When I started the weekly bracha last year, I didn’t put much thought to it, just started on a whim without much fanfare.
But the brachas have morphed into a staple of this blog; “The Kineti blog? Oh, that Messianic link aggregator blog, sure, I know it.”
The brachas are something of worth to the Messianic community, IMO, shining light on those great gems from the Messianic blogosphere each week. Proud of this work. I consider it a positive contribution to the Messianic community.
I’ve had some good feedback on the brachas, too, I’m really happy with the beast that the weekly bracha has become.
But there are some problems:
- Stitching together a blog post from all the links takes about an hour or more. I love reading the posts, but it’s boring plumbing work stitching together a bracha list. The bracha post should be automated.
- It’s limited to my Intarweb® Line of Sight. That is, the bracha contains gems only from the blogs I follow. The bracha should be democratized.
- The Kineti blog is overwhelmed with brachas! The bracha should move onto its own website.
Collecting good links over the week is easy: I use Google Reader to tag Messianic blog gems, and if I run into good stuff outside my Circle of Blogs®, I use good ol’ fashioned bookmarks.
This works, but it’s a bit of friction.
The real hard part is narrowing down the list, stitching together a post with commentary on each post, proper formatting, quotes, tags, ranking order, all that good jazz.
And while I follow hundreds of Messianic, Christian, and Jewish blogs, the world is a big place – the bracha could be better, tastier, bigger, longer, uncut. Ahem.
Ch..Ch..Changes
I’m planning a few changes that will open up the weekly bracha and make it awesome(r) for you fine blog readers:
- Crowdsourcing the bracha: I’ll have a website up soon where anyone can submit a link, description, optional quote, tags, and rank. Submitting it will go into a database for approval.
- Automated posting service: I’d write a piece of software that takes all the submitted links, stitches together the descriptions, titles, tags, all that jazz, into a proper HTML document, publishes it to the blog, and sends an automated tweet announcing the bracha to the vast peoples of the intarwebz.
- Dedicated website? And posts show up immediately, rather than weekly? (More on this in a moment.)
Initially, I’ll use the service myself – giving me instant karma: automated stitching together of the links, automated posting to the blog, making the bracha posts punctual, and saving me hours each week. Pure genius!
And over time, I hope some of you fine blog readers will contribute links to the bracha. Got a great post relevant to the Messianic world? Submit it to the bracha submission site. Want to promote something you wrote that you think is totally rock hard awesome (and relevant)? Submit it to the bracha submission site. Submit to the bracha! Obey your master! Master!
Ahem.
One last thing
The major change I’m considering is moving the weekly bracha onto its own dedicated website. Something like Digg or Reddit, only for Messianic and related items.
If the bracha has its own website, and the content is generated (in part) by the community, it doesn’t seem good to limit the bracha to this blog, or to me, your benevolent dictator, Judah Gabriel.
Instead, the content would be owned by the web’s Messianic community. Also, with links being submitted throughout the week, there’s little reason for the bracha to be weekly – it could be daily. Links coming in, getting posted immediately.
Summary of changes
Bottom line:
| Old Weekly Bracha | New Bracha |
| Kineti blog only! | Has own dedicated website |
| Content submitted by Judah | Anyone can submit content, user-generated |
| Benevolent dictatorship | Democracy |
| Owned by Judah | Content owned by the Messianic community |
| Weekly roundup | Links posted daily as they are approved by admin(s) |
| What Judah says goes | Community could vote content up or down, ala Digg |
Do these changes sound good to you, fine blog reader? Or is it better to leave the bracha as-is, limited to this blog, with the benevolent dictator model in place?
Dude, go for it. The world has it, so should the Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteLou! Long time no see, man. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your 2¢.
Since I did not understand any of the technical "stuf," My suggestion will be that you should only promote my blog.......Just kidding....LOL!
ReplyDeleteLOL, Dan.
ReplyDeleteWell, think of it this way, Dan: instead of me posting the weekly bracha to this blog, there would be a new site, e.g. www.bracha.com, where anyone can submit Messianic gems, and people could vote them up or down, kind of like it works on Digg.com.
That's what I'm proposing.
Judah,
ReplyDeleteThe problem for me, whereas I trust your presentations, and am willing to read them, i will have to sift through a lot of doo-doo...
But it is worth a try.
Hey, that's a valid objection.
ReplyDeleteI do expect that if we go down this path, I will be the one submitting most of the content initially. So hopefully not much doo-doo.
ReplyDeleteBut once Gene starts contributing, then you'll have to down-vote half the posts on the page. ;-)
I like your benevolent dictatorship, you have the support of the people!
ReplyDelete"But once Gene starts contributing, then you'll have to down-vote half the posts on the page. ;-)"
ReplyDeleteHa-ha, good one, Judah:) Actually, I'll be starting my own blog soon (already have it set up, for the most part). So, I'll indeed be contributing:)
You may find out the hard way that a "democracy" of blog links provided by everyone might not be the best way. Besides, you are more of a benevolent king everybody loves!
ReplyDelete"mas-ter! mas-ter!"
ReplyDeleteWell, think of it this way, Dan: instead of me posting the weekly bracha to this blog, there would be a new site, e.g. www.bracha.com
ReplyDeleteI should probably go and buy that domain then sell it to you for a lofty sum of money, thanks for letting me in on your business plans.
Love,
your evil brother
Also will there be a dedicated poopoo section for Gene, or will destiny make that happen on its own? :P Harsh joking words, I really don't have anything against Gene, but since were picking on him, I thought I would also take a swing at his legs...
ReplyDeleteBTW, Gene, I look forward to your blog and sometimes crashing the party.
@Gene: Hey, I'm glad to hear you're finally getting a blog. I'm sure you'll have lots of things to say, especially stuff I don't like, heheh.
ReplyDelete@Jewzilla: I'm glad somebody caught that, haha.
@Zion: My plans are foiled! Heheh. And yeah, there will be a special section for Gene: bracha.com/bin/trash ;-)
@Joe and Anon, thanks for being my loyal subjects! :-) If I did move to a democracy, I'd still be an admin of sorts, and would certainly offer my benevolent guidance. :-)
Judah,
ReplyDeleteWell I like it. Has a nice ring ya know?
I feel a community coming on...
People will vote like on Digg. Nothing I've ever posted to Digg ever amounts to much. Besides, Gene and Derek will forever be down-thumbing my blogs (just kidding, guys) I'm doomed! ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy concerns are that a certain amount of "doo doo" will be submitted (as already been mentioned) and people will vote up or down content they disagree with, regardless of its overall merit and quality.
I can see where you're coming from. Thy will be done.
True. Giving admin voting more weight might alleviate the doo-doo issue, and also only those level-headed individuals who can see past their own theology as admins may also help.
ReplyDelete(I guess I'm excluded then! :grin:)
"also only those level-headed individuals who can see past their own theology as admins may also help"
ReplyDeleteI propose finding an Asian (because there are Gentiles/Jews who practice these Eastern faiths and will be biased) a Hindu, Confucianist or Buddhist for that task. We can hire an Indian offshore programmer to moderate:)
Sounds like a great idea. Looking forward to see how it all comes together and matures.
ReplyDeleteYeah but Gene, I am a programmer, and work with some overseas developers from India. I might bias them in favor of a One Law, Two House stance!
ReplyDeleteClearly, we must recruit someone who's totally out of touch with with the Messianic world, completely off doing his own thing. Jewzilla? ;-)
Keep your blog the way it is. Don't let it devolve like Facebook and Myspace.
ReplyDeleteClearly, we must recruit someone who's totally out of touch with with the Messianic world, completely off doing his own thing. Jewzilla? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI agree, just make sure that anyone wanting to access Jewzilla material, reads a disclaimer and must be provided a password from high level security after passing a series of quizzes and a conversion test, followed by a year of meditation. ;P
I agree with Dan that I enjoy perusing through what you compile...having to deal with the majority/median opinion....meh...not sure about that.
ReplyDeleteof course, it could just be laziness on my part. lol
good shabbos!
I have gained a lot from the links you have provided, but a site where everyone who participates has some control?
ReplyDeleteCall me a skeptic, but it has been my experience that if you lay all of the messianics end-to-end you still wouldn't reach a conclusion.
As for me, this is not a country so the term dictator doesn't fit. In business, if you built it, you get to control it. Co-ops don't usually work. I once heard that the number one reason for the failure of most communes is the lack of an automatic dishwasher.
If you make the change, please keep your sense of humor so that you can always go back to the original model.
Oh, and thanks for all of your work on this site. Jeff
Thanks Jeff. I didn't realize how many folks liked the existing model. I'll give this more thought before making a decision.
ReplyDeleteIsrael was never meant to be a democracy!!! always a monarchy! plus it would get BOGED down with all kinds of GARBAGE that no one else cares about..... my proposition is... Get a new site just for the Bracha! it has turned into a huge beast! but you should select the content! Wouldnt have it any other way!
ReplyDeleteMy own thing? Now that's exactly some of my problem with the general Messianic movement, how can you accuse me of such a thing? Hehehe..
ReplyDeleteEverything I believe can be found in the teachings of Rabbanim past and present. As Qoheleth says, there's nothing new under the sun.
Zion/Jeruz,
ReplyDeleteNahh, not some terrible tests haha. Just some deprogramming from silly PCness, that's all. =)
@Jewzilla,
ReplyDeleteAh, just pullin' your strings, you know it. :-)
@Jesse,
You're not the only one to object to the idea. So, I'll give it more thought before deciding.