Overview

Thank you, @W.A.Rorie. I appreciate the vote of confidence. I will get back to my stories soon, but have been a little unwell lately. I will collate the whole first Prawa V story and let you know when I am done.

Yes, we are still working to identify ways in which the non-Forums features, especially the Blogs and Clubs, can receive more visibility and engagement. We've already implemented a few things and are discussing additional options that we hope to implement soon. This represents a significant cultural shift within the community, however, so it is going to take time. From a personal perspective, one of the things I'd like to do is spend more time in the Blogs to see the hobby projects that our members are working on. There is a lot of really great stuff in members' blogs and that content deserves recognition and engagement. I think that the biggest thing that we (bloggers) can do at the moment is engage with each other, much as @W.A.Rorie and others have been doing. This situation will change as the staff implements a few things and hopefully we'll see other members in the Blogs, both conducting their own and engaging with others.

I concur. It feels like there may be more blogs but the comments remain on the low end. Getting blogs more visibility has been a focus and amongst all the other project the Admins are working on with the Moderation team. I think @Brother Tyler has the most single comments on a post. Adding blog links to signature, sharing links in posts all can help. I know I comment to help keep everyone motivated. I have a PM chain @GSCUprising discussing his stories that I really enjoy and seeing others go complete their various WIPs has motivated me to finish mine.

Hi, I open this topic in order to get a small feed back and follow up on the visible impacts after the BLoggin' promotion Campaign and all associated actions launched. As far as I see it there are a few obvious ones: 1. Number of bloggers has increased although it looks like eventually as a peak registration and not a continuous trend. But it is not based on data but much more on personnal feeling 2. Number of visits for published entries increases fast now: the increased and improved visibility has adirect impact on number of people opening the entry and eventually looking at it within the fisrt days of existence. I see some posts reaching 200 views in a few days whereas before it required weeks. I feel like the number of viewer for a new blog entry now grow more or less at the same rate as a standard new topic opened in the subforum related to the blog. Which is a great move. (And, NO, I do not think I have improved my quality which is also a way for catching more audience eventually) 3. Yet the comment section remains lowly used. Contributors are mostly the same, always - "members-on-a-mission", let's call them like that. Special mentions to @W.A.Rorie and @The Yncarne as non limiting or excluding examples. Conclusion: IMHO, it looks like it works and it is up to us to see how to contribute maintaining the momentum. Thumbs up

Just in case you overlooked the announcement in the NRBA forum, I've published the [first draft of the] Blogs tutorial in the + BOLTER AND CHAINSWORD 101 + forum. If anything is unclear, please let me know. And if you have any suggestions for improvement, I'm all ears. The staff is discussing other things that we can do to better promote the Blogs and this tutorial was one part of a larger plan (and it was essential to get this published on the front end of everything else).

So I was able to create new Blogs (Adepta Sororitas, Grey Knights, Imperial Fists & Successors, and Astra Militarum) and move the posts I wanted in the new blogs. I left my original Blog with the subjects that either I did not want to move or that will be moved when I restart the projects they are assigned to.

@Brother Tyler I would say only 2 things: 1. It looks like everything is OK 2. A big Thank you for the job done.

All done, hopefully correctly. If I screwed anything up, please let me know ASAP so I can fix it.

Hi, @Brother Tyler: So let's see how it works and if it does not make you crouch and crash under the burden: First ste, my List of Blogs : - Bouargh´s miniatures´ closet clean-up - Pointy and Spiky - (“Aeldari”) - AM Not-Stygies - A Blog about building a new Army - (“Adeptus-mechanicus-and-mechanicum”) - Bad Mood Rising – (“Miscellaneous”) - How to pretend not starting an army – (“Astra-militarum-and-imperial-army”) All have been created. Second step: identification of existing categories from the original Blog to be moved to New blogs. Category from Bouargh´s miniatures´ closet clean-up Move existing category to Blog : Freeblade AM Not-Stygies - A Blog about building a new Army 10th Edition Pointy and Spiky GorkaMorka Bad Mood Rising New Year/New Army AM Not-Stygies - A Blog about building a new Army For some reason this category appears as being in duplicate. Both should be moved. Milestone Bad Mood Rising Edito Bad Mood Rising Bitz Box Management How to pretend not starting an army Epic 2nd Ed Bad Mood Rising Review Bad Mood Rising Not GSC How to pretend not starting an army House Rules AM Not-Stygies - A Blog about building a new Army Aeldarii Pointy and Spiky Drukhari Pointy and Spiky All and any category unlisted stay in the Bouargh´s miniatures´ closet clean-up, where it was born and raised initially. By the way this process made me notice that some Categories exists in duplicate or more. I ignore why... Third step: Reset/relocate Bouargh´s miniatures´ closet clean-up from “Miscellaneous” to “Modeling-sculpting-and-painting” I guess I have it all. I keep it like that, without adding extra complication such as moving some individual posts too. Thanx

Okay, my search for some setting(s) has been fruitless. I've come up with a workaround. It involves a lot of work for me, but I'm willing to do that work for anyone. First, you need to create all of the new blogs into which you want your existing blogs/blog categories to be moved. If you don't want the original blog in the Miscellaneous category, don't create one of the new blogs (ideally the one that has the most entries in your original blog) - I'll change the category of the original blog (see below). To keep me honest (you'll find out why this is important below), you should take a screenshot of the listing of all of your blogs (and as much more as you want). This is for your protection. Then you'll need to post a reply in this discussion telling me: Which new blog each of your categories/entries [in your original blog] should be moved. The name of the category that you want each blog category/entry to be moved into. Which category you want your original blog moved into (assuming you don't want to keep it in the Miscellaneous category). This is where things get shady (hence my recommendation for screenshots above)... Once I have your PM, I will change ownership of all of your blogs to me. This will allow me to move everything around according to the instructions that you provide. After that, I'll delete the now empty categories in the original blog. Once I've completed all of that, I will change ownership of all of your blogs back to you and I will post a reply in this discussion letting you know that the work is complete. The reason I suggest replies in this discussion rather than PMs is so that there is public visibility (another element of keeping me honest). This won't be a difficult task, but it will be time-consuming - the more projects you plan to have, the longer it will take (and I don't mind that one bit). Now if you don't want to go through this hassle, that's completely up to you. However, the staff is in the process of revising the achievements and there will be a progression for the creation of new blogs. There is already a progression for the creation of new blog entries, so those won't be affected whether they all remain in a single blog or they are spread around multiple blogs. If you have a dozen or so projects collected in a single blog (i.e., your original blog), you'll only earn the achievement for that one blog. If you create blogs for separate projects, however, you'll earn multiple achievements. The choice is up to you. If you want to see the outcome of the process I've described above, take a look at @Ioldanach's blogs here. He was the guinea pig that was trying to help with the tutorials, then found out that only the admins can move blog entries around (so it's all his fault ).

D'oh! I couldn't move another member's blog category/entry into one of their new blogs. All I could do was move it into one of my own blogs (I didn't do that, of course, but that's what my options were limited to). I'm going to have to dig into this more. It's perplexing that I can move my stuff around but others can't be given similar permissions. My assumption is that I'm missing something (and must therefore submit myself to the pain glove once I figure it out).

Okay, it turns out that members can't move blog categories/entries. I've confirmed by using a Frater Domus account, and I determined that there wasn't a setting that I could change to enable blog category/entry movement by members. All you can do in this effort is create the new blogs in the appropriate categories. Once you have created all of the new blogs that you want, you can contact me to let me know which categories/entries to move from your existing blog into the new blog(s) (and which blog to move each into).

Yes, it is deliberate. I am still not fully satisfied by what I wrote. And I also tend to wrote in advance and use the scheduled publishing ("... So that my huge and immense fanbase is is regularly fed with the so excellent content I can propose!" -> Self convinction exercice . Autohypnoses would probably give far better results...). If you need someone to test the procedure for moving entries and categories, I can take part in the beta testing burden. I've planned to move stuff around at least into the 2 new Blogs I've created (Mechanicus and Asuryanii, the former being qtm an emplty shell), so why not take the opportunity? I have moreover very limited internet and computer use abilities so I can also play the role of the Dummy. If I can do it, anybody can. @Brother Tyler: Just share the tutorial and I will play test from Sunday eve.

I think the easy answer at this point is for me to add links to the Aeldari and Harlequin blogs (in addition to the link to the Asuryani blogs). I'll look into the ability for blog authors to recategorize blogs/entries. I'll have to enlist someone's help with that (and I'm already working on that) since I have broader permissions as an Administrator and don't always see the limitations that other members work under. I noticed that one of your entries isn't published. Was that deliberate? Speaking of enlisting someone's help, I'm working on that so that I can get the tutorials done for everyone. I already created my additional blogs and moved things around, so the only way for me to create the tutorials would be for me to either create a bunch of new entries (I am far too busy for that right now) or get help from someone else. That person has just agreed to help, so I hope to have the tutorial up late this weekend or early next week.

Just noticed something: While creating a new Blog, I associated it with the Category "Asuryanii", whcih in the structure covers Aeldarii, Drukharii and Herlequins should I remember properly. Yet by doing that, it looks like the Blog cannot be reached by the shortcut access set under each subforum. It cant be reached only by the subcategory table on the Blog Landing page clicking up to Assuryanni. Just as the BLogs from the Misc. category. ... My mistake. I was maybe (secretly) hoping the linkage would make it available in an indistinct way from each subforum associted to Asuryanii. Which was presomptuous. Yet after that it looks like one cannot update the connection himself while going through the "Manage Blog" menu in order to reassign the Blog to a subcategory associated to an hypertext link. I am not convinced the option to reaffect needs to be set in the "Managing options" and may be such mistakes should be corrected by request to the Admin, should one ask for a relocation. But is it even possible?

Yes, you can move blog entries. I'll include that in the tutorial. I've been distracted with some real world stuff and my article about the Codex Astartes, but the tutorial is on the high priority list.

Hi, Just started the process of spliting my Blog into new ones focussing on specific aspects/alliegence. I created one for latter moving all my AdMech stuff into the new structure. I noticed the changes on the "Category" management but so far I did not found how to move these from one Blog to another. I will resume once the tutorial will be available. Incidentally I also have a question: if the former blog was designed with some broad categories mixing stuff, is there a easy possibility to move not the whole category but only one entry for example? Not that it is critical in any way, but just to know. Thnx

If you haven't seen the announcement, the expanded Blogs Categories have been implemented and there is no longer a limit on the number of blogs that members can create. Those of you with existing blogs are free to turn each of your categories (presumably each as a separate project) into a separate blog. You'll have to create each such new blog first, then you can move the existing categories into the new blogs. I'll post a tutorial later.

I think it's a solid list and in your breakdown you answered a question before I could even ask it (my blog drifts from one topic to another depending on my current whims, I've been using tags to sort them).

That's one that would need a description. It's about tactics, battle reports, and stuff like that. I could see members creating homegrown rules blogs therein (unless they want to focus them in faction-specific Categories).

I like It, yet I am not sure I really understand what is underneath the GamePlay category. Does it refer to Bat Reps, leagues ... or other things? Or does it include also other stuff such as gaming aids, rooster sheet... and eventually the tokens mentionned as example?

We are close to changing the limit on the number of blogs that members can create from 1 to unlimited. The one thing that we need to settle on before that happens, though, is the Categories. We currently have two Categories: Members and Advertisers. The Advertisers Category will be kept, but the Members Category will be replaced with a slew of other Categories. Two quick notes... When capitalized ("Category(ies)"), I am referring to the Categories at the Blogs feature level - the Categories into which all blogs are organized. When not capitalized ("category(ies)"), I am referring to the internal categories that members create for the internal organization of their blogs. This discussion is solely about the Categories that apply throughout the Blogs feature. As much as possible, members will have complete freedom in creating their own blog categories. An important aspect of the content architecture is tags. We will create a system of Categories that works under most circumstances, with tags complementing the Categories. Since members will be given as much freedom as possible in both the organization and content of their blogs, there may be times when the baseline Category structure doesn't quite work. For example, we have opted to not create Categories for different games. Instead, projects that are focused on specific games should include the appropriate tags. Here is the current list of Categories that we are considering: Miscellaneous Imperium Adepta Sororitas and Ecclesiarchy Adeptus Astartes/Legiones Astartes Black Templars & Descendants Blood Angels & Successors Dark Angels & Successors Deathwatch Grey Knights Imperial Fists & Successors Iron Hands & Successors Legio B&C Legion of the Damned Raven Guard & Successors Salamanders & Successors Space Wolves & Successors Ultramarines & Successors White Scars & Successors Talons of the Emperor Adeptus Mechanicus and Cult Mechanicus Collegia Titanica Astra Militarum & Solar Auxilia Imperial Knights Chaos Chaos Daemons Chaos Knights Heretic Astartes Alpha Legion Death Guard & Nurgle Emperor's Children & Slaanesh Iron Warriors Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion Night Lords Thousand Sons & Tzeentch Word Bearers World Eaters & Khorne Xenos Aeldari Asuryani Drukhari Harlequins Genestealer Cults Leagues of Votann Necrons Orks T'au Tyranids Modeling, Sculpting, and Painting Game Play Editorials and Opinions To illustrate the envisioned outcome with the tags, imagine that a member is working on a project to create an Ultramarines army. Regardless of game system, that blog would be placed in the Ultramarines category (under Imperium and Adeptus Astartes). If that army is for the 10th edition of the Warhammer 40,000 game, it might be given the tag WH40K 10e (or it might not - the Warhammer 40,000 game is assumed to be the default, so it might be omitted unless you want to specify a previous edition). If that army is for the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness game, it should be given the appropriate tag (we haven't settled on that one yet, but it may be something along the lines of HHAoD 2e). It would be entirely possible for the member to simply create a massive blog intended to cover all of their Ultramarines projects, across different editions of different games, and possibly including all kinds of other things like battle reports, homegrown rules, etc. In this case, the member might use different categories within their blog, assigning appropriate tags to each category and/or the entries within. For example, the member might have both a Primaris army for the WH40K game, a firstborn army for the Horus Heresy setting/game, a fleet for Battlefleet Gothic, a kill team for the Kill Team game, homegrown rules for Captain Invictus, etc. The member might decide that each of these might be a separate category within their Ultramarines blog, assigning each the appropriate tag. There are going to be times when a member's concept for their blog doesn't fit neatly within the overall Category structure that we create, in which case the Miscellaneous Category is there. In this case, members should use (meta-/sub-)faction tags to help members to find the content in which they are interested. For example, At one time I created tokens for the 2018 version of the Kill Team game. These tokens spanned all of the various factions of the game. Tokens don't really fit into one of our Blog Categories, so I would have located that blog (had we had Blogs at that time) in the Miscellaneous Category and assigned the Kill Team 2018 tag to the blog, then I would have assigned tags for each entry in which I presented a faction (e.g., the entry with the Exorcists tokens would have had the Exorcists Chapter tag). All that said, if you think we need to make any changes to the proposed Categories, please post your suggestions here. Also note that the increase to unlimited blogs means that there will be a progression of achievement badges for creating blogs. The achievement for creating a blog has been changed to green (from gold). We are looking at the entire achievements system, though, so we won't implement the entire progression until we get the overall system redone. That is still a work in progress, though, so it won't happen for a bit. Once the revision is implemented, though, achievement badges will be retroactively awarded.

Threadomancy is actually an issue that I have long thought that we need to re-think. That's a broader issue, however, so I'll leave it for another time/place (though I second the notion that a member updating their own blog and crossposting the link the discussion forums does not constitute any kind of negative threadomancy). As far as encouraging more input on older blogs, I think that is something we should definitely do. To be honest, if I had more time I would mosey throughout the site and engage with members on all kinds of content, especially the blogs. As with everyone else, though, my time is limited. I think that part of our overall effort here is to develop methods for encouraging blog use by both authors as well as readers (engagement). There are multiple layers to that effort, however, including incentivization (achievements/badges), visibility (crossposting is just one element), and simple strategic communications concerning blogs, what they offer, and how they are superior to the discussion forums for personal projects. @Xenith's suggestion to include links in the forums (in the PM) is something that I definitely think we'll be doing, but that, too, is just one part of the overall effort. I think that we'll be developing methodologies for featuring blog entries (that's a staff action) and for getting more visibility of blog entries elsewhere on the site.

The Recent Blog Entries block has been removed from the sidebar on the main Clubs page. I haven't added anything else to the sidebar yet because the categories are going to be expanded, increasing the height of the first block. Once we get the categories finalized, we'll see what kind of room we have to play with and how we might fill that space (accepting the fact that we have to allow for heights of blocks to vary based on activity).

Yes, we will be looking at the sidebar sections to clean things up.