A Call for XBMC writers
As you may have noticed, our blog has often been lacking in content, outside of the occasional Feature Friday. We would like to change that. Starting right now, we will begin accepting applications for up to five XBMC writers. The pay is terrible (i.e. you will not get paid), and you probably won’t get a lot of respect, but at least the hours aren’t bad!
The XBMC home page is viewed approximately 30,000 times a day. As an XBMC blogger, you will be seen by over 400,000 unique visitors per month. People will probably start randomly buying you drinks in fancy and exclusive bars. Also, if you have an idea for an interesting story, even our angriest and scariest developers (who need no introduction) might be nice to you, if you ask them questions.
At least three of the previous sentences are true.
For those of you interested, here are the rules. We will be accepting applications from now until Monday, October 2nd. Because this isn’t a paying job, we don’t really care about resumes. Instead, we’d like you to send us two things: a brief paragraph introducing yourself and your relationship with XBMC, and an XBMC-related article. If you’d like to include a link to your current blog, feel free. All submissions should be sent to contact AT xbmc DOT org with the subject line: “#XBMC Writer Submission” (no quotes).
The XBMC-related article can range anywhere from 150 to 1000 words (potentially longer, if you are going for a “long form journalism” piece), should avoid strong language, and can cover almost any XBMC-based topic you can think of. Suggested topics include:
- An interesting addon
- An attractive skin (with screenshots)
- A How-To article
- The history of an XBMC feature
- The value of a recent XBMC nightly build feature
Extra points will be awarded for particularly creative topics, but writing about any of the above should be fine.
After October 2nd, a number of Team members will sort through the submissions, and individual writers will be notified upon selection. As always, there is no guarantee that anyone will be selected, and, likewise, if enough awesome articles are submitted, we may consider adding more than five writers. Additionally, there’s a fairly good chance that the first piece published for any individual selected will be his or her submission article, so make it a good one!
Good luck, and we look forward to reading your articles and columns!
Finally … Xbmc is not dead
What a fantastic idea. I am an engineering student and often have trouble writing on subjects that I have no interest, but I do enjoy writing technical related stuff (as much as one can enjoy it I suppose). I might have to make a submission.
“should avoid strong language”, I’m out…
How about someone update current scripts before advertising for new ones? Lots of GREAT scripts deprecated that could be simply updated. Sad.
“People will probably start randomly buying you drinks in fancy and exclusive bars.”
At least two pretty girls have smiled at me since I though about writing an article. Basically, now I gotta write one…
Good idea!
I would love to read about interessting recent XBMC nightly build features from time to time.
Something like the article about “Dirty regions”. I really liked that one.
Very nice! I’m dusting the ol’ typewriter.
Sounds great, up till now I have been “scanning” the forums for the story around recent changes..
Ooh, potential news in the future. Very exciting! I appreciated the xbmc development articles that use to happen; along with any speculation on the next release – and information about bugs and patches for the current version maybe? 10.02 is not in the cards right?
I hope you guys continue to blog/post more user’s setups like in the previous posts. You might even take it a step further and list what hardware, OS and favorite addons these users are using. Most of us find these article inspiring and very useful for the projects we are planning. Plus, it sells new people on how great and versatile XBMC is. Thanks
i would love to a see a, “will this nightly break my mysql library?” daily update
What about the XBMC twitter account? That’s another avenue for promotion of XBMC that seems to be under-utilised.
@Red Tape Media
http://twitter.com/#!/XBMC and also http://www.facebook.com/XBMC
But maybe someone should put that on homepage here…
Sounds great. There are a couple recent features that I’d love to write about. Submission on the way in the next couple days.
@Red Tape Media
Hmm. How would you suggest we utilize the twitter account? I ask because I’m really pretty curious. We’ve had quite a lot of success on the facebook side of things, but not much success on the twitter side.
This is a fantastic idea. I’d be particular interested in info on recent nightly releases, new addons & skins.
I’d change that to “must not contain any strong language” :)
Let’s keep XBMC family-friendly. XBMC is enjoyed by people of all ages.
Fantastic!!! Love it!
@natethomas I think it’s pretty good for content, just doesn’t seem to be very frequently updated. Maybe mix in a bit of HTPC related news, even movie tidbits etc. I like interesting links, so that’s my vote anyway.
great idea.
what i miss is a development status of xbmc. the roadmap offers a nice overview, but i really don’t know where the project currently stands.
maybe something like “xbmc inside” with infos/status of the achievements and main goals before a new stable version will be released.
I did a political incorrect submission about piracy, but this is stated in the forum rules:
Team-XBMC is totally opposed to any form of piracy, read and understand our disclaimer!
The disclaimer points to an empty webpage, http://xbmc.org/legal/.
Can a blogger be immune to such censorship that is written in an invisible font?
I would love to do this but I have no idea what to write about :)
Nice to see that new things are happening. I’m not a good writer but I can give some examples I would realy like to read more about on this blog:
– More about the current PVR Situation
– New Skin Features from third party developers (There are great Skins out there i.e. Aeon MQ3 with realy big features that aren’t represented anywhere around here)
– More News about the current development status!
I agree. Maybe some more info about Eden every now and then?
You guys don’t provide any real incentive for a competent writer to submit content. So far as contests go this is pretty weak.
Thought the forum was a pretty good read… you need more?
What sort of incentive are you looking for? (whiff of spiff’s underwear?)
A t-shirt? Anything? I’m a technology business writer who’s an XBMC enthusiast. I think that pretty much makes me a perfect candidate. The problem is that I see absolutely no upside to contributing. The team must be able to offer something better than “no pay and no respect.” Give us a reason to want to contribute.
Ah, see, where you’re probably getting confused Jeff is that this isn’t a contest. XBMC is one big, eight year old labor of love. In the past, when we’ve needed a new developer, we’ve offered that developer pretty much the same terms. “You get nothing, other than the satisfaction of having contributed to a truly fantastic piece of software.” Likewise, when we need a Forum Moderator, the person gets nothing, other than to see his name highlighted in a slightly different way. The goal isn’t to find people who are going to submit an article for a reward, then skip town. The goal is to find people who are dedicated enough to XBMC that they would willingly contribute (in the form of writing) for no reason other than the satisfaction of knowing that they helped in the development of the greatest fully open media center on the planet, at least in some way.
You will be recognized as the author of your articles. You will get to tell people that you are an active participant in one of the sexiest open source software projects out there. You will get to contribute. If that’s not enough, then we probably aren’t a great fit.
I just saw this one. Count me in, if there’s still need for writers.
BR,
h.udo