The FQA Blog

[Sigmaleph]

So, to roughly restate what I said in that other thread, the way it will work is more or less as follows:

Anyone who wishes to submit an article, does so in this subforum first. It is proofread, checked that it will fit the theme of the site, and etc. and if found appropriate, uploaded to the blog. Users who have enough approved articles get direct access to the blog to post directly (though if you want to post here first for comments/proofreading, you are welcome to do so). When we have enough direct access bloggers, I step down and let them manage most of the matter themselves.

The subjects should initially be things related to religion, philosophy, science, scepticism and such. Whether we later expand to a more general culture thing can be decided, well, later.

There was some discussion on platforms, namely Tumblr vs. Wordpress. While there's no reason we can't have both, I side with those that think that the Wordpress format is a better fit.

Please continue further discussions on the matter here.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

As someone else suggested, Tumblr would be better as a mirror than the primary blog. Posting an excerpt (or screencap/video clip) followed by the link seems to be a pretty effective way of gaining exposure. A lot of other sites, notably Cracked, The Onion and TYT, use it that way.

As a main blog, however, Tumblr probably wouldn't suffice.

Edit: I registered http://frequentlyquestionedanswers.tumblr.com in case we decide to use it, to prevent anyone else from taking the name. I'll pass control of the blog along to whoever is chosen to run it (again, if a mirror is needed) or one of the mods, just figured it was best to grab the name while it was available.

[Radiation]

Having a Tumblr is a good idea, but like Sigma I think Wordpress is probably better for a mainpage. Considering that most sites now have a number of links to various social media, would there also be a chance of having a Facebook link? I am not sure about Twitter as I don't see how it would be useful as of yet but perhaps down the road it can be added.

[dpareja]

Having a Tumblr is a good idea, but like Sigma I think Wordpress is probably better for a mainpage. Considering that most sites now have a number of links to various social media, would there also be a chance of having a Facebook link? I am not sure about Twitter as I don't see how it would be useful as of yet but perhaps down the road it can be added.

Nonetheless accounts on Twitter, Facebook and the like should be created as soon as possible, if only to prevent other people from taking them first.

[JohnE]

Who's going to be doing the vetting & proofreading, to start?

[Radiation]

Who's going to be doing the vetting & proofreading, to start?

I don't know but since you volunteered, I would recruit you. As for me, I'd like to do some articles about conspiracy theories as part of the skepticism category. I'm not sure how the research would go on that but would appreciate some help with that. I'm thinking about writing my first about The Vigilant Citizen type stuff.

[Igor]

Like I said before, proofreading is kind of my thing (despite all of the mistakes in my posts - I'm much better at editing other people's stuff than my own) so I'd volunteer if I wasn't so burned out right now. If I can get my shit together sometime in the near future though, I'll go for it if it's still open. Just give me a stylesheet and some time and I'm sure I can proof the odd article here and there.

(edit - too many commas)

[Radiation]

This isn't going to be something that is immediate so don't worry about it now Randomwolf.

[Leafy]

I have a lot of free time so I'd love to help out with anything needed. I'd consider writing too...if I can think of a good topic.

[Valerius]

I want to contribute somehow, but I have no experience with podcasts or video making/editing. But for my major, I'm focusing heavily on evolutionary biology, so I'd be willing to edit and/or contribute to any articles about evolution, or even just biology in general. I suck at writing though, so I don't know if I'd do so well writing an article on my own.

[JohnE]

I want to contribute somehow, but I have no experience with podcasts or video making/editing. But for my major, I'm focusing heavily on evolutionary biology, so I'd be willing to edit and/or contribute to any articles about evolution, or even just biology in general. I suck at writing though, so I don't know if I'd do so well writing an article on my own.

It'd be great to have some biology/evolution articles. And I'm sure the rest of us can help with cleaning and sprucing up the writing, if you need it.

[Sigmaleph]

If you'd rather not write on your own, you are always welcome to fact-check, or, if you can find someone up to it, co-author.

Similar offer is open to anyone with a deep knowledge of any field who doesn't fell like writing a post.



I've gone ahead and grabbed @fqanswers on Twitter and fqanswers.wordpress.com.

[Random Gal]

As far as articles are concerned, I'm a paleontology student with access to reports on the latest discoveries and such things. I've found no shortage of pop culture misconceptions on evolution and prehistory. The next time some armchair hack tries to play Scientific Expert and writes some bizarre piece on how evolution is wrong or dinosaurs were really aliens or something, I'd be glad to offer my opinion on the blog.

[Kradorex Xeron]

It is very possible to create an extension to the forum software to facilitate a blog integrated for commenting and such. The blog platform would avoid having people having to maintain separate usernames/passwords and be as easy as posting a new thread in a specially set up forum and authors could just be added into a special usergroup. Comments would be handled by the forums as normal.

Potentially push the forums from http://fqa.digibase.ca/ to http://fqa.digibase.ca/forums/ and have the blog/site at http://fqa.digibase.ca unless a domain name is in the works at some point.

[Valerius]

If you'd rather not write on your own, you are always welcome to fact-check, or, if you can find someone up to it, co-author.

Similar offer is open to anyone with a deep knowledge of any field who doesn't fell like writing a post.



I've gone ahead and grabbed @fqanswers on Twitter and fqanswers.wordpress.com.

If I could find someone to co-author articles with me, then I'd definitely give it a shot. Another reason I'd prefer not to do it on my own is that with a full course load, I'll be pretty busy once classes start again.

Another thing regarding science articles: I have access to a shitload of scientific journals and databases through my university, so if anyone needs scientific articles to cite for their blog posts or whatever, hit me up and I'll see what I can do.