Untitled Blog Project

[Melooon]

Hello! Iv decided to start slow work on a new blogging zone for MelonLand and I though Id log its progress here so people can provide feedback and get updates!

Here are the key plans so far:

• All MelonLand members will be able to make a blog.
• Blogs will allow you to create unlimited blog books (basically sub-blogs)
• You will be able to create libraries of your favorite blog books, created by you or others.
• Blogs can be chronological (story book format) or reverse chronological (latest post first format), or scrapbook (no order format)
• At some point is may be possible to collaborate on blogs.
• Blogs will use the forums editor, supporting BBCode and all emotes and animations.
• Comic blogs will be possible at some point (e.g. you can upload images instead of writing pages)
• All blog books will generate their own RSS feeds.
• There will be a super blog feed that displays all the latest blog posts from everyone.
• All blog books can be embed in your site.
• Blogs can be downloaded as e-books.
• Each blog and blog book will support custom CSS.

There is no actual schedule for this project, but the basic work is currently underway!

EDIT: Some additional ideas for blog book options:

• Moon and Sun blogs (only viewable during the day or night)
• Password lock blogs
• Forum Buddy Blogs

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Sounds both ambitious and great.
Do you plan to use the boards database for the blogs?

[larvapuppy]

This sounds like an amazing plan! I can't wait to start writing my own little blog! 

[Melooon]

Do you plan to use the boards database for the blogs

In the sense that it will run on the same database server yes, but it would be a separate database on that server. It would pull info like your username and login verification etc from the forum via an API, which is a little more secure!

[glitterpigeon]

this is very exciting to me, I would use this so much honestly

[caracalled]

ohh I would absolutely use this! this sounds awesome!!

[kingdomcome]

This idea ROCKS Though I doubt I'd personally use it (solely because I have many other blogs across the web... too many, I'd argue.)

[dream]

This sounds great! I’ll share the use case that comes to mind. Curious if feasible…

I’d like to use this to post original works (stories, poems). I’d ideally want to have stand alone stories and also a folder/series of stories. It would be important for people to be able to comment per submission. Example:

Dream (Blog)
 L Stories (Section)
    L Internet Ghost Stories (Series folder)
       L 1 Shareware Specter (Post w/ comments)
       L 2 Zalmora the Glitch Queen (Post w/ comments)
    L Ogren the Barbarian (Post w/ comments)
 L Poems (Section)
     L Scattered Sands (Post w/ comments)
     L Dreary Day (Post w/ comments)

Would that be possible / make sense with this?

Sun and moon blog?! What an interesting idea.

What’s a forum buddy blog? One thing I’d like is to allow friends to submit to my blog. For example, a few friends can post to Internet Ghost Storiees series. Is that was this is?

[Melooon]

@dream yep that's exactly the structure I'm aiming for, essentially a personal library builder where the books can be constantly added too and edited.

E.g. the format I'm thinking of is - Blog - Shelf (You call it a Section) - Book (You call it a Folder) - Chapter (You call it a Post) ~ the only difference I'd describe is that your Internet Ghost Stories and Scattered Sands are both Books, but one has multiple chapters and the other only has one ~ if that makes sense.

And yep multi-person books and shelves are in the plan, though maybe not day 1.

I think Rain blogs would be nice too (only readable when its raining) 

EDIT: I'm on the fence about comments ~ it would prob not be a day 1 feature, I'd have to give more thought to the logistics of that because allowing text input of any sort is a big bit of added complexity. Not only does it need coding, but it would also need moderation tools for you etc

[dream]

@dream yep that's exactly the structure I'm aiming for, essentially a personal library builder where the books can be constantly added too and edited.

E.g. the format I'm thinking of is - Blog - Shelf (You call it a Section) - Book (You call it a Folder) - Chapter (You call it a Post) ~ the only difference I'd describe is that your Internet Ghost Stories and Scattered Sands are both Books, but one has multiple chapters and the other only has one ~ if that makes sense.

And yep multi-person books and shelves are in the plan, though maybe not day 1.

I think Rain blogs would be nice too (only readable when its raining) 

EDIT: I'm on the fence about comments ~ it would prob not be a day 1 feature, I'd have to give more thought to the logistics of that because allowing text input of any sort is a big bit of added complexity. Not only does it need coding, but it would also need moderation tools for you etc

I’d be curious others’ opinions on necessity of comments. For my purposes, I think I’d opt to post stories to forums (assuming allowed) solely for the benefit of getting feedback in the form of written comments. I had planned to even incorporate feedback into subsequent episodes. And just getting encouragement and criticism is wonderful.

[imnotjahan]

I think Rain blogs would be nice too (only readable when its raining) 

That's an awesome idea! I've never thought of having pages on my site which are only available during certain weather cycles or times of day, but I'm definitely going to add some now! It's like having a portal which only appears on the third day of a year or a prediction for the rapture during a stormy night.

Only concern I would have is how you would figure out the current weather? Would it be for the persons current location, or for your own? Are there good free weather APIs available? It might be cool, if you just want it to be for the weather at your own location, to try setting up a little Arduino or something which could keep track of the weather, making your own API instead of using some other one.

[Melooon]

Would it be for the persons current location, or for your own?

I'd say it makes most sense for it to be the readers weather, similar to it being the readers time of day for the moon blogs - e.g. someone should only read that blog when it is raining where they are - so you could have a book of poems about the rain that can only be read while its raining around you ~ that has a certain magical quality don't you think

[dream]

I'd say it makes most sense for it to be the readers weather, similar to it being the readers time of day for the moon blogs - e.g. someone should only read that blog when it is raining where they are - so you could have a book of poems about the rain that can only be read while its raining around you ~ that has a certain magical quality don't you think

Love it!

[Melooon]

I’d be curious others’ opinions on necessity of comments.

I would like to know this too; but Iv been thinking about it myself.

At first I was thinking about normal blog comments that appear below the blog text - I really hate those because I feel that they detract from the focus and identity of the writers original text. So, then I was thinking about creating some sort of multi-page-guestbook, where you could essentially link a guestbook per blog page - that's kinda cool, but a lot of work.

I think in truth though, discussion and commentary should be a communal activity; it should not be siloed off into semi-private spaces like an individual blog post; it should happen in the public sphere were people can "overhear" comments about blog posts that they have not even read, then go and encounter those posts. So hopefully its not a cop-out, but my best suggestion is that comments should happen on the forum.

I'm not sure how chaotic that would actually be in practice; perhaps there would be a checkbox when you create a new blog book, that would be like "Create a discussion thread for this book" and then the book would include a link to that discussion space - along with an auto bump each time a chapter is published in the book.

That's my current idea anyway

[dream]

I would like to know this too; but Iv been thinking about it myself.

At first I was thinking about normal blog comments that appear below the blog text - I really hate those because I feel that they detract from the focus and identity of the writers original text. So, then I was thinking about creating some sort of multi-page-guestbook, where you could essentially link a guestbook per blog page - that's kinda cool, but a lot of work.

I think in truth though, discussion and commentary should be a communal activity; it should not be siloed off into semi-private spaces like an individual blog post; it should happen in the public sphere were people can "overhear" comments about blog posts that they have not even read, then go and encounter those posts. So hopefully its not a cop-out, but my best suggestion is that comments should happen on the forum.

I'm not sure how chaotic that would actually be in practice; perhaps there would be a checkbox when you create a new blog book, that would be like "Create a discussion thread for this book" and then the book would include a link to that discussion space - along with an auto bump each time a chapter is published in the book.

That's my current idea anyway

I think it comes down to intended and prioritized use cases. If I think of this in terms of a blog I’d post to, comments are neat, I might use them, but I might want to disable them. I do think some would love comments for their blog tho.

But for other use cases, the intention of submissions may be to generate discussion or get feedback. For me, without comments, I’d just use forum threads and I think that’s fine if untitled blog feature is more focused on blogging use case.

What appeals most to me about the untitled blog feature set is the ability to organize and publish one-offs, series, and get feedback. Almost like my own little sub-forums that’s still a part of the community! I also love RSS, super blog feed, custom CSS, and Moon/Sun/Rain. Love love love.

I think my ideal wish would be allowing replies in the form of comments, but also letting authors disable comments, and then letting the super feed surface both posts and comments like how recent page today surfaces topics and replies. Could be two tabs. Or a toggle to list comments too or not. Whatever makes sense.

Re: your dislike of comments below blog post, I think it can be done in a way that doesn’t take focus off the work. YouTube on mobile is a good example. You see 3.7K comments but need to click into it to see them. Other platforms like ArchiveOurOwn have a Comments button like “Comments (38)” that, when clicked, reveal comments below.

All this takes work of course! Ultimately I think it comes down to priority use cases and LOE! Excited for this project regardless!