Hi,

It seems that forum websites are pretty versatile. Threads can turn into a kind of wiki or blog and I think you should encourage users to make "what I've been up to lately" threads that they can use as pseudo-blogs. Those should be in their own category of course. Personally, there were times when I would have liked to tell people what I've been doing without actually taking the time to craft a post as I was not really ready with enough info at the time as I often like to do more research before I post. I guess it could get out of control once non-3d topics start dominating. It would help with community-building but I don't really expect too many people to take advantage of this if you offer it. Anyway...

C'ya

--- iondrive ---

Yea, thats a cool idea. I think some people have sort of done that with worklogs in the DIY section, but it is mostly based on a specific project. There is also an off-topic area for totally non-3D related things.

I like (and encourage) the idea of members contributing articles, YouTube videos, and more. The problem is the forums are not the best place for this on their own because threads are too easily buried, they don't look good, and it's hard to maintain them as easy to find reference material.

HOWEVER, we have a really good content management system on MTBS now. We can give members the ability to submit articles with a fully featured editor, share YouTube videos, AND have forum threads attached to this for community discussion, etc.

For the currently running Birthday Bonanza contest, we have an article submission system. Give it a go, and see what you think. Nothing gets published until it's reviewed by myself or a moderator, so feel free to experiment. There are some minor bugs that need to be tweaked, but I think it's pretty good.

Regards,
Neil

I'm guilty of posting "blogs" in the forums - for simple reasons of visibility and topicality. In my case I typically engage in VR projects. So even though an argument could be made that it would be better to post in the DIY section or a special "blog" section, I still would want to publish where all the relevant eyeballs are going to be looking...in the VR section.

On one hand, I think it's awesome that members share elaborate posts for others to see. On the other, it's kind of a waste because it takes the same amount of effort to post it as a polished article in an editor designed for this purpose - complete with forum attachments. The discussion forums and where threads are placed is a non-issue. That's just a matter of deciding where the threads go, etc. according to the type of article written.

Regards,
Neil