Topix Aims For Citizen Journalists

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

1. Direct Textbooks
   

   April 1st, 2007 at 8:37 pm

   I think this is a fantastic idea, we’ll see how they implement it. I think a combination of wire stories + local commentary and user interaction, done right, would be huge.

   Not that they have no competition, I just think on the local level promotion could be better and someone will grab a significatn advantage there.

   Then again I live in Salem, Oregon, so maybe there already is local competition in larger cities. Salem rules BTW.

2. Tony Chen
   

   April 1st, 2007 at 8:42 pm

   It would be great if they can work together with craigslist.org

3. Adam Healey
   

   April 1st, 2007 at 8:46 pm

   Not live yet but sounds really smart. I’ll definitely check it out.

4. Kewtr
   

   April 1st, 2007 at 8:49 pm

   Ran across the site a few times earlier, and I kind of liked it already. Hope it gets even better.

   Not holding out much hope since ‘everything is already invented’ or whatever, but we’ll see.

5. Nathan Kaiser
   

   April 1st, 2007 at 10:04 pm

   Great Idea. I interviewed Rich Skrenta a while back:

   http://www.npost.com/interview.jsp?intID=INT00102

6. Rich Skrenta
   

   April 1st, 2007 at 10:11 pm

   Nate, if I knew you were going to follow me around the net for the next three years spamming that damn rotating url to the interview everywhere, I would never have done that interview. For the love of Knuth, please stop!

7. Don Wilson
   

   April 1st, 2007 at 10:11 pm

   This just in — stupidest deal on the internet just became public.

8. Wes
   

   April 1st, 2007 at 11:14 pm

   This sounds like a good idea but I hope they can broaden their editor pool from just heavy commentators on their site over the past year.

9. Laurent Van Winckel
   

   April 2nd, 2007 at 12:31 am

   Very nice, very nice… *cough*

10. L
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 1:15 am

    How is this different from newsvine?

11. san
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 2:19 am

    not sure how far will this go. afterall many countries are battling blogger-journo credibility. hope more of these will change certain mindsets

12. StartupMeme
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 4:13 am

    One thing is for sure, it will make things more open and thus there will be more chances of events like Kathy Sierras’ happening.
    Lets see what this world of ours evolve into

13. P. G.
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 4:32 am

    Other countries have had a few successful “citizen - journalist” sites for a while. Since it focuses on a much needed and “can-keep-visitors-contributing” Topix does have a bright future ahead. There are many ‘auto-news-generated’ sites. I believe the key to topix’s success is to make and entice visitors to contribute local news constantly.

14. soxiam
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 5:55 am

    Nice idea and probably the right direction for topix. I do however wonder how much of this move was to generate unique content to increase their search engine traffic at the same time trying to avoid getting hit with duplicate content penalty.

15. OhCash
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 6:02 am

    Thats a great domain. I think people underestimate the power of a small and catchy little word like that. It really can boost your popularity..everything else being equal
    Business Ideas

16. rack pallet
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 6:48 am

    - To be honest; having to compete against Google News and Yahoo News … Msn News….

    - Not quite a market place I would want to be

17. Thomas
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 8:09 am

    Citizen journalism is such a horrible idea. How could Topix dot com swim in exactly the wrong direction at this point in time? Haven’t the death of citizen journo sites demonstrated the true value of the concept? Apparently not. The last thing I want to read is what a bunch of morons with too much time on their hands have to say.

18. basicity
    

    April 2nd, 2007 at 10:46 am

    Topix.net acquired the domain Topix.com for approx $1M back in January. Topix.com was originally owned by a Canadian computer graphics and animation facility that specialized in character animation, special effects, film titling, and type and broadcast design.

    This shows the importance of having a good domain for your business/company and that .com extension is still king. Here’s a clipping from Domain Name Wire (http://domainnamewire.com/2007/03/13/topixcom-sells-for-1m/):

    “When entrepreneurs start a web site they frequently overlook the importance of a good domain. They think that if the site takes off they can always buy the more expensive domain they want. But Topix.net is a good example of why this is a bad strategy. Buying a good domain name from the get go pays off in the long run.”

19. Michal
    

    April 4th, 2007 at 4:25 pm

    Nice, I had the same idea over a year ago. Good luck

20. nel
    

    April 30th, 2007 at 10:12 pm

    thanks for the tips, this is an excellent blog!

21. Gimmy
    

    April 30th, 2007 at 10:13 pm

    Its really very informative and useful articles I have found ever…….