Blog Improvement Discussion

Hi Everybody!

Hoptis asked me a while ago to paste in the selected bits of our e-mail discussions regarding the improvement of our little sub-forum. It's been a crazy week, so I haven't had a chance to get to it, but here it is:

As far as the suggestions for improvement, here's the short list so far:

* A direct link to blogs from the main page (and perhaps the forum list at www.bluelight.ru/vb as well) as well as/instead of the link in the 'Quick Links' section of the pulldown menu. Just as a means to improve visibility and access
* A 'Posting Guideline/Announcement' link (a la 'Other Drugs Guidelines') or other sort of Sticky post system for announcements
* A listing of who is moderating the area, so that posters can know to whom to address any issues/complaints


I was also wondering if there was a way to change the number of 'Recent Blogs/Comments' seen per page? As a nicety more than anything else. And if the poll functionality can be extended to Blogs? Not that we do much voting, but once a month we vote on the Topic of the Month, and the poll just looks more slick than the current setup.

From what I've heard, changes to the layout and what not in Blogs are not trivial, and as such I completely understand that these may not be able to be implemented, or if so not soon. I know how little time one can realisically can devote to BL . It's more of a wish list than anything else at the moment; nothing's broken, and none of the suggestions need to be implemented any time soon.

On the other issues, I'll try and look into all of those as soon as I can, some of them will be possible, some of them not. The polls one, at first glance, seems impossible but there are many workarounds for this, including the possibility of adding a notice to Blogs which directs people to a poll in a BL forum somewhere.

PS. Have you ever seen this?

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/contactlist.php

I'll update it this weekend to remove spork, though I agree it would be nice to have the mods listed somewhere in Blogs too.

Also you should be aware, the home page for the Blogs module is here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/features_blog.php

Have a look at the demo of version 2.02. I hope to upgrade our Blogs to this version by year's end.

Thanks for pointing out the contact list. In my nearly 10 years here I've never seen it, and think that it's great. I'll pass it on to the user who made that particular suggestion. The poll thing is probably the lowest priority thing in the pile; the way we are doing it now works well enough for our purposes.

Thanks as well for showing me the blog features list. I don't doubt that there are many features that I haven't used yet, and many more that most users don't use. I'll be sure to give that a good reading when I get a chance.

I think that's it for now. Talk to you soon!

That's pretty well it for now. Hoptis is on vacation for another week yet IIRC, but this should be a good place to discuss potential improvements to Blogs in a manner more public than PMs.

To add another note: this month the topic of the month really seemed to fizzle. It was a good idea, but I haven't been around enough to properly promote the cross-forum idea. Do we want to keep going on with the 'sub-forum' themed months, just do regular themes, or can the theme of the month altogether? Personally I'd like to see it tried for another month at least, but I don't know how well the cross-forum theme idea is working. I just need to get out there and start talking up Blogs in places other than, well, Blogs.

So yeah, let's discuss these points, and add some more suggestions as we think of them, shall we?

 

Okay, well it won't be massive flood of immediate traffic but being on the home page means it will bring more attention to Blogs over time.... lol

I could stick a link to the guidelines in the same box where the mods are listed? Then you could put the actual guidelines thread anywhere, like in Support.

 

That'd be fine with me.....does Dave already have them written up? or do you? Or is this our next project?

and yes, we have had more posts but no new rush Soon..... haha

 

I don't believe Blogs has ever had guidelines, that'll be for you and Dave to come up with!

 

spork sent me a link to the old Journals guidelines:

Hi ! Welcome to Bluelight Journal. Please read the Journal Guidelines carefully before starting your own Bluelight Journal, or commenting in other Journals.
The Bluelight User Agreement (link) will be enforced at all times by the Journal Mods. If the moderators feel something is breaching the guidelines, they will take the appropriate action to resolve the situation.

Journals are a great place to discuss your thoughts and virtually anything goes as to what you say provided it is not offensive to other Bluelighters or isn't violating the Bluelight user agreement. Example, do not go into your Journal naming other Bluelighters specifically by name or situation and calling attention to them in a demeaning way. This creates a lot of board drama and it abuses what Journal is really about. If you feel you must express yourself in a derogatory manner about another bluelighter then please remember your journal does have a lock feature that will make it private and only you will have access to it.

If you feel the need to discuss another Bluelighter's actions you may not be happy with in your journal ( it is your place to vent of course!) and you do not want to lock it then please do not make any reference to them specifically. Journal does not want any Bluelighters to feel they are being misrepresented by one person's thoughts on them via the Journal forum.

Comments are most certainly an invaluable source of advice to the journal owner. It's also a great place to get to know your fellow Bluelighters. Remember that we are a Journal Community and it's nice to give comments as well as receive them. We encourage the use of images in journals however please keep them at a reasonable kb size.

And although we realize from time to time it may be necessary for you to post multiple entries in your journal please try to limit them to three at a time up on the most current entry page.

Thank you, we look forward to reading you.

Your Journal Moderators,
spork & *starfalls69*

It's a pretty good place to start I think. Obviously swapping 'Blog' for 'Journal', but otherwise I think that it covers pretty well everything. Thoughts?

 

That is perfect.
Let's steal it

 

Sounds like a plan. Here's the edited version:

Hi! Welcome to Bluelight Blogs. Please read the Blog Guidelines carefully before starting your own Bluelight Blog, or commenting in other Blogs.

The Bluelight User Agreement will be enforced at all times by the Blogs Mods. If the moderators feel something is breaching the guidelines, they will take the appropriate action to resolve the situation.

Blogs are a great place to discuss your thoughts and virtually anything goes as to what you say provided it is not offensive to other Bluelighters or isn't violating the Bluelight user agreement. For example, do not go into your blog naming other Bluelighters specifically by name or situation and calling attention to them in a demeaning way. This creates a lot of board drama and it abuses what Blogs is really about. If you feel you must express yourself in a derogatory manner about another bluelighter then please remember your blog does have a lock feature that will make it private and only you will have access to it.

If you feel the need to discuss another Bluelighter's actions you may not be happy with in your blog (it is your place to vent of course!) and you do not want to lock it then please do not make any reference to them specifically. Blogs does not want any Bluelighters to feel they are being misrepresented by one person's thoughts on them via the Blogs forum.

Comments are most certainly an invaluable source of advice to the blog owner. It's also a great place to get to know your fellow Bluelighters. Remember that we are a Blog Community and it's nice to give comments as well as receive them. We encourage the use of images in Blogs, however please keep them at a reasonable file size.

And although we realize from time to time it may be necessary for you to post multiple entries in your blog please try to limit them to three at a time up on the most current entry page. This isn't twitter

Thank you, we look forward to reading you.

Your Blogs Moderators,

ocean and Dave

(with many thanks to spork & *starfalls69* for a prior draft)

Any changes you'd like to make ocean? Otherwise good to go?

 

Good to Go

 

Thanks guys, I guess you'll notice it the moment it happens

 

Thanks hop! No rush mang, we know you're busy.

 

Hey guys I'm so sorry, but things are easing up a bit in my life now, I will get around to this very soon. Love you both

 

See above. Don't worry about it, but thanks for letting us know what's up.

 

^ ditto.
Ah.....Pets isn't exactly taking off.....
I'm probably going to make a pets post later tonight though.
Maybe that will remind ppl to post theirs

 

Okay the link to guidelines is up too now, I've put the thread in Homeless for now until we can think up somewhere better to put it.

Thanks for putting it together guys.

(Please proofread my headings/titles, I'm not sure if I got the punctuation of Blogs right!)

 

Many thanks Hoptis! It looks great. It should be fine in homeless, as long we make sure that it doesn't get pruned, right?

As an aside, I've never liked the word 'Blog'. Something about it just sounds... off. Too early-00s. Ah well, it is what it is.

Heh, I was meaning to make a pets post too. On the importance of obedience training for non-caged pets. We'll see if I can find an unsecured wireless hotspot tomorrow sometime

 

Yes The Guidelines look great!!
Just an FYI- I will be on regularly (every day), but maybe not AS often b/c my laptop broke today and we are down to one computer.....
This one is sllloooowwww. So I lose patience quickly with it.
Hope you are all well!

 

I don't hang around a huge amount, but it does seem a bit like there's more traffic.

Not that this is any big news, but we recently purchased a new license for vBulletin that will allow us to eventually upgrade to vB 4.0 publishing suite, which contains the blogs module, basically this means that we've secured the future of blogs as a part of Bluelight well into the future.

Not that this was ever in doubt, but the new version of vBulletin comes in two flavours and I made sure we got the option that comes with Blogs.

 

Yay! Thanks

And yes, we have had more traffic.....a few new members who have made us a regular stop.
Its nice
I think having us on the home page helps and the NMI intro to us b/c there have been a few new members coming around......

 

Agreed. It's a nice mix of noobs and oldies starting blogs.

 

Dave-
I may take you up on the couple day break- I will check in tomorrow but may not be on as much the next few days.......
My best friend was booted out of her bf's house (cause he is a douchebag and likes to belittle women) and she is going tolive with us for a bit- so I just want to get her settled in and get her mind off of the bad stuff......

 

'Sall good. I'll keep an eye over here. You take care of things on your end.