It's been months since www.ifgogo.com is online. We post 35 posts and received 397 comments. It's not a big number, for we have 11 authors in all. Actually, in the past few weeks, some friends asked me about the future of ifgogo.com. I did not answer them immediately in details, so that's why you are now reading this post.
At the Chinese Blogger Conference 2007, I introduced ifgogo to some foreigner friends. Most of them were very interested in this idea. But when being asked for the future of ifgogo, three problems are also raised: The first problem, reader-experience first, or author-experience first; The second problem, post regularly, or post at will; The third problem, more authors, or less authors.
I met Xu and Chen in Beijing, but due to some reasons, we did not discuss about ifgogo in details. So here I just want to say something about these three problems:
1) Reader-experience first or author-experience first
Seems to be a good question, but as I think about twice, I get the answer: the authors' experience. The reason is simple: readers' experience is mostly due to the content you provide. However, the content is directly driven by our authors. The authors should be of great interest in sharing wise ideas, some of them should be dedicated to "blogging in English at ifgogo". However, the most very reason to drive an author is the author experience. After all, once the author experience is well designed and the rules(The rules, as well as the privileges for our authors) are well made, I believe the reader-experience will be very great.
2) Post regularly, or post at will
It's not that complicated. As I mentioned above, when the authors feel that writing at ifgogo is a funny job and of great joy, they will be posting interesting stories regularly at will.
3) more authors, or less authors
Once the rules are well made, I think this is not serious. For example, we can put the "top-10 authors of the week" at our homepage as reward. And we can set up a core-team of ifgogo.com
We (Xu, Chen and me) will have some talks later and I am sure we can have some great ideas!
However, if you have any suggestions, feel free to post a comment here!
What a surprise that I am the first commenter this time!
I agree mostly with aw's thinking. I really feel it is a fun to write and post at ifgogo. Since I am too busy nowadays to write more and also due to my age, i didn't write as much as I can... Sorry for that!
I will put more efforts and interests on ifgogo!
PS, when I posted this comment, I found I could only be the second one...lol
Ha, you are the first now.
I saw the first comment but I removed it. It's in Chinese and the commentator was leaving a fake email address(I cannot contact him via Gtalk). Anyway, I saved his comment and it's reasonable but it's not proper to be here. If that comment were on my personal blog, it would be okay.
However, as for the posting frequency, never feel sorry, you did really good already!
We need time and I will start some discussion in the next coming weeks with Xu and Chen, in person.
Any Way, I can understand this well even In English ,But I don't why chinese is be refused here.
Agree. I think your choices are reasonable.
BTW, it's really cool to have a chance to revise the posted comment within 14 min., esp. when the comment was written in English.. (lol)
That makes this site more professional, haha :)
Still no real foreigners are reading this blog. Okay. Let me rephrase it. I mean, there are still no people, who have a huge difference in culture background with us, are commenting on this blog.
I guess there are 2 reasons:
1. The number of HUGE differences in culture background decreases with communication.
2. The authors didn't reach the points where those differences existed.
In my opinion, we can post some more pictures here.
We can also ask for our readers. If someone is interested in the culture of China, or the oversea students' life, he would probably be a reader.
I agree with your comment that more pictures would be nice. For example, since Chinese New Year is coming up, I want to see some more pictures of where everyone is going for Spring Festival. I see lots of pictures of Beijing and Shanghai but not of the various hometowns that everyone is going to. Also, I know there are lots of transit problems right now due to the cold weather. Hope everyone is staying safe and warm!
I agree with you.
You can not understand Reader-experience very clearly, so it is probable to push author-experience out firstly.
Besides if you want this web be more professional and entertaining, it is a good idea to post at will and to invite more authors.
Actually, we are looking for authors with different backgrounds. Actually, the current author-team is very strong. But there are just some reasons that they don't post much. That's a complicated problem.
I am sure that once we are on a smooth run, there would be more and more readers.
I think currently there are several reasons.
1. Most content in ifgogo aims at readers from China, while most Chinese readers can't adapt to English-medium Blog, even well educated college students.
2. If we want to attract foreign readers, we have to put more substantial content online, or even change the current style of ifgogo.
3. It is true that one author's blog may attract a lot of readers---many of whom are attracted by the style of the articles and the content----but we can not ignore the fact that when the medium turns to English, one usually can not keep his original style.
These are just my personal opinions and understanding. BTW, the author application system is a little bit complicated. It is currently necessary for the purpose of controlling the number of author. But I think having 11 authors is not enough for ifgogo. If we want to attract more readers, we need more authors.
Here I have some suggestions:
1. Creat a author finding system and a list of top authors and top articles.
2. Classify all articles into several categories.
3. Simplify the author application system. creat a registration system similar to bbs registration.
So when we come to the index page of ifgogo, what we see is the categories, the top authors and top articles...etc. If we click an author's name, We can go to his or her page and browse his or her blog in ifgogo. Or if we click one category, we see the titles of most recently published and replied articles.
If what I propose really comes true, then ifgogo may become a joint outcome of blog and bbs. To say is one thing and to do is another. It's hard to achieve technically, so these are just some suggestions for discussion ^_^
Cool! Thanks Wong for your great tips.
Actually, I am considering all of your suggestions and the authors will be managed in a fair way. Virtuous circle is needed.
As for the application system, I think I cannot optimize it much. If it is as simplified as a BBS registration, things would also become a mess-up. You feel the application complicated is due to "becoming an author is not that attractive" yet.
Nice to meet you, Aw.
I knew your idea about "Ifgogo.com" on your blog(http://www.awflasher.com) and then I just took some interest in it. I've already read some posts and FAQ's, which made me pay more attention to "Ifgogo.com". Well, as I think "Ifgogo.com" is really a great place for communicating, so I just fell in love with here. Just like you mentioned, "Ifgogo.com" is for sharing and recording, so I decided to share my life and some interesting things. I'm a high school student who love English and Web 2.0 very much(and that's why I read your blog). I think if I, such a little boy(compared with you guys), could be a part of this big family, here would be brought more vitalities by me.
So, what's my idea of the future of "Ifgogo.com"? Reader-experience first. As we all know, "Ifgogo.com" is not a private website but a place for mind-changing between readers and authors. Readers can write down what they think of one post. If there were 100 hundred readers, then there may be 100 hundred different thinkings. And making some good readers become new authors to attract more readers, I think this is a good way to keep "Ifgogo.com" active.
Thanks for your interesting. Nowadays the hi-school students are really of great passion and intelligence, that's great!
Well, welcome to join this funny journey of life! Just send me your information.
Talking about the future of ifgogo, we may recall the initial idea of setting it. Here, I'd like to copy Aw's "About" as follows:
"Ifgogo.com is a blog written in English by people from China or living in China.
It’s just a blog in English. It’s about everything."
I don't think the number of readers or authors is the KEY of ifgogo's life for the time being...... I am quite happy with its specialties of "Chinese in English", putting under the name of ifgogo. This is the only important character ifgogo should keep, otherwise, why should it exist since there are so many websites at which people can post or leave comments in the virtual world!
So, firstly it is the Chinese who write blogs in English, and thus to show Chinese as well as Foreigners how we live, what we think about and how we write these things out in English. Ifgogo can play as a small window opening to the wide world. I do think it is necessary to enlarge our author's team, to let every kind of people who are interested in English to join in. Of course the new authors can not be free registered like that at some open sites. It should be filtered and well managed.
Secondly, we need to find a good way to let more and more people know ifgogo. I quite agree with Chrisding that we may sort out some interesting topics and into several categories, other than only "Normal" there. In this way, ifgogo can be not only driving author's writing, but also arousing reader's interests.
thirdly, our current 12 authors really have some responsibility to post more. It is not a task to push us to do, but an interest to lead us to go, right? And talking about the current application system, I leave it to Aw, Xu, Cat, etc.. I believe they can work out some good way to run ifgogo better.
I do hope this small window ifgogo can be opened larger and larger, and attract more and more people to peek into!
AW, thank you for reading CN Reviews and very appreciate that you tell us what you want to read! And, this is a great site ifgogo.com. I didn't realize that are so many Chinese kids writing in English. This is very exciting.... I want to chat with you sometime online. ttyl.
Happy Chinese New Year! Keep warm!
@AW,
Yes thank you for your advice as a fellow blogger to us at CN Reviews. I read your post with interest about "author-experience" vs. "reader-experience." We have been thinking about it a little differently. At CN Reviews, we have a small initial group of 3 authors, with different writing styles and interests. So we have found that a group blog is very different from a personal blog. Should we have one "vision" and one "voice"? Or one unified "vision" but with many "voices"? Or no "vision" at all? Anyway, thanks for getting me to think about "author-experience. Can we interview you and a few ifgogo.com bloggers to promote your blog? I think Min will want to talk to you about this.
@Lisa,
I love your comment! I think blogging is partly about the destination, but also partly about the journey. So there is a balance between being very goal oriented and being experience oriented. So I agree with your comment.
@Cat Chen,
Thanks to my blogging partner Min introducing me to this blog, I will be reading it. I live in Silicon Valley and am an American (of Chinese descent), so I guess now you have a reader who is a real foreigner with big cultural differences!
@Chrisding,
I also think about this topic a lot as an editor on CN Reviews. Are we trying to build a readership of foreigners interested in China? Or are we trying to build a community of people that can learn from each other because of their cultural differences? Anyway we are just experimenting and seeing where our group blogging experience is going.
Elliott Ng,
Thanks a lots for your comments.
I am happy that you could find ifgogo and then know all of us here. It is really good to have something like ifgogo to be a huge bridge, across which we people with different races as well as cutural backgrounds can share and enjoy each other.
The world is of ours and we have a responsibility to make it more colorful and interesting.....right?
Happy New Year to everyone. Enjoy your time on vacation during Spring Festival. I hope many blessings come to all of you during 2008.
"top-10 authors of the week"
I love that.
Trying to be Top-10 commentators first: ）
I don't really understand how the "top 10 commentators" work! It seems to reset every day or two.