Thinking of removing blog functionality

[sothis]

Originally Posted by snivets

For series that don't have reviews or recommendations posted, the next place I look is blogs, just to see if anyone has mentioned the anime. Sometimes, I find a person giving reasons why they dropped it or just giving a basic plot overview, so they definitely can be useful.

this is also why i think having better visibility into forum threads would be very helpful - as the currently airing series threads are filled with stuff lke that, and older titles might get discussions going too, if there was a better setup for them

[PinkyIvan]

Well if keeping blogs is that much of a problem it woulndn't be that much of a problem (still wouldn't like it) I'd remove them. But we are still waiting for that like/dislike system in fan reviews :)

[Drahken]

Well, if the word "blog" is part of the problem, that's a simplistic fix. Just replace "blog" with "personal posts" or "diary" or "salami". :p

[ProjectBlackRai]

Personally, I think removing the feature would be fine. If it's causing as many problems as you say, sothis, then just remove it. I think many people here would like the focus to be on maintaining anime-planet's quality instead of wasting resources on a feature seldom used.

[Aranneas]

I think it's a bit of a knee jerk to say that the blogs are actually a necessary feature of the site. If you consider it carefully sothis is entirely right that the feature is basically superseded by the forum system. The only thing we would lose by moving to this as the main method would be direct integration of the blogs with our main site profiles.

[Minai99]

Originally Posted by Aranneas

The only thing we would lose by moving to this as the main method would be direct integration of the blogs with our main site profiles.

I think that, for the people I met on ap.com anyway, this direct integration is exactly part of what helped make ap.com seem friendly and "personal" to them.

[al2551]

That's too funny. I was just thinking today that I should post something on my blog just to keep it active. Oh, well. Since I have 17 blog posts with barely a reader or respondent, I guess I won't miss it. If resources are better used elsewhere then... kill it.

[Psoewish]

I honestly didn't even know we -had- blogs on here, which I think shows how much I care about the things. :P So personally, I wouldn't mind seeing them go.

That being said, I do like the idea of limiting the users who can use the feature. Now I don't mean just a blanket "ok these people can use blogs and the rest can't" kind of thing, as that would be bad for new users that would like to use it. But maybe there could be some sort of application process, and then you put someone in charge of reviewing these applications and approving/denying people into the system.
The actual application could contain questions like what they intend to use the feature for and whatnot.

I think this way, you can still have the select few people that use it right posting as they want, and you get no more spam from even legit users just to get a badge.

Oh and also, if you do intend to keep it, please do rename it something else. "blog" is such a massive buzzword for bots that it just attracts more and more of them. Name it something clever, yet descriptive.

[Minai99]

Tbh, I've always thought of blogs on ap.com as a way to easily convey information in an organized way to those you've already made friends with on the site, as opposed to hoping that some random person who I've never talked to before would read it.

[sothis]

well, one thing that i may do is get vbulletin 5 - ive been waiting to see how it shapes up, but it does in theory have better 'club' functionality. if that's the case, groups of friends could create a club to chat about stuff, in the forum (and again, hopefully stuff would surface on the user pages too - all of this is hypothetical since i have no idea how much work it would take, and i have very little time to spend on AP anymore)