HawaiiStories: How Now, HawaiiStories?

June 03, 2004

How Now, HawaiiStories?

What has HawaiiStories done for you lately? What do you love, and what needs work? Are things as they should be? Do we need more fresh faces? Do we need a new direction? While our family continues to grow, things are sometimes slow. And with some of the talkstory spirit spreading to sister site HawaiiThreads.com, it can't hurt to ask, "What's next?"

I have to admit, I'm torn between the two sites when it comes to fun and friendly conversation. Half the things I think to post I share here, the other half there. But there's bound to be overlap. A couple of folks have already asked, "Why'd you start that site? What's the difference?" And it's a fair question.

HawaiiStories was founded on the cheesy catchphrase, "Talkstory for the 21st Century." Its mentors, as mentioned on the About Us page, were largely other community sites. Specifically, community weblogs, where weblog authors (okay, bloggers) collaborated to post witty thoughts and fun links and interact with one another. The other half of the equation was weblog hosting: helping people with Hawaii ties start publishing online, people who otherwise might not have the access or expertise to build their own site.

One pitfall, however, was access. Ironically, it was both too limited, and too open. Too limited in that, to participate fully here, you'd have to be a blogger, or be willing to become one (we made exceptions, but still, mostly for people who are pretty web savvy). Too open in that, as spammers (and grafitti artists) have proven time and time again, any joker could post anything anywhere as a comment, leaving us to clean up the mess. Many great voices were locked out, yet I could also wake up one morning to a page full of libelous or obscene content.

Enter Movable Type 3.0, a major upgrade to the system that runs most of this site (although our newer tenants are using WordPress). The kerfuffle over the new licensing scheme, which would basically make community weblogs like these too expensive to maintain as merely a hobby, forced me to consider an engine swap. And that led me to wonder... as long as we're facing a tune up, it couldn't hurt to take a new look at the road map.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with things now. I like the spirit and tone of this great group. As Macpro said in the upgrade thread, "If it ain't broke don't fix it." Surely, "slow" is relative. We've seen fewer than ten posts a month since March, but for many folks, that's still plenty. And a site with too much material can be just as bad. HawaiiThreads.com certainly has the potential to see dozens of new topics a day. That would be insane here.

So, if you feel we're in a good groove, say so. But if you're also open to a change, what would work for you?

Do we just need to fire up our base, as it were? Get juices flowing again, maybe seek out some fresh voices? Blogging's all the rage, after all. There are thousands of islanders on Xanga, LiveJournal, and who knows where else. There's no shortage of potential new family members, that's for sure.

Here's what I'm thinking. And I'd really like your feedback.

Maybe HawaiiThreads.com, with its generally open access and broad, parallel topic areas, can grow up to be the new talkstory hub. You don't need a blog or an account set up to post... just an opinion (and an e-mail address). It'll be all about the conversation.

Then, HawaiiStories can focus on what, in a way, sits at its heart: our stories. Specifically, personal storytelling, online journaling, and someday again, fiction and poetry. Rather than the weblog link-this, click-that model, HawaiiStories would focus on what a lot of us do already — write, reflect, respond. We'd really emphasize site hosting, expressly to provide a venue for expression. And instead of posting the latest funny site or random thought to the main page, we'd instead take turns announcing and highlighting our latest entries, our latest stories that we'd especially like to share. For a good idea of what I have in mind, see both the Austin Journalers and Austin Bloggers sites, or even the 3WAction.com community. Whether on a separate site or hosted at HawaiiStories, this site could shift from posts and comments to being a way to find the latest writings of Hawaii people.

Okay, so that was a lot more than I intended to write, but I hope I've not scared you away. Basically, the questions I started with are the ones for which I'd love to hear your answers. I hope you'll venture a reply, and thanks, no matter what, for being a part of HawaiiStories.

Posted by Prophet Zarquon at June 03, 2004 12:38 AM

Comments

Posted by Hawaii Observer on June 3, 2004 2:03 AM:

Aloha Prophet Zarquon,

If you think changes can add to the site, by all means give them a try. The only thing I would not like to see changed is the static URLs of published blog pages.

Some of the articles I wrote has been indexed as far as Albania and Brazil; mentioned from Whatreallyhappened.com to Slashdot. We don't want to give those good folks 404s, do we? :-)

I'm constantly amazed how well run Hawaiistories.com is. Keep up the good work and happy experimenting!

Posted by Keith Kamisugi on June 3, 2004 7:05 AM:

Ryan, I no can write too long li'dat, but wanted fo' make sure I post sumting.

I also want to commend you on an excellent site. I read it at least once a week and like how the postings are conversational and friendly. I sometimes see things here that I don't see anywhere else.

Keeping it organic is a good way to go.

Maika`i!

Posted by hayneyz on June 3, 2004 7:51 AM:

The changes you propose are certainly good ones. I think they would provide an organized direction for each area while providing well for each individual's personal web habits and without limiting communication. Also, they wouldn't change the user core and with the ability to more easily add new voices without the blog requirement, via HawaiiThreads.com, while continuing to encourage the current ones, would hopefully add much to the conversation on both sides.

That's just my $.02 and I fully trust your judgement on this.

Posted by Linkmeister on June 3, 2004 9:35 AM:

Er, um, I guess I should go check out HawaiiThreads, huh? I had no idea it was quite the going concern that it's apparently become.

I haven't really studied what the economics would be of keeping this site running on MT; I like it as is, but maybe the new licensing scheme precludes its continuation.

Posted by Albert on June 3, 2004 10:08 AM:

Well, as I say on the link to hawaiithreads.com on my Hawaii page: "the best Hawaii-related discussion group on the net"

Posted by Chris on June 3, 2004 11:57 AM:

I feel bad that I have never managed to post something on Hawaiistories, even though I've been a member for at least a year, probably more. Blogging used to be something I did for fun, something that would keep me occupied while I was bored. More and more nowdays, I find my time stretched thinner and thinner between work, family, friends, and my myriad hobbies.

For a while I didn't even have time to visit all of the blogs I used to read, including this one. I stumbled across it again a couple weeks back, and I feel a yearning to finally take my place with everyone. Now to just think of something terribly clever to post! Muaha!

Posted by Leimamo on June 3, 2004 4:25 PM:

Aloha Ryan,

First of all, I want to thank you again for all your support in setting up my blog.

I don't know how HawaiiStories has changed from what it used to be since I've not been here as long as other people, but I liked what I saw and kept coming back to check the site. Eventually, I became an tenant here and couldn't be happier with my decision.

I'm sure whichever way you decide to take HawaiiStories you'll do an excellent job with it.

Posted by Ryan on June 4, 2004 6:22 AM:

If I buried it in all my rambling, don't worry, the weblog hosting element will not change at all. That is definitely in line with the "stories" part of HawaiiStories.

The question is, what do we use this main page for? Keep it the way it is, for the occasional thought-provoking topic (serving things up, perhaps, at a more thoughtful pace than over at HawaiiThreads.com), or turn it into a portal for our individual personal writings, where we'd individually post links to and excerpts from our latest journal entry or weblog post (like the sites linked above)?

Posted by macpro on June 4, 2004 10:09 AM:

HawaiiStories' front page is fine as it is now, though I can see the reason why you may want to change.. the simple fact is that HawaiiThreads is attracting more users, posts, topics, etc... perhaps at the expense of HawaiiStories.

That said if you plan to keep this version of Movable Type, then for sure keep this place as is.

If you are planning to change the entire software (away from Moveable Type), then a portal site would do fine.

Whatever you do, keep people's blogs that are hosted here, their photo albums (I occasionally like to look at these) and the links to our external blogs and sites.

Posted by R-Lan on June 4, 2004 12:39 PM:

I like the way HS is right now as a means to start up thought provoking topics. But when comments start coming in to "overflowing" (not that it happens all the time), it seems more fit for a discussion board. But it easier to manage here because there isn't the potential for thousands of threads appearing at one time.

I also am pulled to HS becoming a Portal site as I'd like to have an easy way to see which of HS Ohana blogs are recently updated and if that particular entry interests me. Having a short excerpt and link to member blogs would be a godsend. However, you then would have to worry about how the listing goes and how often the list updates. List them like blo.gs where you have one listing per blog per day if it has been updated? Or do you have a set amount of listings show on the homepage and keep listing the recent updates, even if one blog has more than one update for any one day? Another thing to worry about is content. Since most are personal blogs, there's the chance of mature or whatever content appearing. Although I don't have any risque entries, per se, I do on occasion have harsh language. And not just in my post but sometimes the subject line too. Is this a concern?

I don't know. I love the Portal idea but also what's currently here because looking at HawaiiThreads, I'm overwhelmed with all the content. Here, it has a nice pace to it.

Is there a way to do both?

Just got a flash... if HS became a portal site, wouldn't it be similar to ricebowl journals? hehehe...

Posted by Ryan on June 4, 2004 2:37 PM:

Hmm. I don't think we'd go as far as RBJ does. I'm not interested in "top sites" voting, or (another) forum, or a categorized directory... but otherwise, given the "storyteller" focus (i.e. journals), it's a good comparison.

As to the portal issues, what I had in mind was more a manual system. That is, updates wouldn't show up here automatically whenever a member updates (which could be overwhelming, and could indeed send people to difficult material without proper warning). Basically, you'd log in and plug your latest entry if it's one you're particularly inclined to share. You could set it up, say what you were thinking or what kind of feedback you'd like. This would work both for diary entries as well as pieces of fiction or poetry.

I agree the "discussion" pace here is more leisurely compared to HawaiiThreads.com, but again, I anticipate we'll often be looking at big stories ending up posted and debated on both sites. And I think HawaiiThreads.com is basically set up better for "discussion." Indeed, the "comment" setup here would probably work better for posts where people introduce their writing.

Mel, I would most definitely keep the hosted sites (and would continue to hope to recruit more storytellers), the galleries, and be open to any tools that help members express themselves.

I really think the shift from talkstory here to storytelling won't be all that jarring. But so far the response has been lukewarm... and I'm not exactly in a hurry to tackle a new CMS install right now. So chances are the evolution, if any, will be pretty slow and organic.

Let's put it this way. If members do start posting links to their own writing here, rather than to the general web meme of the day, it won't bother me at all.

Posted by Linkmeister on June 4, 2004 3:14 PM:

R-Lan's second paragraph describes something you can see here. It's an aggregator of about 150 categorized medical blogs.

Posted by Ryan on June 4, 2004 3:28 PM:

Thanks, Link. Services like Kinja let you create your own blog "start page" that automatically tracks when the blogs you read update. As I mentioned, though, I wouldn't want to do that here. Some folks update several times a day, some folks don't start their entries with flowing text... it can make for a weird-looking page.

I think personally crafted invitations to introduce the link work best.

Posted by Mokihana on June 4, 2004 7:00 PM:

Aloha e Prophet Zarquon,

This is a great website. I have never blogged before and am really enjoying it. I tend to do my "stories" here, and then post messages to HawaiiThreads and the Alohaworld Lanai (www.ohanalanai.com). Those two places are more like wala'au, talk story, tease, regular message board kine place.

I'm real grateful for this website, because it's encouraged me to do something I've never done before; and I get to read some pretty awesome stuff that others have posted. Mahalo nui for all your hard work!

Here, I get more "philosophical", more like a journal (blog), more thought out than just whipping out a post on a message board. I generally write good English here... an buss out da pidgin on da lanai oa hawaiistories, because that's, to me, more like talking in real time. I would like to see the idea of our stories preserved here.

I like the differentiation between the two sites, here and the other two.

Posted by Art on June 6, 2004 9:24 AM:

"It's just...it's just... that I've been so busy..."

I know....I know. Who hasn't been busy, right? Excuses, excuses. :)

I'm a little ashamed at the fact that I asked to be included in HS nearly a year ago, was graciously accepted and then went on to make my one and only post. Therefore I feel that I don't really have any right to give input as to which direction HS should move in. Glancing through the comments here, however, I'm inclined to agree with macpro's comment, especially in light of Movable Type's new (co$tly) licensing racket.

Is it possible to do both? That is, adjust the current format so that it operates as a talkstory hub and a portal site?

Posted by NemesisVex on June 7, 2004 10:08 AM:

OK ... Been a bit busy to make it over to this thread since Austin Stories is also my baby, so ...

The weird juxtaposition about this issue is the fact I've been considering adding a weblog area to Austin Stories. There was even an evil part of me who wanted to register hawaii-stories.com and set up my portal there!

I think it's very much possible to combine a portal and community blog, much in the same way Threewayaction combines a BBS community with a portal. I haven't made any steps to that goal myself because there's some technical issues to consider.

I'm not sure how my custom-built portal interface would act with Movable Type, which I use (very rarely) to broadcast news.

I can, however, offer the Austin Stories back end as a platform for a Hawaii Stories portal, now that the code has gotten stable enough to be ported elsewhere.

I've always felt this blog came across more as a BBS than as a community blog in the fashion of Metafilter, and I think it would be appropriate to change the focus of the site, now that an actual Hawaii-themed BBS exists.

Posted by helen on June 7, 2004 11:22 PM:

Ryan wrote:

Then, HawaiiStories can focus on what, in a way, sits at its heart: our stories. Specifically, personal storytelling, online journaling, and someday again, fiction and poetry.

You mean something like the HawaiiStories Fiction site? Where stuff gets entered other than what happens during the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)?

Posted by R-Lan on June 29, 2004 6:51 PM:

Just wanted to pipe in and say that I've made the migration to WordPress. It was not as painful as I feared, though I did cut myself on a few snags. But it's mega-rad.

And although I haven't experienced the full scope of it, I feel for you Ryan, when you have to install another copy of WordPress for a new blog. A five minute install is nothing, but it sure is nicer when you just need to go through an interface (Movable Type) to create a new blog, rather than transferring files to the new directory and going through the install process again.

Posted by Ryan on June 30, 2004 9:59 AM:

Thanks, R-Lan! But don't you worry, I've got WordPress deployments down to a science. I can get one running in five minutes now! No real advantage over adding a new blog to an existing Movable Type install...

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How Now, HawaiiStories?

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