Tag Archives: processpost

Process Post #12 Writing After Dusk Community Guidelines

This week’s reading about comment moderation was interesting and made me think of how I wanted to regulate my website. As Konnikova (2013) claims” anonymity has also been shown to encourage participation; by promoting a greater sense of community identity, users don’t have to worry about standing out individually”. Therefore, I want to enable commenters to have the flexibility of posting anonymously or through their personal profiles. I want to ensure that Writing After Dusk is a safe space and community for people to connect, and I will do anything to support their needs and concerns. As a result, I will have open comments rather than banning comments since it can produce “less than desirable effects, including a diffusion of responsibility: you feel less accountable for your own actions, and become more likely to engage in amoral behavior” (Konnikova, 2013). I want my audience to communicate freely and passionately about what they think about what I’m writing, and I hope they engage with one another too. My writing will be read and reacted to and will help drive engagement.

Writing After Dusk Community Guidelines:


– Before posting, is it kind, thoughtful, and beneficial to hear?
– Hateful, racist, sexist, misogynist comments are prohibited
– Explicit, rude or aggressive comments are prohibited
– Respect and acknowledge other people’s opinions even if you do not agree
– Respect the privacy of other members
– Bullying, trolling, and harassment is not allowed
– Sharing/plagiarizing my work is not permitted without permission
– Spam and promotional content is not allowed

References:

Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The Psychology of Online Comments. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

Process Post #11: Publics and Counter-publics

“networked publics are both the “space constructed through networked technologies” and the imagined collective that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology, and practice … [T]hey allow people to gather for social, cultural and civic purposes, and they help people connect with a world beyond their close friends and family” (Renninger, 2015).

Renninger (2015) highlights, “SNSs are not inherently good at fostering whatever kind of communication one wants to engage in at any given moment”. I can attest to this as I find reaching new audiences and readers incredibly hard. I have read thousands of ways to attract readers and have been doing the work by posting consistently (once a week on Medium/Thought Catalogue). I had a few loyal readers who would comment on my pieces, and I am ever so grateful for them, but my stats were falling short of where I wanted to be. Looking at stats can be toxic and depressing, so I wouldn’t say I like to do it often, but knowing which pieces people gravitate to the most is helpful. The four affordances of SNSs are “persistence (posts are recorded and archived), replicability (content is easily duplicated), scalability (visibility of posts is great), and searchability” (Renninger, 2015). Out of the four, I execute persistence and scalability fairly well by posting on a schedule and having aesthetic visuals to match the piece I wrote.

To incorporate more transmedia within my blog and to engage my audience, I can create Tik Tok account dedicated to my weekly content pieces of poetry/prose where I do weekly readings. In addition, I can create exclusive content on Tik Tok before it launches on my blog to encourage my followers to follow my journey on Tik Tok since it is such a big app with a broader audience and the ability to get more views. Further, I can create another Tik Tok account dedicated to book reviews on the creative process to generate a conversation and exchange book recommendations that could be featured on my blog. I can also make an Instagram account and easily transfer the Toks to Instagram reels to gain more views and help solidify my audience.

References:
Renninger, B. J. (2014). “where I can be myself … where I can speak my mind” : Networked counterpublics in a polymedia environment. New Media & Society, 17(9), 1513–1529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814530095

Process Post #10 Analytics, SEO, and Audience Growth

According to Data. ai’s, State of Mobile 2022 report people, on average, spend 4 hours 48 minutes on their mobile devices, which equates to 1/3 of our day. This is important to remember because as someone who is cultivating and growing a brand/website, it is important to think about how my website designs translate on mobile devices. I have to consider if my website is accessible and easy to use on mobile devices to capture the attention of more readers. It is essential to have well-functioning and mobile adaptability because that is the new target audience; with Gen Z being a mobile-first society, it is paving the way for the future of technology and media (Data.ai., n.d.).

SEO is another crucial component in a well-functioning website as it enables us to understand and reach readers and can help create better user experiences for them to be captivated (Hollingsworth, 2021). Further, SEO “establish[s] a strong foundation for a beautiful website with a clean, effective user experience that is easily discoverable in search, thanks to the trust and credibility of the brand and its digital properties” (Hollingsworth, 2021). SEO is important to consider when creating a website because our words and hashtags matter to create visibility. A good heading should never be too long, and I heard that the best titles fall short of 6 words. Technology and the internet will continue evolving and changing, but SEO can help us stay relevant.

References:

Data.ai. (n.d.). State of Mobile 2022. Data.ai.
https://posiel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/dataai__state_of_mobile_2022__en.pdf

Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 6). 15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO. Search Engine Journal. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/#close

Peer Review #3: Knitting After Hours

Knitting After Hours is a fantastic blog by Lily that is centered around the creator’s interests such as cooking and knitting. The About Me page eloquently captures the tone and subject matter of the titular blog. However, one aspect I would like to pay great attention to is the personal anecdotes Lily articulates. These personal details are a great touch that effectively conveys the personality behind the Knitting After Hours blog to the audience. Additionally, this personal approach lends credence to the assertions of Tom Critchlow in regard to digital gardening. For example, as cited in our Tanya Basu course reading: “with blogging, you’re talking to a large audience,” he says. “With digital gardening, you’re talking to yourself. You focus on what you want to cultivate over time” (Basu, 2020). Knitting After Hours captures the sense of a digital garden that Lily is fostering for both them and their larger audience. This is exemplified on the About Me page when Lily outlines how cooking and knitting helps them stay focused when conducting their academic responsibilities. It can be inferred that Lily wants to strive to achieve a better schoolwork ethic since it is mentioned on their About Me page that they “put off” assignments and readings. Thus cooking and knitting are great outlets to promote a better work ethic. This instance showcases how these interests help instill balance in their life. Therefore, Knitting After Hours serves as a digital garden that Lily can use to help cultivate better improvements in their life.

Basu, T. (2020). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/03/1007716/digital-gardens-let-you-cultivate-your-own-little-bit-of-the-internet/

Week 10: Process Post

Within the prompt of this week’s process post, I will evaluate it from the standpoint of a creator and a user.

Analytics have proved to be very useful for many to strategically develop engaging content to share. Back when I was active on my fan Instagram account I would use the analytics to discern that 12pm was the best time to post. Additionally, I was able to garner from engagement data that 6 images in a collage worked best for my theme. However, when I was working my co-op jobs as a digital marketing assistant — analytics rarely factored into any actionable strategies. What usually happened was that analytics were just to be reported to the bosses. Personally, I find analytics to be an insightful tool, however it should not inform everything a content creator does.

On the other hand, when it comes to my experience as an end user — analytics about me cause anxiety. It is a modern dilemma amid the digital age — that everything we do is trackable and is providing data to various companies. I find myself outraged when I come across toxic social media posts in my feeds. I ask myself: why is the algorithm showing me this? I subsequently block these accounts, however I fear that going threw that extra step to block toxic social media accounts is actually feeding the algorithms to show me more of these types of content. Additionally, I am a very private person, so it is always stressful visiting sites and handing out my personal information. I recognize that this is the digital world we live in, but it is definitely tiresome and even worrisome.

Mini Assignment #4: Remix something

Hi everyone,

Here is my Mini Assignment 4 – Remix Something.

Please enjoy this video of League of Legends gameplay that I remixed into an epic gameplay montage. I found some cool free music and decided to add that in too.

I really like the last clip where I rekt my girlfriend in a 1v1:)

Process Post: Week 9

This was the week our essays were due so I thought I would lend this process post to that whole process. The assignment prompt was: “social media platforms are democratic“.

Please read the essay here: http://sus-e.com/home/essay-one-are-social-media-platforms-democratic/

I approached this essay from the perspective of someone who is involved in the dissemination of social media content. Very rarely do I create or curate social media content so this was the best lens to analyze the assignment through.

I subsequently took a look at current events so that I could have tangible examples to share. The ones I outlined in my essay are Donald Trump’s social media communications, Kanye West antisemitic social media statements, Elon Musk buying Twitter and all the harassment he fosters towards other individuals, and the murder of Mahsa Amini in Iran. Please read the essay to see how I stitched these current events into my argument.

The research process was very smooth. I used the catalogue search in the SFU Library website to find my sources. I also used articles from news outlets to supplement the scholarly articles.

All in all the writing of the essay went very well. The writing prompt was great to work with so I had many thoughts that spilled onto the Word document.

The biggest hiccup I had was when I tried to post my essay to my website. Around 11:51pm, I went to add the essay to the website, but for some reason when trying to publish the post the website would stop working. I tried again three times but nothing happened! It was around 12:02am now so I missed the November 8th due date. As someone who struggles with severe anxiety, I instantly panicked and contacted the TA and professor to alert them to my issue. However, I then tried switching to a different computer at my house and was able to post the essay to my website. I suspect something happened within the cached data on my laptop. I do all the work for this course on that laptop so I had no reason to suspect it would not work when I tried to post.

So, my essay was posted 8 minutes late; hopefully I don’t get penalized for this unforeseen circumstance.

Community Guidelines and Online Bullying

Community Guidelines for my Blog:

  • Be kind in the comments you post
  • Respect other perspectives and points of view that you may not agree with
  • Do not use hate speech
  • Do not bully or harass anyone in the comments section
  • Do not copy or use the content on this blog without permission
  • Do not pass off any content on this blog as your own

Please follow these guidelines on my blog. This is a safe space for everyone to access fun bookish content, and share their love of books. As a result, we do not want any negative comments or bullying to occur.

I have seen many cases when people have been bullied, cancelled, or harassed on the internet. This is very sad and should not be happening anymore, to the extent that it is right now. I, personally, have not had this problem with my blog or website, which I am very glad about. I know that social media is a common platform where this usually occurs, and have seen many people behave negatively on them. An example of this is on Instagram, people often find accounts who take their content, create fake profiles under different names, or post negative things about others. In these cases, it is always important to report bullying or harassment you see online. If you ever see bullying or harassment being done, make sure you report it, and spread awareness that this is happening. We live in a generation where screens are constantly within our reach, and technology is always being used within schools, worksites, and in our homes. As a result of this, it almost becomes impossible to escape the constant ongoing world of technology.

I have seen many people speak about social media breaks, and the benefits they have on people’s minds. Click here to visit an article explaining why social media breaks are necessary. Social media breaks help us focus on the present moments in front of us, as opposed to constantly texting or checking the news. With social media breaks, our minds are able to rest from staring at screens, we are able to spend more valuable time with our friends and/or family, and we can also achieve goals we have set for ourselves that do not include screen time. For example, I can only achieve my reading goals if I set my phone aside to pick up my book. Another example of this is gardening. So many people love to garden and spend time outside, but this cannot be possible if they are constantly on their phones or tablets.

It is important, especially in this generation, to spread awareness of the toxic effects technology can have on us, and to spread kindness as opposed to bullying online. One way to do this is by creating community guidelines, and I have posted community guidelines above, at the beginning of this post, for my blog.

Reading Online vs Physical Copies

Many people read online, these days, whether this includes ebooks, blogs, company websites, or news. Due to the difficulty and effect of screens on our eyes, we often read at a slightly slower pace on screens. Reading online can have many benefits. Some of these benefits include: being easier to read, with photos being featured on the internet, being more accessible, and being easy to carry around. When we scroll through a story or website, it is not necessary to look at every detail on the website, but instead we are able to quickly scan the page for anything we may find interesting or stop at certain information that catches our attention. Many people are able to scroll quickly through a website, and stop suddenly to read a section because they saw a phrase or image that interests them. I used to do this all the time when I was looking through the TV guides. I would flip through the pages very fast, and stop when I saw the title of a show I liked. This is one of the key benefits of reading on the internet. Another way people are able to do this is by searching for specific words on a page. For example, if someone is on the page of a long news story, and they are looking for a certain section, with the knowledge of one word or phrase in that section, they can search for it by clicking *command F. The page would quickly show them everywhere that word or phrase is used in that news article.

While there are so many benefits to reading online, there are also many benefits to reading a physical copy of things. These benefits include: it puts less strain on your eyes, it allows you to physically write on the document, newspaper, or book, and you can also organize your papers easily in a folder. Reading formats always depend on the type of person you are, and your preferences, but there are always pros and cons to consider for each format. Personally, I love to read physical copies, but if a book or document is not available to me in a physical copy it is very helpful to have it on a tablet instead. When we read physical copies, we also most often read everything on a page, so that we don’t miss anything important, while people who scan through online pages may miss key information that they did not see.

Overall, I think it is helpful to have both options, but I prefer physical copies of papers and books. While scrolling through online information, it is very helpful to have fun colours, links, and photos in a website because they catch viewers’ attention very quickly. These are most often the things that cause people to stop scrolling to check what it says.

Process Post #11: Community Guidelines

I am not a fan of the wishy-washy. Grey areas are not for me, my friends. I know, very Dawn à la Waitress of me. 

And while I get that we’re all big kids here, I think that it might be time for some rules. In saying so, I present to you: Moods & Mixtapes’ Community Guidelines.

THE SNIPPET

Moods & Mixtapes is a safe, creative space where we can share our go-to songs and reoccurring feels. We love jamming with you, so please help us to maintain the quality of the blog! Let’s work together and remember to be a little kinder to one another (and avoid any noise complaints). 

THE FULL ALBUM

  • We get it, we all have different tastes. But if you must disagree, do it intelligently. 
    • Having differing opinions does not justify offensive comments. If you wouldn’t say it face-to-face, don’t say it online. 
  • Absolutely no hate speech. 
    • Any comments attacking groups or other users will not be tolerated and will be removed immediately. Moods & Mixtapes is a space that welcomes anyone and everyone. 
  • If you feel offended by another user’s contribution or have noticed any distasteful comments, please report them to erica@moodsandmixtapes.com 
  • Listen to Aretha, show some RESPECT. 
  • If reposting or making mention to any of the cover art, blog posts, or playlists, this website, moodsandmixtapes.com, or @moodsandmixtapes on Spotify must be tagged. 
  • In need of a certain mix or want to see a certain track featured? Feel free to email requests to erica@moodsandmixtapes.com!

BUT, WHY?

Short, sweet, and hopefully manageable. I chose these guidelines because this blog is a way for me to express myself and give a bit of a sneak peek into who I am. At the end of the day, I want visitors to have the same experience. Although, for this to happen, we need to be aware of the users (virtually) around us. After all, a spoonful of respect and kindness helps the comment section go down smoothly. That’s how it goes, right? 

BUT, HOW?

When it comes to finding these rules a home, I’m planning on either adding them onto the About page or creating a new section of its own in the menubar. Either way, we’re in the clear and out of the grey. 

Now that this business is taken care of, let’s get to listening!

Community Guidelines of my site.

Process Post.

Overview:
The goals of my community are to share personal wonderful dining experiences from eateries that serve vegetarian or vegan food items, to promote a healthy and non-cruel eating lifestyle, to approach readers who have similar favoritism towards eating (like I do), to tell audiences how tasty the seemingly non-mainstream cuisines could be like and to stimulate their interest towards vegetarian or even vegan cuisines. Of course, I hope that my readers could pay visits to the food places I’ve mentioned in my blogs and enjoy themselves thoroughly.

In order to meet the goals of this community, it’s crucial for audiences to feel like they are in a comfortable and safe place that is populated by people with shared interests. As such, we request that you read and adhere to the guidelines that follow.

Guidelines:

  • Treat others online as you would treat them when meeting them in person
  • Feel free to exchange extra information about food, or even personal interests with other readers with mutual agreement
  • Be tolerant towards other’s viewpoints; respectfully disagree when opinions do not align, don’t force others to agree with your views
  • Respect the privacy and personal information of readers and other stakeholders
  • Communicate with courtesy, patience and respect
  • Have fun!
  • Don’ts:
    • Verbal abuse and personal attacks on anyone are strongly prohibited
    • Never use defamatory remarks or make false statements against others, including readers and eateries
    • Post pointless comments that are unrelated to the community
  • Use the comment functions and other accessible links responsibly. These tools are intended to keep readers in touch with the page, to help facilitate networking and to promote common interests.  
  • When ensuring the contact information that you leave on the page is true, please also be careful not to disclose too much personal information that could cause personal harm or unwanted nuisances, such as mobile numbers or living address.

Consequences:
We would take action if we see anyone violating these guidelines. Sometimes that just means issuing that person a warning through mailbox; other times it means seeking further help from legal institutions. We request that all readers report behavior that violates my guidelines to janecheung726@gmail.com

Agreement:
By joining the community and leaving comments or other information on my page, you are considered to be in agreement with the terms and conditions listed above.

The Struggle

Since the beginning of the semester I have been trying to display only the blog posts on my homepage. The first approach I have tried was to make my homepage a static page, the problem with that was when I did that the slider on my homepage kept disappearing. Also, another problem I was facing […]

Process Post #10: Telling the Whole Story

Transmedia storytelling. That was the challenge of the past week. More specifically, how can we integrate more of it into our blogs? 

If you’re also kinda (very) lost about what exactly this concept is, you’re not alone. Admittedly, it did take me a few Google searches and some article scanning to figure out what we’re dealing with here. But luckily we’ve figured it out, and now we’ve got a plan.

WHAT’S IN A WORD

In “Transmedia Storytelling 101”, Jenkins (2007) describes transmedia storytelling as “a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience” (para. 2). In doing so, “transmedia storytelling practices may expand the potential market for a property by creating different points of entry for different audience segments” (para. 6). 

So, after this much-needed guidance, I began to consider different ways that my content can be viewed and engaged with, as well as which channels it can be accessed through. 

THE PLAN OF ATTACK

At the moment, Moods & Mixtapes can be accessed via the domain itself, as well as through Spotify. However, as much as I would like to dip my foot into other channels, I don’t know which ones would be suitable for sharing this sort of content. Working with playlists, since they’re not image-based, platforms like Instagram or Pinterest don’t seem like they would be too effective, and while Facebook might be my best bet—it’s not quite my go-to. Heck, I don’t even know the last time that I logged in. 

To level the scales, I hope to become more visible by rolling out new blog posts more frequently throughout the week, as well as to start putting my playlists up on other streaming services such as Google Play Music. A few users who don’t have Spotify accounts have mentioned this idea to me over the past month, so I think I’ll give it a shot. No harm in trying, right?

Thoughts on transmedia integration.

Process Post.

Umhmm…transmedia integration, interesting!

Transmedia integration is definitely an important step for website creators to further expand and promote their websites. So, this week I’m going to think about how could I plan to incorporate more transmedia integration into my online publication.

Since my website is about food-hunting and sharing, I will surely plan to focus on channels that enable a wide spread of pictures/videos, and those that allow users to interact easily. The initial ones that pop up in my mind are Instagram and Pinterest, these two are those I consume most aesthetically appealing pictures and posts. I also watch a lot of foodie vlogs from YouTube, so YouTube would be a great choice too!

To talk about the implementation of transmedia integration more pragmatically, take Instagram as an example, I would like to have the images of my blog posts immediately inserted from IG accounts; which means when readers click into the image of my post, they will be immediately directed to my IG account or the restaurant’s IG account. Of course, they could check the location by IG’s map function too. (though I’m not sure if this would somehow violate copyrights if the pictures are from the food places, so I reckon it would be better to communicate with the shops at first hand).

Also, I would like to develop a YouTube channel for my website with videos (aka vlogs) about food tours to the places I’ve introduced in my blogs, but these would take quite a lot of time and energy! But the good thing is, it’ll surely be fun. It’s very difficult for a video channel to attract the first group of viewers so I guess the best strategy for me if I do this is to spread my videos through my family members and friends during the early stage and pray for some good results!

Process Post #7: Analytics

I took my general idea for the website from other creepy-pasta esque websites such as Lorepodcast.com. Lore primarily features an excellent podcast. If you’re interested in the topic of cryptids, I highly recommend it.

In Genereal:
– I understand my meatier posts can be quite wordy, and that is likely a problem which stems from my own bias.
– I think the darker theme looks nice. It sets the mood and is an easy way to visually indicate what kind of website it is
– As you may have noticed, I try to keep myself relatively anonymous
– In regards to the first Peer Review of my website, I certainly am trying to implement some of the suggestions. The main concern being content, but also a few edits

Process Post #3

I took my general idea for the website from other creepy-pasta esque websites such as Lorepodcast.com. Lore primarily features an excellent podcast. If you’re interested in the topic of cryptids, I highly recommend it.

In Genereal:
– I understand my meatier posts can be quite wordy, and that is likely a problem which stems from my own bias.
– I think the darker theme looks nice. It sets the mood and is an easy way to visually indicate what kind of website it is
– As you may have noticed, I try to keep myself relatively anonymous
– In regards to the first Peer Review of my website, I certainly am trying to implement some of the suggestions. The main concern being content, but also a few edits