Blogging and podcasting. The secret to more members?

[Cyrilshark]

Hey Gimper,

So I was looking around the good ol' interwebs, and most people seemed to think that if you need some popularity, a good idea is to start a blog and/podcast.

Blog-wise, it would be neat to implement it directly into Gimper, like make a min page instead of going straight to the forums and putting it there, but I don't think it would work. Instead, we could do something like Gimper.net/blog, though I have to ask Gimper how to do that. We would need some people to apply and be blog writers, and judging by quality of post and writing skills, be accepted or denied.

Podcast-wise, we would need a good quality podcast. I'm going to getting good quality audio equipment for Christmas hopefully, and I've always wanted to do a podcast. If anyone else wants to volunteer to help, it would be great.

Discuss.

[Cyrilshark]

For now, we need good quality posts daily to attract new members.
I urge everybody to start making some tutorials, interesting posts, really anything, if it's good, related, and interesting.

[gimpeRaven]

I also feel that Gimper.net must have lots of members! Though I'm not that confident to myself, I'll try my best to be of help in any way here.

[Arzoroc]

Well, what about the magazine? Isn't it exactly what you describe?

[Cyrilshark]

No worries, of course we'll still do the magazine!
Right now I'm working on getting our blog at Gimper.net/blog.
I'm thinking how we could do something similar for the mag, though, if it's popular after the first couple issues. If you guys want I will make special forum for you though?

[Arzoroc]

Ofcourse we want Just a hidden section, only invited members + admins to post our work

[Scrapie]

I warn you ! before youre going to to the blog, make a backup-copy of the ftp and of the database !

[Cyrilshark]

Of course, Scrapie, thanks for the warning though

[bladesonic]

Ever since I heard about the mag, I've been thinking a podcast would be a good idea, and I'd very much like to be a part of it if we decide to try that.

[Lil'Hero]

I don't mind but i need some kind of good program to record someone knows PM me !!!

[Maffe811]

audacity? its free

[Bucic]

audacity? its free

Lack of knowledge about existing freeware tools helpful when doing video tutorials and traditional tutorials sometime baffles me. Or people quite knowledgeable in GIMP/Photoshop making chart-like graphics (job meant for vectors) in GIMP instead of in Inkscape. Or saving chart-like graphics in JPG instead of PNG.

Video tutorials:
Most of you probably know http://screencasters.heathenx.org/ - invaluable resource for any Inkscaper. But let me tell you what I see, when I use it/visit it:
1. Problematic format (OGV).
2. Piss poor quality.
3. Low resolution which involves lots of panning and poor UI overview. Screencasts should be recorded in 1280x720 when meant to youtube.
4. Even worse quality on their YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/heathenxyt
4. Valuable information.

In that order. I hope gimper.net will avoid that mistake. Especially that producing screencasts/podcasts in P E R F E C T quality is monkey-easy thanks to lossless codecs (some may be directly uploaded to YouTube!). And what do you mean by podcasts? I hope you don't mean audio-only. What would be the point?

Below is an example of a perfect quality video (higher quality video is impossible to achieve) on freeware screen capturing software CamStudio 2.5... done using CamStudio 2.5. Watch in 1:1, do not go full screen with that vid.


All of my YouTube screencasts newer than the video above are produced using CamStudio 2.5 armed with lossless codec.

Another one - 1280x720, perfect quality, go full screen only if your monitor resolution width is less than 1280:


This one has even been embedded in polish online issue of newsweek

[Rod]

If you visit my blog you will see it is focused mainly on Gimp news and plug-ins,scripts and freeware downloads.
Visit my Gimp User blog here
Just focus on something, and keep that focus.

When the first mag issue pops out, i will def have a perm link to each issue posted there.

The magazine would be a great idea for that focus.There will be much to offer in the mag such as links, art, and contests perhaps.
All can be viewed on the blog.

[Bucic]

Niceee, Rod!

[Gimpentosh]

I agree with Cyril for sure. Maybe along with the newspaper someone should make a youtube for Gimper.