I think it’s great that you’re getting something going! Let’s try out a few things and I believe the community will decide and things will shake themselves out naturally.

One idea I had for the article format was something like this (imagine better typeface, better organization with boxes and colors around the Caveats and Alternative Viewpoints, etc):

http://duhvelopment.com/(X(1)S(ovbyxr450uvaedqhibkqfjf5))/Article_Format.ashx

P.S. I’m not trying to pre-empt Chad’s domain input by getting duhvelopment.com going. We’ll work out getting things translated when needed. I agree with Chad’s ideas, so please don’t take this as hostile action.

I can see the use of a wiki maybe as a starting point and as we find problems or come up with better ways to solve problems we can maybe write a custom site or something if that is needed. I see however the biggest problem to getting this going is to get bogged down in allt he details upfront and discouraging anything from happening because we arne’t doing it the right way to begin with.

Personally I have a lot of ideas that I just want to brain dump somehwere that i think could really help make this successful but they need to be discussed, weighed and thought out.

Again we aren’t going to get it right out the shoot, but the biggest msitake is doing nothing at all. We can make it right eventually. Besides we are coders we never do it right the first time ;) I mean just go look at code you wrote 6 months ago. hehe.

re: wiki or not. Using a wiki format gets us up fast and you can use conventions and active moderation to overcome most of the objections–at least to start. For example, there is no practical difference between an essay and a wiki entry–an essay is simply a specific format for an article. A CMS of some kind might work, but I’d rather *not* go with any of the community/forumy things out there (although I foresee an eventual need for some kind of discussion format type space to discuss issues, policies, etc.).

I believe achieving your goal will be more complicated than throwing up yet another site and giving it a try. Why not set up a community site, using one of the many crowd-sourcing or community tools available on the web, to collaboratively design this thing? Beyond taking comments on your blog, why not set up a space to formally flesh out and publicly debate what needs to be done differently than what already exists? There are so many brilliant, passionate minds in this neck of the woods, I think the potential is there for something amazing to emerge.

I agree, we should put up something similar in its place. I’ll try to get something to you asap. Unfortunately I’m snowed under right now preparing for the Pablo’s Days of TDD event this weekend, but after that my schedule will free up a bit.

I’ll try to get something to you this week with something more meaty next week, is that OK?

@Jacob: I’d love to have your help. I’m not crazy about that domain name (actually, I love it, but not for this particular effort, we should talk off-line about some other ideas for that awesome domain name).

I just registered “Startingwith.net” What do ya’ll think?

I am personally at a stuck point on debate style since that can get VERY long and people can get lost, but I like the idea since it will help to flesh out concepts and ideas better.