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As many of you know, we have a blog. For those of you who didn't know, that's no surprise as we haven't added new content since July last year.

Last time we tried to get contributors for the blog, we came up with a list of topic ideas, enough for fortnightly content for a few months. It started out well, but our enthusiasm trailed off quite quickly.

The problems that I think we've identified in blog chat are:

  1. We don't know who the target audience is.
  2. Noöne wants to write for the blog. (Or at least they don't want to enough.)
  3. We need critical editors.

Problem 3. is inconsequential at the moment, because we have nothing to edit.

To solve 1. I suggest that the target audience is the people who want to write for the blog. People who have something to say about English.

This would then answer the title question: if our target audience is noöne, then we don't want a blog.

If that's the case then the blog's run its course and we can put it out to pasture. Maybe Q&A is all we need to get the good word out.

However if there are people who want to regularly write something about English and show it off to this community (outside the Q&A format), then step up.

Addendum:

I think we need 5 or more regular contributors each of whom will contribute a blog post every six months. (i.e. the blog would get about 10 posts per year.) We would need to be able to critique each others posts before they go live, too, so that we regulate our own quality.

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  • +1 if only for noöne! Good questions, I shall ponder them. How about if someone were to write an incidental post, without a commitment to regular posts, would that be an option at all?
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Apr 24, 2014 at 10:34
  • Maybe in the future, but right now we need regulars to have a blog at all. The regulars define the blog, which would allow people who want to write one-offs to understand how to fit in. (That's how I see it, anyway.)
    – Matt E. Эллен
    Apr 24, 2014 at 10:43
  • OK noted. <filler characters>
    – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
    Apr 24, 2014 at 11:03
  • Good question, sir.
    – Kit Z. Fox Mod
    Apr 24, 2014 at 14:46
  • 6
    I think the more appropriate question is: Do we want to write a blog? And the answer seems to be no, we don't, since we really haven't.
    – MrHen
    Apr 24, 2014 at 15:07
  • The follow-on questions to @MrHen's: Do we want to delete the blog? Well, no, it still got useful stuff on it. Will we still accept new contributions, if anyone ever wants to? Yes, why not (if relevant).
    – Hugo
    Apr 28, 2014 at 10:03
  • I can see from the link that "we have a blog", since there are articles there. However, there's nothing on the page about how to submit content, and, while it displays the characteristic EL&U mild khaki background, there's nothing else there to greet EL&U members; it doesn't know me from Adam, for instance. I have wished there were a blog I could use here, but clearly this is not it.
    – John Lawler
    May 7, 2014 at 18:46
  • @JohnLawler Would you like to be able to submit content to the EL&U blog?
    – Matt E. Эллен
    May 8, 2014 at 13:33
  • Sporadically, I think about it. But since it's not available to me, I don't get any further than that.
    – John Lawler
    May 8, 2014 at 15:07
  • @JohnLawler What happens if you visit this link?
    – Matt E. Эллен
    May 8, 2014 at 15:12
  • @MattЭллен: What happens? Nothing. I see a page with a bunch of blog posts on it, a lot of stuff on the right side (boxes of links), and the collider at the top. Nothing else on the top. The collider offers to take me to EL&U meta or main. That's all. No provision for blog entry. I didn't read any of the posts, so I have no comments on that.
    – John Lawler
    May 8, 2014 at 15:29
  • OK. You should have been asked to log in. http://english.blogoverflow.com/wp-admin/post-new.php is the link that should take you to the page that will let you create a new post. I have asked the mods to grant you access to post on the blog. I'll let you know when they've done that.
    – Matt E. Эллен
    May 8, 2014 at 15:39
  • 1
    Hi @JohnLawler, sorry for the delay. I'm told you need to visit english.blogoverflow.com/wp-admin and create an account the same way you did to login to the network. After that one of our mods will be able to grant you access to post.
    – Matt E. Эллен
    May 22, 2014 at 15:04
  • As far as I know I've never "created an account" to "login to the network". I've had recurring problems with my registration on all three SEs that I participate in, and have needed help from administrators each time. And I don't have anything to do with any "network" outside my home and ISP, plus I'm allergic to bureaucracy. So I'm afraid I'm unlikely to try to do all that, But, thanks for finding out.
    – John Lawler
    May 22, 2014 at 15:39

1 Answer 1

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Noting here for the record that "Blog Overflow is actually going to be shutting down completely soon" per animuson.

There are relatively few SE blogs, and even fewer of these remain active. Jack B Nimble's answer to Why doesn't anyone use the Stack Exchange community blogs anymore? at MSE suggests that WorldBuilding, SciFi, and any other active blogs have moved or will move to third party platforms.

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  • Everything about the SE Blog overflow idea is great except for incentive... somehow whatever ideas spurred by a short question or answer into a blog-post-length article just doesn't seem comfortable on SE.
    – Mitch
    Oct 11, 2016 at 18:26

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