RSS FeedThe Next Version Of PQ Living
Every once in a while, the three people who bring you PQ Living like to take a look at what’s taking place on the ‘Net, what’s taking place in the neighborhood and ask the question, “Do we at PQ Living need to be doing something different than what we’re doing now?” That’s what this missive is all about.
We think the answer to the above question has become a resounding “Yes!” so we are introducing some changes that will increase the number of channels you can use to find out about the latest in the PQ but in the short term may reduce the number of times per week you get that information. For the most recent iteration of PQ Living, our approach has been to mimic that of a daily newspaper, one post (or more) a day, but nothing is static on the web and we’ve discovered a few facts…
1) Readers pick and choose what they want to read and how to get it…many use feed readers (RSS) to gain access to the stories they find interesting and not touch the ones they don’t. Now that Facebook is the de-facto homepage for some, readers keep up with our stories through Facebook too. Some have discovered our “beta” Twitter page via their own intrepid means. (Yes…we do have one.)
2) More people are using Facebook and Twitter to get and exchange information…we’re rolling with the times and now have both Facebook and Twitter pages.
Find us on Facebook here: PQ Living on Facebook
Find us on Twitter here: PQ Living on Twitter
3) Higher quality regular updates will serve the community better and make for more interesting reading on the website…now that we’ve got feed readers (RSS), the Facebook page and the Twitter page as “pipes” we think a regular stream of higher quality website stories is better than a daily stream of more mediocre stories.
What does all of the above mean? It means that effective today we’ll post anywhere between three and seven stories per week on the website and supplement those stories with the capabilities Facebook and Twitter bring to the table. This allows for a good mix of set stories and breaking news enabled by those additional pathways. We might post a Twitter update one day, a full blown web post another day and a Facebook photo update another day. Rinse and repeat.
All that said, we’d also like to have a broader set of voices contributing to our effort. If you think you’ve got a good story to tell or photo to share or poll to poll and put online, please contact us at pqliving [at] gmail.com – we hope we can add your voice to ours and do so regularly.
We know we’ll have to revisit the PQL format periodically and there will be some improvisation as we go. We’d like you to come along for the ride with us! We also look forward to hearing from readers and to continue bringing you our outlook on downtown Washington DC and the Penn Quarter community where we all enjoy living, working and/or playing.
Sincerely,
gpliving, pqresident & Columbo
The Penn Quarter Living team
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Comments
Does this mean we have to subscribe to everything not to miss a story? Or will all stories go to all venues?
I for one love the multiple posting per day and will miss them.
I second Kat on the request for full posts through the RSS. I’d rather have full posts in my Google Reader than have to click through (along with, say, embedded ads, if that’s the motivation for trying to get people to visit the main site). This is especially true for us readers for whom PQL is only one of several DC-oriented blogs we read — I’d be more likely to read thoroughly, comment, and feel connected to PQL if it were easier to do so.
Also, I hope by “higher quality” updates, you don’t mean long. I like the newsy snippets of updates that are easy to read and fast.
I’ll address a few of the questions, pqresident or gpliving can fill in/correct the rest.
What we publish on this website is automatically published on the facebook page. You can subscribe to/follow the twitter feed it you like, or wait to see if the 140 character tweets turn into a post of substance here on the main page. But this website, pqliving.com, will still be the primary outlet of information for the foreseeable future.
As to higher quality updates, no that does not necessarily mean longer posts. We expect to provide the same types of posts you’ve come to expect, with less of the filler we’ve had to provide along the way to maintain a 7 day a week schedule.
A final word, we’d love to keep the blog published daily, but it is about (our) quality of life. As pqresident mentioned in the above post, we encourage any new voices who would like to contribute. More writers we hope would equal more content and the ability to publish more often.
We really do appreciate all of our readers, and look forward to your comments each time we publish an article.
Yes, while a reluctant Facebook user, I draw the line at Twitter. I hope all the content is posted on the website as that’s the way I prefer to get information.
thanks MB!
@Kat and @Becky – you both asked about the RSS feed and we will take a closer look at it. the difficulty with RSS is that there is no way to determine how many people read a story via RSS. we want to know what stories are being read so that we know what is of interest and what is not of interest to the reader base. it is true that if people comment on a story, then they must be reading the story.
@Mr. T in DC – thanks for your comment. for now, Twitter is meant to be an auxiliary channel so you’ll still get the real substance by reading off the website or RSS. we have to see what the interest level is in using Twitter to finalize its role. the general idea with adding Facebook and Twitter is to have a network of communication paths for the community, the sum of which is greater than the just the website.
would a subscribe by e-mail feature be of interest to readers?
Just a note, you’re not going to reach me by posting in three different places. I’m not going to read it on Facebook or Twitter, I don’t have the patience for either of those. If I’m going to read it, it will have come in through my Google Reader. So by splitting the postings this way, you may lose some very loyal readers.
if you’re reading using Google Reader, you will continue to see all the website posts. written posts that appear on the website appear identically on Facebook as they would in an RSS reader. Twitter may have its own “posts” but they are limited to 140 characters so they won’t have the same richness as website posts which remain the primary focus of our efforts.
I agree with the request for full posts thru RSS feeds (Google Reader). For some of us, Google Reader is the only way to read blogs at work. I can’t read PQ Living at work (blocked) but if you allowed the full posts in Google Reader I’d be able to read it.
I think it’s a good step forward. Those who like this site, will continue to see all here. This avenue just offers those who do everything on Facebook to even see PQL on their FB sites. I prefer to get a break from Facebook, so I can just continue to read on this site.
Agree with “Mr T in DC”. I find Facebook somewhat annoying and have so far refused to Twitter — This site is one of my daily “must reads”, but I would never go to Facebook for it. Really glad to see that you will keep this option as well
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speaking of feed readers, how about offering full posts?