Since we now have a calendar - please can we try and lay off the events promotion posts on this blog. It was never the intention for FBS. It started with delightful Sarah from The Delicious Life doing a little events roundup for everybody and that was really cool, especially as the IMBB site at that time was often not up to date. I am grateful to her for having taken the iniative on that when it was needed. Thanks Sarah!
But now we have the calendar, event hosts can simply pop them in the calendar. I think everyone knows to look there - it is prominent at the top of the roll - and the need of promotions is mute here now.
Sometimes the calendar has too many users and doesn't work for a few minutes. If this happens to you, just try and access it a few minutes later.
Sam
PS - If someone is seriously having problems finding a certain event, say like IMBB, and they cant find it on Sticky Date, IMBB or the FBS calendar, then, of course, in this sort of *dire* situation, it would be fine to post a search requrest for it. Please check all 3 resources first, because no one of them seems to cover the entire spectrum of events.
This Post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh
Thank you for your kind understanding.
13 comments:
A suggestion: Take a look at the calendar BEFORE you choose a date for an event. Some days there are three events happening and this makes it harder for people to participate. Just a thought.
FWIW ... While I LOVE the new centralized calender, I also appreciate the event posts because they're caught on an RSS reader in a way that events placed on the calender are not. This is especially useful for events that aren't as well known or are one-time events or whose hosts change from month to month or ...
Alanna: But event posting was never the purpose of FBS. I don't think we should clutter up a site that purports to teach us how to use our blogs. I come here for the lessons, not for the announcements.
It's Sam's site, and that's how she wants us to use it.
WADR. (with all due respect...)
Just for a bit of context:
It got to the stage where people were emailing me privately (not at the FBS address) to get expediated entry to food blog scool just so they could promote their events, or asking me to promote events on their behalf because they weren't members.
I have already given a lot of time to this blog and am happy to do so, but i don't feel like being an unpaid events promotion manager on top of it.
The calendar takes care of the events. There are other events sites that have rss feeds - Sticky Dates and IMBB. This site NEVER intended to step on their toes, however I did feel we could have an alternative solution for when those lines of communication failed some people, hence the calendar. Non-members can even post to this calendar.
Because of Alana's suggestion I have found some sources for rss calendars too which I will look into when time allows and if there is a suitable one that will be better, I will consider changing over to it.
There are a lot of people who do a lot of giving on this site, a lot of sharing, a lot of helping and educating and I do not wish the site to be overwhelmed by a lot of advertising for events epsecially since so many of them are now weekly. We'll leave that to IMBB and Sticky Date.
Events left on the calendar should be food related.
An RSS calendar would be most excellent, but in the meantime, it is beneficial to everyone to check there first before declaring a new event day, as Amy mentioned.
Sam said: "I do not wish the site to be overwhelmed by a lot of advertising for events..."
And that is a major point in this: starting an event is, pardon my bluntness, a seemingly easy shortcut for a new food blogger to advertise themselves, get on the map and generate traffic, and if Food Blog S'cool turns into a bulletin board for such things, what with the number of new food blogs popping up every week, we'll soon be inundated beyond all manageability.
Oh, and by the way, April is Disgusting Food Combinations month over at Belly Timber!
Kidding. :-)
Which begs two responses:
1) Yay Paul.
2) And, um, Lemongrass Chorizo Cosmopolitans!
yes - thank you andrew
when people email me I always suggest they email you.
When time permits I plan to add a little side link with all this information to help people.
Ok I raise you with a
canned haggis and evaporated milk souffle with marmite raisin coulis.
Oh, yes, Forgot one.
3) Yay Andrew!!
I bow out of the disgusting food combinations; you win.
:-)
Sam wins the disgusting food combination.
FWIW--I think it is reasonable that Sam point folks to the calendar here--the main purpose of FBS has been the education of various bloggers on how to use their software more effectively.
And talk with your friends about digsuting food combinations, of course. ;-)
I'm gonna go be nauseous now.
You guys are making me laugh, and it still hurts when I do that, so stop! :)
Like Sam so eloquently outlined in her post, and Andrew reiterated in the Comments, a quick e-mail is all is takes to be on the IMBB/Sticky Date calendar. As much notice as possible is always good. I'll be adding some things to SD soon, links to round-ups, etc.
And as far as the gross food combination, I can trump you all. When I was in the hospital for my surgery, they served me the post disgusting Chicken Noodle Soup I have ever seen. It tasted like pure chicken fat, which I thought was incredibly ironic since the surgeon was outlining "light" eating for the first few days. At that point, I hadn't eaten in 4 days (save for a 400-calorie/day IV drip) and to make my point to the surgeon that I wasn't being picky, I said I was so hungry, I'd probably eat my gall bladder if it was served the right way ... that's how disgusting the soup looked/tasted. Now top that!
sorry I am new around here and when someone mentioned that I put it here, I didn't even think beyond posting. I have honestly never seen the calendar before.
I guess I am not as well connected and in the know at others. Sorry for starting something. You could have just deleted my post and sent me a private email and I would have understood.
Hi Heather
Apologies if you felt to blame, but this is not the case.
This post wasnt directed at anyone in particular and no one was pointing any fingers or blaming any one person. In fact - no one is being blamed at all, becasue the event promotions were something that evolved naturally over time because the information was lacking elsewhere, but recently became unmanageable for the reasons i pointed out in my earlier comment and also other resources are now available.
The post (in fact it was planned and a draft even before you put up your post) was just to let people know that now we have a calendar, that would would prefer no more event promotion postings.
Sending an email to individuals was not appropriate because it was a message that needed to get across to all our members.
You didnt start anything at all, please dont feel like it is your fault, many people have promoted events on this blog in the past, myself included and none of us are guilty because there is no charge.
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