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    How did Baltimore become one of only three cities that currently have this website? Seems odd to have Portland, Seattle, and then...Baltimore.
    555_pinout_small

    Lame and pathetic. And I, unfortunately, am to blame. So with my apologies, here is a long overdue answer:

    The cities were originally chosen based on partnerships we had with other weeklies: The Stranger in Seattle, Portland Mercury, etc. With the exception of The Stranger, these did not help build a core membership of smart locals and so they terminated. Baltimore was kept alive because it had the signs that it could become more like Questionland Seattle.

    We recently put a huge effort into an update to the site and added many features which we thought were lacking (following questions, people etc.). Unfortunately the effort directed on the technology meant sacrificing efforts elsewhere.

    We are based in Seattle which means we have always had two local experts around to make sure questions were answered etc. We cannot play that role in Baltimore and don't realistically have the resources to staff the individual sites with a smart, local person to promote the site, make sure questions are answered, recruit experts and a core membership.

    We'd love to see the other sites flourish and would of course appreciate any ideas and feedback on how to make that happen on a budget of effectively zero.

    Thanks for your interest and my sincere apologies for the delay. I wasn't aware of the question as it arrived somewhere in a thicket during the Questionland redesign.

    Charles B answered in Questionland FAQs about 1 month ago
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    How did Baltimore become one of only three cities that currently have this website? Seems odd to have Portland, Seattle, and then...Baltimore.
    Avatar_default

    Rebecca- that is my same question. I'm a huge fan of the stranger in Seattle and I thought-- is this the same Questionland here in Charm City? Lame no answers in 6 months.

    Susan Kim answered in Questionland FAQs about 1 month ago
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  • Comment on Charles B's answer…
    555_pinout_small

    Rebecca,
    That's very kind of you. Susan (below) sent me an email suggesting she would be too. Baltimore could really become a happening site.

    Maybe you could give me some sense of how you would like to help and I could come up with a way of doing it.

    Just to give you an idea of the options:

    1. Promotion of Any Kind
    Getting covered in local blogs, weeklies, dailies, gets a lot of people to come (whether they stay depends on why they came and what is there)...

    - There are kinds of fun things about the site (in full swing) that media may be interested in. e.g. Question of The Day is a popular one for blogger/participant experts.

    Also social media, blogging about the site, etc. There are no doubt many very creative ways we have not even thought of or tried.

    2. Experts (and perhaps events)
    Finding great local people who are experts helps with great answers and promotion (they blog, post on fb, twitter, etc.)

    We can till run scheduled events, but they are quite a bit of effort and coordination compared to the alternatives. The others are completely flexible in terms of amount of time and specific schedules.

    3. Recruit/Encourage Core Membership to Ensure Answers
    This is what made Seattle successful.

    4. Moderation and Administration

    These things are minimal. It basically involves monitoring the content/users and deleting contributions (suspending users) when their stuff is either offensive or purely self-serving marketing. We tend to try and avoid even a semblance of censorship.

    Thanks for your interest. You can email me at charles at (I have to put some words here to fend of spam) questionland.com or just answer here.

    Charles B commented about 1 month ago
  • Comment on Charles B's answer…
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    Charles, I would be interested in volunteering...

    RebeccaYoung1981 commented about 1 month ago
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