Here are a few guidelines to follow as you create your Log Buffer edition.

1. Please recognize that it will take a minimum of 3-5 hours to do a good job, so be sure you can deliver on this commitment when you volunteer.
2. Log Buffer editions cover blog articles that the editor believes will interest DBAs.
3. Although its name was inspired by an Oracle memory structure, Log Buffer is database-neutral. Log Buffer compiles posts about MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, PostgreSQL, and any other DBMS or technology relevant to DBAs.
4. Aim to cover around 20 articles.
5. Important: Each article covered should also include a mention of both the full name of its author(s) and that of their blog, linked to that blog’s home page. For example:
   

   On Radio Free Tooting, Andrew Clarke writes that . . .

6. Log Buffer titles always take the form of this example: Log Buffer #5: a Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs
7. Please link to the Log Buffer homepage somewhere in the text of your article:
   

   <a href="http://www.pythian.com/blogs/about-log-buffer/">
   Log Buffer</a>

8. Log Buffer is published every Friday at 12:00 noon, Eastern Time. Editors of Log Buffer must show a draft to the Log Buffer coordinator on the Thursday before the Friday publication date. This gives the Log Buffer coordinator opportunity to respond to contingencies.
9. If you want to cover exceptional blog items older than the week you’re responsible for, include them in a section with a sub-headline of Archive Log, and set the section apart in a box. Make sure each article has not been covered in a previous edition of Log Buffer. For example, if you want to mention an older item from FooBlog, search Google or Yahoo with terms like “log buffer fooblog”; if the results show that Log Buffer has not covered it, go ahead and mention the article.

Other Points

• If you’re not a regular reader of Log Buffer, read a handful of previous editions to get a feel for how they can be done.
• You are in control of your edition of Log Buffer. To help reduce your search time, the Log Buffer coordinator will email a list of blog items for you to read, everyday of your week, but they are not suggestions — they are “bulk blog links,” and yours to judge.
• Look for threads between different blog items. Show similarities and contrasts. Follow conversations.
• Although you may sort your items by technology — MySQL stuff in one section, Oracle-related blogs in another, SQL Server ones over here — you don’t have to. In short, organize your material however you want.
• You don’t need to attempt “objectivity.” Just be yourself. Have fun.

That’s all!