God No... Not The Blog... Not A Blog!!!

Is Torley trying to switch us over to a godd*mn blog (correct me if I am wrong but...)?

I guess he just doesn't know how complicated a blog is to get through, not like the good old forums, which I think should not be destroyed... anyways.

Blog = NO.

My understanding is that no. The blog would be a Linden to everybody else broadcast kind of thing, and a place where to discuss things like whatever is going wrong ATM. And the forums just get closed without a replacement, they leave it to us to figure out where to go.

I'm thinking it might be somewhat of an improvement (although who knows). Current way of getting attention seems to be screaming a lot, and hoping a Linden wanders by and decides to do something. And if a Linden decides to reply, it quickly gets buried in a 20 page thread. New way would be commenting in the blog, and Lindens would probably ignore everything else.

That's my current understanding of where it's going. Could be completely wrong of course.

I'm not of the opinion that the blog is the replacement for the forum. Not by a long shot. The bulk of their information regarding in-world issues, as mentioned by Torley, comes from Live Help, not the forums. They also read other forums and sites. I expect the discussion threads of the user-run forums to be more focused than what we have here where all these different ways of arguing a point mash together into an almost-unreadable mass.

I can see the advantage of the blog. Dale, you're right in saying that a Linden comment frequently gets buried (and how!). Sometimes people zoom through without reading the thread and thus miss the Linden post rehashing a point that was already cleared and thus causing the thread to extend needlessly.

By posting their statements on a blog, there is no way the Linden statement will get buried since the main statement is the lead article. Right now they seem to be replying to comments within the comments and even that in a sense is getting buried. They probably should edit the main article every so often with important points raised from the comments, plus their replies.

That's a good idea, Aodhan.

coco

I like the blog, as blogs can be RSS'd and put on my shiny Google Homepage.

I suppose the up-side to blogs over forums would be a reduction in the insane number of duplicate threads.

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Graaaaaah!

I dislike the blog idea. I vote No. blogs suck.

Mind you, I'm personally glad to see the forums go.

But a game/platform like this really needs (good) official forums.

I was struck again tonight by how much they are needed when I saw the notices from the New Citizens group.

How are we supposed to say things like that to each other without these forums? Those people would then have to put the same notice on every forums extant, and hope people know to look there. Not good.

coco

How do you put them on your Google homepage? Are you able to have the comments show up displayed in properly threaded order?

Google has a web based RSS reader at www.google.com/reader . Is there something more that Google has to offer?

My browser of choice, Opera, has an RSS reader built in. I have the Linden blogs , the SL user comments , and the SL police blotter entered as another. It's not the fanciest RSS reader in the world but it is easy as pie to use.

Firefox users can add an RSS extension with no trouble; just use Tools, Extensions, and click the Get More Extensions link, then search for RSS and pick one and see if you like it.

I don't know what's available as an add on for I.E. , I don't use it if I can avoid it.

Are any of the RSS readers able to treat the Linden blog posts and the comments as a logically connected unit?

The blogs and the user comments are available for public view, able to be seen by anyone without being an SL member, unlike the forums here. Is that right?

That's something we need to work out. Care to ask Torley what can be done?

No like blog.

Blogs are the worst. A daunting, disorganized mass to get through, useless for information. When I step over a webpage with a blog I usually leave within 10 seconds. A forum replaced by a diary is not an improvement.

I find the opposite to be true. I've got it on a RSS feed, and it's so much quicker and easier to get the information. I've got more information more easily than I ever did via the Linden forums. Plus, unlike announcements, you actually get to reply to them. They're not daunting or disorganised at all, used this way, it's far more efficient.

I like the blog.

A lot of my twitchiness about the blog stems from the one-way communication aspect of it.

Linden Forums are one way though. Viewed soley as an alternative to those, the ability to comment on announcements directly is a step forward I feel. As a replacement for the whole forums though it sucks.

Firefox has one built in too... just not as good as the plugins.
I tried googles reader, but didn't really get on with it... I find bloglines much better. Unfortunately, you don't get comments with those. You need to click on the link to get to the comments page in the blog.

And in any case, the Linden blog is using wordpress, which doesn't support threaded comments... (yet)