Did the blogs section change ENWorld boards?

[Obergnom]

I love reading the enworld boards (being more of a lurker myself), and always did. I rarely look at the blogs section though. Today, I did.

What I found there, were a lot of the entries I was missing on the boards since the release of ENWorld2. I thought the launch of 4e was the reason for that, but now I think, maybe a lot of the insightful rpg advice and great content went into the blogs section and is somewhat obscured.

IMO a lot of what I saw posted there would have been either in the general or plots&places forums in the past. Maybe the new structure stretches this community a bit, and that's why the boards seem less interesting these days.

What do you think?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

You might be correct.

I post a lot of rules stuff (monsters, design ideas) and design ideas in my blog.

Why? Mostly because if I post in House Rules, it disappears to later pages anyway. Of course, now they disappear after someone posts his own 20 blog entries (or just 20 bloggers post). So it would probably be only a help if I had some fans that regularly visit my blog.

But maybe I am doing it wrong. Maybe House Rules and sometimes General RPG Discussion might be a better place for some of my posts...

And maybe the community just didn't learn yet how to combine the blogs and the message boards for maximum benefit. (And I believe while people post to their blogs, they might not read - I certainly do not read a lot, though there is some stuff I definitely look into... Speaking of which: When will arscott add its next blog post and 4E for superheroes?)

 

[Morrus]

One thing I've started doing it highlighting the new blog posts on the news page. I actually think the blogs have created a new dynamic that didn't exist before - actual articles rather than conversations. Over the years, we've experimented with different ways of creating articles on EN World, and this (albeit accidentally) has proved to be the best method.

I like it. I also like that it gives people a sense of investment or ownership over their "part" of EN World, in the same way that the enhanced profile pages, the groups, etc. do. It lets people show a lot more of who they are, rather than being another of 70,000 posters.

I'm largely experimenting at present, trying to figure out the best ways to do things. Certainly I'm of the opinion that just a messageboard isn't enough in this age of internet advancement, where Facebook rules all. I like the idea of promoting the people more, making it more a community full of people all using different tools to do their own thing, with the freedom to choose.

Rather than simply particpate in threads, I want people to be able to find other gamers, befriend them, post articles, form groups, share files (legally!), work together on projects, and so forth. I feel that's more a "community" than a simple messageboard. Something more organic, flexible, interactive in the ways that each member chooses.

That's not to say I've decided what the best way forward is yet.

 

[Obergnom]

Using the front page to promote blogs is a good start. That was the reason why I was looking at them today I guess, you need to find a way to promote the blogs as part of this community.
Like the old reviews section. That was not overlooked, think.

 

[Obergnom]

double post...

 

[Morrus]

Like the old reviews section. That was not overlooked, think.

Yeah. Gotta get that back. It's been two months now.

 

[vagabundo]

Is there a way to have a blogs section on the main catagories page ( EN World D&D / RPG News > General RPG Forums ) and new blog entries get a thread auto-created, with a link to the blog in the op, and discussion happens there.

It would also be a handy place to look for new blog entries...

 

[Morrus]

Is there a way to have a blogs section on the main catagories page ( EN World D&D / RPG News > General RPG Forums ) and new blog entries get a thread auto-created, with a link to the blog in the op, and discussion happens there.

It would also be a handy place to look for new blog entries...

I don't really understand what you just said?

 

[Janx]

You might be correct.

I post a lot of rules stuff (monsters, design ideas) and design ideas in my blog.

Why? Mostly because if I post in House Rules, it disappears to later pages anyway. Of course, now they disappear after someone posts his own 20 blog entries (or just 20 bloggers post). So it would probably be only a help if I had some fans that regularly visit my blog.
...

I agree with mustrum. When I've posted stuff on the forums, it vanishes too quickly. It's easier to post to my blog. Anybody who wants my ideas can find them. It's an efficient way to post articles, compared to the forum system, which gets buried.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I rather dislike it. I think it fragments the community and tilts an even playing field in favor of the person doing the blogging. I'd much rather, if someone has something useful to post, have them put it in the relevant forum section where it can attract the attention of people that might not otherwise have seen it. Plus, too often blogs are started by people specifically because they *want* that unequal realationship; their knickers get in a twist when, in a normal thread, they don't have complete control over what direction it may take as different posts might cause things to go off on a tangent.

The value of a community lies in the number of people that contribute. Blogs dilute that.