Yeah, we definitely got many more link suggestions on VwV but never any fully written posts. I think "submit a link" might be a good way to get to know new people without wasting their time writing a post that might never be published. We should make it more prominent in the redesign. The 'for bloggers' thing needs a rewriten no matter what.

I think that allowing non-GVers to write articles/stories detracts from the sense of community that GV has fostered. Additionally, since virtually anyone can request to become an author (dependent of course on demand for that particular country), it makes sense to invite them to join the community fully.

That said, there should definitely be some other way to get people more involved - I just don't think this is it.

Solana, you should create an account. pretty easy using twitter.

We could easily set up a form that lets people submit stories (like on VwV) but we'd get a lot of crap that would be hard for the editorial staff to deal with. That said, it might be a good way to make sure people understand the GV 'format' before we create accounts for them. (and we could have a form response explaining the format etc. that we send to people who submit garbage). Maybe the 'submit a story' form could be linked just above the form to email an editor, to give people a chance to show they are worth replying to?

Right now we have a link at the top of every page "for bloggers". If they click on that then they come to this section asking them to email the appropriate editor/author - http://globalvoicesonline.org/for-bloggers/#links. I agree that the system can and should be improved to encourage more participation by readers, and to point editors and authors to new blogs, but how?

Interesting idea, do you think such submissions would be visible to the public? Will people be too discouraged if we turn them down? Solana