Logged-out front page subculture "spotlight"

[azurelunatic]

Title:
Logged-out front page subculture "spotlight"

Area:
as-seen-on..., communities, user interaction

Summary:
Feature communities, users, and tag-cluster entry streams on the front page to acknowledge and promote interesting subcultures.

Description:
Dreamwidth, for better or worse, has a reputation for being associated with fandom, since there's such a strong fandom subculture, and it's been promoted and discussed so heavily in fandom circles. There's a lot more here than just fandom, though, and might be worthwhile to show that off on the front page.

There's already a random journal and random community link on the front page, but there are particular active subcultures (not just single communities) that might be of interest to a random logged out visitor. (Examples: yes, fannish stuff, like the new Star Trek stuff, also the Sims activity, the geek-feminist contingent, the foodies, the fiber-crafts, NaNoWriMo...) I would like to see a small selection of active comms and users posting on the theme, interests related to the theme, and a tag-cluster entry stream (like the http://www.dreamwidth.org/latest?tag=nnwm09 stream) for each featured subculture.

I'd want the featured area to rotate weekly or at least every two weeks, and perhaps have a browseable archive.

Poll #1710 Logged-out front page subculture "spotlight"

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
8 (28.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
8 (28.6%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
2 (7.1%)

(I have no opinion)
7 (25.0%)

(Other: please comment)
3 (10.7%)

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I'm not dreadfully attached to the details of the idea, but I do want to see a bit of the site's real diversity on the front page.

[niqaeli]

I am in favour of highlighting the diversity of the site. But I didn't feel like I could vote should be implemented as-is, or with changes, because I'm also not particularly committed to the details of this suggestion. I just want people to be given a better idea of the fact that this is *not* a fannish site but rather a fannish-friendly one.

tl;dr ahoy:

I'm a fan and I care a very great deal about fandom and seeing it thrive and use this technology, and yet I've found myself really resentful of the notion that Dreamwidth is a fannish site. It makes me feel boxed in: even inasmuch as my use of this site is primarily under my fannish persona, I actually use it far more to keep in touch with people I care about. I post and read about things that interest me, which fandom does yes, but also so does random science nerdery, as does activism, and a host of other things. The site being labelled popularly as being fannish makes me feel like I'm being told I and my friends are somehow doing it wrong -- being fannish or using Dreamwidth, one or the other. And that's really frustrating because I'm absolutely not being told that by site's own culture(s).

So: I'm hugely behind the concept of spotlighting some of the thriving subcultures here in Dreamwidth. You can't actually outright control how people think of Dreamwidth, what with us not having mind control and all, but raising the profile of the diversity of the site would help so much.

I'm just not particularly committed to any given implementation. This seems like as good as any number of others, though. But, I jdon't want it to stop at a single feature like this, honestly -- I want this to be something that gets more attention in the long-run.

[azurelunatic]

This, exactly.

[piranha]

this, sorta. :)

i don't resent the fannish preponderance, and i don't feel locked in (in fact i am doing almost nothing at all fannish at this time).

but -- however we all said "no, it's not JUST for fans", the perception is out there, and other than the people i pulled originally across from my flist, the others (mostly non-fans) have not come. now, that's not just because of the perception; inertia probably plays a huge role. but still, the perception is there, and the text on the front page broadens that perception at best into "artists", but considering the framework of dreamwidth, that's mostly textural creativity, which is writing, which is fandom. *wry grin*.

so, i am greatly in favour of overhauling the front page and make it represent the variety there IS on DW, in the hope it'll attract more non-fandom people.

i'd like a spotlight on the logged-out front page (maybe rotating? picking one at random from a pool?), and i'd also like to be able to get to it when i am logged in.

[ninetydegrees]

With changes: I'd like to see spotlighted journals on my logged-in front page too.

[yvi]

Yes, a 'featured' module for the logged-in homepage, please?

[kerravonsen]

I like the idea in general, but I'm not too wedded to that particular implementation of it. How does one classify "subcultures"? Won't that mean that some "subcultures" miss out? And will this really do all that much to counter the reputation of Dreamwidth as a fannish site?

[azurelunatic]

In this case I'm thinking of "subcultures" as clusters of related special interests. Classification of a "subculture" would be done by Denise and Mark, assisted by the people who suggest communities for spotlighting, Mark with his big-community-discovery tools, dw-news commenters, frequenters of Mark and Denise's journals, and the usual cluster of volunteers and affiliated people who hang out in IRC (all of these being usual places they ask for input). It would mean that some would miss out, particularly at any given time, since the whole site can't be fully represented with a handful of spotlighted areas in a single week, but rotating them out and providing an archive increases the diversity.

I don't mean for this to be the sole means of celebrating and sharing the site's diversity, rather, a single tool and a good start.

[turlough]

providing an archive

This I'm very much for! I hate when sites spotlights something for a couple of weeks but when I finally get the energy to actually look at what-ever-it-is something else has replaced it and there is no (easy) way to find old content.

[triadruid]

Now that would definitely be useful.

[(Anonymous)]

Logged out, fine, I don't see it so I don't care, and if it works to helps the site great. But please NOT on the logged-in version - there's enough visual clutter there that I don't need already!

[niqaeli]

Well, in the comments above, people mentioned wanting a 'featured' module for the homepage. As I recall, there are plans to make all the modules on the logged-in homepage things you can move around, collapse, and even take off altgoether.

In which case, I think putting a 'featured' module on the logged-in homepage would be fantastic, since it would allow people who aren't interested to skip it. Otherwise, eh, yeah I'm with Anon here: currently, it's too cluttered for my taste. Let's not make that worse.

(Although I will admit that personally I'd rather have the featured module than some of the other ones currently on it, but I can't really say where I fall in terms of use-cases on that. Fish, water, yadda.)

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I saw those comments, which is why I felt it was worth mentioning that I really don't agree. However, if the homepage IS going to be substantially redesigned to make it customisable and therefore actually useful, rather than somewhere I end up accidentally every now and then and get frustrated by, that would be great!

[white_aster]

There seems to be two discussions going on in the comments here (ignore me if I'm wrong): implementation just for the logged-out homepage and implementation IN GENERAL for all homepages.

For the "just on logged-out homepage" suggestion, I'm just not sure how well it will do what it's suggested it do? Highlight to logged-out people (ie, people who have not joined DW) that DW has non-fannish comms? My confusion is that those people are only going to see the spotlight for a brief window: when they're already ON DW but haven't signed up (as I assume that most signed up users stay logged-in). That is for...what, five minutes, tops? That type of person would likely be either A) new to DW and looking to find things out about it (and if they don't know anything about DW, they're not going to find a lot of fannish-specific things in the DW "About us and please join" info as it is), or B) already came to DW from a particular comm/interest/subgroup and is here to participate in that subculture, whether it be fanstuff or not.... I don't see how one spotlight that they're likely to see right when they sign up ...will change a general perception of fannishness...? Am I missing something?

Slightly more useful for the stated purpose would be having, as others have mentioned, a homepage module for this, that anyone could put on their logged-in homepage (though this would still only get current DWites...). I'd only say yes to this if it was opt-in/outable (via the suggested module that could be turned off, for instance.) I can see how some folks would find it useful to discover new things. Personally, I wouldn't use this. I thought the spotlight feature on LJ was annoying clutter and even though there isn't any sponsored comms on DW to sneak into the spotlight as a commercial, I still would feel like it was clutter. The homepage and its associated modules/toolbars isn't a place I look to find new stuff. It's a place I use to get to other places when I want to do something with my journal. If I'm in a discovering mood...I'll go look at a more discovery-related comm (and a spotlight comm might be interesting and something I'd be interested in, if it was low-volume). Otherwise, I don't want to see "ads" (not paid, but still, it's an advertisement for a comm/set of comms that I may not have any particular interest in) cluttering up my working interface. :shrug: It's just how I use the site.

So yeah, I'm not opposed to having such a thing if it's opt-outable, but I'm not sure that the time spent to vetting/moderating/implementing the spotlight would be worth Mark and Denise's time for the purpose of trying to change the DW image to non-DWites. I can't see a really effective way to do that without some kind of internetwide ad campaign or a concerted effort of non-fan DW comms to promote themselves off-site....

[azurelunatic]

D and Mark are already locating and recommending communities in the weekly news updates, so this would be a slight expansion and an additional place to show the information, but not a drastic change in tasks they were already carrying out. I'm not sure how much of that process is already done by assorted minions.