Today we had a productive discussion about the direction in which we will be taking the blog. We also had a fair number of volunteers come forward in addition to the ones who have already submitted their interest. This post is a summary of our discussion of how you can contribute to the blog.
All blog posts will go through the following process.
How do I submit an article idea?
We have a couple of different ways to submit an idea. The first, and easiest, is to send an email to blog.pse.se [at] gmail.com with your name, a suggested title for your idea, and a brief description of your idea.
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Jump into the P.SE blog chat room and send a message to me (@JarrodNettles) with the same information. I may not respond right away but rest assured that I will see it and get it into the pipeline.
If you are intending to write the article yourself, please say so - otherwise I will assume that it is just an idea and it will be "up for grabs" on our Trello board.
I want to write!
Excellent, writers are the lifeblood of any good blog. Without great content, our blog will be empty and dry. If you want to write email us as at blog.pse.se [at] gmail.com or contact me in the P.SE blog room (@JarrodNettles) and I can walk you through getting started.
...but can't think of a topic
No problem! We're using Trello to organize our efforts and we already have a decent sized list of topics just itching to be written about. Just send an email that you're interested in writing for the blog and we'll set you up with access to Trello and a contributor account on WordPress.
I don't want to write but I'm a good proofreader.
Go ahead and send the email explaining, and we can set you up with an account on Wordpress that will allow you to proofread articles that are in the publication pipeline. We really want this blog to come across professionally and good proofreading and editing are critical contributions that we will need. Nothing kills the professionalism of an article like a misspelled word or severe grammatical errors.
I'm in Trello - what do I do now?
Once you have access to Trello you'll be able to see the entire "publication process" of the P.SE blog. We have Seven Columns for organizing our blogging efforts.
Each of these columns is filled with "cards", which represent blog articles. The column the card is in represents that article's current position in the pipeline. Suppose you have an idea for a new article - before you start writing you should put it into the "Post Ideas" column as a new card so that you can get some feedback on the topic. This isn't a super-strict process - think of it as a code review where you might be asked to explain a point or two.
Click the "Add card" button at the bottom of the "Post Ideas" column to start a new card.
Then, type in the name of the article that you would like to write, and hit enter.
At this point you have a working Post Idea, and can be seen by every other Trello board member. Although you have an idea up, its usually a good idea to provide a little extra information about your idea in the card description. You can do this by writing a very brief synopsis - for example, Pierre wrote a great description for his article idea about "planning poker". Just click on your card and a window will pop up where you can provide more information.
This is also a good time to assign the card to yourself - if you plan to write the article. If you don't assign it to yourself, we'll assume that it is "Up For Grabs" and somebody may come along, think its a good idea, and start to write it themselves.
Most ideas are good and clear enough to get a pretty quick "go ahead", but you should wait for feedback from other board members. At worst, we may ask you to clarify your meaning a bit, or that you narrow the focus of the article somewhat.
At the moment we're using the Trello voting system to give approval for Post Ideas. This is still a very loose arrangement without any hard and fast rules but in general, once your idea has two votes its considered approved, and can be moved over the "Approved Post Ideas" column.
I see an idea in Trello I want write about - now what?
If you see a topic in the Approved Post Ideas column that is not assigned to anybody (it will have their picture next to the card) you are free to assign it to yourself. You don't need permission - just click on the card, click "Assign" and then select yourself. At that point, the idea is now yours and you are free to write. Drag the card over to the "Being Written" column so that everyone knows that this article is now being produced. If you feel so inclined, add a Due Date so that the editors can know when to reasonably expect that the article will be completed.