It’s the time of year where I start thinking about Holidailies again. Holidailies is a project I started in 2000, in which I decided I would update my Web site every day in December. A few other people decided it would be fun to do the same thing, and the project grew from there. Last year, I had a portal for Holidailies and more than 100 people participated. You can currently see last year’s portal here.
Even though I don’t have a very personal Web page anymore, and tend to write about movies more than anything, I still like the idea of Holidailies. (Besides, posting movie reviews counts for the daily entry.)
I’m currently brainstorming ideas for this year’s portal and other aspects of the project. If you participated in previous years, or if you read entries from the portal, or if you’re just an opinionated person, I’d like to hear your ideas for improving Holidailies.
One idea I am considering is dividing Holidailies in two parts:
- A portal where people post links to their daily entries, like last year. I am considering limiting the portal to a finite number of people—50? 75? 30? Should I select the participants myself, or open it to the first 50 people who register after I announce it? Limiting the number means that readers might have half a chance of keeping up with the entries posted, as opposed to having 100 or more participants. On the other hand, unlimited participants (and I suspect we could hit 150 easily) means a steady flow of new content for the most voracious readers.
- What I call the “home game version,” a separate, static HTML page that lists participants and their Web sites. Anyone could sign up at any time and would be on his/her honor to update. We’d have no limit on the number of participants on this page. This is good for people whose Web sites or Web skills make it difficult for them to post to the portal, and for people with adult-themed content who are nervous about posting details of their entries to the portal. I don’t think readers would go to this page every day and navigate through the list for new content. It’s simply a way for people to do Holidailies on their own and have a list of all those people in one place.
My boyfriend suggested an idea for the portal, to make it interesting. We could find a few volunteers with extra time on their hands who would read many of the entries posted to the portal every day. Those people (who would not be participating as writers, just readers) would then vote on or pick “Entries of the Day” and post those links daily, so participants would get recognition for quality as well as quantity.
Anyway, what do you think of these ideas? What have you liked in previous years, what do you wish would change? Please post in the comments section. Bear in mind that I don’t have unlimited quantities of time to work on this, so I’m unlikely to do anything that would create a lot of extra work for me and the very kind person who works on the portal code. Writing something every day in December is really enough.
I really have liked the portal page idea for the last few years, and it’s introduced me to journals I probably wouldn’t have heard of otherwise, but I suspect you’d be better off mentally doing the “links to all participants” and let them take care of stuff on their end links. That way you don’t have to pick and choose who you want to be a Holidailies person in the same way.
I do like the Beau’s idea of having readers pick out featured entries, perhaps in lieu of having a portal page.
You can pick people yourself as long as you pick me. The portal last year was great.
I love the “best of” idea, and I bet you’d not have a shortage of volunteers wanting to do it, either.
If I get a daily dose of Jette, then I’m happy. Everything else is superfluous. (Well, I’d like a daily dose of Kismet, too, but I don’t want to be greedy.)
Honestly? I’ve needed something like the Holidalies to get my butt in gear to post again. I’d LOVE to participate this year, and the portal gives me more incientive to actually post, rather than just be listed on a static page (and bear in mind I was a miserable Holidalies failure last year.)
As for limiting it, I see both sides of the issue, but more is better, in my opinion.
Having both pages seems like the best way to reduce your workload and still have plenty of participants. Since this is your page, all your work, and your dang domain, I think it’s reasonable for you to choose who gets on the portal. There will probably be some bitching about your choices, but that’s to be expected.
I’d like to participate, too.
I like the portal idea along with the “best of” feature…it seems like a reaonable way to distill the influx of submissions. Oh, and I’d to throw my name into the hat for participation consideration.
Before this year I didn’t promote my journal so choosing to join in with the portal wasn’t an option. And I’m not sure I’d do it this year, either. I just might read through the portal, though, and it would be nice to have some features selected by long-suffering readers. Maybe you could assign readers to groups of journals and they could e-mail you selections for voting. You could have two readers per journal and use the film festival technique of taking a second look at Y-N situations.
i like the “best of” idea a lot.
I’ve been looking forward to holidailies! I’ve found a number of great new journals through it and it capitalizes on my NaNoWriMo momentum to get me to post more often. I’m glad you’re still planning to do it in one form or another.
I liked last years portal a lot. If you want to limit the number of participants, maybe people who did it in the past (like me ;->) could get some kind of priority for signing up? maybe advance access? As far as overwhelming numbers of journals to read, I never felt compelled to read EVERYONE. If I was busy I only read the ones who’s excerpts made me want to read more. I do like the idea of “entry of the day” I’d volunteer as reader/picker for at least one day.
Thought I’d add my 2 cents since I enjoy holidailies so much. Thanks for hosting it every year!
Last year was my first time participating in Holidailies, and I really enjoyed it. I’ve been looking forward to doing it again this year, because I’ve been such a journal slacker lately, and really need a shot of inspiration! I like the portal idea, as it makes it easy for me to post my new entries, as well as discover some great new journals. I also like the idea of the “Entries of the Day” to showcase a particularly good entry/journal. As for the number of participants, I think it should be left open for anyone who wants to do it. For me, personally, I just kept up with those who were updating regularly – there were several participants who didn’t, for whatever reason. I just think everyone should get the chance to play!
I missed the cutoff date for signing up laast year and had a note in my calendar for Nov. 1 to look it up. That’s when I found the above October 26 entry. What’s the latest? Who might be allowed to use the name or make a reference to “Holidailies”?
As I noted in my latest entry, I am doing Holidailies this year, but I am running a little late. Check the site again in a few days for more information on signup, etc.
I’ve seen Holidailies mentioned in other people’s blogs and journals, and never followed links to sign up. This year, coming out of a nearly blog-free month, because of NaNoWriMo, I’m eager to find out more, and participate.