Question of the Week Timeline

Question

I had some thoughts for improving our QotW process, in terms of timeline.

Currently, the timeline is:

• Question selection: ASAP (Relative to posting of QotW meta question)
• Author selection: Midday Thursday
• Draft available for review: End of Thursday
• Publish: Friday

I think we could benefit from a few things, here. Firstly, make sure the next QotW meta thread goes up on the same day as the current QotW post. Then, we can spread this timeline out a bit further so we enable the author more time to write a good post, and have ample time for reviewers to check it before publication. Lastly, it might be a good idea to standardize the definitions of terms like "Midday" and "End of" so that everyone is on the same page as to exactly when the next step needs to happen.

I'll post my ideas for this in an answer here. What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

My suggestions for this:

1.) New schedule:

• QotW meta post for next week: Same day as QotW blog post for this week.
• Question and author selection: End of Tuesday
  • These really are, to an extent, co-dependent. Especially in cases where questions of varying subject matter have equal votes.
• Draft submission: Thursday morning.
  • Draft should be reviewed by at least one person prior to publication.
• Publication: Between morning & midday, Friday.
• Repeat

2.) Standardization of time expectations:

• A time zone should be selected. I suggest either GMT/UTC or U.S. Eastern.
• "Morning" deadlines will be 0800
• "Midday" deadlines will be 1200
• "End of" deadlines will be 1700

Some particular advantages here, just from the schedule modifications:

• Posting the QotW meta at the same time as the previous blog entry gives more time for question selection.
• This schedule allows a full day, and then some, for authors to finalize their draft.
  • Current schedule only guarantees about a half-day.
• This schedule allows a full day, and then some, for draft review.
  • Current schedule only guarantees from overnight to possibly one full day.