Weblogs

Lach

Hey G&T, let's talk about weblogs.

What is a weblog?

Wikipedia sez: a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order.

I know blogs have been around for a while, but I've just started messing around with wordpress, and I think it's a lot of fun. I've also noticed that some forumers keep links to their sites in their forum signature and I thought it'd be cool for us to discuss our blogs in this thread. If you guys would like, I could keep a list of forumer blogs in this post for all to see. (I'll leave mine out unless it's OK with mods)

A few resources:
WordPress
This is my favorite blogging software, a lot of themes and plug-ins to make your wordpress blog look very nice.

Blogger
Owned by Google. Lets you create blogs on their site.


So feel free to discuss your blogs or anything else about them. What software or site do you use for your blogs? What do you guys like to blog about?

I figured this fit in G&T because it uses technology. Please delete or move this if it doesn't belong here.

BahamutZERO

I hear these are quite the buzzword around major television news studios

Echo

Uh. Shit. You PM'd me about making this thread. Sorry about that, forgot it in the inbox.

I've been at it since 2002, but I've been horrible at writing stuff the entire year.

Lach

I was really hoping to see everyone elses blogs, but that might conflict with the sitewhoring rules.

Envy

Here is mine

http://whyilovecandyandwhatmakesitsodelicious.com

It's about why I love candy.

bombboy

I just started one up recently. First site I've made in 6 years so I'm slowly going through the process of building it up, otherwise I would pm you ;o My last site became a big thing but it was a site focused mainly on one subject. I'm going for the whole blog angle this time around, see how it turns out. So far it's some fun.

Lach

bombboy wrote: »

I just started one up recently. First site I've made in 6 years so I'm slowly going through the process of building it up, otherwise I would pm you ;o My last site became a big thing but it was a site focused mainly on one subject. I'm going for the whole blog angle this time around, see how it turns out. So far it's some fun.

What's it about?

JCRooks

I've tried normal blogging for a while on various sites (Blogger, Xanga, Spaces, etc.), but it just felt weird (like writing a public diary of my life) and also hard to keep up after a while. So, I always gave up after a month or two.

However, I'm sort of back onto the blogging bandwagon thanks to two main sites, which IMHO, makes things a lot easier:

1UP.com Blogs
Talking about what I did last weekend with my friends ... seems pretty lame to me, and I doubt most people really care. However, like many people here, I'm pretty passionate when it comes to games, and love to be able to share my opinion about the industry (especially since I work in it).

I found that blogging at 1UP.com (you can read mine here) is actually pretty nice. I keep things gaming centric, with most of the talk centering around the games I've recently played, having mini-reviews, making predictions about the industry, etc. Since the community around 1UP is already game-centric, I can assume that the reader already knows "game stuff", so I don't have to explain things like what an FPS is, or who Miyamoto is, etc. Plus, there's some neat features like game libraries, what you've been playing, etc. Basically, it's a blogging site centered one theme. The only downside is that the actual blogging tools suck a lot.

Facebook
For the rest of my normal life, I use Facebook now. It's not really so much a blogging site, as it is just a social networking one. It's a great way to keep in touch with friends, share photos, post mini-messages, etc. It's basically all the important stuff I'd want to convey in a blog anyway, without the hassle of actually having to write an actual blog post. Low maintenance, FTW!

Oh, and the really important thing to Facebook, is that you can keep everything private to only people in your network. A network can be a workplace, school, or regional area. I'm fine with sharing my personal photos and profile to fellow Virginia Tech alumni, or fellow co-workers, or even people who live in my area. Not so much with random Joe Schmoe Redneck in North Carolina. Privacy, FTW too!

So yeah, that's been my experience. Of course, things may change a year from now, since new blogging and social networking sites constantly appear to be popping up all the time. That's just how the web is these days.

bombboy

Lach wrote: »

bombboy wrote: »

I just started one up recently. First site I've made in 6 years so I'm slowly going through the process of building it up, otherwise I would pm you ;o My last site became a big thing but it was a site focused mainly on one subject. I'm going for the whole blog angle this time around, see how it turns out. So far it's some fun.

What's it about?

So far it's about nothing ;[ That's probably what's keeping me from completely figuring out what direction to take, the fact that I'm a bit undecided what my goal is

Lach

I like using wordpress because it's very customizable, and my web host will install the software for me. I like it so far. The two posts I have written have been about HTPCs and Halo 3 beta. I don't think anyone cares about it, but I still like having a web site.

TimFiji

Well I spent the last nine months in France as an english teacher and I made this blog.

I think it starts off ok, then gets repetitive as I enter the daily grind and living in France losing that "new car smell." Then I had a big problem around Christmas, and proceeds to become repetitive, but if you would like to check it out, here is the link.

Here she be

Lach

I like all the stuff on 1up. I think I might post my the gaming related stuff I write to my personal blog on one of those as well.

Mr_Snuffle

I recently started up a blog again

I'll probably be bored of it within a week :P I tend to have a short attention span for these kinds of things. That's why I'm trying the idea of a link blog this time. Just posting interesting sites I find with a little comment

Lach

Mr_Snuffle wrote: »

I recently started up a blog again

I'll probably be bored of it within a week :P I tend to have a short attention span for these kinds of things. That's why I'm trying the idea of a link blog this time. Just posting interesting sites I find with a little comment

That's what most of these "Gaming Blogs" do.

JCRooks

Mr_Snuffle wrote: »

I recently started up a blog again

I'll probably be bored of it within a week :P I tend to have a short attention span for these kinds of things. That's why I'm trying the idea of a link blog this time. Just posting interesting sites I find with a little comment

Not to be mean or anything, but I don't find much use for link blogs. It still takes time to find/post links on your blog, even if you aren't providing much commentary. However, there are many other sites that people go to already that essentially do the same thing, but better (Joystiq, Blue's News, Kotaku, Slashdot, etc.). If it were 2000, and you had all the time in the world to focus on a link blog, sure ... but it's too late now.

FaceballMcDougal

For 10 years my step-father and my mother put their time... here and there... into building a wooden tri-hulled boat... from basically... you know... wood... and then boat-related products purchased on the web.

But they built it nontheless.

Then they sold the house... which they also built... and now they live on the boat in the ocean.

boat seen here:


my mom... when she wasn't helping to craft floating art out of nothingness... made her living as a photographer

so they have a blog about their adventures now that they update when they can and thanks to the magic of photography you get to see neato pictures like this:


and this!:


the blog is here: http://svrikki.blogspot.com/

Echo

I don't read the "big" game blogs -- if it's big news it'll end up either here or on Slashdot anyway. :P

My blogging fell down the drain when I moved away from the big city where I had nearly all my friends. I'm working on moving back to the end of the year, so hopefully I'll find some creativity then.

Drool

Blogs without a purpose are the most retarded self serving nonsense on the internet. PA is basically a blog site, but they do a comic too so it doesn't suck. Kotaku is a blog, but its a few people reporting about gaming, and they get exclusive shit. There are various political blogs that are worth reading, but only because the people behind them are intelligent and they generally have something to say.

However, your average shithead in Peoria blogging about what he had for diner, and how much he wishes Suzy Seepingcrotch would love him, is just a waste of space.

Also, people who come on forums and blog about their life are extra irritating.

redfenix

I've been thinking about such things lately, actually.

I have an English degree (would you like fries with that?) and I'm off to grad school in the fall for a Master's in Public Administration.

Thing is, I still don't really know what I want to do, and writing as a job, or at least as a side-project continues to interest me. Thing is, how? Blogging about my day-to-day shit is, as has been said, uninteresting.

I guess I could try to take a stab at a more journalistic approach, with a G&T themed style. Review, or comment on current events, and be something worth reading, ideally.

Is this just a stupid idea? /sigh

Mr_Snuffle

JCRooks wrote: »

Mr_Snuffle wrote: »

I recently started up a blog again

I'll probably be bored of it within a week :P I tend to have a short attention span for these kinds of things. That's why I'm trying the idea of a link blog this time. Just posting interesting sites I find with a little comment

Not to be mean or anything, but I don't find much use for link blogs. It still takes time to find/post links on your blog, even if you aren't providing much commentary. However, there are many other sites that people go to already that essentially do the same thing, but better (Joystiq, Blue's News, Kotaku, Slashdot, etc.). If it were 2000, and you had all the time in the world to focus on a link blog, sure ... but it's too late now.

The things is that I'm already looking for sites throughout the day. I've started sharing my google reader feed with my friends, so we can share interesting pages we find. What I'm trying to do is really just an extension of that concept. I'm not aiming for anything grand, just sharing things I find with friends

redhalo

A cool theme for wordpress users is this command line interface that I use on my blog. You can get it here

JCRooks

Drool wrote: »

Blogs without a purpose are the most retarded self serving nonsense on the internet. PA is basically a blog site, but they do a comic too so it doesn't suck. Kotaku is a blog, but its a few people reporting about gaming, and they get exclusive shit. There are various political blogs that are worth reading, but only because the people behind them are intelligent and they generally have something to say.

However, your average shithead in Peoria blogging about what he had for diner, and how much he wishes Suzy Seepingcrotch would love him, is just a waste of space.

Also, people who come on forums and blog about their life are extra irritating.

For the most part, I agree. That said, I'm also a hypocrite, since my blogs probably fall under that as well. What can I say, I like hearing myself talk. (Well, I do have some readers, so I guess it's not totally a waste)

I also wanted to say that for the longest time, I didn't realize that Joystiq and Kotaku were technically blogs. To me, they just seemed like just another news site, but with more commentary than normal. I guess it's not such a bad way to be presented with the news, although obviously there are times where I vehemently disagree with some of what they say. (Bloggers are often guilty of saying stupid shit just to elicit responses, gain more readers, and attention)

SniperGuy

BahamutZERO wrote: »

I hear these are quite the buzzword around major television news studios

You are correct.
News media is freaking out because of the threat to their jobs too.

I have a crappy personal blog I never update at the56k.com. I use wordpress though, nice software.

Echo

SniperGuy wrote: »

You are correct.
News media is freaking out because of the threat to their jobs too.

We had a "big" story here in Sweden recently where some newspaper felt it was "unfair" that our foreign minister has a (horribly dry and boring) blog -- he can write anything he want, totally unfiltered by media bias! That was a damn scandal! At least for the newspapers!

The argument was that "information from politicians should be filtered and delivered by the real media!"

JCRooks

redfenix wrote: »

I've been thinking about such things lately, actually.

I have an English degree (would you like fries with that?) and I'm off to grad school in the fall for a Master's in Public Administration.

Thing is, I still don't really know what I want to do, and writing as a job, or at least as a side-project continues to interest me. Thing is, how? Blogging about my day-to-day shit is, as has been said, uninteresting.

I guess I could try to take a stab at a more journalistic approach, with a G&T themed style. Review, or comment on current events, and be something worth reading, ideally.

Is this just a stupid idea? /sigh

No, not a stupid idea at all. I would suggest that it has to come natural. Don't blog about crap, just for the sake of blogging. Find something that you're actually interested in talking about, and it definitely helps if you have some actual insight that you can provide, which others may not have.

Some of the best blogs I've read are situational. For example, someone goes travelling, and blogs about the amazing stuff they've seen. Or they work at a high-profile job/company, and tell stories about the things that go on. Or they're an expert in a certain topic.

Since you're a genuine word-smith, you can probably do a lot better job at writing and reporting than most of us (including myself) ever will.

Lach

redhalo wrote: »

A cool theme for wordpress users is this command line interface that I use on my blog. You can get it here

That is rad. Are there different colors?

FaceballMcDougal

redfenix wrote: »

I've been thinking about such things lately, actually.

I have an English degree (would you like fries with that?) and I'm off to grad school in the fall for a Master's in Public Administration.

Thing is, I still don't really know what I want to do, and writing as a job, or at least as a side-project continues to interest me. Thing is, how? Blogging about my day-to-day shit is, as has been said, uninteresting.

I guess I could try to take a stab at a more journalistic approach, with a G&T themed style. Review, or comment on current events, and be something worth reading, ideally.

Is this just a stupid idea? /sigh

I'm a fan of English. Nothing more than general college level education but I do adore words. My blog is mostly for me... I practice there. I also subject my family to my writing whether they like it or not because they go there to see what my son has been up to.

From when I started the blog to now I can see a marked improvement in my writing and as you know you have to keep at it to actually not get worse.

Don't get me wrong... I'm horrible... especially on forums with my constant "..."

BUT... I like to find interesting ways to write about the family paintball event, a trip to the zoo, or just a crazy thing that happened at dinner. I'm not writing for some higher purpose... or to create something for strictly entertainment... I'm just writing for the occasion because I enjoy the language.

Lach

JCRooks wrote: »

redfenix wrote: »

I've been thinking about such things lately, actually.

I have an English degree (would you like fries with that?) and I'm off to grad school in the fall for a Master's in Public Administration.

Thing is, I still don't really know what I want to do, and writing as a job, or at least as a side-project continues to interest me. Thing is, how? Blogging about my day-to-day shit is, as has been said, uninteresting.

I guess I could try to take a stab at a more journalistic approach, with a G&T themed style. Review, or comment on current events, and be something worth reading, ideally.

Is this just a stupid idea? /sigh

No, not a stupid idea at all. I would suggest that it has to come natural. Don't blog about crap, just for the sake of blogging. Find something that you're actually interested in talking about, and it definitely helps if you have some actual insight that you can provide, which others may not have.

Some of the best blogs I've read are situational. For example, someone goes travelling, and blogs about the amazing stuff they've seen. Or they work at a high-profile job/company, and tell stories about the things that go on. Or they're an expert in a certain topic.

Since you're a genuine word-smith, you can probably do a lot better job at writing and reporting than most of us (including myself) ever will.

I've been thinking about this too. I've started 3 personal blogs since last year and they all end up going nowhere because:
1. I'm not focused. I just post about random shit that's boring
2. No one gives a shit

So I've thought about the things that interest me (racing, video games, technology) and I can think of more than a dozen "blogs" that fit into each category.

My favorite blogs are the ones that are about specific projects. I guess they used to be called developer diaries. I guess the first stip is finding a topic and sticking to it.

Drool

The ellipsis is the most abused bit of punctuation on the internet. No one even types it . . . right. See that a space between each period and the words they are adjacent to. Now you know, but it would be better to use a comma or a period 99.9% of the time.

Lach

FaceballMcDougal wrote: »

redfenix wrote: »

I've been thinking about such things lately, actually.

I have an English degree (would you like fries with that?) and I'm off to grad school in the fall for a Master's in Public Administration.

Thing is, I still don't really know what I want to do, and writing as a job, or at least as a side-project continues to interest me. Thing is, how? Blogging about my day-to-day shit is, as has been said, uninteresting.

I guess I could try to take a stab at a more journalistic approach, with a G&T themed style. Review, or comment on current events, and be something worth reading, ideally.

Is this just a stupid idea? /sigh

I'm a fan of English. Nothing more than general college level education but I do adore words. My blog is mostly for me... I practice there. I also subject my family to my writing whether they like it or not because they go there to see what my son has been up to.

From when I started the blog to now I can see a marked improvement in my writing and as you know you have to keep at it to actually not get worse.

Don't get me wrong... I'm horrible... especially on forums with my constant "..."

BUT... I like to find interesting ways to write about the family paintball event, a trip to the zoo, or just a crazy thing that happened at dinner. I'm not writing for some higher purpose... or to create something for strictly entertainment... I'm just writing for the occasion because I enjoy the language.

This is exactly what I need to do. My English is lacking, and I need some practice. I'm thinking of leaving home for a while when I graduate from college, that would probably be something interesting to write about.

redfenix

Alright, damn it. Imma get to writing.

Actually, I think I started a blogger account for that purpose, but.. I can't remember the name.
It was something clever, and I'm fairly sure I gave it it's own email address via gmail.

Is there any way to see what email invites you've sent to yourself?
Edit: got it. Was in my address book, but it was a different side project I was thinking of.

(I know there's a preposition at the end of that sentence, and I don't care.)

FaceballMcDougal

Lach wrote: »

FaceballMcDougal wrote: »

redfenix wrote: »

I've been thinking about such things lately, actually.

I have an English degree (would you like fries with that?) and I'm off to grad school in the fall for a Master's in Public Administration.

Thing is, I still don't really know what I want to do, and writing as a job, or at least as a side-project continues to interest me. Thing is, how? Blogging about my day-to-day shit is, as has been said, uninteresting.

I guess I could try to take a stab at a more journalistic approach, with a G&T themed style. Review, or comment on current events, and be something worth reading, ideally.

Is this just a stupid idea? /sigh

I'm a fan of English. Nothing more than general college level education but I do adore words. My blog is mostly for me... I practice there. I also subject my family to my writing whether they like it or not because they go there to see what my son has been up to.

From when I started the blog to now I can see a marked improvement in my writing and as you know you have to keep at it to actually not get worse.

Don't get me wrong... I'm horrible... especially on forums with my constant "..."

BUT... I like to find interesting ways to write about the family paintball event, a trip to the zoo, or just a crazy thing that happened at dinner. I'm not writing for some higher purpose... or to create something for strictly entertainment... I'm just writing for the occasion because I enjoy the language.

This is exactly what I need to do. My English is lacking, and I need some practice. I'm thinking of leaving home for a while when I graduate from college, that would probably be something interesting to write about.

Also you will appreciate what your past self has to say to your future self in the event you go back to read your year+ old entries.

Lave II

Excuse to site whore. Urge rising....

(Please forgive me)

I write Skeptobot.

It's just for fun - but I like the idea of trying my hand at opinionated writing - after too much unbiased astronomy.

It's kinda meant to be a bit like a skeptical ukresistance - but about Science, atheism, technology, privacy and (silly) Religion. despairing at the ridiculous state of the world - rather than trying to prove anyone wrong. It's part of my plan to become a Renaissance man.

I started it after making the ytmnd Pale Blue Dot which got me a load of hate mail from idiots and so I made skeptobot to respond to it.

Yeah, it's preaching to the converted but I don't think is quite a saturated topic. Any advice for improving the blog would be cool.

Curly_Brace

I will soon have a job at a temp agency, and in anticipation of the weirdness I will want to share with you all, I have created a blog.

In retrospect the first (and currently only) post is pretty weird and pretentious, but here's a link anyway:

http://curlybrace21st.blogspot.com/

Also, in before Gaijin Smash, the show with ZeFrank (videoblog), The Work of Gord, and other such classics.

apotheos

I love to write, so I blog. While traffic to my blog is quite a bit better than I ever expected (almost 1,000 hits a day, less than a month after launch) nobody ever comments. I've not quite figured out the "blogosphere" part.

http://www.apotheos.net

If you blog, and blog regularily, I want you in my RSS so hard it isn't funny. I'm still trying to figure out how blogs can breed community.

Lave II

Two blogs in a row with two identical skins.

I really need to personalise skeptobot.

Also theres a good firefox plug in called "just blog it" that lets you right click on a page, choose 'Just Blog It' from the right click menu then go straight to a formated blog post. It's a huge time saver.

JCRooks

On a related note, I've noticed in my blog (cue shameless plug) , there's almost this unspoken rule that if you comment on my blog, I should comment on yours. It's actually pretty good, as it's a great way of getting a blogging community started. However, it's much easier to do it on a site like 1UP.com, where it's obvious where your blog is (just click on your profile), whereas if I had to comment on someone else's blog on a totally different site, I'd feel like a shill for somehow providing a link back to mine.

Dusda

I use Vox for my blog. It is awesome.

I haven't updated mine in a few weeks, which is unusual. Normally I do two or three posts a week, but classes have been keeping me from satisfying my thirst for writing.

Lach

I'm gonna post my shit here: www.lazarofraga.com since it seems appropriate. I'm kind of embarrassed by the things I write. This is the first time I give anyone a link to the site.

Frem

I started blogging in 2004. I didn't have a real clear idea what I was doing, and to be quite honest, I couldn't write. Needless to say, crap resulted.

I'm still blogging. My writing is gradually getting better. I'm enjoying myself. Not really much more to it than that.

Shooter Mcgavin

I just, *JUST* started a blog earlier this week. I like to write, so whether or not I'm good at it is unimportant. The link is in my sig. I'd like to eventually become known in the blogosphere, but if not, it's still a fun little outlet for me that I've come to realize I really enjoy.