Hi Stack Overflow community, I’m Bert. I received a short [intro post](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/376784/please-welcome-valued-associate-1065-bert) when I joined the Community Team, but I’ve been quiet since then, learning more about the SO community and how things work here.

One big area of focus for me is Collectives, and it’s been fun and fascinating to see how things have evolved since the first Collectives debuted. I’m glad that Stack has assigned a dedicated Community Manager to help shepherd this beta product and ensure that it has utility to the SO community without seeming like a shift in our core values and workflows.

### So what’s new with Collectives these days?

We're continuing to add new partners, with [Twilio](https://stackoverflow.com/collectives/twilio)’s Collective [launching in April](https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/03/02/twilio-launches-collective-on-stack-overflow/) and another one coming in the next few weeks.

As I was getting up to speed and reviewing the launch of Articles, I understood the concerns that the community had about that new content type and how it was rolled out. [I was also impressed with how the community came together to craft guidelines for Articles.](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/413357/community-input-needed-the-guidelines-for-collectives-articles)

Today I’m introducing you to **Bulletins**. Bulletins are a way for Collective organizations to update the SO community about notable releases, changes and events.

Examples of what a Bulletin might communicate:

* Upcoming changes to a product or service
* Release notes and other timely information helpful to developers
* Information about new trainings or courses
* Information about conferences and other developer-focused events

A few more notes about Bulletins:

* Since Bulletins are not knowledge content like questions, answers, and Articles, Bulletins will not appear in search results.
* For the same reason, they are disconnected from reputation.
* Bulletins may be tagged by the author, for the purpose of determining relevance to specific subjects, but they will not appear on tag pages. At least one of the Bulletin's tags must be associated with the Collective, and the author cannot create a new tag when crafting a Bulletin.
* Bulletins have an expiration date, after which they will change to an “archived” state.
* Bulletins can not be voted on, and there is currently no other option to comment or provide feedback on them. **Would you be interested in a feedback mechanism for Bulletins?** Why or why not?

[![Bulletin creation screen](https://i.stack.imgur.com/FtnEp.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/FtnEp.png)
[![Published Bulletin](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5SMDG.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5SMDG.png)

Bulletins will become available for Collective admins this week. Any new type of content needs to have specific guidelines, and we have crafted some initial guidelines for Collective admins, which you can see below. These initial guidelines are intended to make sure that Bulletins are relevant, useful, and timely to the community:

> 
> Like Q&A and Articles, there are guidelines that Bulletins must adhere to. Bulletins that do not adhere to these guidelines may be perceived as mass marketing.
> 
> 
> **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](https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask) or an [article](https://stackoverflow.com/help/article-guidelines) (please refer to those guidelines for more information).
> 
> 
> 

Since this is a new content type, we also thought it would be useful for Collective admins to have a clear understanding of each content type available to them. These definitions below are provided accordingly:

> 
> **Questions**
> 
> 
> The primary type of content on Stack Overflow. It’s absolutely fine to [ask a question and then post an answer yourself](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/17463/can-i-answer-my-own-questions-even-if-i-knew-the-answer-before-asking)! 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.](https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask)
> 
> 
> **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.](https://stackoverflow.com/help/article-guidelines)
> 
> 
> **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 Bulletin creation can be found here *(will be linked to the guidelines shown above)*.
> 
> 
> 

Are these guidelines and definitions clear and accurate? Is anything missing? We’re interested in your feedback on these initial versions. As Collectives begin to create Bulletins, let us know your thoughts on those as well.