Status has a new blog portal. The initiative was started for the following reasons
1
2
To enable an autonomous slack ->
discuss.status.im -> blogpost -> discuss.status.im pipeline, so that:
We can enable and amplify the many diverse voices of our core contributors
Products (mobile, desktop, embark, dapps, incubate) have a blog home w/ consistent brand identity / url structure that scales
Swarm (community, developers) content is more granularly consumable and measurable for impact.
Which can then be leveraged / amplified by marketing & communication staff by crossposting on the old medium blog and other social channels,
3
To prepare for future decentralized hosting solutions (ipfs / swarm / etc),
4
To enable native SNT token supported in-app blog feature for users, a la steemit
It is proposed that content is posted first to our.status.im , and that marketing then curates the posts appearing on the front page by setting them to “pinned” status, and that “pinned” posts are additionally posted to medium, with the link text “originally published at our.status.im”.
We have chosen to use a ghost hosting plan rather than to self host in order to:
Minimize the attack surface on existing infrastructure
Take advantage of the ghost cdn / dns services (they use cloudflare) for uptime, backups, etc
Minimize man hours in setup / backups, maintenance, etc.
Ghost’s CMS design does not allow for a menu with submenu items, it only allows for menu items to link to pages of tagged posts (posts can be set to be static pages though and be linked to). After participating in and observing activity in slack and discourse i’ve done some thinking about how best to organize
It’s a corset that forces a certain paucity and minimalism for visual clarity and simplicity for both posters and readers.
I’ve made a stab at creating the following top-level category tags, which are up for discussion:
Mobile
Desktop
Embark
Dapps
Developers
Community
Podcasts
UX
Research
Dao
Incubate
Partners
These top level categories do not preclude the creation of additional category tags (ie, #stateofus, #bravenewmemes, etc) which would also have their own page URL, and posts can of course have multiple category tags, and belong to multiple categories. Tag archives are like dedicated home-pages for each category of content with their own pages, their own RSS feeds, and can support their own cover images and meta data. More info on ghost tags
The only limitation here is which and how many top level menu categories we want to have.
I think it would be meaningful if additional tags that are created by authors come from existing tags from either discuss or slack, for continuity and ease of use across properties.
It is proposed that there is no Editorial Control / filtering of what an Editor can post, the assumption is that everyone knows what’s relevant to communicate based on their roles / interests.
It is proposed that the only “Editorial Curation” take place for what appears on the front page of the blog. Currently, the theme displays six “pinned” posts. Posts are pinned by a check box at the bottom of the settings tab in post-editing mode. The Marketing Admin (or an appointed Admin Editor) would select the posts for the front page, and to push further to Medium for the eyeballs.
#
Consensus on Top Level Categories
I think the simplest method would be a Polly poll in slack, with the categories i've suggested with number emoji, and a final emoji for suggestions / changes? Of course the dialog can also happen here in discuss...
Header Images for the agreed upon Categories (i’ve created some placeholders)
Editors & Content
If you want to be a blog contributor with a profile, let me know & i’ll create a user for you & help you get set up if you need assistance. I'm also available to assist non-native english speakers in cleaning up their content for publication, & i'm happy to catherd & encourage blog post creation based on things i read in slack & on discuss :-)