Websites: harder to manage then you think!

You think that we (The Nearby Future Staff) have it easy: we research and write articles. Black and white, right? Wrong.

My daily to-do list/schedule looks something like this:

• 4:00 PM: click the spell check button on all submitted articles from the staff members who, apparently, are too good for spell check.
• 4:32 PM: hear Calister’s complaints about how the green flowers are too “girly”. Laugh along with him, promise that I’ll look into other templates, but secretly plan his demise.
• 4:46 PM: Check the site’s status and clap excitedly as I see that someone else BESIDES the staff actually commented!
• 4:56 PM: Reject Calister’s article on the stupid topics that have nothing to do with the future OR the environment OR technology. In the article rejection email, tell him that his next article should be about ice cream. Write a witty rejection letter in advance.
• 5:00 PM: Do some research on topics related to how corn should not be used as fuel, gripe about how hard it is to be an environmentalist to Calister. After all, it’s not like we can go around distributing pamphlets saying “Save the Trees” to promote our cause.
• 5:16 PM: Log off. Do real work. Try to not log back in. After all, I have other important things to do.
• 5:22 PM: Log in for a short time (only for a short time!) and read some more comments and edit more articles. Write an email to staff members explaining the value of spell check. Plan to send it as soon after I finish everything else I need to do. Log out, promise myself that I won’t log in again. (I won’t! I promise!)

So a lot of being a writer for The Nearby Future is watching the site, thinking up articles, doing research, debating with any living thing that talks, and typing it all up and delivering it to you.

Each writer has their own personality (Calister: Devious. Rika: Organized. Jala: Creative. etc etc..) and this is one of the ways our site is unique!

-Rika

Reminder: Vote in our April 2008 staff contest! Click the link to take the survey here and vote for YOUR favorite staff member! The survey is quick, it’s only four questions or so. We all read the submissions and analyze your comments, (and are very competitive when it comes to votes!) so please, stop by and vote!