Author: eugenia

Starting next week, you’ll see certain posts on Muni Diaries, such as our Fashion Friday posts, that are marked with this little “Sponsored Post” red icon:

These posts are supported by our local sponsors, such as Secession Art and Design and Mobile Spinach. In the 2.5 years that we have been running Muni Diaries, you haven’t seen any advertisements, but we’re starting to experiment with sponsored posts and possibly some advertisements on the sidebar of our site in the near future.

Having ads and sponsored posts might be standard fare for most of the sites that you read. But because Muni Diaries is built on your stories and our common love for our city, we thought it is only appropriate that we invite your opinion:

What do you think of advertisements on Muni Diaries, and what is your threshold on seeing ads on the site?

Earlier this year, I talked to some journalism students at San Francisco State University about how we started Muni Diaries. One of the first questions from the students was this: “Who is your staff, and where does the money come from?” This was funny to us because the short answer was that there was no money that came from anywhere…yet.

Muni Diaries is run by two humble people from our living rooms when we get home from our 9-5. Our website is generously hosted by Laughing Squid, and graphic and site design donated thus far by Suzanne Lagasa and Yen Pai. But we would like to pay our designers, hire a part time web administrator, and invest in other site features that make Muni Diaries a welcome place to share your transit stories. And we’d like to enlist local sponsors to help us with expenses as small as printing event programs and as large as hiring a website designer and beyond.

With sponsored posts and advertisements, we intend to bring you the same level of fun, entertaining content that you’ve seen on Muni Diaries so far, keeping all our content relevant to you and life on Muni. So if you’ve got something to say — whether it’s about sponsored posts, the business of online media, or our favorite: that hilarious thing that happened to you on the bus today — tell us in the comments or email us any time.

Photo by Kelly Nicolaisen

Who’s stylin’ on your bus? We’re a week away from our first Fashion Friday, where we invite you to show us photos of fashionable people on and around the bus. Our first Fashion Friday sponsor is Secession Arts and Design, where you’ll find mixed-media art, beautiful clothes, and jewelry. It’s also where you’ll find transit-themed baby onesies and shirts for adults and toddlers.

The submission deadline for the first Fashion Friday will be Thursday, Nov. 18. We’re looking for photos of your fellow Muni riders who have an inspiring style.

The winner of Fashion Friday will receive a gift certificate to Secession Art and Design. You can use the gift certificate for art, jewelry, or, say, dresses by Field Day made from vintage sheets (on Lea, below, right), or custom draped dresses by Rachel Znerold (on Lyz, below, left).

We look forward to your photos! Send them to muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com.

Photo by Alyssa Jones

What is happening here? Is that a real Muni shelter inside SOMArts gallery?

Yup, and next Wednesday you’ll be able to drink under the bus stop at the Muni Diaries Happy Hours, in conjunction with I Live Here:SF and SOMArts.

For one night, SOMArts will become a space for you to record your own Muni story for a digital story capsule. We will be on hand to record your story, whether it’s audio, video, text, or art, in the Muni Diaries story booth — under a real Muni shelter. This was a really amazing feat, thanks to the help of SFMTA. We could hardly believe it when the shelter was delivered to the gallery.

Your stories will be collected on a new page we’ll be unveiling on Muni Diaries called Muni Time Capsule, a treasure trove of photos, schedules, maps, stories (we hope!), and ephemera from Muni days gone by.

Inside the gallery you’ll see photographs by Julie Michelle, the mastermind behind I Live Here:SF, art by Chris Rusak, and collection of film archived by Rick Prelinger.

Update: And did we mention the food that will be on-hand to help you sop up your happy hour libations? Well, we’re pleased to announce that Sataysfied, Casey’s Pizza, and Nosh This will on hand to help keep you satisfied.

Details:
Happy Hours with Muni Diaries and I Live Here:SF
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
SOMArts: 934 Brannan Street (cross street is 8th Street)
Take Muni there: 12, 19, 27, 47.

The main gallery is packed with so much great stuff, you’d have to come see it for yourself. A sneak peek:

Photo by somarts

Photo by  Donald Kinney

Art by Chris Rusak — you should read about how his work at SOMArts is inspired by the stories of the portrait subjects.

Photo by Lee de Broff

Eden from Secession Art and Design will also be there with the transit-themed shirts and onesies you loved so much at our last event. See you next Wednesday!