Question for and about those people who blog about GURPS stuff

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

I like knowing who has GURPS-related blogs, but I don't need notifications of individual posts.

This seems to be the most logical.

An "update" post if a blog has been inactive for some time but then resumes activity, would also make sense.

(Note that my blog isn't about GURPS. It is sometimes about worldbuilding, but never specifically about GURPS game mechanics or GURPS campaigns, except for IIRC one brief reference to one of the deeply retarded aspects of the GURPS Magic magic system.)

[Gotha]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

I like knowing who has GURPS-related blogs, but I don't need notifications of individual posts.

Exactly the same for me. Advertise the blog itself, like in your signature, not the individual blog entries.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Kromm

It would be especially nice to have a single thread for all blogs. In that case, we can give the thread a creative title like "GURPS Blogs" and I would be happy to make it sticky. (I would not want separate threads on several blogs made sticky, because that would eventually fill the first page of the forums with sticky posts . . . yuck.)

And everyone who has such a blog should make a post with a link, so we all can visit and add it to our RSS readers.

[tbone]

My thanks to the many respondents. It's a point of forum etiquette I've wondered about. I hesitate to appear spammy by tossing up posts that say, "Hey, come read and talk about this GURPS stuff I wrote!" At the same time, "Hey, I want to read and talk about GURPS stuff!" is what defines people who gather here...

(I also bring up the question because of the recent death of Google Reader and subsequent discussion over the future of RSS. Looks like the hubbub is just a hiccup for RSS and its users, but it's also a reminder that there's more to track than just RSS feeds.)

So, trying to distill comments into a wrap, here's a summary as I see it. Please critique as warranted.

(For simplicity, I'll use the term "blog" to mean any off-forum resources or commentary concerning GURPS, including social network group, wiki, forum, newsletter, and campaign website; and the term "blog post" to mean any post or individual entry made to these.)

1. Feel free to do these things

1.1 Do create a forum thread to announce a new blog. People want to know this stuff. (Also feel free to announce a blog per 3.1 below.)

1.2. Do mention and link to relevant blog posts as part of normal discussion within forum threads. There's nothing new or problematic about this.

1.3 Do mention blogs, latest blog posts, or whatever you like in your sig. It's your sig.

2. Please don't do these things

2.1. Don't create a forum thread to announce a new blog post. Too spammy. (Conversely, creating a forum thread for the purpose of normal forum discussion, with reference to a new blog post as optional added reading, should fall under the innocuous 1.2.)

2.2 Don't do anything else frowned upon in the forum rules.

3. New ideas

3.1 Let's make a single thread to announce our blogs, creating a directory. (Hey, Ghostdancer already made it!) To keep this thread useful as a directory, announce blogs, not blog posts.

Ideally, this thread will be made sticky. (Announcement threads per 1.1 should not be sticky.)

4. Things I'm not sure about

4.1 Echoing one comment, it would seem OK to invoke 1.1 and create a new thread to re-announce a long-dead blog upon resurrection. But perhaps it'd be ideal to do this by making a new post in the original announcement thread, not by creating a new thread?

4.2 Similar to 4.1: Once you've created a forum thread to announce a blog per 1.1, you could keep using that same thread (not new threads!) to announce new blog posts or make other occasional blog-related announcements. (Or is that somehow problematic?)

4.3 Should gaming blogs that aren't GURPS-specific make announcements per 1.1? Hmm, judgment call. (Rule of thumb: If you're an active contributor to the forum, think the blog would be of interest to members, and expect to reference the blog's material within GURPS discussions, then use your judgment. If those don't hold, then please don't post the announcement. Sound sensible?)

===

Thanks again. I don't want to over-think a topic that really boils down to "use common sense", but it seems a useful discussion.

[Daigoro]

I'm not sure why people are against announcing new blog posts.

a) It's what Kromm does, for one, in an essentially off-topic thread.

b) If the announcements are all in the single blogs thread, I don't see how that would be spammy. Either you follow new posts in the thread because you're interested, or you ignore the thread because you're not. This is presuming that the thread is closed to comments and discussion.

c) I'd be interested in seeing what blog posts have gone up, without having to remember to check on them every so often. (I don't use RSS, by the way.)

d) If there is a risk of spamliness from a particularly prolific blogger, then they could limit their updates to weekly blog recaps.

e) Active bloggers will attract more attention, while the blogs who announce their existence in this thread, but only have one blog post and tumbleweeds will get less attention.

f) Already, nearly every other thread quickly goes way off-topic for pages and pages, so I'm not sure how a thread with just regular blog post announcements, presumably only a handful a week, could be seen as spammy.

In any case, I'm not likely to be starting a blog, so whatever behaviours are agreed upon won't really affect me, I was just curious about the emerging consensus.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I'm not sure why people are against announcing new blog posts...
b) If the announcements are all in the single blogs thread, I don't see how that would be spammy. Either you follow new posts in the thread because you're interested, or you ignore the thread because you're not.

Without going back to re-read the thread, I think people overall agree with you there. If you start a new GURPS blog, it seems most forum members would welcome your creating a new forum thread to announce that, as well as later forum posts within that thread to announce new blog posts. As you say, those who aren't interested simply won't follow the thread; no hassle for them.

What many people don't want to see is a whole new forum thread for each new blog post. Lots of blogs x lots of blog posts would create a big mess o' forum threads.

That's my understanding, anyway. It also sounds sensible to me!

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

I like knowing who has GURPS-related blogs, but I don't need notifications of individual posts.

Originally Posted by PK

A single thread in which people announced new (or newly discovered) blogs might be useful -- as long as people didn't start announcing every time they updated.

Originally Posted by Gotha

Exactly the same for me. Advertise the blog itself, like in your signature, not the individual blog entries.

Originally Posted by tbone

Without going back to re-read the thread, I think people overall agree with you there. If you start a new GURPS blog, it seems most forum members would welcome your creating a new forum thread to announce that, as well as later forum posts within that thread to announce new blog posts. As you say, those who aren't interested simply won't follow the thread; no hassle for them.

What many people don't want to see is a whole new forum thread for each new blog post. Lots of blogs x lots of blog posts would create a big mess o' forum threads.

That's my understanding, anyway. It also sounds sensible to me!

Some people might have been saying "no new threads for each post" but I read the above comments as referring to "no update announcements even in one thread".

[Kromm]

To elaborate on what I said:

1. Yes to a single, sticky thread containing only posts with links to and descriptions of blogs, wikis, and so on. Each forum member could have one post in that thread, containing all of that member's sites, and edit that post as necessary to announce new content on an existing site or add a new site. New posts would be from additional members adding their sites to the list.
   
   
2. Yes to a single, non-sticky thread per blog, wiki, etc., updated when there's new content. Each forum member could have one such thread. New posts would be from that person, to announce new content, and from followers of that content, to discuss it. If the thread scrolls off for lack of activity, so be it – I won't agree to make it sticky and I'll infract for "bumping," which is inappropriate behavior.
   
   
3. No to a series of threads, one per update of a blog, wiki, etc. That's just spammy. Yuck. I'll infract for that, too.

People can choose 1 or 2, and I'll be happy to accommodate that here.

[D10]

Ill say that a combination of one and two might be ideal.

You have the master stick thread for blogs, and people can if desired create threads to discuss specific subjects pertaining to a blog.

Im saying this assuming the thread can stand on itself and is not merely a glorified comment session for said blog entry.

Overall if I had to chose id chose option one of Kromms 3 choices.