Can we talk about blog hosting?

[Lmns Crn]

This got brought up in the Tavern earlier in the week, and I'm wondering what the status is.

Is Steerpike's blog already in place on the site somewhere? Is there a protocol in place for others of us to request a similar blog setup upon which to Barf Forth Apocrypha?

Are there any other turtle samurai who might be interested in a little game-related blogstyles lovingly sheltered under the CBG's auspices?

[Steerpike]

I am planning on setting up a blog, but it's not up yet.  I'm still deciding on a name and some other aesthetic choices.

I would read the crap out of other CBGers blogs.

[Seraph]

Is there a protocol in place for others of us to request a similar blog setup upon which to Barf Forth Apocrypha?

Are there any other turtle samurai who might be interested in a little game-related blogstyles lovingly sheltered under the CBG's auspices?

I would read the crap out of other CBGers blogs.

I am wondering about whether it would be cool to have a shared CBloG where we can all do this.  That might end up being the same as the ordinary forum, though.

Maybe something closer to the Wiki instead, where we can all make blogs, and have them be located at a central hub?

[Steerpike]

I'd be against a shared blog, personally, because the CBG forums, chat, and wiki already fill that niche nicely for me - a community where collaboration and sharing, critique and communication and cross-pollination, are the point.  To me blogs are more idiosyncratic and personal.  A forum is for exchanging ideas, making stuff as a group, checking out each others' stuff.  At least for me, a blog is more of a soapbox, a platform for one person's ideas and expression (with plenty of comments and links elsewhere, of course).  There are exceptions, but that's the kind of blog I'd want, a place that is Mine rather than Ours, if that makes sense.

[LordVreeg]

This got brought up in the Tavern earlier in the week, and I'm wondering what the status is.

Is Steerpike's blog already in place on the site somewhere? Is there a protocol in place for others of us to request a similar blog setup upon which to Barf Forth Apocrypha?

Are there any other turtle samurai who might be interested in a little game-related blogstyles lovingly sheltered under the CBG's auspices?

maybe.
Likely.
...and this is where I hang my hat.

[Xathan]

I would totally read other CBGers blogs to no end.

As far as making my own blog...if I could come up with a solid idea, I probably would. :) Just need to work on that.

[sparkletwist]

Personally, I'm not all that excited about the idea, but I don't want to be overly negative, because blogs written by CBGers could definitely be interesting.

I just basically agree with Steerpike's view of a blog vs. a forum and I prefer the way things work here now. In addition, if an interesting conversation starts up in a blog's comments, this is separated from the forum (unless they're integrated somehow, which I assume would be a lot more work) and kind of dilutes the total amount of content available-- if stuff starts getting spread out, we sort of lose the sense of being "one community," and we're not the largest community to begin with. If the blogs and the forum are not integrated, then, well... what's the difference between that and the people who want a blog just going and starting one on one of the many hosts designed specifically for blogging?

Of course, what actually gets done is ultimately up to the person (presumably Nomadic) who ends up actually doing that stuff. :)

[Steerpike]

For the record, I didn't specifically introduce the idea of starting a blog linked to the CBG.  I was just asking around the CBG if people might be interested in a blog written by me, since the people here know my tastes in gaming and writing better than anyone else on the web.  Nomadic generously stepped in with the possibility of helping me set the blog up.  I think I probably will set one up, but I'm planning on buying my own domain name etc.  Nomadic may still help me out to some extent (he's pretty awesome like that, and I drew him a turtle...), but I'm not interested in running an official (or unofficial) "CBG Blog" per se (though a blog "hosted by the CBG," as it were, is fine by me).  I'm sure I'll link to the CBG and post stuff about games I'm running/playing in/reading about on the CBG, though, because they're a big part of my gaming-life.

[LD]

>>I think I probably will set one up, but I'm planning on buying my own domain name etc

In the unlikely event you didn't yet know this: you can get a free "steerpike.wordpress.com" account if you're uncertain whether you want to have a domain name yet. Once you have the Wordpress account, you can pay a little more to redirect to a "steerpikeblog.com", etc. Wordpress is quite easy to use. I've set up three wordpress sites and they all run swimmingly :)

And once again, I'm interested in reading your blog-thoughts.

[Nomadic]

This got brought up in the Tavern earlier in the week, and I'm wondering what the status is.

Is Steerpike's blog already in place on the site somewhere? Is there a protocol in place for others of us to request a similar blog setup upon which to Barf Forth Apocrypha?

Are there any other turtle samurai who might be interested in a little game-related blogstyles lovingly sheltered under the CBG's auspices?

No his blog is not yet up, I'm still in the planning phase with him. Hopefully we can begin work on it soon once he figures out how he wants to do this.

And while I would love to read any CBG member blogs there isn't really a protocol to set this up. I am in general agreement with steerpike and sparkletwist here. I'd really prefer to avoid a ton of blogs hosted on the server. The reasons they stated on diluting the community would certainly concern me. Additionally there is limited space on the server. While at this time that space is still quite alot I would be worried about putting in x blogs and then having member x+1 ask for their own space and be unable to get it.

I'm not totally against hosting sites for members but they would have to be unaffiliated with the cbg (simply using the server as hosting) and I'd probably request a small monthly fee to pay for hosting and any future server upgrades (such as additional drive space to avoid the problem I mentioned earlier) I'd need to do. Before I get into that I want to see how this thing goes with steerpike's blog. Think of it as a test run. I'm giving him the chance to be the first to do this because I think he's the right person to try it.

[Polycarp]

I don't oppose the idea, but the point is a bit lost on me.  Actually, I'm just not very accustomed to blogs - what kind of things would a blog allow you to do that you can't do in a thread?

[Steerpike]

I'd return to my earlier comment - a forum is communal and collaborative and about the exchange of ideas.  A blog is more personal and individual and a platform for a particular individual's ideas.  When you go to a forum, you got to join in (or just read) conversations; when you to a blog you're getting a more "concentrated dose," as it were, of one person's shtick.  I think blogs are inherently kind of egotistical, in a way (because they presume that someone cares about what the author in particular wants to say), but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[Seraph]

So nixing the idea of everyone having blogs.  Though maybe, should it happen that members like Steerpike and anyone else who ends up wanting one does get a blog, perhaps a links page?  That would basically just be: "Some of our members have their own things going on.  Here are some links to check out their stuff!"  Though links in signatures would probably work just as well.

[sparkletwist]

I basically agree with Steerpike's idea of what a blog is and "giving people more ways to talk exclusively about their own stuff" is not a mission statement I, personally, feel like is worth promoting here.

If Nomadic (or anyone else with hosting) feels like setting something up, I won't object, of course, but that's just my two cents on the matter.

[Polycarp]

Sparkletwist is probably in the right here.

Personally, I have no problem with people doing and promoting their own projects.  They can do that here, in a thread.  They can tell us in that thread about their website or blog, and if we want to, we can go read it.  There is nothing wrong with this, and I might even read such a blog, but it seems like something we should let people do on their own.

I might support this if it seemed advantageous to the site; the CBG should encourage things that bring more traffic to the CBG.  There seems to be a real concern, however, that this would do exactly the opposite by diverting our members elsewhere.  I don't know how real a problem that is but it's certainly worth thinking seriously about.