It’s that time again: I’m wondering if you, the community, have any suggestions for what you’d like to see changed in the way the carnival is run. I have a sneaking suspicion it’s getting too long, and people’s eyes are glazing over rather than reading the editions. Or is it a good thing to have so many posts to pick and choose from? How can it be more accessible? How are you finding the categories? Here’s your chance to give some feedback and make it the carnival you want it to be.
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It is getting a bit long for me, really the right size would be about 10 or 15 posts. That would also allow something else I’d rather like, which is short excerpts from the posts, so that it’s easier to decide which are interesting to me. (I’m never going to be a carnival completionist.)
I don’t know how this could be accomplished: a carnival a week? A stricter focus on a topic-of-the-month? Limit of entries per blog? Exclusion of blogs that featured in the previous month so that there’s some turnover of voices? I don’t really have a sense of what the right answer is.
In the past, topics of the month haven’t worked as hardly anyone writes to the theme, I’m afraid. I’m thinking of limiting the number of posts that can come from any particular author. That would hopefully also allow some less prominent or prolific voices to be heard on an equal footing with bloggers who are heard a lot. But, at the same time, I didn’t want to take control of what has been a rather democratic process. So. I don’t know. Hence asking for feedback. 🙂
Yeah, to get a topic of the month to work you’d probably need the host to act more like an active editor: suggesting pieces to people, pushing them for delivery. Very different from the carnival today and almost certainly too much work for you and for hosts.
Perhaps the host could construct a “highlighted voices” section or something at the top, selecting say 5 to 10 posts, ideally from less known blogs (to the host hirself, maybe?).
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As the host of the next edition, I am definitely finding that it is a lot of work to compile this many entries, especially since I am trying to introduce/contextualise each link a little bit. And I must admit that in the past, I have been one to skim through and only read a few posts from DUFC.
I think limiting the number of posts from one author is one way to go, particularly since readers can always find their other work after clicking through. Also, I like Mary’s suggestion of having a top section with ‘highlighted voices’, that puts forward the most thought-provoking reading of the month and/or introduces new bloggers.