I am currently studying and there is a demand among other students for a place where related information not coverd in the official syllabus can be requested and then taught.
Idealy I would like to incorporate this into my blog. The idea being that the community (subscribers/members etc) can request a tutorial on a certain subject matter. It would then be my job to find some one qualified to write a tutorial or make a video. This would then be added to the blog.
What I would like suggestions on is how to receive the requests. It would be nice if they could be voted on (or a similar alternative) so I can priorities the most popular topics.
Anyway just an idea, wanted input into what is possible. Thanks in advance all:)
[FONT=verdana]You might want to consider setting up a simple forum. There are several free systems which will let you do that, although you will need a certain amount of technical knowledge to set it up and customise it. One that I have successfully used in phpBB, but it’s not the only one. The result is a forum along the lines of SitePoint, but very much simpler and without the advanced features (but including the ability to run a poll).
If you don’t want the trouble (and possible hosting costs) of a forum, you could always use the commenting feature in your existing blog, but it won’t be as well structured as a forum.
Note added later: Sorry, I just saw that your post’s title refers to Wordpress. My suggestion is not specific to Wordpress. It could be that there is a better solution, such as a plug-in that will do the job.
You could have a “request a tutorial” kind of page and add a submission form on that page. You could add all the topics in the form of select options, they choose one, write a few notes, submit it and you receive an email notification with the topic in the subject header of your email.
Thats a great idea, thanks Kohouteka! and simple enough that I can actually do that! haha.
It would be possible to also have on that page a poll right? Say of the top 5 things that have been requested by email. People could then vote on those, which would in turn give the next tutorial that would be made.
Yes, you could definitely do that, although I’d make sure to keep the poll in a clearly divided section of the page. Once you’ve received the first couple of suggestions, you could include a poll on the same page. I’d put it on the top, adding a few words to describe what’s been selected, that visitors can vote, and so on. Then, below it, you could write something like:
“Would you like to suggest a tutorial that is not up in the poll? Then get your opinion heard and select a topic below!”
Well, obviously it’d have to be written in a more apt way, but you get the idea. Below that you could then always keep your form with topics people can select from and submit to you.
As for polls, I don’t know of a good poll plugin, but that’s because I’ve never used a poll on a WP site before. I’m sure you’ll find something apt there as well.
[FONT=verdana]Just to add to Kohoutek’s suggestion: It would be good if you could display some sort of feedback. In other words, show your site visitors which courses have been suggested by others, and let them add their comment to that. This wouldn’t be in place of a poll, but rather it would be an alternative.
I can’t tell you how to do that in Wordpress, but I can’t imagine it would be very difficult.
