The End of the Blogging Community?

[Valkrist]

I was just looking through some writings here and came upon a thread where Sapience replied with the following:

Player blogs are one of the features that is likely to be discontinued in the future.

The thread can be found here: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...alled-properly.

I responded with the following:

That is a real shame. Is there a reason why? Is there a reason why we cannot have what can be found at http://my.ddo.com/?

Even in the state our platform is in currently, our journals are still useful. I checked the journal of a friend just the other day to see when a bunch of us were planning on meeting for an event this week. I still meet new friends often after they have read my journal, or I have read theirs. They still help to build our community.

I still enjoy reading the journals of friends, especially those who have moved on to far-distant shores. It makes me sick to think of what would be lost if our journals all of a sudden disappeared.

Can we please have what can be found at http://my.ddo.com/? If not that, can we please still have our journals, even in this state?


So, I guess my purpose for this post is twofold. First, it is a notice to any who might want to migrate or save their writings to another place, in case our journals are discarded with no notice.

Secondly, this may be our final chance to make our interest and wishes heard on this issue. It is difficult to know how active the blogging community is right now with the state the platform is in. And I know most of us who kept journals in the olden times have lost heart and moved on to new places and things, and I freely admit to not being the most stalwart defender in making the effort to hold us together. But, at least, we always could look back to those writings and remember what once was. And old stories sometimes make for the best stories, right?

So, for any who might read this and feel that our journals here are worth saving, please feel free to say so and why. Rage against the dying of the light.

[Achy]

I just realize I cannot publish posts anymore. I cannot approve comments that has been put on my guestbook either. Not sure if is related to this problem. But as I understand in the other thread you refer the blogs seems to not be in priority anymore. It seems I am in read-only modus in my Blog administration.

I am a social player and Roleplayer I like to archive stuff and write. I do like to share news/art /Rp stories on the blog, as I reckon many others like to do. I have invested so much time in this game as a roleplayer so I like to sort of keep notes and archive stuff for the sake of memories. Also remember I have invested much time to make this blogs too, so it would be a little respectful imo if they suddenly dissapeared.
Luckely I have Laurelin Archives though that I have moved on to. But not everyone can use laurelin Archives for their needs. So I understand if people dont like it if Blogs suddenly dissapear. I would be a little cross tbh if I didnt had laurelin Archives.

[Whart]

Yes, it is the final nail in the coffin for all who used the game as a creative outlet and enjoyed the fellowship of like-minded creative/artistic types. They are missing the point that thrilling in-character adventure stories or game guides or artistic displays of fashion or horses or game scenery can actually help their marketing of the game to new players. It's yet another sign of only seeing short term vision of revenue instead of looking at the bigger picture, and leads me to believe even more strongly that our days in Middle-earth are numbered. LOTRO has become a generic log in and shoot things til you get bored kind of game, without the special magic that the creative community brought to the game when Turbine cared about that kind of thing.

[Gaming_Gal]

This saddens me as well. Before the great blog upset, I posted a few things here and there, and enjoyed being a part of the greater bogging community immensely--so much so that I rolled on other servers to attend the in game blogging events.

When our blogs were all fouled up, I almost made the move to another site where many found refuge, but I kept holding out, thinking Turbine would eventually get this site and all its aspects fixed and past the eternal beta stage.

Hearing this news now, though, feels like it's just another nail in the coffin for the community at large. Even folk who weren't active bloggers still liked the choice, and many I know still read others' blogs even if they themselves didn't blog--sometimes for the writings and images, and sometimes to learn things they might not elsewhere.

I think Turbine is making a mistake by not tending to its own garden outside the house, as it were.

I hope they rethink this before it's too late.

[Sapience]

I won't retype everything I just posted, but I'll share the link.
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...38#post6719838

[Fredelas]

For those of you interested in blogging, I'd like to point out www.mymiddleearth.com. I'm not sure if it would fit your needs or not, but it does seem to have a growing community.

[ferdinanda]

For those of you interested in blogging, I'd like to point out www.mymiddleearth.com. I'm not sure if it would fit your needs or not, but it does seem to have a growing community.

I tried that site, Fredelas, but it's too elitist for my taste. You can't search for blogs without becoming a member, sheesh.

Four years of blog entries, I don't know what I will do.

[Fredelas]

I tried that site, Fredelas, but it's too elitist for my taste. You can't search for blogs without becoming a member, sheesh.

Four years of blog entries, I don't know what I will do.

I've never really blogged, so I'm not sure what kind of features people find valuable. If you find something good, be sure to let us know!

[Valkrist]

I tried that site, Fredelas, but it's too elitist for my taste. You can't search for blogs without becoming a member, sheesh.

Four years of blog entries, I don't know what I will do.

Goodness, I had no idea this was true. And that site is currently down, so I cannot post how to move your writings there in any case, but...

If you go into your journal, where you can make new writings and all, you should be able to find this here:



From here, you can save all your writings to a file, and then 'Import' the file into any other Wordpress platform, at mymiddleearth, or any other, and your writings and the structure you keep them in should be moved over intact.

I just wish there was an easier way to contact those who used to keep journals but have not visited for a while, to let them know to save them as well, before they go away.

[EDIT] It looks like, if you go to mymiddleearth.com, then mouse over the Community Sites tab at the top and select Site Directory, you can get a listing of all the sites created there, and there is a search window to help find the one you are looking for, without having to log in or create an account, as far as I can see.

I hope you save your journals and post them somewhere new, whether there or somewhere else.

[Gaming_Gal]

{snip}From here, you can save all your writings to a file, and then 'Import' the file into any other Wordpress platform, at mymiddleearth, or any other, and your writings and the structure you keep them in should be moved over intact.

I just wish there was an easier way to contact those who used to keep journals but have not visited for a while, to let them know to save them as well, before they go away.

[EDIT] It looks like, if you go to mymiddleearth.com, then mouse over the Community Sites tab at the top and select Site Directory, you can get a listing of all the sites created there, and there is a search window to help find the one you are looking for, without having to log in or create an account, as far as I can see.

I hope you save your journals and post them somewhere new, whether there or somewhere else.{/snip}

This is good to know, but according to what Sapience wrote over here, there's a chance that it will be a non WP format. So I guess it'll be a cut and paste fest to salvage what didn't get eaten the first time into whichever word processing program folk favor these days.

As to getting the word out...I guess folks could volunteer to act as Town Criers, and go to major hubs to post Regional announcements or some such to try to spread the word. There's many, many servers to cover to do so--but it's the only thing I can think of at the moment.

[ferdinanda]

It looks like, if you go to mymiddleearth.com, then mouse over the Community Sites tab at the top and select Site Directory, you can get a listing of all the sites created there, and there is a search window to help find the one you are looking for, without having to log in or create an account, as far as I can see.

I hope you save your journals and post them somewhere new, whether there or somewhere else.

Thank you for posting the instructions, Kaleigh, I'll take advantage of the export, in any case.

It looks like http://www.mymiddleearth.com has made some changes since I last visited, so maybe I can bring my journal over... I don't know. There's so much other material there, not just LotRO, it's not the homey little community of bloggers that we had here, back in 2009-10. But I guess those days aren't coming back.

*sighs*

[Valkrist]

This is good to know, but according to what Sapience wrote over here, there's a chance that it will be a non WP format. So I guess it'll be a cut and paste fest to salvage what didn't get eaten the first time into whichever word processing program folk favor these days.

Oh, I know. This was meant as more of an immediate 'Let me quick make a copy of my writings before everything goes up in smoke!' option. Copying and pasting would be a tragedy. But, from seeing some of the feedback already posted, I would be surprised if any sort of blogging platform was here after whatever revamp is planned. If there was to be one, it sounds like it would have to be so bare-bones as to be more trouble to deal with than it is worth, but we will see.

I know Sapience has stated that there will be no reverting back to the platform before the changes happened around ftp. But no one has ever said why, or why things were changed in the first place. Looking at my post count, it is pretty clear I visit the forums infrequently, but I do not remember there being many issues with either the forums or the blogs with the original platform. And, considering it is still used at http://my.ddo.com/, I have to ask again, why is going back to this not an option?

As to getting the word out...I guess folks could volunteer to act as Town Criers, and go to major hubs to post Regional announcements or some such to try to spread the word. There's many, many servers to cover to do so--but it's the only thing I can think of at the moment.

I may go through my friends list and send everyone a pm, but who will get them and who won't in time, you know? We can only do our best. I hope Turbine will send an email to everyone at least.

[Valkrist]

Thank you for posting the instructions, Kaleigh, I'll take advantage of the export, in any case.

It looks like http://www.mymiddleearth.com has made some changes since I last visited, so maybe I can bring my journal over... I don't know. There's so much other material there, not just LotRO, it's not the homey little community of bloggers that we had here, back in 2009-10. But I guess those days aren't coming back.

*sighs*

*nods* I truly believe that, if more people understood what it is that we had at that time, before all the changes were made, there would be some serious second thoughts about getting rid of our journals altogether, and absolute conviction that the changes were, wholly and solely, the cause of the community's downfall.

All those writings should be saved, just in case someone new stumbles upon them or someone old like us just wants to relive those times for a spell It was magical.

[Gaming_Gal]

Oh, I know. This was meant as more of an immediate 'Let me quick make a copy of my writings before everything goes up in smoke!' option. Copying and pasting would be a tragedy. But, from seeing some of the feedback already posted, I would be surprised if any sort of blogging platform was here after whatever revamp is planned. If there was to be one, it sounds like it would have to be so bare-bones as to be more trouble to deal with than it is worth, but we will see.

I know Sapience has stated that there will be no reverting back to the platform before the changes happened around ftp. But no one has ever said why, or why things were changed in the first place. Looking at my post count, it is pretty clear I visit the forums infrequently, but I do not remember there being many issues with either the forums or the blogs with the original platform. And, considering it is still used at www.myddo.com, I have to ask again, why is going back to this not an option?


I may go through my friends list and send everyone a pm, but who will get them and who won't in time, you know? We can only do our best. I hope Turbine will send an email to everyone at least.

*nods* I can understand the gut reaction. I just wanted to point that out for folks who might not be as blog savy as some, and wouldn't realize they might want a different version just in case...

I'm as confounded as you are as to the why DDO has it and we don't. But there could be all sorts of reasons why that we'll just never get to hear.

It would be nice if Turbine sent out a well timed notice via e-mail (and FB and Twitter and the rest), and hopefully they'll realize a week or two isn't necessarily an adequate amount of notice for something like this.

I've started posting notes to kinsites that have writers in them, and I'll probably try to come up with some general announcement this weekend for the GP Landy subforums that so many of us share.

[Marguerita]

*nods* I truly believe that, if more people understood what it is that we had at that time, before all the changes were made, there would be some serious second thoughts about getting rid of our journals altogether, and absolute conviction that the changes were, wholly and solely, the cause of the community's downfall.

All those writings should be saved, just in case someone new stumbles upon them or someone old like us just wants to relive those times for a spell It was magical.

And i thank you for this my friend! I just went, exported everything and then deleted myself every writing or painting or pictures of mine on what was once my blog.

As i said already i miss you my friend a lot, as well as Miss Genny and some others, but each day running reminds me why i left the game, and i am so sorry it is Turbine who pushed me away.

Take care

[Sapience]

After speaking with the web team, an archive of your blog posts will be available for download when the new sites goes live.

[Eartholloth]

After speaking with the web team, an archive of your blog posts will be available for download when the new sites goes live.

Speaking of which, Any idea when it goes live?

[furtim]

Eventually©

[Sapience]

Speaking of which, Any idea when it goes live?

I'm going to give you a very broad and very much subject to change estimate. The current plan is to have things up and running around May. So sooner rather than later. But again, I caution, this is very much subject to change.

[Eartholloth]

I'm going to give you a very broad and very much subject to change estimate. The current plan is to have things up and running around May. So sooner rather than later. But again, I caution, this is very much subject to change.

Thanks for the info

[Feraxks]

I'm going to give you a very broad and very much subject to change estimate. The current plan is to have things up and running around May. So sooner rather than later. But again, I caution, this is very much subject to change.

Wow -- that's a fairly specific timeframe for Sapience!

[Gaming_Gal]

After speaking with the web team, an archive of your blog posts will be available for download when the new sites goes live.

Thank you, and please also thank the web team for this. It'll be a kindness for anyone who (for whatever reaons(s)) didn't find out in time.

[Sapience]

Thank you, and please also thank the web team for this. It'll be a kindness for anyone who (for whatever reaons(s)) didn't find out in time.

I can give you the exact bullet point from the document I just reviewed.

Exporting your blog will create an XML file containing all your blog entries, comments, and images, which can be imported into a variety of blogging platforms.

I can also say that I quickly checked the blog functions in VBulletin (which I'm working to convince the web team to install so that you guys have access to something, even if it is basic, and it doesn't appear to suport XML imports.

[tanlis]

I can give you the exact bullet point from the document I just reviewed.


I can also say that I quickly checked the blog functions in VBulletin (which I'm working to convince the web team to install so that you guys have access to something, even if it is basic, and it doesn't appear to suport XML imports.

That's cause sane people don't use XML :P

[Elderban]

With vBulletin's 5.0 fiasco and with them losing a lot of their core staff, you may want to consider other avenues for forum software.