Pandorapress needs writers!

[gruso]

Hey all


Can I first offer a HUGE thanks to foxblock for keeping Pandorapress rolling single-handedly while I was absent. Fantastic job mate. The whole community appreciates it.


Now it's time to take some pressure off the man. Obviously I'm back, but I don't think I can keep up the same level of posting as I used to. So we're looking for two or three people who would be interested in helping out with:

• Regular production updates (based on ED's posts and Craig's tweets for the most part)
  
• Software releases, projects of interest, any other Pandora-related news
  
• Software reviews
  

There are no qualifications needed - we're all just volunteers and Pandorians! - but there are a few loose requirements:

• Good, clear writing. Any examples you could link (or conjure up below) would be helpful.
  
• Basic understanding of HTML (yeah we're using Wordpress, but it's mildly broken). If you know your <img> from your <a href="">, you know enough.
  
• Ability to crop/resize images to specified sizes.
  

And here are some things that don't matter:

• Perfect English. As long as your stuff is informative and/or fun, it doesn't matter.
  
• Deadlines. No pressure, no whipcracking, no expectations. (Although between everyone, the blog should really get at least one post per day).
  
• 'The company line.' Pandorapress is a news service for the community, not an opinion platform. But it's not State run media either. Writers are allowed to have opinions, as long as they're free of hate and vulgarity, and mindful of why we're posting there in there in the first place - for the benefit of fellow Pandora peeps.
  

Edit: Just reading that, it might sound to newcomers like the blog is an arm of OP Ltd or something. It isn't. It is a 100% community run blog, founded and maintained by Pandora fans.


...so, anyone interested? If so, link, paste or write some of your own work below. (If you're going to write something new, maybe pick a Pandora app and do a mini-review!). There are a couple of PMs incoming too.


Gruso

 

[Blue Protoman]

Maybe I can help, but since you mention HTML coding, I'll have to wait until I go over it in Web Design. Also, I'd need a Pandora, of course. Will a position still be open in the spring?

 

[moxie]

Hm - Sounds interesting! Lessee:


Handles pictures - Check! (I do know how to scale images when I'm not specifically requested to do hi-res macro stuff )


Handles HTML - Check!


Handles text - Fairly, I think.


Might be a good way to do something in the community, since I'm crap at actually coding or something :huh:


What level of commitment are you pondering? A quick estimate on my part would be that writing something once a week-ish might be reasonable. Given that I haven't recently been up-to-date on reading all parts of the forum, I'd imagine I'd better not go for the stop-the-press-hot news kind of things (since when I find them, they might not be so hot any more), but rather do reviews or write up release info and stuff like that. One possibility, of course, would be that one of our esteemed blog czars spots something newsworthy (Aha! My pipe sense is tingling! There is an important update about the cases on Craigs brothers dogs twitterfeed) and then pass it on - "Oy! This needs to be written about! *linky*".


Anyways, sounds interesting. As an example of sligthly longer works, I present my recent posts about shoulder buttons and my dear beloved pandora. The latter might not be a paragon of critical writing, but you have to take into consideration that we are in love and will get married once we get to Vegas.

 

[DaMummy]

this calls for an Angry Pandora Nerd

 

[agent_orange]

Hey Gruso,


Funny that, I was planning to post today a rallying/recruitment call for writers too. My blog (see sig) focuses on the highs and lows of being a Pandorian, guides, weekend projects together with the odd review. Seeing that we're both looking for additional writers, while I would like to keep my blog going, theres no point having TOO many blogs covering similar topics, perhaps its worth me joining you guys if you are interested.

 

[banjeed]

I've got nothing to add aside from the fact that I check everything...every day...about 15 times a day. Shut up! I can stop any time I want! *frantically itches arms*

 

[jocejrod]

hahaha, same boat here...

 

[chole]

I expect to have my competing website, filled with exciting reviews and how-tos, open in about two months.

 

[Coldbird]

I dont mind contributing Pandora app reviews in case you guys need that.

 

[Eridger]

I'd love to help, if I can. I know a good bit of html (thought I black out when people mention anything regarding complex javascript) and am known to be a pretty decent writer. I don't post here too much, but I'd definitely be on top of things when it comes to posting updates.


The only thing I'm unfortunately unable to fulfill is the product review sample... oh, hang on! I wrote a review once for, uh... an audio program... something with an 'A'... Audacious? Audacity? I'll see if I can dig that up. If I can't I'll try to write a little review of some program that's been ported to the Pandora, since I don't have one myself yet.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Audacious. Do not confuse it with Audacity.

 

[rabidpoobear]

I posted in the other thread on gp32x. my old handle is rabidpoobear. some of you may remember me.


I originally said I'd write reviews / tutorials once more Pandoras were shipping.


I'd still like to do that.


As for my qualifications - I took 2 years of Journalism in high school, my mother has a masters in Linguistics (so I've been taught how to write fairly well - don't let my forum posts fool you!) - and I have a masters in Computer Science myself. So I'd be most interested in writing app development / porting / intro to Pandora programming tutorials, and things like that. Not sure if that's got a place on the blog or not, but if those sound like things you'd like (or you can think of similar things) I'm happy to author them up.


Also, I'm a first-day preorderer and my pandora's on the way, so I'll be able to write all this from first-hand experience.

 

[gadgetoid]

I'd love to contribute guides/software reviews if I can find the time. I've got 8+ years under my belt writing freelance and running my own outfits. As my own efforts to shoe-horn Pandora coverage into Gadgetoid have yet to amount to much, I might as well contribute to the somewhat more community accepted news outlet.


I'm sure I'll be able to rustle up some accessory coverage, too. I've got a half ton of gubbins knocking about that beg to be tested with the ol' Pandy when I finally get my hands on mine.


I've got plenty of industry contacts who I could bring to the table, too, if you're interested in getting samples of Pandora-compatible products for review.


I'll probably find it easier to contribute in expertise and samples than I would writing time- whilst I'm good at blatting out articles, I'm pretty terrible at doing it in a timely fashion, or finding a moment to do photography.

 

[Eridger]

I've got 8+ years under my belt writing freelance and running my own outfits.

F*ck. You win.

 

[foxblock]

To elaborate a bit more on what Gruso said:


Some "projects" we are looking for people for:

• Periodic news posts - these can be about everything, production, new software releases, etc. - they usually don't require much of your own writing, but quoting an original source and supplying some introductory text (neutral style of writing preferred), also posts tend to be fairly short, but they should be written shortly after the news was posted, so checking the forum often is kind of required
• A weekly review column where you review a (bunch of) new program(s) or game(s) - these require more effort as you have to write more by your own - short video posts would be nice, but are not required
• Weekly "update" post summarizing all events in the last week (just an idea)
• Also I have some projects of my own, which someone could work on with me (secret stuff *psst* )
• If you have your own idea for a series of posts you are also welcome to contact us and we will see whether it fits the style of the blog

Eventually how much time you want to invest comes down to you, if we can get 1-3 people for the first point (news post) you don't have to write about everything you see or can coordinate it with the other guys.


If you want to write a bigger post, let's say every month, to review one game in whole, you can do so, too, I guess.


We are a team, so things have to be coordinated and you should be able to work with other people.


foxblock out

 

[gadgetoid]

F*ck. You win.

I wasn't aware it was a competition?


Ultimately, experience means little when it comes down to writing engaging, entertaining and enlightening articles. Although a certain level of practised literacy helps, we're the sort of community to forgive such things. For starters, English isn't even the native language of many of us (mostly those from the USA, ho ho ho!) so a literacy pissing contest this is not.


It all boils down to how enthusiastic you are about the Pandora, how much free time you have to spread that enthusiasm and how great an attention span you have.


Experience and enthusiasm aside, I've little time and no attention span... as anyone who ever heard of my very brief attempt at a GP2X community website could attest to.


So, ultimately, you probably win. But I'm always around on the sidelines for PR contacts, advice, and whatever else I can offer without expending too much time. (not that I don't have time, but rather I'm easily distracted)


@foxblock - I love the weekly summary idea. I find it extremely difficult to stay abreast of just what's going on in the Pandora community, what's been released, what's been updated and what interesting things I could be playing with. A weekly digest of current events would be fantastic, and anyone who could regularly put this together would have my loyal readership. It would be doubly nice as a mailing list.


Edit: And if you need help fixing up your WordPress blog, that's right up my street. I dare say you could use some mild aesthetic improvement, too, but definitely keep the straight-to-the-point clean look.

 

[foxblock]

Edit: And if you need help fixing up your WordPress blog, that's right up my street. I dare say you could use some mild aesthetic improvement, too, but definitely keep the straight-to-the-point clean look.

Thanks, atomicthumbs manages the server and blog backend, I dunno why he has not been able to fix it, Gruso talked about that with him a long time ago.


I agree the blog could use some overhaul, we will see what can be done about that (I would go for a slightly wider layout, too).

 

[DaMummy]

i can only recommend more then 2-3 posts on front page if youre trying to put together a team of 5+ people

 

[trevj]

When my Pandora arrives and I've had time to experiment with it, I'd be more than happy to write a couple of one-offs covering the following:

• Acorn BBC micro emulation
  
• RISC OS
  

I'd love to be able to commit more than that, but unfortunately I don't have the time


While my technical knowledge may leave a little to be desired, I believe...

*spellchecks post*

... that I can write clearly. I also currently write ARM updates (on a voluntary basis) for Archive magazine.

 

[sverm]

Hm - Sounds interesting! Lessee:


Anyways, sounds interesting. As an example of sligthly longer works, I present my recent posts about shoulder buttons and my dear beloved pandora. The latter might not be a paragon of critical writing, but you have to take into consideration that we are in love and will get married once we get to Vegas.

I've read through a few of your recent lengthy-ish posts which, written by a few others might have been tl;dr. So I'll vouch for you, mate. I'd offer my own time as I also do end-user documentation in my work duties, but am rather short on time. As an example, yesterday, with all the cleaning, the dishes, the feeding of the offspring, not to mention the purchasing of required food, I had all of fifteen minutes to play with my Pandora before I was fried and ready for bed. That is the shortest amount of time I've spent with it any given day so far, since receiving it a week ago.