I've come to the realization that many people on community blogging sites (like GWB) don't know how to positively contribute to the quality of the site. Either that, or they just choose to completely ignore proper etiquette altogether (God knows I've certainly been one of these people in the past (right Chris?)). I'm writing this post for some of you here who could use a tip or two. I will not name names here in a public forum, but be aware that we're watching you :). So, without further ado, here are five easy tips to help you be a good contributer to the GWB community.
Tip #1 - A community blogging site is *not* a mass blogging service
The first thing to realize is that a community blogging site is not the same thing as a mass blogging service. We encourage people to subscribe to the main GWB feed to get the best coverage of content. We want people to be able to subscribe to this main GWB feed and still get a good amount of real content. With this in mind, you have a responsibility as a blogger on GWB to ensure you are adding quality content to the community as a whole. When you make a post (unless you follow Tip #5), everyone will read it. Did you just write four link posts in a row? Beware, that action might have contributed to even a single reader dropping the GWB main feed from their aggregator. And, I think I'm preaching to the choir here, we want to keep and attract as many readers as possible to GWB.
Tip #2 - [Question] Am I adding anything valuable to the community? Do I have anything valuable to say?
Are you adding an opinion to what you're linking to or are you just "b-linking" (blog linking) and providing a one sentence post. When syndicating to the main feed, you should avoid these one sentence posts. Not only do they not contribute to the content of the community, they can actually harm you as a blogger. Meaning, if you make too many of these one-line posts, readers will start to “tune you out“ and stop paying attention to you. And then when you do having something to say, they won't listen (a variation on the Boy Who Cried Wolf syndrome). I know that this is one that I've had problems with in the past and (if you browse my archives) it is one that I'm still working on (although I like to think that I'm getting better).
Tip #3 - [Question] Have others on the community already linked/discussed/blogged this to death?
Be aware of what others have written so that you don't contribute to mass news floods on the main feed. An annoyance of mine as a consumer of the main feed (which I became when I ventured out on my own for a while) is when a major news announcement is made and the main feed then gets flooded with 25 posts (all from different people) that are one sentence links to the news in question. This ties in with the first question, make sure you are adding something valuable to the community.
Tip #4 - Learn to be a good blogger
Rory and others have already thrashed this through. I will simply link you to this post over at Coding Horror that will help you out in this regard. (Ironically, this tip itself is nearly a violation of Tip #2; however, I am fine with this as it is in context of a larger post that does contribute (I hope 8=)).
Tip #5 - Learn to use the “Include in Aggregated Site“ option
If the post you are going to make doesn't really adhere to the above posts, does that mean you shouldn't post it? Absolutely NOT! After all, it is your blog and you should blog about _what_ you want to blog about _when_ you want to blog about it. However, there is a cool feature in the blogging engine on GWB that you should start familiarizing yourself with. If the post you are going to make doesn't add content but you still want to post it, don't include it on the main feed. If you expand the “Advanced Options”, you'll find a check box called “Include in Aggregated Site”. Uncheck this box and your post will not be included on the main GWB feed. I leave this tip with a quote from Johnnie Cochran himself (not really, but it sounds like something he would say):
Remember, if the post, on content, is light... Do not include in aggregated site!
In Closing
Nobody is perfect. I know that I could be reading these tips myself every once in a while. The important thing is that you are at least trying to help make GWB a better place. I (and others) just want to make GWB the best community blogging site out there. I want you to be able to positively contribute to this site. I want all of us to be able to possibility contribute to the site. It's really not that difficult. Once you are familiar with these tips, they become just natural questions you ask yourself before hitting “Post”. So, help contribute to the community today and making GWB a great place to be :).