Guys we had a discussion on Skype and we had reached consensus on various things like moderation, some basic rules about organization, etc. I will let someone else give you the more detailed explanation of what happened.

But we also started talking about the blogs. Vader mentioned why he rather post blogs in the forums.

It is easier to have a discussion on the forums than on the tiny blog comment boxes.

Obviously there are some problems with the blogs. We do not use them as much as we should be. Of course we can keep posting blogs in the forums, but that will not deal with the core problem we have.

So I ask you. What problems do you have with the blogs?

Just blurt it out, I will keep asking questions about it to get a clear understanding of the problems. Because if we know what the problem is, we can fix it. So we will probably start with some big vague problems, I will try to make them more detailed, and from there on, I will form requirements. 

This is important, with the requirement we know what a blog should have and be able to do. From there on, we can think of solutions. What type of solution can fulfil the requirements the best? The solution that fulfils the requirement the best will be our new blog structure.

So we will do it like design engineers

1. Get you to state all the problems of our current blog system
2. Make the problems concrete and form requirements
3. Brainstorm solution that can fulfil the requirements
4. Pick a solution

Important is to not think about solutions, we will get to that, think about the problem first. Basically we are structurally designing a new blog system.

In the meeting we already have talked about the solution and formed a certain consensus. But we do not know if that solutions fulfils all your problems. Or perhaps we will generate an even better and more elegant solution. In step 3 I will reveal our solution. And it will be judged like all the other solution by looking at the requirement. I am purposely not telling what it is because I don't want to influence you in any way. From my experience the less you know, the more original solutions we will form. 

And we are not to criticize someone ideas. That comes in step 4. Personally I like the Russian way of designing, which is best told in the following sentence. "Make it Simple, Make it Strong, Make it Work"

So let's do it, what are the problems you guys have with out current blog system? Why do you rather post in the forums?

 P.S. It's very late here, if I do not make any sense it is because sleep deprivation. So see you in the morning. 

aspro said:

Oh and can we ban Leo for his last blog?

Sorry. I now have to catch up with Iga's posting of man-ass on this site! Banning me now would mean he won and we can't have THAT, can we?

phantom_leo said:

aspro said:

Oh and can we ban Leo for his last blog?

Sorry. I now have to catch up with Iga's posting of man-ass on this site! Banning me now would mean he won and we can't have THAT, can we?

That's true, you have a lot to catch up to (you're a little behind).

aspro said:

For the record, the only issue for my part is that if you bypass the homepage of the site (as I am sure many of us do) you miss the blogs. I'm for better promotion of them, however that may be.

For the actual tools, it'd be nice if I could quote another poster.  Other than that, I'm happy.

Oh and can we ban Leo for his last blog?

A blog and review tab could be useful.

Iga_Bobovic said:

Okay, so much generating alternative solutions.

Does not matter that much.

Okay I see some of you have problems with the small comments. What about the the placing of the comments? Do you like that you can already see them without scrolling down? Or does that not matter to you guys. Or would you rather have blog post on top, comments below like in a forum?

Foolz said:

aspro said:

For the record, the only issue for my part is that if you bypass the homepage of the site (as I am sure many of us do) you miss the blogs. I'm for better promotion of them, however that may be.

For the actual tools, it'd be nice if I could quote another poster.  Other than that, I'm happy.

Oh and can we ban Leo for his last blog?

A blog and review tab could be useful.

You are already thinking in solutions

I'm in Australia so I'm ahead of you remember.

I was thinking about the scrolling down. I think the advantages of having them at the bottom might outweigh the disadvantages because you're going to get to them when you finish reading the blog anyway lol.

My biggest issue with the blogs is that they are tough to find.  There needs to be some kind of easy access overview page where you can see the latest blogs.  Maybe a link in the upper navigation bar would be enough.  

robio said:

Iga_Bobovic said:

Robio, did you know that you can see the latest blogs on the front page? You can also press see all to see them all. Is this what you had in mind?

Yes I did know that.  I'm not really a fan of that front page though.  Too crowed.  Plus it only gives you the blog title, and when you're dealing with someone like Leo the title of the blog doesn't necessarily help.

Good point, we need more info than just the title. Perhaps a few sentences.