Stoop Stump, our new weekly feature, is dedicated to highlighting the best of neighborhood porches and stoops. The stoop is the spot where the soul of the neighborhood can be seen. We watch our children from the stoop, sit with the barking dog, and spend lots of moolah and elbow grease keeping the garden and pots awash with color. As I pound the pavement around the ‘hood with my trusty sidekick Elwood, I am always on the lookout for the perfect stoop. So it’s with stoop envy that I’ll share these photos with you. You have the task of figuring out where these charming spots are located!
Where is this stoop? Photo by Kate McFadden.
No(t too much) offense, but this post is terrible. Your blog has potential — it targets an underserved group on The Hill — but posts like this will kill it.
This is just a really, really dumb idea.
Hmmm … front walk, a porch, space for an actual tree. Could this be on the west end of East Cap?
Perhaps Silence isn’t as much of a voyeur as my friends and me …
It’s not that I’m not interested in sights in the area. Instead, it’s that this “feature” is an even less interesting knock-off of similar posts on other area blogs, most obviously and most frequently Prince of Petworth. However, unlike those, which are at least subjectively interesting because they’re less structured and have been ongoing for some time, this bit is forced and hackneyed. If you’re going to copy other blogs’ content, at least pick the good parts and do it well.
I appreciate that you’re defending your own by complimenting another contributor to this blog, but if you’re trying to build credibility with new readership, I can tell you from at least this reader’s perspective that this “feature” is weak and uninteresting to the point that it detracts from the rest of your content. With a blog, your only currency is the quality of your content, and with this, your trading value is dropping fast.
Wow — awfully harsh commentary over one post. I actually liked this, but even if I didn’t I have a hard time seeing how one feature that you don’t care for would kill the whole blog. As a frequent blog reader, I don’t have any problem skipping over the posts that don’t appeal to me.
For the record, my guess is that this house is on 3rd NE between East Cap and A.
To be clear, it’s not commentary; it’s criticism. As a potentially loyal reader (I have been reading your blog since the 2nd day of posts), this is the first post that gave me a clear target to voice this criticism.
I don’t mean to be a troll, and I expect to contribute in less “harsh” ways with comments going forward. However, this post is a clear example of a common mistake made by a young blog: copying what works (sort of) for another, more established blog. In this case, this is a poor copy of a common feature on other area blogs, most notably Prince of Petworth. The difference is that those have an active readership that quickly responds, and the commentary drives site traffic. There, the content of this sort of post doesn’t matter because there is an established readership that will comment on anything, already drawn there by a history of more valuable content.
This site, however, has no such active readership nor the traffic to allow you to get away with such weak content. The only people (other than me) who are commenting on this are you, the contributors. (Notice that no one else has chimed in that they like this.) That should be a tip-off that this post is not working.
If you want “features” that drive traffic, then you need to focus on creating good content. Once you have that and the traffic that follows it, then you can use gimmicks like this to nudge that traffic upward a little with repeated views of these commentary threads. Until then, posts like this hurt this blog because you’re spending time on them instead of on features that are worthwhile. For a counter example, the “5 Questions” feature that someone posted a week or so ago is good content. The other, sporadic posts have also generally been good content. A post like this is filler, and I commented to (hopefully) convince you to put a stop to this sort of thing straight away because it hurts your blog. I would like you to succeed because I live on the Hill, and you acting as a content provider that keeps all of the goings-on in one place has value for me (and, I assume, is the value that you hope drives people to your site). If you would like to play “Stoop Stump” with one another, then you should probably just take that to e-mail.
I think that the point I’ve made here is as clear as it is going to get, so I’ll leave you with that. I don’t wish to be a constant naysayer, and I hope that you take this for what it is: constructive criticism from a concerned reader that would like this blog to succeed.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Good stuff to think about. The house is at 24 4th St, NE. Some of you were close, but as my dad says, no cigar. Whatever that means. See you next week.
Here’s my two cents. You know what they say re imitation and flattery. But Silence has a bit of a point re the challenge of engaging folks when you are still building traffic.
Me? I really like the idea of *seeing* the stoops of the Hill. Not so fond of the idea of *guessing* where they are, since I’m not about to be successful. I don’t care for the similar feature one of the blogs (Washingtonian? DCist?) does with “guess where the tiny architectural detail in the photo is from” either!
Good luck on your growing pains. Am happy to have you in the reader.
Great point Beth. My intent is to try to focus on all parts of the Hill, including the edges where perhaps we don’t think of when we think of “beautiful” stoops. I think the guessing option might make people stop to think, “hey I didn’t realize what great houses there are up D Street, near 18th.”
I always find the “what is that new business going up?” type of posts to be most usefull. For example, does anyone know the staus of Joe Englert’s purchase of that snack shop on the corner of Penn and Potomac Ave?
Silence: this is the first Kate who posted. In response to your mistaken observation that only the contributors comment here, I’d like to clarify that I am *not* Kate McFadden, the author of the post. I am another Kate who lives in the neighborhood, shares her first name, happens to like this post and found your criticism a bit over the top. Some of your points are fair, but your delivery was terrible (and unfair). I wanted to weigh in to make clear that not everyone shares your views. I am not trying to pick a fight, just wanted to get the facts straight here.
Kate(s) — I realized that was a mistake, but I didn’t post to correct it (and I know that other readers made the same mistake). However, my greater point stands, and the harshness of the criticism was intentional. I wanted my point to be very clear. This feature (and any like it) as it currently exists is bad, and it detracts from the blog. To that end, my delivery was not unfair at all — it was meant to be effective, not gentle.
I made my point harshly to draw attention to it and (hopefully) to convince the contributors to focus their energies on content that will drive traffic in the hopes that this site can become successful. However harsh, I believe that my comments were reasoned and thoughtful. I did not criticize the poster or the blog, only this type of post. Doing such a thing is a common mistake that new blogs make, and it is a symptom of a common misconception, that you can write without a devoted readership the same as you can with one. That is not true. What drives traffic in an established blog can weigh down and drive people away from a new one. The focus should be on strong content, not gimmicky knock-offs of another blog’s ideas.
I have a selfish interest in this blog succeeding because I would like to be able to get information on my neighborhood without cobbling it together from the other city blogs. So, I wanted to make my point loud and clear, and, based on the number of responses, I think that I might have done just that. I hope that the end result of this harshness is a better product. In that case, I expect that I will not have to be similarly harsh going forward.
Not to disagree too much Kate (who posted and responded to me … just to clear that up :).
But I don’t think the guessing will have me thinking “hey I didn’t realize what great houses there are up D Street, near 18th.” I think your telling me that the great stoop pictured is from a house on D near 18th. Just sayin!
Anyway, like Silence, want the blog to succeed. As a NoVa resident, I’ve been drawn to this neighborhood for some reason, and like living vicariously thru blogging!
You guys have really had me thinking, and I do agree the ‘where is the stoop’ game is a little lame. Honestly, the name sounded catchy…and like many things we’re doing here, it’s a test bed and will evolve. Now I’ll start to think of another goofy alliteration to call the column. 🙂 I’m also thinking of doing a “What Were They Thinking” feature…photos of random things like the second story door that goes to nowhere over the dry cleaner, the pepto pink house on 9th, the out of date business cards that promote the long-lived printer on Penn.
Kate McFadden – Because this has become sort of a catch-all for this discussion, can I ask a question (to be followed by my too-long written thoughts)?
Why are you focusing on a gimmicky approach to photos instead of “photos on the Hill” or something much simpler that would be easier to fill each week? Again, it seems to me, your energy would be better used in your other posts to better deliver high quality content. Then, once a week or whatever, you could simply (and quickly) post a collection of interesting/cute/odd pictures each week that you, other contributors, or readers have taken.
My concern, as a reader, is that you are putting a lot more time and effort into this than I personally think is worth it. I like to see pictures from my neighborhood, especially if there’s something new or cute or interesting. However, I honestly don’t understand your desire to have a “feature” around a specific type of photo, whether that’s someone’s stoop, doors to nowhere, or what have you. That seems like a lot of effort with very little reward, when you could do something much more simply and quickly that will have at least as much appeal, if not more. That’s an idea that’s well worth borrowing from other blogs: Periodic sets of pictures, like weekly lists of events in the area (another idea worth considering), are simple to compile and have a good reward for the energy required.
A comment above mentions the “guess this business” approach, which might work, but again, I think it would be more beneficial to posts something like “New Business X on Y St.” and move on to more meaningful work. Cut the gimmick, and provide the information.
I’m trying to be constructive, here, because I really would like this blog to flourish as a matter of my own selfishness. And, it seems to me like you’re getting too caught up in cutesy ideas that really don’t drive any traffic to your site. As I’ve pointed out ad nauseum, those things are fine and well to use as filler once you have people visiting your site multiple times a day and just need something to put up, but they can be a negative in the interim because they bump your better content down on the page.
There you have my 2 cents on the issue (again). I think that you’re missing the forest for the trees that it’s not this specific idea that is not a good use of energy, but rather that it’s any flavor of this type of post that doesn’t help you win new traffic. Not to mention that I, for one, would be less than thrilled if my house or business appeared in “What Were They Thinking?”
Thanks for the very clear feedback Silence. Like I said, you have given me some good things to think about, and I have no desire to be gimicky. You’re right on a number of points that I’ll take into consideration. This is indeed a work in progress.
Silence Dogood needs his/her own blog.