In addition to the Q&A format that has been established on Stack Overflow since its inception, Collective™ admins can also create Bulletins. Bulletins are updates posted by the organization, for members and readers of that Collective.
Like Q&A and Articles, there are guidelines that Bulletins must adhere to. These guidelines help ensure that a Bulletin will be relevant and useful to the Collective members. Bulletins that do not adhere to these guidelines may be perceived as mass marketing. So avoid where possible adding Bulletins deemed to be too marketing focused.
Unlike Q&A and Articles, Bulletins are not connected to reputation since they are not knowledge-focused content.
It’s important to make sure a Bulletin has these three attributes:
Relevant
The subject should be of interest to at least some Collective members, though it will be visible to the general public as well. Collective members are highly engaged users (or future highly engaged users), not a general audience.
Useful
The information should be new or updated information that impacts member’s work. It should be able to exist on its own, it is not a teaser to “find out more”. The intent should primarily be to create awareness of something, not to drive traffic elsewhere.
Timely
A bulletin is not “evergreen”, it is meant to expire when it is no longer relevant or useful. If your intent is to create something evergreen, it may be better as a question or an Article (please refer to those guidelines for more information).
Guide to deciding which type of content to create
Questions
The primary type of content on Stack Overflow. It’s absolutely fine to ask a question and then post an answer yourself! If you are conveying a short set of specific how-to instructions, or if the information would fit well into an FAQ list, a question is probably the best format. Guidelines for posting a question can be found here.
Articles
Articles exist specifically within the Collective, and should be:
- Longer-form content that discusses a broader technical topic.
- A set of how-to instructions that covers multiple scenarios and possibilities.
Articles are collaborative after the initial publication, with community members able to add comments/suggestions and, in some cases, make edits.
The full set of guidelines for Articles can be found here.
Bulletins
Bulletins are updates posted by Admins of the Collective, for members and readers of the Collective. Information conveyed in a Bulletin should be relevant to the community and the topics covered by the Collective. The information should be focused on a timely subject or a recent change. External links can be included, but the Bulletin should contain a summary of what members can find by following the link.
Bulletins do not have comments, and are set to expire on a specific date.
The full set of guidelines for creating Bulletins can be found at the top of this article.