Thinking of removing blog functionality

[FullmetalCowboy24]

I actually like posting blogs, I post blogs quite often. I guess we'll see what happens soon.

[MrsBlunder]

If maintaining a feature that isn't used is to much of a hassle, you could always remove it and implement an RSS feed reader, so that those users may create a blog via a service like blogger, wordpress, etc., and have their feed on their profile. That way, sharing is still easier.

[AnimeShima]

I think it's better to remove the blog feature (even though I use it) and focus on things that more people actually use.

[Raven]

Anime Planet has a lot of things that require new content on a new basis, I have a few ideas.

1) You could remove the feature completely. It's very personal to the user (which is why you are cautious with a limited system), but to the overall community, it does not make a big impact.

2) You could let blogs be a privilege, in that case users must request if they want the feature. Perhaps give it to anyone who wants it, so there's no bias. This way spam bots will NEVER get to use it. That was one of your main issues and it will be a long time before someone like you can get tricked by spambot requesting a personal blog. It could become a feature for members after they've been active on the forum/site for a length of time as well.

This is still a limited feature, but what I'm proposing is a set of conditions before the feature appears to any member. The active bloggers would meet these conditions, they primarily are:

A) The user has been active in the community/blog itself/forum for X amount of time.

B) The user has a certain amount of posts within the forum. Perhaps give blogs to members who have 500 posts or something (and again, this will stop bots from getting it).

If this is less work for you, it's feasible (and it would solve two problems). If it's the same amount of work, then I'd look for another solution. Less people using it would give the people who have it more incentive to make good use of it and it would save space.

3) This goes back to "1." Assuming you must get rid of it, I see some good. Mainly from what I remember about you saying many new anime reviews are not coming in. Perhaps if you take away blogs, people would aspire more to write authentic anime reviews so they would come out more often. This would save you a lot of work, save money, save time, and produce more quality content for the site (assuming users who used the blog put their efforts elsewhere). For good bloggers, I think focusing on anime reviews would be a sweet "two birds with one stone" deal.

I rarely do read someone's personal blog and few do make good use of it, So perhaps this is the route you might want to take. If you get rid of blogs, you'll need to let people put their efforts and creativity into something else. I think a refocus on anime reviews for the website (just by more users and frequently) could work in your favor.

You could also check if vbulletin has a feature or mod for personal blogs, which would just be adding it to the current forum software. In that case, remove it from the site and just enable/add it to the forum. You get all the benefits from "3," except people still have a space for personal writings and rants.

You have a lot of features now, it's give and take. Generally what's worth your time and what is not, especially if you're doing this operation solo. I think most of us agree that if we have a forum and can learn to write anime reviews, we have plenty of space for genuine interaction. Blogs are a nicety, not a necessity.

[vaivel]

Better late than never.

I rarely read the blogs, but I personally use to keep track of when I finished something, and my initial impression of it (mostly one liners). One thing is to keep track of what you have watched, one main features of ap, but there is no way of putting a personal comment and a watched date on it. It may only be me, but on the other hand, I also only thought that keeping track of hom much time you have spend watching anime, was only me!

If spammers was the main problem, then you could make it a feature only available to supporters, spammers hates to pay and you need supporters (wich reminds me I better donate again, hint hint)

[greg975]

Originally Posted by sothis

I delete 75% of the blogs posted every day - maybe 4-5 blog posts are real, the rest are from spambots.

I may sound stupid when saying that but, aren't those captcha things made to counter bots?

[Aranneas]

bot technology has evolved. captcha technology has been stagnant for a while. there are other ways to counteract bots but it would, again, involve more work from Sothis :/

[vaivel]

Captcha are so annoying to read, that I have been thinking about writing a program to decypher them for me, but maybe someone beat me to it?

[greg975]

Seems like there are bots able to read captcha's so it makes them useless... If I got it right.

[Aranneas]

Originally Posted by greg975

Seems like there are bots able to read captcha's so it makes them useless... If I got it right.

not 'useless'. there's still plenty of bots that can't. but you should expect some to get through :/