weblog

edit: shamelessly bumped. please check this out and leave feedback. =)

Howdy. I'm working on a new toy. Fear not, as I still have a list of old toys that aren't working as intended and they will be looked at shortly.

**See the first entry in my weblog here:**
http://plastic.rubberslug.com/gallery/weblog.asp

Everything that still needs to be done is pretty much outlined in that post. User comments and forum cross-posting are the big ones, both of which will be adjustable to your preferences.

Blog updates will be listed on the home page to give people a way to be "active" who don't happen to have new cels to post on a frequent basis.

I hope to put in more gallery integration, so you could type something like [recent] either in the forum or in your weblog and Rubberslug would post links and pictures to everything you've uploaded in the last 24 hours or so.

I'm not a blogging kind of person, so I need some help from those of you that are. Experiment with this new feature and tell me how else you'd improve it. What do you like and dislike about blogs? What would make a blog easier to use and update?

http://www.rubberslug.com/member/mod_weblog.aspx

... meanwhile, I'll continue working on it.

This is a really great feature, lots of fun to play around with! But probably not so great for wordy people like me who just keep going on and on and on and can't seem to stop for air ...

One suggestion for a feature for the blog, maybe in addition to the [recent] option there could be a way to direct link to a cel picture (from your own gallery of course not someone else's gallery!) so that if you mention a cel then they can see it embedded in the text of the blog rather than having to click on a separate link. Or maybe a better idea would be a way to put a thumbnail into the post, but make it sort of like the normal thumbnails so that you can click on it to view the cel page if you so choose. I think something like that would make it much easier to mention specific cels than just providing a text link to the cel's page.

Another thing that might be nice would be a poll feature, so that you could put a poll in the blog and visitors to your gallery could vote in it (i.e. "should i keep the current layout or change it?" or "which cel should i submit to be my featured gallery image?" or something along those lines)

Also what are the 'rules' for the blog? Is it strictly cels-only or is it ok to mention non-cel things, too (or things that are only semi-related to cels, such as a post about a new anime that you just watched or the convention you went to last weekend)?

Thanks for the feedback. About to head to bed, but some quick answers:

^^*^^ Finding ways to insert arbitrary site assets (news, wishlist items, etc.) by using short tags is a definitely the direction we're going. This is closer to my original concept of a universal rich content aggregator (circa 1998/1999) that I could never fully wrap my brain around until now, from both a technology and cultural angle.

^^*^^ Polls? It'll probably be another snap-on module, like the links module. As long as you have permission to create a voting poll, you'll probably be able to put it anywhere you want... either in the forum, in your own gallery, in a friend's gallery, or all of the above at the same time. It's on the list (or it should be).

^^*^^ Content rules for the blog? Bah, it can be about anything. As someone who doesn't buy cels but once or twice a year, I want to be able to feel like I'm doing something fun and contributing to the community even if I'm not uploading cels. Blogs let people do that. (And they'll have their own home page section soon.) The only time we restrict content is when it seriously waters down content by clogging the "cels updated" track or if we decide it's taking up too much policing time. Personal pictures have the first problem. Artbook scans have the second. Sales have **both** these problems.

^^*^^ Remember user-submitted editorials? We'll probably pulling the most insightful short essays about anime or collecting straight from blogs (with permission, of course) to be discussed in the main forums. Ideally, we'd find two well-written blog entries that are on opposite sides of the same subject and feature both in one article.


Thanks again for the comments.

I'm not sure because this is being worked on right now, but when i click "weblogs" in my account, it just takes me to Rubberslug main..is it still because it's not ready, or just me? :/

I tried to activate my weblog but it just took me to an error page. It said something like 'compilation error' at the top.

Edit- I looked at my gallery and the weblog actually is working even though it still gives me the error message.