Okay, I may have an approach to my community site
This post really belongs on my development blog that I just (re)started, but since no one knows about it yet I'm posting here because I really would like opinions.
I really get tired of folks telling people what Black folks think, or are like, and all that. Meanwhile, Black folks are actually here and more than capable of expressing themselves. The problem (among non-Black folks, anyway) is knowing who to ask. Another problem is knowing what to ask about. The real answer to that is "anything." There is no issue that affects any American that doesn't impact me…of course the inverse is true too, but most folks don't feel that way.
Because of this, part of what I'd like to do is help make the various opinions in the Black communities more accessible.
Aggregating current articles by Black writers and/or about "Black issues" is one element of how I want to approach this. Having a sentimental attachment to Movable Type, and recognizing I'm not going to get the level of integration I'd like to have for a while (hell, I'm not 100% sure on everything I want to integrate), reBlog looks like a good way to start. I'm thinking of grabbing their code, which they just released as an Open Source project. The best thing about reBlog is, being based on Movable Type, I know how to make it look the way I want it to. I can make it all look integrated whether or not it is. The problem is the distinctive imprint of my judgment will be manifest in the selection of sites and articles I work with and that's not my intent. My intent is to help expose as objective a view of Black opinions as possible.
Partially to offset that I want to add, I guess you'd call it a link portal. It will let me maintain a directory of links that people can vote and comment on, allows users to submit site and category suggestions, and a lot of other stuff I'm not much interested in. You can see a minimally customized implementation here. I want to focus on small media like blogs, grass roots organizations and such. I was also thinking links to specific articles as opposed to entire sites.
The other major software up for consideration is PHP-Nuke and maaaaaybe Scoop.
