Techdirt Weekend Posts: Seeking Community Feedback on Evolution

For many years, Techdirt has maintained two regular weekend posts: “This Week In Techdirt History” on Saturdays and “Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week” on Sundays. While these posts don’t drive significant traffic, they serve a dedicated community of long-time readers and commenters. Techdirt is now seeking feedback on whether to refresh or modify these features.

History Post Adjustments

Techdirt is considering changes to the “This Week In Techdirt History” post. Currently, the post includes sections looking back five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years. The site plans to discontinue the “five years ago” section, focusing instead on posts from ten, fifteen, and twenty years prior. As Techdirt approaches its 30th anniversary next year, it may further adjust these timeframes to ten, twenty, and thirty years.

Feedback is also requested on the post’s format. Currently, it uses a paragraph format with brief summaries of posts from the week. Techdirt is asking readers if a simple bullet-list of headlines would be preferable.

Comments Post Enhancements

The “Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week” post, Techdirt’s longest-running tradition, aims to highlight community contributions. However, populating the “funny” section has become challenging, and the quality of the Editor’s Choice selections can vary.

Techdirt is exploring alternative selection methods. Options include featuring the top three winners by vote in each section (potentially retaining a single Editor’s Choice comment) or pivoting entirely to a voting system. The site also seeks input on how to handle weeks with limited comment activity.

Similar to the history post, Techdirt is questioning the value of the brief written summaries accompanying the featured comments. Readers are asked if a more concise bullet-list of quotes and links would suffice.

Open to All Suggestions

Techdirt welcomes any and all feedback on the weekend posts, including suggestions for entirely new weekly features. The site is not rushing into changes but wants to initiate a conversation with its community. Popular suggestions may be featured in future “Winning Comments” posts.