Thursday is GURPS Day: Links and format!

[DouglasCole]

I'll be aggregating GURPS content each week for a weekly roundup to be posted on Thursday.

The short version:

• If you have a blog . . .
• If you write about GURPS . . .
• Send me a note at GURPSDay@gmail.com with
  1. Your blog's name in plain text, also your blog's landing page (http://whatever)
  2. Your name as you wish to be accredited. This could be your real name or a pseudonym - but keep pseudonyms clean.
  3. A validated RSS feed that keys off of the tag, category, or label GURPS

This set of instructions has evolved since the concept of GURPSDay went live. We're now scraping all GURPS posts for the week, rather than just the GURPS posts that we get on Thursday.


The Long Version

1. Send me an email at gurpsday@gmail.com

This will get you on my GURPSDay mailing list, which I will use sparingly to contact people with questions or requests or 'hey, this doesn't work anymore'

2. Give me your critical information

In order to get you on our list, you need to provide me with:

Your Blog's Name

Just paste in the title of your blog, as you want it to appear.

Your Blog's Landing/Home Page URL

This is just to ensure that we get it right

The name by which you want to be credited

Either a name or pseudonym, but keep it classy. If I can't read your pseudonym to my daughter (she's 6), it won't go on the list.

A validated RSS feed that filters on a tag for GURPS


This is important, because it's how we'll scrape your blog for keyed posts. That means that you do have to tag your posts GURPS. It also means you probably have to figure out how to enable RSS in Blogger, WordPress, or whatever you use. You will need to know if you're using RSS or Atom, but we can figure that out if it doesn't work - that's why the email to gurpsday@gmail.com is so important.

A list of tags, labels, or categories that will let us screen for content

The categories may be case-sensitive, so if you use gurps instead of GURPS, or GuRPs for some unknown reason, that needs to be included.

What the email looks like

Hi, I'd like to be included in the GURPSDay summaries:
Gaming Ballistic
http://gamingballistic.blotspot.com/
Douglas Cole
http://gamingballistic.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/GURPS?alt=rss

That's it.

If you're on blogger, your RSS feed will be something like

Blogger

Atom 1.0: http://www.gamingballistic.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/GURPSRSS 2.0: http://www.gamingballistic.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/GURPS?alt=rss

WordPress

The following two strings have worked well, but you'll need to try both to see which one works for you

http://www.YOURBLOGNAME.wordpress.com/tag/GURPS/feed 
http://www.YOURBLOGNAME.wordpress.com/category/GURPS/feed

If you use your own thing, you'll have to find me a working RSS feed. If you are doing your own thing, presumably you know how to get it! And again: tags, labels, categories are likely case-sensitive, so please be sure your RSS link has the right case for your blog.

3. Tag all your posts with GURPS

Use your blog editor's tag or category feature to label your posts with the GURPS tag. Both Blogger and Wordpress allow you to retroactively tag batches of posts with a new label/tag/category with a few mouse clicks.

And for the last time: case sensitive!

4. If you're feeling bold add a summary statement to your post.

This must be formatted in one of the following two ways

Best Way

Go into your post's HTML formatted code. That will be using the HTML window in Blogger (as opposed to the Compose button).

At the very end, put in the following:

<!--Precis - One to three sentences summarizing your post. Second sentence. Third one is the last one.-->

The key bits are the <!--Precis in the beginning and the --> at the end.

That puts in a "hidden" summary that our script will extract.

The Second-Best Way


Include in your actual post the following line somewhere.
Precis - One to three sentences summarizing your post. Second sentence. Third one is the last one.

Think Twitter brevity level. The script will look for everything from the bolded Precis (but if you use PRECIS or PrEciS it won't care) to the first carriage return. Here's sample HTML

<b>Precis</b> - This is a test post I'm using to try out a scripting method for GURPS Day <br />
If you can do 1-3, your posts will appear easily in the output, formatted the way I need them to be. If you also do 4, the post will contain a short summary so people can know what you're writing about.

[DouglasCole]

Thursday is GURPSDay, and here's over 130 entries of original content from 18-19 blogs . . . and I'm sure we've not more than scratched the surface.

This post collects GURPS content from Jan 1, 2016 through to mid-day Thursday, Jan 28, 2016.

GURPS Day Summary Jan 1, 2016 - Jan 28, 2016

[DouglasCole]

Thursday is GURPSDay! We've got MOAR PLAYERS! We've got some post summaries! And a random order of blogs to ensure everyone gets a moment on top, eventually.

If you occasionally blog about GURPS, send me an email at gurpsday@gmail.com and I can ensure that when you DO write, it gets picked up.

Happy GURPSDay!

GURPS Day Summary Jan 28, 2016 - Feb 4, 2016

[DouglasCole]

I have updated the instructions for the GURPSDay posts to more accurately reflect what actually works. 

GURPS Day

[DouglasCole]

Thursday is GURPSDay, and below you can find the blog activity from the last seven days.

Over the last week, there have been about 50 GURPS-Related posts from 28 or so blogs that have popped up on the radar screen, which is a nice chunk of reading material. Not every blog posts about GURPS every week, but some are ridiculously prolific!

GURPS Day Summary Feb 12 - Feb 18, 2016

As always, if you're interested in having your blog consolidated here, navigate over to The Instructions Page and drop me a line.

[DouglasCole]

Thursday is GURPSDay, and below you can find the blog activity from the last seven days.

Over the last week, there have been about 55 GURPS-Related posts from 31 blogs that have popped up on the radar screen, which is a nice chunk of reading material. The list is randomized, so different bloggers will be highlighted at the top of the post each week.

As always, if you're interested in having your blog consolidated here, navigate over to The Instructions Page and drop me a line.

GURPS Day Summary Feb 19 - Feb 25, 2016

[DouglasCole]

Thursday is GURPSDay, and below you can find the blog activity from the last seven days. Over prior week, there have been about 46 GURPS-Related posts from an ever-expanding list of 35 blogs that have agreed to be aggregated. The list is randomized, so different bloggers will be highlighted at the top of the post each week.

GURPS Day Summary Feb 26 - Mar 3, 2016

[GM Joe]

Wow, 46 posts over the course of a single week! Impressive.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by GM Joe

Wow, 46 posts over the course of a single week! Impressive.

By the time we update to cover the 12 hours between noon and midnight on Thursday, I'm sure it will be over 50.

[GM Joe]

And hopefully it's moving the needle on GURPS enthusiasm amongst the infidels and apostates!