As Feministing approaches its fourth year anniversary (April 2008!), the gals and I have been giving a lot of thought to the future of the site and what we'd like to accomplish.
I know we've alluded before to big changes on the site, and we were waiting for the right moment when we had everything together, to announce them. So here's the deal, dear readers.
We're doing a redesign--hopefully to be completed by the new year--that will change Feministing from a blog to a community site where readers and commenters can create their own profiles, blogs, and more. It's going to bad ass. Here's just a sampling of stuff that Feministing readers will be able to do when the upgrade is complete:
Create personalized profile pages with (if you'd like) personal info like a photo, interests, your location; a list of all of your comments; a list of posts, forums, and comments that you recommend;
Create your own blog housed on Feministing (if you're unfamiliar with diaries, check out sites like DailyKos and MyDD) that other readers and commenters will have access to;
Rate posts and comments that you like, and see Feministing posts and diaries that are highly recommended by other users.
And so much more.
We're really excited about this, because it means that we'll be community-building, not just blogging. Now, anyone can sign up to create their own diary--but as part of our ongoing effort to bridge online and "real life" activism, we're also going to be inviting certain women's organizations to start diaries that we'll highlight on Feministing. We're hoping that this will not only help to shine a light on the important work that women are doing across the country, but that it will also get these organizations more involved in online work. But most importantly, we want to do this upgrade so that we can open up Feministing to everyone who wants to get involved. Whether it's writing a blog, advocating for an organization, or just reading--we want Feministing to be a one-stop online activism shop.
Here's where you come in. Part of the reason we started taking more ads was so we could afford this upgrade and, in the future, start to pay our writers and tech folk (who do this all for free). We've estimated that the upgrade (software and pay for techies) is going to cost us around 5k--no small amount. So were asking for your help. If you come to Feministing and enjoy our content, please, consider making a donation. We want to create the best site that we can for our readers, but we can't do it alone. If you can't make a donation, consider sending our call for cash out to feminist friends.
All of us here hope you're as excited as we are about the upcoming changes to Feministing. We'll be answering questions in comments about the upgrade--so feel free to ask away.
Thanks, as always, for all of your support. It's the readers and commenters of Feministing that inspired this move, and we wouldn't be anywhere without you. Kisses.
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sounds great! looking forward to it. thanks for all of your hard work. feministing has become a crucial part of my workday. all you have to offer makes staying informed about gender/women's issues so interesting and (gasp!) fun.
when I get my next paycheck, I will be sure to float some cash your way.
this is so incredibly cool. i'm way excited.
so, like MLEmac, come payday, i'll be sending you ladies some cash.
Hooray!
Sounds fantastic, I'm SUPER excited, TOTALLY stoked,... and, um, I left my thesaurus at home.
But I think you get the gist! :)
Hooray for Feministing!
Thanks, folks! And remember, if you have any questions...I'm here.
i think i just creamed myself --- i've never had such an amazing orgasm!!!
Will the discussion and personal page areas be searchable by outside folks or will registration be required to view those areas?
Also, can I create a new identity to ditch some of my less well-considered posts of the not-too-distant past?
Yes, you can create a new identity. :)
As for the forums, I believe we're going to require registration--but I have to double check.
Why not use a free solution like Drupal to save yourself some cash? I can't help thinking it must be much more extensible and flexible than MT, though I haven't evaluated MT in a while and have never looked at their community solution. I'd be happy to swap some email with you about pros and cons if you'd like to investigate this other option.
My humble contribution is on its way! Thanks for all the hard work and all the best in the future.
Excellent, I'm happy to read about the exciting new developments. Since I'm all job having now, I'll certainly make a donation.
Daryl, we discussed Drupal a bunch and all of our techie experts thought we should go with MT for various reasons. The Community Solution looks pretty amazing, I'm excited about it.
This is the best thing that's happened all day!
:-D
I'm really excited that my favorite site on all the internets is going to be even more time-consuming. :D My time spent on Feministing is happy time.
I admit, I have little bit of old-lady-technology-anxiety upon hearing about all of the new features, but I'm sure I'll be able to adjust.
this is awesome! I might look into creating a new handle as well.
I wish I could donate but we're still on strike out here and I'm going to have to start looking for a new job in the new year if it continues to go until March like people are saying it is. *sigh* but once i have that I'll donate:)
Looking forward to the new Feministing!
UltraMagnus--I'm so sorry to hear that! I hope it all works out for you...
I'll figure out a way to include y'all in my Christmas budget ;).
I will look forward to the new community features. As someone still very much trying to find her sealegs as an activist ('net and otherwise), it sounds lovely to have stronger networking with all of you. You've really given me a wonderful sense of intellectual and activist community over the past year.
I hope we will still be able to access the feministing archives? I keep all my favorite posts bookmarked, and do refer to them for teaching, research, etc. . . .?
Congrats to everyone! I admit that I'm sort of anxious about these new developments. I tend to fear change. Will the main feature still be posts from you all? I hope the site isn't going to be too complicated because I love it's simplicity right now (just scrolling down for different threads).
I have to ask that if people decide to change their handles, alert the group! I feel like I *know* some of you and don't want to get confused!
SarahMC, yes--the main content will still be posts from us. And believe me, we're concerned about things getting too complicated as well--all of this will be very very user friendly.
I think I speak for everyone when I say...uh, awesome.
Will there be forums?
/me loves forums
I am 98 percent sure there will be forums.
Yes. I have the same concerns as SarahMC.
I won't have to wade through the "peanut gallery" to find articles by Jessica et al, will I?
Also, one concern I DO have is that I feel like this group is small and cohesive enough to actually have relevant discussions. I'm not a fan of Daily Kos (for various reasons I've probably expressed before) for one, because I feel like it's a free-for-all. They're not very good at controlling abuse/hijackingover there, in my opinion. I suspect that that has more to do with volume than negligance.
I'm just scared that my favoritist website is going to change!
I hear you, nerdalert-but believe me, we're going for more monitoring--not less! The hope is that with comment ratings, etc, that the crappy troll comments will get pushed out and our community comments will get pushed to the front. And trust me, there will be no wading to find our posts--we're wa-ay too egotistical for that. ;)
What we're thinking is that the main page will stay very much the same--all of our posts. Diaries will be housed elsewhere, but with links to them on the main page. From time to time we'll also do "diary rescues" where we point out a post or a diary we think folks should pay particular attention to.
Also, if folks have suggestions for stuff they'd like to see on Fem in terms of the upgrade--let us know now (and here)!
Very cool!
I suggest if you are computery enough to implement an ad-free site for big donators (more than X$) you do so. Just as a little reward...
It might be more work than its worth for you though..
Geeky_girl, that's a great idea. I'll look into it...
I am so serious when I say that I am personally very excited about these changes and think any opportunity to form a stronger community is AWESOME. (And as soon as I get up to check the mail - which could be a couple hours - I'll get my debit card and donate.)
Even though I'm writing a hella-long paper, I'm doing it with more va-voom now.
I am all in - tho I guess I am just one of the peanut gallery. BRAVA! Look for a donation from me.
this is exciting! will it be sort of like myspace but for feminists? I like the idea of an ad-free site for people who donate.
This is effing fantastic. Feministing, despite how great it already is, has kicked it up a notch. Bravo. I'm so thrilled.
Maybe kind of off topic, but since this is about the site, what's up with TMZ being in the ads? TMZ is kind of objectifying in the way they treat people in general. Can you not control what advertisements pop up?
Teresa, I didn't notice any TMZ ads...I'll look into it and see if they're on our advertiser list. We can control ads to some extent. We don't take the ads directly, we do it through another party - but we are sent notifications when a new advertiser gets on board and we have the option of saying no (like, we said no to Walmart and Axe).
holla! i just gave some $$. love!
This is really exciting! It'll be cool to have a community page representing people I actually share values with.
I think that this is going to be really cool. Feministing seems to have not only become a sort of feminist hub, but also a place for young/new feminists to get their grounding and to start understand feminism, the media and also how blogs work. I can personally credit the site with some of that. To turn it into more of a community, with the proper kind of moderation in place, I think could only be a good thing for those coming to understand what feminism is all about. And there's absolutely nothing bad about newer feminists being introduced to a broader range of feminist views from the outset.
Thanks, everyone!
And Cara--exactly. With moderation stuff, we're also hoping that the community aspects will lead to more community moderation (i.e., a shitty antifeminist commenter will get low ratings, etc) which is also exciting. I'm really stoked, I've been thinking abut doing this for a while, so it's really cool to see stuff finally start to come together. Now let's see if we get everything up and running by the new year!
By the way, from all of your generous contributions--we've already raised $400!!! You guys are amazing, thank you so much.
Zoe Ann Nicholson: I wasn't trying to be insulting by using the phrase "peanut gallery!"
What I intended to convey was that if the site allows *anyone* to write a diary/blog, the number of posts will probably drastically increase in volume, meaning the the number of irrelevant/off-topic posts will go up. I just wanted to be assured that the posts by the site creators will be salient. I wasn't trying to be all, STFU n00b or anything. :) I was thinking along the lines of the MRA crowd when I said "peanut gallery."
Yay! I think this is a fantastic idea. I've recently been thinking about some of the limitations of just a blog and the way it sets up a bit of a thought hierarchy between bloggers and commenters, so only a few people have any control over what we get to talk about (though of course, you ladies are always very nice to post things commenters bring to your attention). I always think allowing for more prominent voices is a good thing, especially in a social movement.
Anyway, this is all a long way of saying: I think making this more of a community is a brilliant idea! :)
I am a (very) poor college student, but I get paid next week and I'll give as much as I can (I can't promise it will be much unfortunately :( ) to help this plan move along.
And there will still be Monday Monty blogging?
That is awesome! I can't wait! :)
this sounds grrrrrrreeeeeaaaaaaaaaatttt! I'm so pumped, but to second many other, a little apprehensive--I love feministing the way it is now, but I'm pretty sure it can only get better.
Also, I just hope that over-moderation won't be a factor (although i don't think it will be) I don't like "dialogue" with people who purposefully stunt conversation, but I also don't like agreeing all the time with everyone. :)
and finally, a big thanks to the whole feministing crew for having a fantabulous blog that will only be getting even more fantabulous
IM SO EXICTEED!!! I always wanted something like this. Everyone on here is so awesome and I wanted to be able to communicate with some of them or know more about them. YAY!!! I love you guys.
Yay! I love having a salary (even if it's a very small one!) so I can donate to causes like this! With some sites, I'd be skeptical of their efforts to make it more community based, but I trust all of you Feministing ladies to pull this off successfully. Can't wait to see the new look!
Oh I am very excited!!
What you might consider doing is instituting "paid accounts" where members can pay a small monthly fee (those add up very fast!) which is allot easier to manage for those of us with fixed budgets.
I would be happy to add feministing to my internet subscriptions (like world of war craft, lol) and it would be much easier than a one time payment which won't be as large as I would like to donate!
I think this is a fantastic idea. One of my goals over the Winter Break (I work at a university) is work on creating my own blog. I can't think of a better way to entering into the cyberworld than through Feministing.com!
Will the forums be more like a Livejournal, or more like a comment thread? And can I preemptively ask that people not be allowed signatures on the forums? Nothing more annoying than blinky shit and baby pictures and every quote ever at the bottom of every post.
I am having a little trouble picturing this... but its still exciting, even if I haaaaaaate change.
That sounds like it's going to rock. I don't have any money right now, but maybe next paycheck I'll be able to donate a little.
Sounds amazing! I know I'll be around since I love Daily Kos and the structure there. Troll rating has worked well there as a form of community moderation, IMO. It's not perfect for sure but it's usually better than the alternatives, in my limited experience.
This is a brilliant idea. Go for it, and I look forward to the results!
Finally a feminist online group! Yay.
Cyberfeminism really will change the world.
sounds to me like feminist myspace except more educational and important.
in other words, i love it!
Yay! I'm so exited!
Actually I'm trying to figure out a way to donate... for I am not in the lucky position to be credit-card-worthy. Perhaps I can bribe my man to letting me use his paypal account.
Girls - you realy make my online hours go up and up and up... but every minute on feministing is worth it!
I figured I could squeeze a little $$ out of my holiday gift-buying budget to make a donation. Looking forward to the upgrade!
How would these comment ratings work -- would they perhaps be based on a 1-to-5 scale and display a current average, like at AlterNet?
You don't really know whether you're getting accurate feedback with that system -- whether a 1 or a 5 represents a fair consensus or just one jerk who always rates everything either 1 or 5.
I think this is the greatest idea since sliced bread!
I've been an avid feministing reader for about a year now and the site even encouraged me to start my own blog. With the new changes, feminists can have profiles and write their own entries, not just in the way of comments! This is terrific!
I think something really needs to be said for cyberfeminism like wackychick786 mentioned. This could be a great opportunity for feminists to start up an online community and be able to notify each other about activism and events to check out. Also, you could have a "meet up" type area where feminists can get together in their local areas because i am sure you have readers from all over on this site!
Awesome work ladies!!! :)
This is excellent news and a great idea to expand this site into an even wider community. I look forward to getting to know more people here.
I just wanted to respond to what Jessica posted earlier about rejecting ads from WalMart...Thank you! I know that there has been conversation about WalMart and their negligent practices, but such conversation MUST continue. Aside from the atrocities they commit that are gender-related, I know (unfortunately) first-hand that they don't always carry out proper procedure when it comes to their firearms and ammunition. While I am in the process of handling it in the courtroom, I strongly encourage everyone to speak out against such negligence anyway you can, and Feministing did a great job of that by saying NO to their ads.
Demand excellence in every way from the corporations and organizations that you support; demand it in their labor practices, demand it in their product safety, demand it in their advertising choices, and demand it in their consumer safety decisions.
Feminist love from a blogging newbie...this post is to honor my father.
I just wanted to respond to what Jessica posted earlier about rejecting ads from WalMart...Thank you! I know that there has been conversation about WalMart and their negligent practices, but such conversation MUST continue. Aside from the atrocities they commit that are gender-related, I know (unfortunately) first-hand that they don't always carry out proper procedure when it comes to their firearms and ammunition. While I am in the process of handling it in the courtroom, I strongly encourage everyone to speak out against such negligence anyway you can, and Feministing did a great job of that by saying NO to their ads.
Demand excellence in every way from the corporations and organizations that you support; demand it in their labor practices, demand it in their product safety, demand it in their advertising choices, and demand it in their consumer safety decisions.
Feminist love from a blogging newbie...this post is to honor my father.
I don't know how I feel about a comment-rating system or user-rating system or whatever. I'm imagining things getting too cliquey or arbitrary. Hmmm. I just think too many things could go wrong with that.
JenLovesPonies, I agree about the signatures thing, and I particularly like the "blink shit" image.
I can just imagine my next round of term papers and finals in April. Feministing will have an even bigger chunk of time spent procrastinating!
(Also, I have no paycheck right now, but I'm working over the holidays when I go home, so that's when Feministing gets its cut.)
I've been ponderin the idea of the comment-rating-system and I share the doubts of SarahMC.
What about a "Flag as inappropriate"-thingie instead of this 1-5 rating?
In this way, you can prevent the forum from getting cliquey and still have the advantage of warning of trolls and dipshits.
I agree with the above - a troll flag instead of a rating system would be more in keeping with the feministing spirit.
I think starting a diary would be great for various organizations - I wonder if there could be some geographic organization of diaries, too - so that readers could find groups, events, etc. in their area, easily.
What worries me most about this impending development is the knowledge that I will soon be even LESS productive at work than I am now. :)
This is fantastic and exciting. I just sent a donation.
very exciting! so happy for you!
Late to the party (as is usual with me when money is involved) but I've made my own small contribution. I'm so glad to hear about all the exciting changes. I'm especially looking forward to the user profiles and blogs. Heck, I might even keep mine updated.
Yay for community building, and double-yay for all the fabulous women of Feministing.
Dang, it's like you read my mind, Jessica! I am looking forward to the new features. I can kick in little, but I can kick in. I am so behind this. Thanks!
I come back from being out of town to read this announcement. EXCITING! It's really close to what I always had in mind for this site - for it to be an online community forum so that we can all interact a lot more. HURRAH!
I would encourage Feministing to set up a way that people can make standing donations (like $2 comes out of our bank accounts every month) so that the site remains sustainable. That way there won't be such highs (I'm sure with this announcement you've received a lot of donations) and lows (as having to take on the intrusive google ads to generate money for this upgrade).
Again, congratulations on building such a fabulous blog and soon to be community forum! :)
with the extra money that you raised (hooray!) have you thought about doing some things to make sure that the site is accessible to users of different abilities? i run a health website, and our last redesign/revamp gave us a great opportunity to make some easy changes that made the site easier to navigate if someone is using a screenreader or has trouble navigating a mouse, for example. just a thought!
It sounds too great for words. Thank you for being such a great influence and voice for women everywhere- I love you and am so proud of Feministing. Keep kicking patriarchal butt!