FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I get interviewed for this site?

A: Get in touch with me via the contact page.

Q: How can I help spread the word about PeopleOfNewOrleans.com?

A: There’s all kinds of stuff you can do to help:

  1. Tell your neighbors about it.
  2. Email it to your friends.
  3. Post it to your blog.
    1. Please use People of New Orleans as the anchor text of your link to help my google rank.
    2. Here’s the html to use for your link: 
      <a href="http://www.peopleofneworleans.com">People of New Orleans</a>
  4. Bookmark it on del.icio.us.
  5. Submit it to sites like digg and boingboing.
  6. Download a flyer and post it at a local gathering place in your neighborhood (cafe, bar, church, school, store, etc.).
  7. Buy a bumper sticker, license plate frame or mousepad from the online store.

Q: Can you tell me about your video production choices?

A: I’d love to. Here are some rules I follow:

  1. One thing that’s important to me about these interviews: I don’t edit them. I put them online in their entirety. Why? Because editing changes what people say. Taken out of context, meanings are contorted. Also, no editing means less work for me. I want the process of making and sharing of these interviews to happen quickly, otherwise I might not get around to it. Less work is better. I just encode the video and put it online for everyone to see, warts and all. I figure I’ll get good at interviewing people quickly if I throw myself into the fire a little.
  2. No microphones attached to interviewees. The sound may sometimes suffer, but attaching a mic to someone is a no-no in my book— too intrusive. Instead, I use my AKG-CS2000 mic. attached to my little camera rig. You can see a picture of my camera rig on the about page.
  3. I work alone because it’s less intimidating to interviewees. Also, I’m more agile by myself— more able to quickly make choices.
  4. I try to limit each interview length to 10 minutes. Keeping it short forces me to try and get to the point right away and keep things interesting.

Q: Can you tell me about this site’s design and what’s under the hood?

A: Certainly. Here’s some notes on the subject:

  1. I hacked up Scott Allan Wallick’s lovely simplr theme for wordpress.
  2. The email announcement list over on the subscribe page, uses Scott Merrill’s subscribe2 plugin. Subscribe2 didn’t have a way for users to subscribe and unsubscribe themselves, so I set up a Mailman list and configured it as an announcement list (with help from this Mailman faq entry). Then I dug up the Mailman subscribe and unsubscribe forms and hacked them into xhtml strict submission so they would be easy to find and look nice on the subscribe page.
  3. I’m using Garrick Van Buren’s WP-iPodCatter plugin for the creation of an iTunes-friendly RSS feed.

Q: I like your videography-/interview-/web-design -style. Can I hire you?

A: If you need help with DV video production, Final Cut Pro editing, graphic design or web design, let’s talk. Please tell me about your project and include a phone number where I can reach you via the contact page.