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What's up?

jeff covey 01 Apr 2005 00:00 18

The past year has seen the rise of a controversial but unavoidable medium, The Blog. While blogs are not new, and many trace their spirit and much of their content back to the much-lamented baby-photo-infested personal homepages of the early Web, this has been the year in which they've gained wide audiences rivaling those of traditional news sources. I'm not too proud to say that this has left us at freshmeat feeling a little inadequate.

We always try to keep pace with the times, and have begun to worry that freshmeat is too traditionally journalistic, giving just facts without probing the zeitgeist hiding behind their masks.

We want to take a step in the contemporary direction by inviting everyone today to look upon freshmeat's front page as your own personal blog. View the release announcements not as stale containers of information, but as vehicles for the personal expression of all the important things on your mind.

We still want just the facts up front, but after that, throw in a <p>, and let us know what's really going on. We know what release you're making. Your changes tell us why you're making it. But how does it make you feel? What was the shape of your world as you produced this latest gift of seminal sourcecode?

If this release were a color, what color would it be? What is its smell?

How do you feel about the other releases you've seen today? About the other things you've read? About your coworkers, your pets, your shoes, and your lunch? And... most important of all... how are you? We all really, deeply want — nay, need — to know.

Fill us in. Don't leave us parched in the arid plain of objective changelogs. Give us the ethos that gives this meat its life.

Recent comments

01 Apr 2005 01:18

kv9

oh
that must mean that all the pictures of my cat, that i attached as project screenshots, finally worked. about time.

01 Apr 2005 01:39

tofu24

hah
brilliant :)

another goodie for today:

www.google.com/googleg...

01 Apr 2005 02:08

dmalloc

Brilliant Joke
I must say, this is the best April's joke I have seen so far. no.. you mean thi sis real? Freshmeat now wants to have tons of pointless crap posted along with the very neat software announcement... oh.. sorry...

01 Apr 2005 03:03

kshotswell

April Fool?
Cant be real right, just clog up the site with useless info and links to booring pages

ahem! www.ghettonet.org

01 Apr 2005 05:49

randall_nagy

From code to cash ...
In response to the request for some ‘blog stuff, and in as much as I have a few moments between flights today, I would like to note that we all need cash. If you are like me, then you need to find a way to pay for your dedication to the open source movement.

I am here to let all of my friends know that it is possible. Indeed, if you are the type of visionary who does not have too much time to write test cases, then putting a GUI around your project(s) is a great way to test it... That is how I have been able to test much of my open source project and you know what? It has paid: Literally.

So don’t be afraid of success. When you give things away, most people are starting to feel that it is usually worth what they pay for it. It is becoming a perceived worth thing.

So try selling cool interfaces into your ‘stuff. It takes a little more time and marketing effort, but it is working for me!

Randall Nagy

President, Soft9000.com

01 Apr 2005 06:23

valeri_ufo

hmm
the last year's joke was much better i think!

01 Apr 2005 08:01

bnelson

blog on, blog off, blog on, blog off
For what it's worth I'd like to say that I've never wanted to see a blog with this site. I like it just the way it is. I check it a few time a day for updates just to see what going on and I like the format just the way it is. This might just be a case of blog envy on your part. Please take an aspirin and lay down until the feeling passes.

01 Apr 2005 20:28

deekayen

no ha here
last year's joke was better.

02 Apr 2005 05:21

jeffcovey

ah, well...
no one played along. scoop even wrote code to handle your blog entries,
and we hoped to have a front page full of annoyance, but my sample
submissions were the only ones to appear. oh, well; hope everyone had a
good 4/1, and send me your ideas for next year. :)

02 Apr 2005 10:44

gvy

Re: ah, well...

> no one played along.

Jeff, maybe it was considered non-April 1st but "just an article"?

...yep, FM in acidic green-on-black was definitely fine (for that specific day, of course) since it was quite clear a _joke_ even if a bunch of folks didn't get it properly :)

21 Apr 2005 03:29

AndrewCates

Ideas
Something people will really get worked up about: change of copyright terms so that you own all of the projects? Freshmeat bought by Microsoft or ExxonMobil? Official endorsement of George Bush? Rename Freshmeat "BenedictMeat" in honour of our new pope?

BozMo (www.catesfamily.org.uk)

11 Oct 2005 23:53

basjeroen

Re: oh

> that must mean that all the pictures of
> my cat, that i attached as project
> screenshots, finally worked. about time.

Brilliant Goodies from Google

lookup googlegulp

22 Oct 2005 04:50

mdnava

Re: Brilliant Joke

> I must say, this is the best April's
> joke I have seen so far.

Dunno if it was the best April's joke but I fell for it, I started looking for those blog-friendly releases :S, but a minute ago I saw this comments... Anyway, the idea stills sounds cool to me but better if not done, perhaps can be quite messy.

Mel (www.venezolano.web.ve/)

12 Feb 2006 11:22