From Steve Yelvington today, responding to a question about contextualized journalism…
The unfortunate reality is that most of us who had the resources to take advantage of that opportunity have squandered it. Most of the journalism as practiced on the Internet fails to to take advantage of any of those capabilities. The writing is not significantly different from what you might have seen in 1955 — plain text, little use of media assets. Linking is rare. Incremental developments are not placed in context. What little “audience involvement” exists is limited to story comments left by angry, anonymous extremists. There is little actual interaction between journalist and audience, or with news sources.
I am very concerned that people are detaching themselves from the civic conversation, attracted away by bright shiny entertainment, driven away by poor reporting.
Are you a Gmail user who has stopped receiving your Front Porch Forum e-newsletter? Regrettably, your Gmail may be marking items from FPF as spam. Here’s the solution! Please take steps A, B and C below to assure that you stay in the loop. Sorry about the hassle and thanks for setting it straight.
A. Designate FPF messages as “Not Spam”
1. Go to http://mail.google.com and sign into your Mail account.
2. Click on “Spam” in list on left to see contents of your spam folder.
3. Select any Front Porch Forum messages listed in the spam folder.
4. With these selected, click “Not Spam” above the message list. This will move any checked messages into your Inbox, and train your Gmail not to mark these as spam.
B. Add FPF’s addresses to your Gmail Contact List
1. In Gmail, go to “Contacts” in list on left to see your contacts.
2. Click on the “Add to ‘My Contacts'” button and add the email address neighbors AT frontporchforum DOT com. Hit “enter.”
3. Repeat Step 2 with members AT frontporchforum DOT com
More info: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=8933
C. Create filters to keep FPF messages out of your spam folder
1. In Gmail, click “Create a filter” (to the right of the search bar).
2. Put the email address neighbors AT frontporchforum DOT com in the “From” field and click the “Next step” button.
3. Check “Never send it to Spam.”
4. Click “Create filter” button.
More info: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6579
Taking these steps will help you and thousands of other Vermonters stay connected to their neighborhood news as you help train Gmail’s filter.
P.S. Did you miss some postings? Go to http://frontporchforum.com and click Log In, then click on “Archive” to browse past issues.
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more