Next project[s] in the footsteps of "Hagada - Mi Yodeya?"

Question

[What] should we do next, following the pattern of our successful "Hagada - Mi Yodeya" project this past Passover?

About half a year ago, Mi Yodeya put out its first publication for printing, "Hagada - Mi Yodeya". In the three weeks preceding Passover, we managed to pull together a 46-page PDF of edited Mi Yodeya content that was downloaded thousands of times and used to enhance many seders, spreading some of our best Passover content in a new medium and new markets.

Now that we've done this once, we have experience, a publication template, and a production process that we can build on to make more publications in a similar way. If we do so with more than three weeks from proposal to release, we can make them even higher-quality and better-promoted than our first effort.

So, shall we have another go or two at it? If so, what project[s] should we pursue next?

1. Hagada - Mi Yodeya version 2

   This would be a revised and expanded version of our first hagada companion. I don't think we've generated enough new Passover content in the past year to make something with all new content, but we can add new stuff that deserves to be added, possibly subtract stuff that isn't as fitting or high-quality, increase the quality control, possibly add helpful features like a bibliography, a glossary, or a question index, and promote the publication more deliberately and extensively.

2. Chanuka - Mi Yodeya

   It's actually already getting a little too late to have a Chanuka publication not be another rushed effort, but I'm including this as an explicit option in case someone feels strongly about it. It is, after all, a very popular holiday. Topics could include various Chanuka practices (Halacha or Minhag), Chanuka lore, and Chanuka Torah readings about the Nesiyim and the Menora.

3. Purim - Mi Yodeya

   Topics could include various Purim practices (Halacha or Minhag), Megilat Esther, Purim's Torah reading about Amalek, and Purim Torah.

4. Shavuot - Mi Yodeya

   Topics could include various Shavuot practices (Halacha or Minhag), general Yom Tov practices, Torah study (how to and philosophy of), the Sinai Assembly and Decalogue, other topics in the Torah/Haftara readings. A special emphasis could be placed on Q&A that leads to or facilitates deeper study.

5. (a - c) Hagada v. 2 and also one of the other projects listed above

   There's enough time between now and Spring that we might be able to pull off both a revision project and a new project, and whichever comes out first could help promote the other.

6. Other

Please post at most one answer per distinct project or project combination that you'd like to support. (In other words, this question shouldn't end up with more than seven answers plus one for each distinct "Other" idea someone posts.) If the option you'd like to support already has an answer, please vote it up and edit in any additional supporting arguments you'd like to add.

Answer 1

Purim - Mi Yodeya

Topics could include various Purim practices (Halacha or Minhag), Megilat Esther, Purim's Torah reading about Amalek, and Purim Torah.

We should aim to get this out a week or two in advance at least, so that people can benefit from the serious parts before the celebratory day. A chapter of Purim Torah can then enhance that celebration -- or if not, people will still enjoy it.

Because Purim and Pesach are a month apart, we can use this to also promote our haggadah -- either a revised one if done, or the existing one otherwise.

We have a great deal of content that could potentially go into a Purim reader, including the following tags, whose total current question count, eliminating overlaps, is 167 184:¹

• purim - 110 questions

• megillat-esther - 70 questions

• amalek - 13 questions

• esther-the-woman - 5 questions

• four-parshiot - 17 questions

In addition, we have 57 purim-torah-in-jest questions.

With this material, we could make a Purim reader that's edifying, fun, and uniquely yodeyan.

¹ The link reflects the original number/query.

Answer 2

5b - Hagada v. 2 and Purim

Given what we accomplished in three weeks and that we now have something like 23 weeks until Purim, I believe that we have enough time to do high-quality jobs on both a revised hagada companion and a Purim reader.

Regarding the merits of these projects individually, I endorse Monica's answers supporting each of them.

Answer 3

Hagada - Mi Yodeya version 2

At minimum, revise based on the feedback we got: more-thorough editing, index, bibliography, and perhaps glossary.

Ideally, review both (a) questions that didn't make it in (to see if they should) and (b) ones that did (to see if they should stay, be edited, or be removed). I agree with Isaac that we don't have enough material to make all-new content¹, but even if we did I wouldn't want to go that way -- let's aim for one haggadah supplement that represents the best of what we have, not the 5773 edition and the 5774 edition and ... that you have to use together to get everything. Then, once we have it, let's promote it far and wide.

^{1. Of the 278 questions to date tagged passover, passover-seder-hagada, or both, a little more than 50 were posted anew since we published the first Hagada - Mi Yodeya. That percentage sounds like enough to consider expansion, but not enough to make a new volume of similar scale.}