Changing course on the SAP SDN Blogger Juggernaut

In a recent comment to a short blog on SDN, SDN evangelist Craig Cmehil commented on a new direction that SAP is currently pushing in its over 1 million member strong community. If I hadn’t been reading Craig’s tweets on twitter, I would never would have read his comment.
Welcome to the blogging world here on SDN and BPX, normally a post like this would never have been approved but it was Friday and I just rejected around 72 blogs this week due to content, lack of content or content better suited to a Wiki than a blog.

Welcome to the blogging world here on SDN and BPX, normally a post like this would never have been approved but it was Friday and I just rejected around 72 blogs this week due to content, lack of content or content better suited to a Wiki than a blog.

Sure many people here are not going ot be happy that this was posted, it's basically not what the community expects. But I felt the title and the timing was pretty good.
We are working together with the moderators to push more of the FAQ and "how to" content into the wiki and not have them here as blogs anymore.

This blog was a good start in the direction that many of the community has been asking for experiences of real life with a personal touch. So as I've welcomed your first blog don't let me down on your next one - we want substance, the good stuff from your personal experiences!

No more simple FAQ's, code samples, or How To's your blogs need to attract readers to them, you have to explain why it is that you are telling us what you are telling us!

Craig

Now why do I feel that this comment is important. If you look at majority of blogs on SDN, many contain a highly technical content that describe how the blogger has solved a particular problem. This tendency is present in bloggers from SAP (see the current highlighted series of blogsby Benny Schaich-Lebek - which I must say is excellent -) and non-SAP bloggers (including many blogs written by myself). However, as Craig suggests, the question arises if this content is really appropriate for community blogs. To answer this question it is important to look at how blogs are defined (of course, there are many definitions of what a blog should contain - perhaps as many different definitions as there are bloggers). A blog is usually more of an opinion piece - something personal.

I also agree that much of these To-Dos are better located in the wiki where other people can adapt them based on their own experiences. (Take a look at this intriguing new use on the wiki to deal with CE trouble-shooting to see some of potential of the wiki to deal with technical issues.)
There are however certain challenges associated with this shift from blogs to the wiki:

• One reason blogs are written is that there are more points associated with a blog post rather than a forum post. This is of course correct based on the fact that blogs usually require more work. Points in the wiki are currently not so well understood - indeed, the very nature of the wiki makes giving points a real challenge. It is currently the case that users must currently request points for their work in the wiki. Furthermore, the ability to comment on content - one of the most important features in blogging - is difficult to use in the current wiki-based environment.
• A shift to the wiki must also impact other areas of SDN. Selected blogs are always highlighted on the front page of SDN and BPX. I‘ve never seen a wiki entry with a picture of the author on the front page.
• This shift of blog content to the wiki must impact all bloggers (irregardless of whether they are „Expert Bloggers“ or „beginner bloggers“. Maybe, there should be some way that users can vote on which blogs might be appropriate for the wiki.
• There has to be a better description of what content is wiki content and which content is more appropriate for blogs. If I blog a story about a Visual Composer problem that I solved, is this a blog or a wiki entry. If this is a wiki entry where does it go in the wiki? Who decides that it is a wiki entry, the moderator for that topic? For example, I‘m unsure of where to publish this blog. So I‘ve decided to publish it on my personal blog and on SDN.
  Since BPX-related blogs usually don‘t have a „How to“ character will there soon be more BPX-related blogs in the community blogs?
• We should remember that SDN is a „developer“ community as evidenced by its name. Any change regarding blogs shouldn‘t have the affect of intimidating any community members who wish to contribute - maybe for the first time - and are now uncertain. (Maybe, there should be blogger mentors??).

Irregardless of what happens, I think this editorial change reflects a shift from a community that is largely technical in nature to more of a social network where other aspects of our relationships with one another are also important. I welcome the change and I think it reflects the maturity of this community.