Jan 16, 2013 / Community Pool

Introducing: The Community Pool

Community Pool

One of the things we’ve been excited to see develop here at The Daily Post is your engagement with one another in the comments — offering feedback, ideas, and support. We thought it would be valuable to carve out a space here for those of you looking for input on your work, so today we’re introducing the Community Pool.

Community PoolIf y’all are interested, here’s what we’ll do: once a week (probably on weekends), we’ll put up an open Community Pool post. If you have a post, page, or idea you want to bounce off someone, leave a comment. Your fellow bloggers can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

We’re hoping the Community Pool will be a way for you to both get the feedback you’re looking for and get introduced to new blogs you might not have stumbled across. That being said, this is not an open call to post a link to your blog asking us to come read, it’s a space for back-and-forth between bloggers who want to improve what they publish.

A few reminders before we get started:

  • You’ll get the best feedback if you can be as specific as possible about what you’d like people to respond to or where you’re struggling.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. We’re here to help and support one another, not to beat anyone down.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • No running on the deck.

With that, welcome to the first Community Pool! Come on in; the water’s fine.

Photo by t_a_i_s.

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  1. I think this is a great idea!

    My blog is here: happyclamblog.wordpress.com. I mostly write poems and stories and just random stuff. I know this is not very specific, but what can be improved? Also, what kind of things are interesting to read because sometimes I have a hard time finding stuff to write about that would be interesting to people other than me. Thanks!

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  3. Great idea. I look forward to participating!

    I started my craft blog a few months ago and am looking at the merits of running free giveaways but want to do it in a fun way rather than randomly picking a comment. Would appreciate any views.

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  4. I find this a very good idea – it’s sort of a ‘blog hop’, but instead of moving from one blog to the other, or have their links/directions posted on your blog, they will be all there, ‘hanging out by the pool’… sounds pretty interesting and it has the potential to be super positive, especially for blogs/bloggers who specifically look for a forum thru the blogsphere. I’ve placed ‘open questions’ before, and got some nice/interesting/surprising feedback, from other expats, travelers and/or parent-son-the-move [one cannot only expect good comments, right?]. Its the nature and the beauty of this game: once you get out there, you gotta be opened for true feedback…. The idea of the community pool seems very attractive, and hey, since it’s still Winter, at least for half of the world, who won’t want to be hanging by the pool with other fellow bloggers? 😮
    Thanks for the initiative!

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  6. This sounds like a wonderful idea, especially for new bloggers like myself. If this starts now, I would really appreciate some feedback on any of my posts. I’m always open for improvement and any thoughts you have I would really love to hear.

    Saying that, I don’t mind whether comments are posted on my work or in reply to this. Thanks 🙂

    http://mydiffer3nce.wordpress.com/

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    1. I visited your page and really loved your poem with picture of bridge. You need to create your “About” page, so we know a little more about you.

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  8. I really like the community pool idea! Since my blog is called Wrecking Routine, I have a plan to do a “Routine Wrecker Wednesday” or “Wreck it Wednesday” where bloggers can discuss what they did that week to get themselves out of the daily rut. Many of the current blogs I follow partake in “What I Ate Wednesday” hosted by another blogger. Do you think my idea would be too much of a conflict with hers?

    I would prefer to have responses on here. Thanks for your suggestions and help!

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    1. no, I don’t think it would be in conflict. probably, you two can support each other.

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  11. I am much the same, participation in this kind of forum is always appreciated when so many people are constantly starting new blogs with little idea about how to manage and run them effectively. Happy for any constructive criticism on mine. Will return the favour)

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  16. I would love feedback on my format. I write a blog on living with Bipolar Dis-ease and I’ve tried to echo the tension of the back-and-forth of mood swings through color and images. Any feedback is gratefully appreciated.

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    1. I hate to say it but the design looks like a manila folder, not exactly something that screams KIDS to me.

      You might want to just play around with different themes there are a lot of good ones out there that will better highlight your content.

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      1. thanks Laith, it’s funny you said manila folder because that was my exact thought when I finished with it. I definitely need to look into something else, something more fun, maybe more primary colors. thanks for taking the time to check it out and comment.

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  22. Hey all, I have been blogging for a couple of years about my adventures in photography

    http://lensaddiction.wordpress.com/

    One of the things I struggle with is choosing a good theme to present my images, I tend to write narrative that has images spread throughout it, rather than one image and some text. Currently using Twenty Ten with some tweaks. Would LOVE suggestions on other theme options that may help showcase my photography and still allow me to write blog entries as well?

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    1. Hello Lensaddiction. Nice blog. Your photography is superb. I think the theme is good as it showcases your photos and blog entries quite well.

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  23. So, I’m feeling like for this to really work, we need some other way to organize what we need feedback on, and what we feel like we can give feedback on. I have a background in writing, specifically of teaching writing, but I don’t typically write in the genres that I’ve taught, although I like to bop round. I’m looking for suggestions on titles and ways to draw people in as well as word choice. Thanks! I feel like I can give feedback on organization, grammar, conventions, theme development.

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    2. I think we’ll let it ride as a free for all for a few weeks, and then depending on what folks want, we can try out more focused community pool posts for people who want help with themes, grammar, fiction, etc.

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  28. Hi everyone
    I am a little new to this but have recently started a website/blog to record the process of making art/sculpture (so far mainly figure and portrait pieces posted) and show finished work.
    I would be grateful for help on tags and categories:
    http://jessmillerart.com/blog/
    do you think the art work should be classified as ‘traditional’ (ie techniques) or ‘contemporary’ (i.e. we are making it now) or neither or both? my mind goes blank when I try to think of what people would type into a search engine if they are looking for this kind of thing.
    Or does anyone know of a resource on the web that might help suggest meaningful categories and tags?
    I am slightly ashamed to admit I have called a lot of it “process” because I couldn’t come up with anything more descriptive – but it just makes it sound so boring!

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    1. I think it should be tagged as both.

      The best bet would be to go to your reader and put in some of your current tags, then look at other piece’s tags to get more ideas.

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    2. I also struggle a bit with meaningful tagging – there are some posts from the WordPress peeps that can have some good ideas for inspiration, its findable by searching in the help section somewhere 🙂

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  29. I’ve already posted on this but am now unsure of my theme – has anyone got any ideas for a different theme that would work? Preferably one that doesn’t need a photo for every post – I like Oxygen but think you need a photo for every post to go with it. Thanks.

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    2. I posted above, I find choosing the right theme where photos are used but not necessarily the purpose of the blog a bit of a challenge, without testing out ALL of the options

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