Introducing Dutch Directions, the first independent Dutch weblog network
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After a period of secrecy it's time to get it out in the open: I'm building a new weblog network. Not just on my own, I must add. The network will be called Dutch Directions. You've seen the snazzy logo in my footer. Now you'll learn what it's all about. At this moment we're still working very hard on finishing the main website on time but the community has already taken off. We've sent out over 40 invites for the first acceptance round of which 18 weblogs have already accepted. The lineup is very diverse in terms of content and I'm extremely proud to be able to let the world know we have some serious quality on board. If you've received an invite but you didn't decide whether you should join us or not, maybe this article and the current list of members will encourage you to do so. If you haven't been invited yet, keep watching us. We'll be accepting new member sites very soon after we've launched! The network will launch officially on March 11 at the award ceremony for the Dutch Bloggies. On this day our splash page will be replaced by a full blown platform for the network.
For now, read on to learn more about Dutch Directions!
The idea of an independent Dutch weblog network crossed my mind somewhere around October 2005 when I tried to pitch the idea with Paul Scrivens of 9rules. This never took off but the idea kept buzzing in my head. There's a lot of quality weblogging going on in the Netherlands but quite a lot of sites are hard to find because they're not very well known. Shortly after posting an essay about the slightly sad state of the Dutch Blogosphere the idea regained power. A basecamp project site was created and Max, Simon and I started working on the creation of the first independent Dutch weblog network. At the moment I'm writing this there's still an awful lot of work to do but we're getting more and more confident that Dutch Directions is going to be a success. We're going to try and change the Dutch blogosphere. Ambitious? Definitely! Difficult? Even more so. The Dutch blogosphere is quite a harsh environment indeed. Terms like 'hostile' even come to mind. Impossible? We believe not. With the current first batch of members however we're quite confident we're going to make a solid impression.
The members so far
As a first step, we've compiled a list of weblogs we'd love to have on board. This does NOT mean that weblogs that aren't on our first list aren't 'worthy' or anything like that. We just needed a good start. The following fine weblogs have joined Dutch Directions so far. As you can see, a wide variety of subjects are already covered! Here's the list in random order:
- Doe Niet Zo Moeilijk!
- File Under
- Marketing Facts
- Frankwatching
- KuraFire Network
- Majestic Moose
- The Net is Dead
- Verbal Jam
- Film van Alledag
- Karin met K
- UsabilityWeb
- My own Music Industry
- Mijn Kop Thee
- Wij Blijven Hier!
- Dutch Celt
- Sudesh
- Altijd Fijn!
- Choking On Popcorn
Those who know the Dutch blogosphere will probably understand why I'm extremely proud of the lineup we've gathered so far! We've got several 'big names' as well as some less well-known sites sharing one thing in common: They're all of excellent quality. Some for their excellent information, some for their insightful articles and others just because they're cute, funny or otherwise worth their readers' time.
What it's about
"Wait a minute... ehm... you're a 9rules member already!", one may wonder. I will continue to be just that since this new weblog network is an entirely different beast. Both networks are unrelated and won't interfere with eachother at all.
Dutch Directions is the very first independent Dutch weblog network. The network is solely focused on weblogs from the Netherlands and Belgium. Because of the fragmented nature of the Dutch blogosphere and because we strongly believe that quality weblogs with a positive attitude deserve more attention than they're currently getting we decided it was time to get to work.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm not doing all of this on my own. The project is a joint venture between me and two other Dutch bloggers: Max Roeleveld and Simon Koelewijn. Max is known in the Dutch Blogosphere for his RSS aggregator 'Verse Meuk Tracker' and of course his own blog and Simon is the designer of Eventblogs and Frankwatching for which he's doing all technical work as well as occasional guest blogging. With this core team we believe we have the most important bases covered for a succesful launch. After that, anything is still possible.
After March 11 you'll be able to learn a lot more about Dutch Directions. For those who have received an invite but didn't react yet: I hope we will be able to welcome you soon! For everybody else: subscribe to our announcement list to be the first to know when we have more news.
Small update: We started some sort of development blog on which you can read a bit more. (in Dutch though)
At 16 February '06 - 01:25 Bart wrote:
(www.netlash.com, http://www.kopjekoffie.be,, en nog een aantal…)
At 16 February '06 - 01:29 Marco wrote:
Somewhere around march – april once everything is running we’ll be accepting new members.
At 16 February '06 - 01:34 Pelle wrote:
At 16 February '06 - 01:58 Simon wrote:
That’s most certainly one of the things we’re hoping for… :)
At 16 February '06 - 02:02 Blues wrote:
...
Damn!
At 16 February '06 - 04:56 karin wrote:
At 16 February '06 - 05:20 peter wrote:
At 16 February '06 - 05:29 Simon wrote:
At 16 February '06 - 05:31 Marco wrote:
The anwer:
There hasn’t been any ‘judging’ going on. That is, no judging in terms of what’s good and what’s ‘not good’ (which is a personal thing in itself really). All we did for round 1 is compile a list of weblogs we all agreed on in terms of being quality weblogs, in various ways.
In the next round, webloggers will be able to submit their site. At this moment we’re still deliberating on how we’re going to determine which blogs will make the cut after we receive submissions. For the current list we only looked at what’s great, not at all at what’s not.
At 16 February '06 - 07:31 Max Roeleveld wrote:
What really strikes me (in a positive way) is that there’s already a couple of people asking how more weblogs can be added to the list, how to become a part of it. To me, that is a very clear sign that this baby is gona fly. Yes sir. Great things, they are afoot.
At 16 February '06 - 08:46 Bakkel wrote:
When people want to participate without knowing the criteria, it should be a winner. When is the site going up?
At 16 February '06 - 08:50 Simon wrote:
At 16 February '06 - 08:51 Chantal wrote:
At 16 February '06 - 09:06 Cliff Ophalvens wrote:
I use it for a lot of stuff, but more personal stuff. I like my design, but I didn’t validate my code because I know it isn’t completely correct…
So how big is the chance for a “ordinary” blogger to become a member of this network?
I don’t know that I have a “quality blog”, so tell me
At 16 February '06 - 09:11 Marco wrote:
First of all I believe the current list speaks for itself. It shows we like quality, dedication and blogging in a respectful way. Of course there will be some ‘hard’ criteria such as ‘one should post on a regular basis’ just to mention one but some criteria will also relate to the direction we want to take with the network. Therefore there can and will be sites that can be considered ‘great’ in certain aspects that won’t be accepted.
We will definitely publicize our criteria once the network is live but just to make sure there will be no misunderstanding: Dutch Directions doesn’t claim to ‘have everything’. We claim to have quality. There’s a big difference here!
As said before, stay tuned. We’re not going to act like arrogant gits who ‘know it all’. I’m pretty sure that those who are both willing to join, dedicated to their weblogs and enthousiastic about our goals will have a pretty damn good chance to get accepted in the next round!
At 16 February '06 - 09:14 Marco wrote:
At 16 February '06 - 09:23 Bakkel wrote:
At 16 February '06 - 10:56 God wrote:
No one blogs better then these weblogs.
At 16 February '06 - 12:07 Ruben wrote:
(Always wanted to say that for once).
At 16 February '06 - 14:52 Bram wrote:
Only thing to do now is get my own weblog to a higher level. More quality and more frequent posting. I want that logo!
GL with your further work!
At 17 February '06 - 13:02 Moljevic wrote:
At 17 February '06 - 19:18 David wrote:
At 18 February '06 - 06:15 Marco wrote:
This is a different case. This network is purely Dutch/Flemish which makes it an entirely different game compared to any other weblog network. It’s not competing with any of those networks in any way. The logo is basically here because I founded the network and not because any DD related stuff will ever happen on this website after http://www.dutchdirections.nl has been launched officially. This site is and will remain a 9rules member site as far as I’m concerned.
However:
If anyone (maybe you?) decides to throw shit at Scrivs or the 9rules crew because of this I will be removing the Dutch Directions logo from this website. Simply because I won’t allow that crap to happen.
So here’s to you and anyone else thinking about using this as a reason to start raising havoc again: Go ahead and make your choice. It’s about time people start growing up and get over things if you ask me. I for one won’t let my site be dragged into any of that nonsense.
This is all I have to say about the matter.
At 19 February '06 - 10:33 vlad babii wrote:
At 21 February '06 - 15:15 Tom wrote:
At 21 February '06 - 16:08 Jero wrote:
At 28 February '06 - 17:43 Berry wrote:
Slick design, btw.