Over the past few years I've been largely winging it, so to speak, as far as updates, contests, and other content goes. This worked well when I had a lot of free time on my hands. Over the past year, I've become increasingly busy with other aspects of life. And while this is not likely to change, I've put together an outline to deliver new content and activities to you all on a much more consistent basis.
Monthly Plan
My goal with this outline is to have something new on the homepage every week. Each month will follow a 4-week cycle that looks something like this:
- Week 1 - Contest / Jarl's Bounty
- Week 2 - Featured Word
- Week 3 - Featured Author
- Week 4 - Featured Work / Contest Results
Week 1
Contests and Jarl's Bounties will be bi-monthly, alternating from month to month. This means by the end of 2015, we will have had six contests and six Jarl's Bounties. Contests will be open for three weeks, and results will be posted Week 4. Jarl's Bounties will most likely appear on weekends.
Week 2
Week 2 will feature a selected word from the dictionary. Some featured words might be canon, some might be community-made. I'll highlight things such as pronunciation, etymology, and any specific meaning a word may have.
Week 3
When the site first started, I used to interview active members of the community and feature the interview on the front page. I've heard that's something people would be interested in seeing again, so Week 3 of the month will be dedicated to showcasing the diverse community we have here.
Week 4
If there was a contest in Week 1, the contest results will be posted Week 4. Otherwise, I'll be posting a featured work. Featured works will be something Dovahzul-related made by either someone in the community or somewhere else on the internet. If you know of anything you think should be featured, feel free to send a message my way.
Social Media
I have also toyed with the thought of starting an "official" Twitter. I think Twitter would be a great way to post content on a more regular basis and involve people in a low-effort way. My current plan would be to make posts every other weekday. Weeks would alternate between Monday-Wednesday-Friday posts and Tuesday-Thursday posts. Each day would have a theme or topic:
- Mentor Monday - advice, tips, or tricks for learning the language
- Translation Tuesday - a sentence in Dovahzul for people to practice translating
- Word Wednesday - a featured word and definition from the dictionary
- Thu'um Thursday - a fun fact about a random Shout from Skyrim
- Phrase Friday - a featured Dovahzul phrase and translation
Of course, there are the existing Facebook and Tumblr pages. There is already an audience on Facebook and Tumblr, so it might make more sense to focus on those than start a new social media page. Tumblr has been pretty informal so far, and I think it'll remain that way with occassional featured words, updates, and reblogs of pretty screenshots.
Eyes Ahead
In addition to the above will be your regular site updates and big content pieces. I've put together a list of potential future content, either things that I'm working on or things that the community has thought of. Some might be small or huge, some might be in progres or just ideas at this point. Some may happen, some may not. In any case, here's the list:
- Numbers lesson
- Canon Memrise course*
- Canon thesaurus*
- The Labyrinth II
- Translation projects
- Podcasts
- New literature
- Learning Dovahzul 2nd Edition*
- Lore lessons
- German lessons*
- Fluency test
- The Dungeon* (super-secret project)
* in-progress
If there are any of these you're really excited for or interested in, let me know!
Any feedback you might have on any of the above outline will be greatly appreciated. I don't have as much time to dedicate to the site as used to, but I do want to make the most of it. Here's looking to 2015! Pruzah wundunne.
