Who would like to help with blogging for this site?

Question

Each Stack Exchange site is entitled to its own blog if there is enough ready participation and support from the existing community.

I think our site is a good candidate for having a blog.

Currently our beta has been going really well we just have a low level of traffic. It would be great to get some quality posts written to attract people to our community.

Please provide me with some feedback:

• Is this something you think would be worthwhile for the Chinese SE site or not?
• Would you be willing to write posts?
• What topics would you like to see?
• What should the scope of the blog: Educational, cultural, personal interest etc.?
• Are you interested in coordinating or helping to coordinate the running of the blog?
• Would you be interested in reviewing posts before they are put up?

As this is a community site it would be great if there could be many people to help with different parts.

Answer 1

1. Is this something you think would be worthwhile for the Chinese SE site or not? Yes, I think so. It might help to attract other types of visitors and I don't think it would exclude/repel the regulars. Plus, it'd be a good source of knowledge; you never stop learning.

2. Would you be willing to write posts? At the moment I can't. But I don't exclude it in the future, since actually I've been honestly thinking about writing something.

3. What topics would you like to see? Anything that might concern Chinese Language (and some culture too, since the two are highly related).

4. What should the scope of the blog: Educational, cultural, personal interest etc.? If the topic genuinely attracts the writer, which has Chinese as a passion, it won't take much to fascinate the readers too. So all of the listed ones are ok, I can't think of other scopes. We shouldn't limit just to one scope, that would be too "narrow" and limit the possibilities and topics.

5. Are you interested in coordinating or helping to coordinate the running of the blog? I'm not sure about what that involves. It highly depends on what it will concretely consist of.

6. Would you be interested in reviewing posts before they are put up? I'd be more interested in writing the articles, but until I'm free enough to dedicate myself to that, I can help reviewing. I'd like to know if reviewing is only about the formatting or also about the content.

Answer 2

Is this something you think would be worthwhile for the Chinese SE site or not? I think our site would be an excellent candidate for a blog and, as you note, it could help generate more traffic for the site. The demand for Chinese learning sites is definitely out there and a blog could help us to distinguish ourselves as a valuable online resource.

Would you be willing to write posts? In principle I would be willing to write posts although I'm afraid I might not know what to write about since I'm still learning the language myself. I also have no experience with writing blog posts.

What topics would you like to see? / What should the scope of the blog: Educational, cultural, personal interest etc.? Since the blog would pertain to the Chinese Language & Usage site, I think all posts should be related to the Chinese language - whether in its spoken or written form. This is not to say that language should be the sole focus of the blog. On the contrary, it would make the blog more interesting if we'd have posts that talk about the relations between language, culture, personal interests, religion, media, etc.

Are you interested in coordinating or helping to coordinate the running of the blog? I'm not sure what this would entail but I think I would probably be interested in helping out.

Would you be interested in reviewing posts before they are put up? This is definitely something I could do.

Answer 3

1. Is this something you think would be worthwhile for the Chinese SE site or not? Yes, I think good blogs will attract more and more people to come and adhere to this site.Also, it can be used to extend an answer to a question on this site.

2. Would you be willing to write posts? Yes, I am. The main obstacle for me I think is the time. I am in China(UTC +8) and need to work.

3. What topics would you like to see? Anything I think funny. I don't want to see the blog look like a textbook.

4. What should the scope of the blog be: Educational, cultural, personal interest etc.? Again, anything related to the language and funny. In many cases, the language is tight related to the culture, so I think culture or history is a good scope. Besides, I think the community or the member can propose their interested points.

5. Are you interested in coordinating or helping to coordinate the running of the blog? I could provide some help if I am able to.

6. Would you be interested in reviewing posts before they are put up? That's OK.A good blog post needs a good editor.

Answer 4

I think it would be cool for at least some of the blog posts to be bilingual.

If one of our native speakers wants help translating or polishing the English version of a post, I'm happy to help.

Answer 5

Is this something you think would be worthwhile for the Chinese SE site or not?

Definitely, IMHO, for two reasons: there's a growing population of Chinese learners and this site serves as a good reference for them; although I am relatively new on this site, I feel that there's too few activities as opposed to the number of registered users.

Would you be willing to write posts?

I'd love to, but cannot guarantee a constant dedication, e.g. posting a blog on a weekly basis.

What topics would you like to see?

Any relevant topics should catch my interest. Some examples:

• Subtle grammatical rules
• Academic/professional writing and speech.
• Casual (informal) writing and speech.
• History and evolution of Chinese language (not limited to characters)
• Regional dialect
• Culture of every Chinese-speaking community, e.g. Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, and I-believe-there-is-more-but-this-is-what-I-have-got.

What should the scope of the blog: Educational, cultural, personal interest etc.?

I think the three aspects are all acceptable and the first two are a must.

Are you interested in coordinating or helping to coordinate the running of the blog?

I can certainly be involved in it, as long as it does not consume an unreasonable amount of time.

Would you be interested in reviewing posts before they are put up?

I wouldn't mind in helping, but I would probably contribute more on creating posts.