Contentious

Content creators are users too. If your CMS, workflows and governance make creating and maintaining content miserable, the external experience will rot too. contentious.ltd/the-content-ma…

Slow content trusts the reader. It doesn’t manipulate, doesn’t use dark patterns, doesn’t trick people into clicking. It earns attention through value. slowcontent.org

Tool tip: if you’re building internal alignment, try Napkin.ai to turn a rough strategy into a diagram. contentious.ltd/resources/how-…

Nourishing the humans (whoever they are) is about analysing and improving the effectiveness of relationships – because retention beats endless recruitment and better connections make everything else work. nourishthehumans.com – coming soon!

Thematic IA is a principled refusal to worship your org chart. If you organise by the way people think, you reduce duplication, make measurement saner and give governance something it can actually hold on to. contentious.ltd/thoughts/takin…

Content maturity isn’t a leap. It’s a series of capability upgrades. Try this: pick one aspect (say, training and development) and ask whether content people are getting better over time, or just working harder. contentmaturity.com

Content quality criterion of the day is Succinct: “Information is presented in the most direct way possible without sacrificing clarity.” contenthealthcheck.com/framework

From our list of favourite things: The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) – intellectual inquisitiveness and proper wonder, without the guru nonsense. themarginalian.org

We believe in craft. Taking pride in the work. Sweating the details. Making every word, every image, every interaction count. This stuff matters. contentious.ltd/the-content-ma…

Slow content is the tortoise, not the hare. It values quality over quantity and depth over breadth – because more is not better and the soundbite is rarely the whole story. slowcontent.org

"Atomic content" – designing reusable content chunks instead of monolithic pages makes your content more flexible, maintainable, and useful. Start thinking small. contentious.ltd/thoughts/atomi…

Do you have strategic content leadership with real clout, or is content still treated as production? contentmaturity.com/framework

Content audit reality check: a content audit isn’t a broken-link treasure hunt. It’s checking whether your content is useful, meaningful, readable, accessible and actionable – and whether it’s being maintained, not just published. contenthealthcheck.com/framework

Reading recommendation: How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert. Essential for anyone trying to organise things that actually help people. abbycovert.com/make-sense/

Content is a garden. If you only plant and never tend, you don't have a content strategy. You have a future maintenance crisis. contentious.ltd/the-content-ma…

Slow content values concise over short. Nothing should be longer than it needs to be. But “short” is not a strategy and it’s rarely a kindness. slowcontent.org

Tool tip: use Perplexity as a referenced research assistant, then bring the best bits into Notion and edit like a human. contentious.ltd/resources/how-…

If you want retention, you need relationship intelligence. Concentrating on the experience of existing relationships is often more effective and more sustainable than constantly chasing new ones. nourishthehumans.com, coming soon.

Five questions to ask about any piece of content (Content Health Check edition): Is it useful? Is it meaningful? Is it readable? Is it accessible? Is it actionable? If you can't say yes to all five, “publish” is just moving mess to a different place. contenthealthcheck.com

From the archive: "The depleted bookshop". The web should have room for content that moves, entertains, and frightens us. Not just content that informs efficiently. contentious.ltd/thoughts/the-d…