SnapStream company blog?

[rakeshagrawal]

what do folks think if SnapStream created and actively posted to a SnapStream company blog? we would probably use it to post announcements, thoughts on the industry, the direction the company is taking, etc. let us know what you think.

I'm curious if folks out there spend much time reading blogs and in particular if there are any company blogs (from other companies) that you find interesting or useful.

[flavius]

Hm, what did I read about those guys from Google today.. They must have been inspired by this message .

Sure, I'd read it. Well, as a TiVo afficionado I have my own thoughts about the industry. ..

[richt]

post announcements, thoughts on the industry, the direction the company is taking

This type of stuff would be great to read, whether it is a newsletter, forum announcement, or blog format. The idea of getting SnapStreams perspective on where things are going is great. I kind of agree with merrypig on the subject og blogs in general though. I am not sure it is an effective way to communicate.

[Eric3a]

Nah. I just want some gossip...

I'd love to rea a blog, so I voted yes, but there may bbe other more judicious uses of time?
Eric

[James]

While I was w/ the company I always thought the idea of developer journals from the various dev teams would have been interesting reads for the user base...but eh, what do I know

[James]

yeah, something like that

[V_D_O]

When can we expect to start beta testing the blogs?

[Eric3a]

Yeah we should beta test the blogs since we can't blog the beta tests.
Eric

[genesis]

If the blog offered a closer, less official look into the development of SS's products, I'm sure people would read it. If it's just used for product announcements and other official notices, the forum works just fine. Personally, I'd like a more intimate view of what's going on behind the scenes, but as evidenced by rkuo's segmenting of the BTV beta, sometimes it's best to control the amount of semi-official information released, as it can be misconstrued.

[James]

I always envisioned something officially sanctioned but a little bit looser. Obviously we I wouldn't have watned in-house secrets to slip, but hearing things from the perspective of the devs themselves I always thought would have been interesting to a small community of users.

i.e. imagine rkuo or some of the devs posting in finer detail about the various problems and difficulties they were hitting in getting together the developer API out in time for the testers. Or someone on the Firefly team talking about having to juggle many balls in the air in finding the proper balance of usability, being feature rich, but still being easy to use, etc.

I still think it'd be nice to see if done right. It would particularly be interesting to see Richard post at 3, 4 in the morning after a long, tough night and before he's about to crawl into/onto the beanbags that used to make up his makeshift bed in the office. :P

[jaotto]

Please, no.

If SnapStream people have time to post, I'd rather they post responses on the current forum, where they can respond to questions people already have. I think the people on the forums are clamoring for more information from SnapStream, not more ways to get the same information from SnapStream.

[mvaughn]

Along with the blogs... why don't we put webcams at the developers desks? That way we can see the progress being made rather than continually asking for updates.

[sloanja]

Forget the text blog... why have another text format that we have to read... go moblogging!!!

(in case you don't know what that is, moblogs are mobile phone web logs. You take pictures with your cell phone camera, upload them to a server such as textamerica.com, and everyone can see the pictures.. I'd like to see the dev team in the kitchen eating those burritos!!! Oh Hi Tuck!!)

[Dan Martin]

I like the idea. I don't have time to frequent the boards, and trying to find the "official" information in the mass pile of crap that exists in these forums is very time consuming. I'm a very busy person, so I tend to skim my weblog aggregator, and very little else.

With services like "My Yahoo!" offering aggregation, it's only going to get more and more important to offer information as RSS.

Originally Posted by merrypig

Why make another system to maintain/support/monitor. you already have forums if you need a voice. I feel the same way about a blog as a I do wiki's. Great for people on the internet with too much time on their hands, but as a commerical tool - a pain in the ass. If you had one, I'd probably read it out of my own curiosity but don't take that as a yes vote though.

You've obviously never used weblog software. Most blogging software costs nothing and just works. There's very little work involved, outside the time it takes to write a post. It's no work to maintain, unless you have crappy weblog software.

As it stands today, I have to have "way to much time on [my] hands" to spend endless hours finding the few useful bits of information on these forums. I'd rather Snapstream spend a little bit of effort to make it easier for me. After all, I'm paying them. I'm tired of having to *work* to find out things like how to encode DivX under the latest version, etc., etc.

[Bilar Crais]

Yes I would read it. Sometimes the silence from your end is deafening. That's not a slam; it would just be nice to get an insider's perspective.