They’re going back to the core ideals of 9rules and that is to be commended. 9rules notes is still, imho, something of a watershed moment and is, still, something the 9rules crew should be very very proud of.

It will be most interesting to see how the new world looks.

BTW: I think what ya’ll are doing is awesome … and brave. Kudos. I miss the “old” 9rules! And chawlk looks like it is going to be even better the the “new” 9rules. Hindsight is 20/20, eh? In a perfect world 9rules would have remained as it was, and chawlk would have been a separate/independent startup completely … But in a perfect world I wouldn’t have left 9rules either! So, there you go! Best wishes as you all move forward with all of this.

2nd point of feed somewhat matching the site. There are people who write about (for example) soccer, design, personal, cooking and politics on one site, which is fine for a personal blog. It’s a nightmare for aggregation. Sure, we can section off soccer via a feed but if someone goes to the site looking for sports and sees cooking, politics and design articles on the front page you can expect the person would be confused. Some topics go fine together like programming and design.

With links (for aggregation), basically what you’d be asking readers to do is click to your site (because the link would be to your site) to click to another site to get the article/information. Just because the links are relevant doesn’t mean the person is going to find value in what you think is cool (links) vs. what you say. I’ve received complaints from readers thinking they are getting a site that produces articles (which our site would show) and wonder about the quality the site. There is a difference providing content to your audience (people that know you) and people who are complete strangers looking for something.

Personally (to save conflicts like this) I put all information that does not appear in my main feed on the sidebar. That’s what the extra space is for – extra stuff lol. You’d be surprised how many people mistake links mixed in with content (asides in the main area) as ads.

There isn’t a cookie cutter approach that will apply to every site. Each site is unique and I try to take it consideration while going through sites.

Thank you for the clarification. And wish me luck, if that’s not cheating.
devin

This:

Thanks for the answer, though I’m still not really clear on what you are saying re: the need for dedicated quality article feeds AND the exclusion of sites that only post quality articles.

Should be this:

Thanks for the answer, though I’m still not really clear on what you are saying re: the need for dedicated quality article feeds AND the exclusion of sites that post things that do not meet the 9rules criteria of quality articles (in addition to quality articles!).

LOL! Not trying to make this more difficult than it has to be, but I do think there is some gray in there …

You asked, “@Shawn – What do you mean do both?”

What do I mean by “what if I do both?” Simply this: I post what I would consider to be quality articles and I post the sort of articles you cite as misfit (short, Kottke-type, blurbs that point to another site or story). However, I neither go off topic, nor do I overwhelm my site with 3rd party stuff. Everything is on topic; in my case, the topic is faith. So, my quality articles AND my short blurbs are focused upon faith or religion. So, I do both (i.e., write quality articles and short news blurbs).

Thanks for the answer, though I’m still not really clear on what you are saying re: the need for dedicated quality article feeds AND the exclusion of sites that only post quality articles. Also, I’m not sure what the official stance is on sites that do publish a variety of genre/media BUT stay focused on one topic. If a 9rules reader, for example, clicked over from my dedicated article feed, they would have no decision to make because everything they would find is relevant to my overall niche/theme.

It seems like a clearer ethos statement is needed, IMHO.

Thanks!

@Shawn – What do you mean do both?

About the articles feed, when I go through sites I am going to be looking at the placement of 3rd party content. When people come to 9rules they are usually looking for something specific – like design (for example). If they want to learn about CSS/HTML and are considering subscribing to a site, if the person also sees personal photos and entries that person will have a decision. Is the CSS/HTML content important enough to receive content in their feedreaders about a stranger they aren’t interested in? That’s why people are experiencing information overload – a ton of off-topic information is being hurled at them. That is 100% understandable.

We need an articles only feed because we are aggregating content. We don’t want the title “Links for 4/17/08″ from Delicious or a Twitter entry that doesn’t have a title showing up. Or worse, the legal disclaimer so that all a viewer sees on 9rules is legalese.

I always use Matt Brett as an example of someone who integrates a lot on his site very well. He talks about games and his life, has his portfolio, Twitter, Flickr, etc. on his site and (most important) the content compliments each other. When someone goes to his site his RSS feed matches his site – meaning, he draws people to his site via the articles and while on the site, readers are greeted with other content they can subscribe too.

Keep in mind (about the separate feeds) if people are clicking from 9rules to a site they expect what they are seeing here to reasonably match what is on the site.

Also, keep in mind that with sites like FriendFeed, SocialThing and apps that allow you to blend various content, the need to combine everything into the main feed is no longer necessary.

If anyone else has any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

… just trying to clarify.

This is more of a question. I started a site so I could write about my favorite topic, travel! So I started blogging about four countries. Then I started receiving submissions from other writers, I made a few videos, began adding news releases directly from national tourism organizations and my little blog got bigger. It also became something else. Now I have feature stories, blogs entries, news releases and video.

I like 9rules and want to be a part of its community. My question. Should I bother applying? On one set of criteria, I am a good fit. On another, I am not what you want.

Just looking to save everyone some time, who might be somewhere in the middle.
devin

;P