Have you ever thought of writing a post for the Wallyhood blog? Or, maybe you have had an idea and wanted to get the word out to the community? Or, perhaps you have questions about strange happenings in the neighborhood that you’d like to see investigated?
Why are we asking these questions?
We editors feel we are at a critical juncture and are debating if the blog should continue. If you glance over the past several months of stories, you will see that the vast majority of stories have been written by a very small number of writers – primarily the four editors.
Wallyhood was started in 2009 by Jordan Schwartz and over the years has included many voices from the community. We have a pool of writers, people who have raised a hand to contribute stories on a somewhat regular basis. Unfortunately, we are hearing from fewer and fewer writers. For the blog to thrive, it must be carried by a larger team.
We have decided to gather on Tuesday, October 10, at 7:30 pm at Murphy’s pub (corner of 45th St. and Meridian) meeting to discuss a number of topics:
• Should Wallyhood continue or has its time passed?
• What can we do to encourage writers to write more?
• Are there obstacles to writing (e.g. lack of familiarity with our publishing platform, WordPress) that we could remove?
• Would it help if writers were paid (or otherwise rewarded) for stories?
• What is the right content and tenor for our articles?
• Is there something else that we’re missing?
We hope you will join us!
We realize that not everyone who would like to attend will be able to. We would very much appreciate any thoughts you have, though. Please respond to [email protected] which will then be shared among the editorial group.
Hope to see you on October 10!
Regards,
The Wallyhood editorial team: Julie Martin, Jack McLaughlin, Megan Dulgar, Gary Shigenaka
I hope ya’ll keep it alive 🥺
Is the problem lack of article leading to lack of visit, or just lack of visit/interest to sites like this in general? I think in general among similar places, maybe the Capitol Hill one is the most active, but the vibe of articles there is quite different.
Also if it’s about generating articles, is it possible to get free labor from some Lincoln High students to do something as an attempt for them to pad their college applications?
The high school reporter angle is a great suggestion!
it is the name, and logging in etc. It is not wally hood. It is Wallingford.
It is a serious neighborhood not a cartoon.
Why not Wallingford Neighborhood “whatever” Tribune.
Wallyhood as a name has always been weird.
Off the Wall School of Music would be happy to trade a couple articles to feature some talented music students at the school.
I think it’s because people don’t think their contributions would meet the high standard of journalistic excellence. Sort of joking, not entirely though. This effort has always seemed somewhat extraordinary to me. It’s like the West Seattle blog in that it has been picked up occasionally by main stream media like the Seattle Times, though West Seattle is a much larger community. I wouldn’t have bet a quarter that it would keep going as a joint effort, but it has held up pretty well, though in a somewhat quieter way. It’s one of the little things that make Wallingford great. Go ahead folks, get involved and write something. Maybe someone will say to you, some day “… I recognize you, you write for Wallyworld!”