Lambda the Ultimate

inactiveTopic Guest Bloggers on LtU?
started 8/24/2003; 5:39:03 AM - last post 8/25/2003; 6:19:46 AM
Ehud Lamm - Guest Bloggers on LtU?  blueArrow
8/24/2003; 5:39:03 AM (reads: 1111, responses: 8)
Guest Bloggers on LtU?
A few prominent weblogs regularly invite non-regulars to blog for a short period of time (a week or so) as guest bloggers. This adds value to the weblog, and gives the guest bloggers a plupit and a somewaht captive audience.

It occured to me that occasionaly inviting guest bloggers to LtU may be a good idea. The purpose of this post it to get feedback on this idead from the LtU community.

Obviously, the most important aspect is to find interesting folks who would agree to post on LtU for a while. To make things as easy as possible, they can be given access rights to the site (like other contributing editors), or simply email their contributions to one of the regular editors. I would set up a department dedicated to guest bloggers postings, so they could be easily found later on.

I usually prefer the LtU home page (and RSS feed) to consist mainly of links to longer essays and acadmeic papers, while rants and speculation are kept buried in the discussion group. Guest bloggers, invited beacuse of their stature will, of course, be encouraged to share their opinions and views in their LtU posts.

The question remains whether this is a good idea, and what are the odds of getting prominent figures in the programming languages community to agree to guest blog here.

Let's here what LtU readers think of this idea. It would be especially helpful in anyone thinks he can get one of the luminaries to accept such an invitation.

P.S

A few interesting guys already have personal weblogs, so they may be favourably inclined to take part in this sort of thing.


Posted to admin by Ehud Lamm on 8/24/03; 5:48:32 AM

Chris Rathman - Re: Guest Bloggers on LtU?  blueArrow
8/24/2003; 9:28:00 AM (reads: 578, responses: 1)
I'm all for it, though I'm not quite sure what format you're aiming for. Some places use articles and then set up discussions based on that. LtU doesn't currently use an article type format, and I'm not sure posting a full interview or essay on the front page would be ideal. You could post a summary on the front page that points to the longer portion.

Ehud Lamm - Re: Guest Bloggers on LtU?  blueArrow
8/24/2003; 10:21:28 AM (reads: 605, responses: 0)
I'm not quite sure what format you're aiming for

I am not sure myself, so I am open to suggestions. My initial idea was simply to invite the guest blogger to post news items, and let him use the format the way he sees fit. Point to papers, post essays, or use the more conventional short blog-post format.

For a recent example of guest blogging see Howard Dean on Lessig's blog.

ferix - Re: Guest Bloggers on LtU?  blueArrow
8/24/2003; 9:44:09 PM (reads: 534, responses: 1)
I think that guest blogging only makes sense on blogs that have a single author. The guest acts to come on and "take over the show" for a while. On a group-edited blog like LtU (or Slashdot... (please take no offense at the analogy...)) I don't think the idea of a "guest host" has much meaning.

But if you want to host people's blogs (and/or give them some advertisement), that's your call.

David B. Wildgoose - Re: Guest Bloggers on LtU?  blueArrow
8/24/2003; 11:14:53 PM (reads: 510, responses: 3)
I think it is a good idea, but think it should be limited to those who don't already have Weblogs.

As a suggestion, seeing as Peter Van Roy and Seif Haridi's book "Concepts, Techniques and Models of Computer Programming" is due to be published shortly by MIT Press, one of them may be more easily persuaded to make a contribution to the site.

Ehud Lamm - Re: Guest Bloggers on LtU?  blueArrow
8/24/2003; 11:49:14 PM (reads: 532, responses: 2)
Peter Van Roy and Seif Haridi

That's the sort of thing I have in mind. Is anyone in contact with these guys at the moment?

Ehud Lamm - Re: Guest Bloggers on LtU?  blueArrow
8/25/2003; 1:37:17 AM (reads: 510, responses: 0)
I think that guest blogging only makes sense on blogs that have a single author.

The Volokh Conspiracy is a multi-author blog with a tradition of guest bloggers. It seems to work just fine.

Daniel Yokomiso - Re: Guest Bloggers on LtU?  blueArrow
8/25/2003; 5:30:23 AM (reads: 520, responses: 1)
I can contact Peter Van Roy and ask him.

Ehud Lamm - Re: Guest Bloggers on LtU?  blueArrow
8/25/2003; 6:19:46 AM (reads: 529, responses: 0)
Sounds great. CC me in when you think it's appropriate.