developers to tell their stories.

But that’s just code and this thread is about more than that. It’s about engagement, it’s about appeal, it’s about marketing and the way the brilliant community members can help shape the future of our little world and grow it into something we can look back on and say: we did that. Whether it’s #1 or #501 doesn’t matter to me, as long as the people using it enjoy the experience and, with the help of the community, can take the canvas we supply and bend it to do whatever the hell they need.

The more people we can bring to the project through multi-channel initiatives such as this, the more people can try it, love it, get involved and drive innovation, documentation, evangelism, TxpCon, …

hcgtv · 2015-07-14 20:07:26

Bloke wrote #293188:

The more people we can bring to the project through multi-channel initiatives such as this, the more people can try it, love it, get involved and drive innovation, documentation, evangelism, TxpCon, …

The festivities simply become too much for Stef to handle

wavesource · 2015-07-14 22:35:29

This is where I’ve felt like a square peg in a round hole, eventually, because I’ve learned through this discussion so far that I’m really interested in the, er, fresh blood. People who aren’t developers. The TXP sites are firmly focused on development, and that has been a huge boon to those who are ready to roll up their sleeves. And that’s acted like a pass-not filter for users, and so you’ve ended up with a fairly committed hard core of braniacs, and not many others.

You can still respect that development and code – just need to share the joy of it and provide stepped down communications to raise awareness.

TXP != Wordpress
TXP != Drupal
TXP != Joomla etc.
TXP == TXP
Vive la difference.

If the newsletter picks up subscribers and grows (and hell, you just have to have the subscription form on the site and I promise you, it will continue to grow gradually), then that may induce others to look at the amenity and offerings of the TXP sites, but that’s not my problem.

I am very interested to see the discussion about TXP theming going on (http://forum.textpattern.com/viewtopic.php?id=45752) as that keys in well with the outreach and increased amenity for the less technical.

Once they are using TXP, however, the key is to show them techniques and ways so they can get behind the buttons and panels and become more comfortable working directly with the tags. That is the big ah-hah moment, I reckon.

So, my missing third of content would be latest good discussions in the forums. Forums are great tools, and new stuff is always bubbling up, and sending people straight to the heart and stomach of TXP is definitely a goal, if at least so they can search for those hidden gems of information locked away in here. TXPcraft. Where’s my 3D headset?

There’s just so much in these forums that can be pulled out. You can run a masterclass on etc_query and smd_query for a few broadcasts… So unpacking gems like those would be most definitely a strategy.

Not to call down a cloud of screeching bats upon myself, I would probably make it key to talk about editors like hak_tinymce etc. simply because expecting end users to learn Textile as well, in my experience, also kills uptake.

Top 10 list of most popular plugins – check. Top 5 plugins for running a blog – check. Associated startup TXP themes for bloggers – check. Short class on pimping out your new TXP blog from [insert TXP theme here].

Thank you for your time.

And thanks for the pointers to GitHub, gaekwad, I will definitely go to have a look.

Last edited by wavesource (2015-07-14 22:36:55)

hcgtv · 2015-07-14 23:01:48

wavesource wrote #293193:

Top 10 list of most popular plugins – check. Top 5 plugins for running a blog – check. Associated startup TXP themes for bloggers – check. Short class on pimping out your new TXP blog from [insert TXP theme here].

I like your thinking, with the revamp of the resources site, we should definitely have a top ten list of plugins.

As for taking a theme and tweaking it, as soon as Themes are stable and released, I’m going to release some tutorials for new users. The first tutorial makes an XHTML template into a Theme, steps I took to add txp:tags, real simple, remove the mystery. Then there’s another tutorial where I take a WordPress Theme and txp:tagify it for the audience, I’m studying Twenty Fifteeen now.

Anybody got a hold of Dean yet for the domains?

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#76 2015-07-13 11:18:04

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#77 2015-07-13 12:28:22

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#78 2015-07-13 14:55:02

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#79 2015-07-13 16:16:17

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#80 2015-07-13 16:20:18

Re: Magazine to newsletter

zero wrote #293123:

#81 2015-07-13 21:17:35

Re: Magazine to newsletter

zero wrote #293123:

#82 2015-07-14 08:59:54

Re: Magazine to newsletter

wavesource wrote #293144:

#83 2015-07-14 12:22:48

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#84 2015-07-14 18:31:23

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#85 2015-07-14 19:07:15

Re: Magazine to newsletter

zero wrote #293183:

#86 2015-07-14 19:19:30

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#87 2015-07-14 19:23:50

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#88 2015-07-14 20:07:26

Re: Magazine to newsletter

Bloke wrote #293188:

#89 2015-07-14 22:35:29

Re: Magazine to newsletter

#90 2015-07-14 23:01:48

Re: Magazine to newsletter

wavesource wrote #293193:

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