You Are Your Own Admin
One of our goals with Citizen Wausau is to give a voice to everybody. We’re seeing a growing interest in the user blogs, and I think that’s great; I want to see everybody taking advantage of this new feature. And while some of our users were experienced bloggers already, others are new to the concept, which is why I wanted to post this.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time discussing some of the prominent features of our system thus far, but the most important thing I can possibly tell you is that when you start a blog, you are not only an author; you’re also an editor, a moderator, and an administrator. Blogging goes beyond simply posting articles or links. Think of your blog as your home.
Landscape
Read over your posts before you publish them. Reach a point where your post is compelling, or at least coherent. Give your blog curb appeal.
Be a Good Host
Follow the comments on your posts and join the conversation. Answer questions. Be sure to remind people if you feel they’re getting out of line, but tread carefully. Don’t be that guy who follows people around with a Dustbuster, but nobody wants to hang out in a sty either.
Upkeep!
It’s easier than it sounds. Maintain your blog. Follow your comments. If you require that comments must be approved, be on the ball with approving them or disable the feature; neglected blogs aren’t taken seriously and they bring down the neighborhood.
anonemoose said:
Andy,
Thank you for this recent post. There is some very useful advice here.
I have a follow-up question about the comment approval process. Maybe you can answer this and maybe you can’t. I had written comments on two of Tom Neal’s articles in his blog. One has since been approved. Where is the other one? Do you have any idea? Is it in cyber-never-never-land? It is no big deal because I can rewrite it but inquiring minds want to know.
moose
December 10th, 2007 at 6:36 pm #
Andy Laub said:
It looks like that comment is awaiting moderation also. I assumed (mistakenly) that once one of your comments was approved, the other would retroactively be approved as well. Looks like that’s not the case.
December 10th, 2007 at 9:55 pm #
Dino Corvino said:
Your crazy. You and your manage your own life thing.
Thats nuts.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:55 pm #