Techdirt Weekend Posts: Feedback & Future Ideas

For nearly two decades, Techdirt has maintained a consistent rhythm of weekend content: “This Week In Techdirt History” on Saturdays and “Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week” on Sundays. These posts, even as not traffic drivers in the traditional sense, serve as cornerstones for the site’s dedicated community of long-time readers and active commenters. Now, the team is opening a dialogue, seeking feedback on whether these features should evolve, and how. The conversation comes as Tech Editor Mike Masnick is on vacation, creating a natural pause for reflection.

A History of Weekend Features and an Evolving Archive

The core idea behind the weekend posts isn’t about chasing pageviews, but about nurturing the community that has grown around Techdirt over the years. The team acknowledges that the relatively modest audience for these posts means they’re careful not to over-invest time and resources into their creation. However, they recognize the value these posts hold for those who consistently engage with them. A key change already under consideration addresses the “This Week In Techdirt History” feature. As the site’s archive expands, looking back five years feels increasingly less impactful. The plan is to shift the focus to posts from ten, fifteen, and twenty years ago, with an eye toward potentially expanding that range to thirty years when Techdirt celebrates its 30th anniversary next year. This adjustment aims to make the historical reflections more engaging and less focused on the remarkably recent past.

Beyond the timeframe, the format of the history posts is also up for debate. Currently, the posts present a paragraph-style summary of selected articles. The team is asking readers whether a simple bullet-list of headlines would be a preferable alternative, or if another approach might be better. This is a practical question about presentation, balancing conciseness with providing enough context for readers to recall or discover older content.

The Enduring Value of Community Comments

The “Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week” post is Techdirt’s longest-running tradition, reflecting the site’s long-held belief in the value of its commenting community. However, maintaining the quality of this post has develop into increasingly challenging. Specifically, finding consistently “funny” comments has proven difficult, and the quality of the Editor’s Choice selections can vary depending on the time available to review the comments. This leads to several questions about the future of the comments post.

One potential change is to move away from the Editor’s Choice selections and instead feature the top three comments as determined by community voting in each section. A single Editor’s Choice comment could be retained, or the feature could be streamlined to a single Editor’s Choice comment for the entire post. Another concern is how to handle weeks with low commenting activity, where the “winning” comments may be chosen simply because they received a few idle votes rather than representing genuinely insightful or humorous contributions.

Similar to the history posts, the team is also questioning the value of the written summaries accompanying each featured comment. These summaries are intended to provide context, but they require additional effort and may not always be necessary. Readers are being asked whether a more direct approach – simply quoting and linking to the winning comments – would be sufficient, allowing those interested to explore the full context themselves.

Balancing Tradition with Refreshment

The impetus for this feedback request isn’t dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs, but rather a proactive desire to ensure these weekend features continue to resonate with the Techdirt community. The team understands the value of consistency, but also recognizes the need to adapt and evolve. They’re explicitly stating they aren’t rushing into any changes, emphasizing that the goal is to start a conversation and gather input before making any decisions. The possibility of incorporating popular suggestions into a future “Winning Comments” post adds an interesting meta-element to the feedback process.

This approach reflects a broader trend in online publishing, where platforms are increasingly prioritizing community engagement and seeking direct feedback from their users. Techdirt’s willingness to openly solicit input on even its established features demonstrates a commitment to its audience and a recognition that the most successful online communities are those that are built collaboratively. The site’s history of covering internet freedom and open access arguably informs this approach, extending those principles to its own internal operations.

What Comes Next: A Period of Evaluation

The team will be actively monitoring the comments section for feedback over the coming weeks. There’s no firm timeline for implementing any changes, but the conversation is now officially underway. The upcoming run of “Winner Spotlight” posts for the Public Domain Game Jam will likely serve as a transitional period, allowing the team to assess the feedback and formulate a plan for the future of the weekend posts. The game jam itself, as highlighted in recent news from Techdirt and Google News, provides a natural break for this evaluation process. The team is encouraging readers to share any and all thoughts, even if they don’t directly address the specific questions raised in the post.