Blogs

[Pete Eeles]

Hi all,

I'm after feedback on the blog mechanism available on UKB - given that very few use it or look at it! Is this a useful UKB feature that should be retained? Could it be improved? All feedback appreciated.

For reference, mine is at blog.php?u=3

Cheers,

- Pete

[m_galathea]

I don't think it's very useful to be honest. It means you have to look through lots of different places on the site if you want to find anything out. Definately best if people post interesting sightings, experiences etc on the forum in my opinion. If anyone wants to tell us how their breeding project etc is going then they can make a new topic for it and then it can be read or ignored as required.

[Vince Massimo]

Whilst I prefer to see topics posted on the forums, I still think blogs have their place (like keeping a yearly diary) and the option should retained on the site for those that want to use them. I think that most regulars that use the site know that if they want a topic to reach the most viewers and get the most responses, they post on the forums.

Cheers,

Vince

[Padfield]

I know for a fact that people read online butterfly diaries (I can't use that awful 'b' word). When my dog died last August I effectively stopped writing mine for a few weeks. I was amazed at the number of people who e-mailed me then, and later when I started again, in direct response to the diary. I discovered that many people in England as well as Switzerland and France were regularly logging on and keeping up to date with the season. In fact, this page is probably the most frequented on my site.

Perhaps there simply isn't enough prominence given to this feature on UK Butterflies, or perhaps it just needs to get going. I do also think the format is not user-friendly for the reader - I prefer something that has more of the feel of a single document that grows with time. I know that if someone from Suffolk were keeping a page telling what was going on there, with pictures of butterflies as they emerged &c., I would definitely be logging on with interest (or from other parts of the country, though Suffolk is where my heart is).

Good online diaries give a narrative that isn't there in the forums.

Guy

PS - In case anyone is interested, my diary is not on UK Butterflies, for obvious reasons, but is here: http://www.guypadfield.com/butterflyyear.html

[m_galathea]

Wouldn't it be better if people kept a diary as a forum thread though? Say for example there are three or four diaries you would like to keep up to date with, if they appear on the forum it's easy to see when new material is added... one click and you can check them all plus all the usual forum things.

I would scrap blogs and create a new section of the forums for butterfly diaries. Same material, more user friendly.

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks for the great feedback everyone.

Wouldn't it be better if people kept a diary as a forum thread though? Say for example there are three or four diaries you would like to keep up to date with, if they appear on the forum it's easy to see when new material is added... one click and you can check them all plus all the usual forum things.

You can do that with the blogs too. The blog "landing page" (blog.php) shows the most-recent entries. Or are you suggesting that there would be a thread per user in the forums where you could selectively ignore "diaries" you're not interested in?

As for being unfriendly, are there any specifics members could point to?

Cheers.

- Pete

[Padfield]

Perhaps I'm being a bit stupid, but I can't work out how to use the 'blogs' page (there, I said it). Where can I see a list of all the diaries, so I can click on one and see the whole thing?

I like the idea of using a forum page for this, as galathea suggested, but the downside is that people could (and would) post comments between the diary entries and the narrative would be disrupted.

Guy

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Guy.

Perhaps I'm being a bit stupid, but I can't work out how to use the 'blogs' page (there, I said it). Where can I see a list of all the diaries, so I can click on one and see the whole thing?

In theory, every member has a blog (possibly one reason why there isn't a list of blogs immediately available, I guess!). In practice, there is a small number of blogs, so perhaps adding this would be useful. Also, presumably, it would make sense to show when the blog was last updated and, ideally, whether or not these updates already been "read" (much like the forum entries). Let me know - I can either ask the author to add this (if this is what's needed) or write it myself. But I agree, the blog mechanism isn't the most intuitive in the world!

EDIT: Actually, ignore that ... I think the blogs should work just like the forums when it comes to seeing what's available and identifying recent contributions. And I think that's the main problem - it's inconsistent with the very forums it "piggy back"s on. Let me look into this

Cheers,

- Pete

[m_galathea]

A 'thread' per member in a 'Diaries' subforum I think would work well purely so that checking them is easy. I notice Pete that your blog runs with the latest entry at the top. This makes it difficult to read through entries in order as the season progresses.

Here is an example of a caving club logbook which I follow. It's slightly different as there are a number of contributers but it flows well and it's easy to see when it's updated when I log on:

http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php/topic,7607.0.html

[Pete Eeles]

I have to say - I like the idea a lot! I understand Guy's concern that you might lose the thread of the diary given the many responses that might appear, but it might be closer to what's really needed.

Still thinking ...

Cheers,

- Pete

[Paul]

I like to use my blog on certain occasions throughout the year as a sort of diary, I thought it was a well used facility!.. I ( you might not believe it!!!) don't like putting too many shots on the forum pages but I suppose a new diaries section would be OK..... the blog thing is one of the things I like best about the site

[Pete Eeles]

Based on the above comments, I've prototyped the use of the forums for personal diaries, and it does look OK! For those that have blogs, we can make the first entry a link to the "old diary" so that these records are retained. However, the ability to add new entries to the blog may be removed at some point.

In essence, there would be a new category ("Member-specific forums") containing a single forum ("Personal Diaries"). In here, a member may create a new topic that has the same title as their username. They would then use this as their diary. To give you an idea of what this might look like, please see below. All comments welcome. I'll put this into effect once we have agreement!

EDIT: The main issue, as Guy pointed out, is that replies within a diary can potentially disrupt the look of the diary. Still thinking on this one.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Paul]

Looks bang on to me! - not sure replies would be a problem, but I could envisage using it instead of, for example, idas vs argus in the overseas bit, would that be good or bad????

[Pete Eeles]

Looks bang on to me! - not sure replies would be a problem, but I could envisage using it instead of, for example, idas vs argus in the overseas bit, would that be good or bad????

I think the whole point is that it's a diary, to document day-to-day activities. Everything else belongs in the other forums. So your idas v argus debate would belong in the Identification or Overseas forums. To be honest, these diaries wouldn't really be the place to have discussions - they belong in the other forums!

If we go down this route, I guess we'll learn as we go along but, since you're one of the main bloggers, it's encouraging to see that you think this could work

Cheers,

- Pete

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Pete,
Gets my vote. The suggested improvements would be enough to start me off.
Neil

[Denise]

I haven't blogged for a while, but I would use the new method (once I get my head around how)
I really enjoy reading others adventures and finds with more detail than in the normal threads.
I wonder what Gwennie thinks? She has the most read blogs and if you read them, you can see why.

Denise

[Gwenhwyfar]

I haven't blogged in ages either, but I liked the original blog style, where everyone's name (who had a blog) would appear at the bottom of the forum page. The name of the person who updated there blog, would always appear first.
You got far more comments on that system, but Pete had to up-date the website, which meant that system was no longer avaliable.
For me the blogs as they are now, are too hidden, so I think Pete's prototype, is a good idea.

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks for the comments, all.

The new mechanism is now "live". Let's see how it goes. All comments/questions in this thread please!

Cheers,

- Pete