Content Policy
The first step towards building a content policy is to describe what defines us. As change is constant, this definition is prone to transformation. But the core values that define it will still hold good. Here is how we portray ourselves:
Defining Our Existence
A conventional news story would usually figure out the 5Ws and 1H of things: Who (did), What (happened/to whom), When and Where, Why, and How. The story would be some event/happening organized by someone or by ‘the hand of God’ someone had attended/will be following/been involved at a prescribed time and place, owing to a reason. Or it might be some achievement/delivery by some organization/movement that will somehow impact the rest of us. One can narrate a neutral and impartial story by checking these columns so we are attempting to tell our story.
TheDropTimes dot com is a news portal covering Drupal as the prime beat. We are part of a greater Drupal community and intend to celebrate the people and organizations in the community. We do not hold any particular affinity or grudge toward any specific organization or group. We envision promoting news and stories around Drupal while remaining agnostic and equidistant from various groups.
To inform is our call and to decipher is the readers. We shall not push an opinion or lobby in favor of someone or something through our hard news. Our views will be shared only as opinions and not as facts.
We rely on the spirit of Free Libre, Open-Source Software Ecosystem and see an open, embracing world where we can support each other and grow together. We are not here to grab anything from anybody but to share everything with everybody—whether it be knowledge, information, connections, or even business. We intend to be the whiteboard for the community where flowcharts can be drawn and redrawn.
Our primary aim is to weave the story of Drupal, including updates from or about various user groups, companies, individuals, hacks, meetups, camps, conferences, career opportunities, software updates, and such. Ours is a federated existence, as those who work here are not of any single ethnicity or domicile.
We are here because we love Drupal. It is a shared interest most valuable. Read about us to know further.
Discerning Our Content
Syndicate, rehash, rewrite! Get it amplified. That is what we do. We are not obsessed with originality but with reproducibility. We believe in the virality of an idea; In co-creation.
We might quote abundantly from what others wrote. We might extend it like a true creative commons. In such cases, we shall not use the entire content but a part of it and lead readers to the original. We hyperlink it to the source. Attribution is vital, and we are steadfast about it.
We are not content creators that supply ‘supposedly’ original content. We are here to share our love for FLOSS in general and Drupal in particular. We are storytellers. We recreate spiels for the greater common good. We are trying to be a supporting arm for stories worth telling. We are a meme pool where you find dozens of copies of an initially discussed idea taking shapes, transforming, evolving, adapting, and expanding.
Do you need the original? Go and find the original. We shall leave trails. We are like bloating paper, and we absorb the juice in there. We care to share, and we believe sharing is caring.
Sharing is not piracy. It is a human virtue. It is a form of admiration, respect, and recognition. Albeit, we do it ethically.
We do not ‘lift’ and make it ours. We credit where the credit is due. We attribute and link. Our moral compass tilt towards the dissemination of information rather than the sanctity of content.
We might make mistakes. We shall own up to our mistakes and learn from them, striving to improve constantly. Whenever we find an error or somebody points to an omission or flaw we made, we review and correct it. We welcome feedback from our readers, both positive and negative. We strive to incorporate feedback as best as possible and improve the value we deliver to the Drupal community.
We would keep ourselves from literary syllogisms and propagate straight talk. We would seek to provide verifiable information free from intentions. We would cite resources, credit images used, and use non-restrictive photos as far as possible. We promise to innovate constantly. We are here together.
Aligning the Content with Our Vision
Our vision is to be actively playing a part in helping reach out to the unreached as we build and grow the community. We will want to play a decisive role in taking the news within and across the community, but we wouldn’t want to stop there. We will want to use that news as a powerful medium to reach out to the people who are not already part of the active community of contributors, builders, and participants. We want to share with them the excitement of the community, the idea of co-creation, and the idea of collaboration.
Using the news from within the community to power the community’s growth is the most critical aspect of our existence, and everything else takes a second seat. So all of what we do will center around this aspect.