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Related Article:
 Positive,
proactive promotion for ODP was one of the most urgent wishes of editors in the recent
ODP Mission Survey. We want
people to know about ODP. We want to tell the World what we do here! Many editors have already started
initiatives to inform the public - some of them years ago, some during the last months. Their ideas and
experiences will be the topic of a sequence of articles in this newsletter and the following editions.
In part 1 various editors present their ODP blogs. This is your chance to find out about blogs
in your language, and to join the ODP bloggers!
Editor-maintained Blogs - An Overview
There is a surprising variety of blogs, written both by single editors and by editor groups,
covering ODP only or a mix of topics.
English: One of the oldest ODP blogs is Ciaran's ODP
weblog: a community blog born in February 2003. It was programmed by
ciaran and designed by
totalxsive, to provide regular information
about ODP. shadow575's
blog offers personal insights
into daily editor life. bobrat's blog
ODP Editor Ramblings offers a bit of rambling as
promised in the title, but quite interesting information as well.  Additionally
it has a long list of links pointing to more related blogs. The best place to meet editors who do not only blog,
but answer questions about their work as well, is of course the editor-maintained forum
Resource-Zone. Find below a report on a Resource-Zone subforum
in which editors report on their daily activities!
Czech (written by ragimiri):
A blog with a unique and original name "ODP blog
" started at August 8, 2003 as personal comment of a unnamed ODP editor
You probably guessed that is me. I created the blog to share my ideas,
cogitations, comments and my tips for webmasters. I am trying to warn them of frequent errors and mistakes that they can make. There
is also a discussion forum, where the public can ask for help. There is another ODP blogger in Czech cyberspace,
editor trilobit. You can visit his blog
"Trilobit bloguje o Open Directory Project" at http://trilobit.bloguje.cz/.
French: The "Association of French speaking editors" offers not only a localised
ODP doorway, but a community blog as well. Find more about it below.
German: After checking the blogging activities of German editors, you get the impression they have a humor and
creativity competition running. Two new sites went online during the last few months: a bright and cheery community blog
which is presented below, and Grizzlies´ BearCompound.
The "Bear Compound" offers information on ODP and insights in grizzlies'
personal experiences on his way from a curious applicant into the big wilderness of the Business
greens.
Spanish: Mi Blog Mania is filex' blog.
Italian: The recently-opened Italian portal editando.org includes a shiny new blog. Stay tuned to read more about this project in the next newsletter, which will have a whole article dedicated to editor-maintained portals.
Japanese: http://dmoz.ameblo.jp is run by a group of World/Japanese editors, coordinated by yobesuke.
Your fingers are starting to twitch? You'd like to blog, too? Right now, immediately? Below you can find more information
about the English, French and German community blogs.
Community Blogs You can Join
Resource-Zone: "Inside the ODP"
In an effort to share more about what types of sites editors list and what types of projects they get involved
in, a new forum called Inside the ODP has
been started at the Resource-Zone. This idea was inspired by
jeanmanco's
New in Dmoz thread at Cre8asiteforums.com.
Many editors like to advocate for the Open Directory in various forums, but most of those forums aren't set
up to allow us to promote what we do. Now we have a place for that 
The forum is pre-moderated, which means that the Resource-Zone admins will review all postings prior to them
showing up for viewing. Postings should highlight positive editing activity such as new sites added, new
categories created, and editor cleanup initiatives. This is not the place to discuss why sites aren't added,
and certainly not the place to elaborate on how we detect spam. We want to focus on the good things that
we do in order for readers to gain a better understanding of how we work, and hopefully become interested
enough to join.
The discussion about setting up the forum and its purpose can be found in the
RZ Editor's Lounge. This format was
chosen to encourage editors to contribute, without feeling like they have to make a personal, long-term
commitment as they might with a blog format. Right now there are only threads in English, but threads for
other languages can be created if there is interest among editors.
The forum has just been launched for the public to view, but we need more contributors! Please consider dropping
by periodically and tell us what you are working on and why. Won't you share what's going on "Inside the ODP"?
- lissa
Blogging in French: "DMOZ blog"
Where can we find the blog?
URL : http://www.aef-dmoz.org/blog/
Who is responsible for the blog technically, who is actively blogging?
The blog is technically maintained by cmic and
tloury. Editor
graphicstance contributed the layout
and the graphics. For now, editors actively blogging are cmic
and tloury.
Why was this blog started, which need does it want to address?
The blog was started as another way to provide information, fresh news, links and thoughts on the ODP. DMOZ blog
focuses on World/Français, and targets people who speak french. The original idea was to provide editors
a collective way to answer frequently asked questions, address myths and misunderstandings often read and spread
on public arenas, such as SEO forums, and shed light on not so frequently asked questions. It's also a way
for editors to share their personal "ODP experience" with the public, and show a positive image of the
project. We think that this approach could help recruit new editors.
Who is the audience you want to address, and what do you blog about?
We target two different types of audiences: Web users, and ODP users (webmasters, submitters, SEOs...).
Among topics addressed recently, one can find for example submitting tips, tools to better search or monitor
the directory, information on the ODP License or advice on how to join DMOZ.
Are non-editors allowed to comment?
Comments are welcomed from all users, including non-editors. Comments are moderated before publication.
Registration is not required to post a comment. As DMOZ blog is quite young, we have not received much feedback so far.
Can editors contribute?
All editors can contribute by joining the blogging team. There are no specific guidelines for posting. All subjects
related to ODP are welcome. However, contributors are required to comply with the ODP editorial
guidelines, and pay specific attention to email, forums and editor notes privacy issues
(http://dmoz.org/guidelines/communication.html).
- tloury
Blogging in German: "Open Directory Project"
URL: http://www.dmoz-blog.de/
The blog was launched on June 18 2005, the corresponding forum thread can be found
here. Editor
sparrk is responsible for technical maintenance.
As described in the opening announcement of the blog it is
used to provide news and communicate interesting developments, such as new categories, to the general public.
So far the external presentation of ODP in the german-speaking area was restricted to some SEO forums, and
the project came off rather badly in these discussions
Some examples for situations which give a good starting point for blogging and at the same time advertising ODP:
Blogging is the high and difficult art of making everyday events worth publishing. And each of us experiences the ordinary every day.
So: ==> Join us, become an ODP blogger!
URL: http://www.dmoz-blog.de/
Gestartet ist der Blog am 18. Juni 2005, den dazugehörenden Forenthread findest Du hier. Editor sparrk ist verantwortlich für die technische Wartung.
Wie im Opener des Weblogs skizziert, dient das Weblog in erster Linie dazu, Neuigkeiten und interessante Entwicklungen wie beispielsweise neue Kategorien nach aussen zu kommunizieren. Bisher beschränkt sich die Aussendarstellung des ODP in erster Linie auf einige SEO-Foren, in denen das Projekt nicht sonderlich gut abschneidet.
Ein guter Aufhänger um zu bloggen und nebenbei Werbung fürs ODP zu machen sind zum Beispiel:
Bloggen ist die hohe Kunst Alltägliches zu publizieren. Und Alltägliches erlebt jeder von uns jeden Tag.
Deshalb: ==> Werde auch Du zum ODP-Blogger!
- sparrk
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