Player Blogs

[Reigen]

This really doesn't seem necessary.

Lemmi stop you here for a moment and tell you a story about the old days.

Class skills weren't free, nor was it necessary for them to be free. However it's still nice to have.
Flying training was level restricted until someone requested different. Was it necessary? No, but was it nice to have? Yes.
.taxi. Necessary? Not by a long shot. Nice to have? Yes.
Does anyone remember the days before .lo rp? When you had to RP in starting gear or farm for a certain look?

My point being: There are a lot of things that are not necessary and were not necessary. That doesn't mean that they're not nice to have, most of all for convience sake. Perhaps I contradict myself a bit, however, if it's something that can easily be done [make one subforum then done], then what is the honest harm?

Is there a risk for drama? Yes, however there are players here who monitor for that stuff and alert the GMs to it before the GMs even see the post themselves. I highly, highly doubt that anything truly bad can come from it when players who want to use the blogs the right way will be making sure they're not taken away.

[Brutalskars]

*Lifts a mug* Tis a momentous day! Letsa say we shall prevail over the base instincts of the internet! We shall persevere! We shall mosey fourth into the bright future! Blog it!


*Cries in a drunken stupor of the dark days before addrpitem*

[Harmonic]

I remember when you could only request ten pieces of RP gear, and the GM's had to give them to you. So, you had to look up the item ID and have it handy in order to receive it.

And Cassius---there's potential harm that could be done anywhere on the forum. The idea that people use blogs as ranting/raving mediums always boggles my mind, mostly because there's a lot more you could do with it than that.

As for monitoring? GM's do pretty much have a handle on things when drama topics pop up, aye? No matter where they are.

[cartoonkarl]

Personally I think that this would be a bad idea.

[Cassius]

This really doesn't seem necessary.

Lemmi stop you here for a moment and tell you a story about the old days.

Class skills weren't free, nor was it necessary for them to be free. However it's still nice to have.
Flying training was level restricted until someone requested different. Was it necessary? No, but was it nice to have? Yes.
.taxi. Necessary? Not by a long shot. Nice to have? Yes.
Does anyone remember the days before .lo rp? When you had to RP in starting gear or farm for a certain look?

My point being: There are a lot of things that are not necessary and were not necessary. That doesn't mean that they're not nice to have, most of all for convience sake. Perhaps I contradict myself a bit, however, if it's something that can easily be done [make one subforum then done], then what is the honest harm?

Is there a risk for drama? Yes, however there are players here who monitor for that stuff and alert the GMs to it before the GMs even see the post themselves. I highly, highly doubt that anything truly bad can come from it when players who want to use the blogs the right way will be making sure they're not taken away.

You're comparing gameplay mechanics with forum mechanics which are entirely different and irrelevant from one another.

The mechanics you listed actually are beneficial to the community though. They improve our character's depictions, whereabouts, wares, etc. As you said, they make things way more convenient.

What makes having player blogs convenient though? I see more inconveniences than conveniences in having them.

This is how I view it: Want to rant? Want to give friendly advice, wanna "blog" and whatnot? Just use the general or off-topic discussions or even blogspot.

Keep things simple guys.

[Reigen]

Yet doing it that way will eventually cause them to get lost in a swarm of everything else being put up, rather than having their own spot. With their own subforum, it can be made so that they do not appear on the recent post section. It would also mean that those who enjoy reading the thoughts of other players wouldn't have to go searching every which-way just to find a single thread in a sea of threads. It's not like the existence of another subforum is going to put a hinderance on everyone else who doesn't want to use them, and having it so they do not show up on the recent post would mean those who don't want to use them or see them will not have to.

[cartoonkarl]

If player blogs become a thing then I feel players would get targeted. When people are given a place to rant, they will rant, and what they rant about could be anything.

I feel though that conflicts that are created IC and OOC will be taken to public posts. I feel the blogs will be a good way to target and accuse other, flame them, and troll.

To be honest I think Player Blogs are far from a good thing.

[Harmonic]

Blogs don't mean "Rant here". Unfortunately, that's what a lot of people use them for, but it's not the intended purpose of a blog.

[Cassius]

Yet doing it that way will eventually cause them to get lost in a swarm of everything else being put up, rather than having their own spot. With their own subforum, it can be made so that they do not appear on the recent post section. It would also mean that those who enjoy reading the thoughts of other players wouldn't have to go searching every which-way just to find a single thread in a sea of threads. It's not like the existence of another subforum is going to put a hinderance on everyone else who doesn't want to use them, and having it so they do not show up on the recent post would mean those who don't want to use them or see them will not have to.

Sorry Reigen, but you still haven't convinced me.

GM blogs I can find reason for being there, it's good for them to discuss about a lot of topics dedicated within the community to make it better for all of us (although it's not always used for such purposes).

Player blogs, alright -- why? What will the player do or talk about honestly? Most of the time I'm certain the player blogs will be disregarded by the majority or be used as an excuse for ranting (don't deny it, it will be used for such purposes). Productive conversations will happen but then what's the point of a blog? Why not just make an open discussion in the General Discussion? How is it so complicated?

Your thread's gone in a sea of other posts? Well guess what? That probably means because others aren't really interested. This won't be any different with the player blogs either.

[Grakor456]

Please explain to me what they would be used for beyond sharing things from their life, ranting about things and people.

I don't see what's wrong with "sharing things from their life" by itself. That said, I also feel that players can write on topics pertaining to the server blog-style without it turning into a rant.

Seriously, I'm usually on board the pessimistic train of "if something can be abused, it generally will" lines of thought. I don't see it being bad here, though, when we'd still be enforcing server and forum policies on these things.

[Reigen]

I'm not really trying to convince you of anything, just stating my opinion.

We GMs can use our blogs for anything, it doesn't have to be server related. We just choose to use them the way we do. I could start up a blog topic with a bunch of useless cat facts, and that's fine. It's my blog after all. And really there's nothing stopping the players from ranting now. If they're not doing it now, then I doubt having the option to do something that could have been doing all along would change that at all.

In the end, however, it's up to @Kretol

[Cassius]

We GMs can use our blogs for anything, it doesn't have to be server related. We just choose to use them the way we do. I could start up a blog topic with a bunch of useless cat facts, and that's fine. It's my blog after all. And really there's nothing stopping the players from ranting now. If they're not doing it now, then I doubt having the option to do something that could have been doing all along would change that at all.

From what I'm getting here, it just seems this whole "blog" thing is the exact same thing as what we have now, a forum.

[cartoonkarl]

To be honest I don't see the purpose of a player blog, as everything is already covered by the server. If they are talking about the tales of their characters... Well there is a whole section of the forum for that. If they have a problem with the server, they can take it up to the GMs with it.
If you're gone, absence thread, if you have an idea for an event, general discussion forum.

I still strongly believe that players will be targeted, they may not be named but they will be implied.
I don't see a point in talking about yourselves unless there is a real reason for it.
I also cannot see many other reasons for having a blog beyond what I have already stated above.

[Harmonic]

...Players will be targeted? If people are being silly with it, yes, they'll get in trouble, just like anywhere else. I don't know what this thing is with being "targeted" but if something's being abused, it's being abused. If we get a "Blog" area, that -doesn't- mean we get free reign with our opinions. If we start to curb others in the process of our blogs, then there you have it.

Yes, a "blog" forum area could be used in a general way that the GM's do... a place to express feelings on whatever matter is at mind, but always we must keep it in a respective manner.

When I did a "Blog", (or my post I called a blog, really we're splitting hairs here at this point. Forum, blog, what-have-you) it was mostly related to games I was playing/LPing, or my thoughts on them. I also tried to review some lesser known games so that I could hopefully get that game a bit of an audience here. Blogs again don't mean "I share my edgy outlook on topic X."

[Cassius]

...Players will be targeted? If people are being silly with it, yes, they'll get in trouble, just like anywhere else. I don't know what this thing is with being "targeted" but if something's being abused, it's being abused. If we get a "Blog" area, that -doesn't- mean we get free reign with our opinions. If we start to curb others in the process of our blogs, then there you have it.

Yes, a "blog" forum area could be used in a general way that the GM's do... a place to express feelings on whatever matter is at mind, but always we must keep it in a respective manner.

When I did a "Blog", (or my post I called a blog, really we're splitting hairs here at this point. Forum, blog, what-have-you) it was mostly related to games I was playing/LPing, or my thoughts on them. I also tried to review some lesser known games so that I could hopefully get that game a bit of an audience here. Blogs again don't mean "I share my edgy outlook on topic X."

Isn't that what the forums are for?