Topic: The Simutrans Blog: discussion and feedback

[IgorEliezer]

The Simutrans Blog: discussion and feedback

The Simutrans Blog: http://blog.simutrans.com/

About the blog

Think of blog as a news site for gamers who are discovering Simutrans and for community members who want to stay tuned to the most interesting stuffs that the Simutrans Community has made. Developers, project leaders, language moderators, pak Maintainers and few more dedicated people will be able to post freely news about anything they consider interesting to be aired for the community and visitors of simutrans.com.

The blog is meant to post news about Simutrans-related things (and things that is interesting for the community too), such as:

- announcements;
- simutrans releases;
- Releases of paksets, add-ons sets, e-books, tools, translations etc;
- site events, such as a site revamp, a new site was aired;
- contests and challenges;
- interesting subjects related to Simutrans here and outside.

Keep in mind that the blog is in no way to substitute the forum, it's meant to publish news, and visitors can leave comments. Debates better suit in forums, like this one, where members can open a topic and people discuss, quote sentences and so on.

This topic

The blog stated to run at November 23rd, 2009; few contents were posted there. Now, we are intending some improvements for the blog.

Now, we would like to receive feedbacks from members. Please, leave comments, suggestions and questions about the blog. The blog was a nice idea? What needs to be improved? Feel free to leave your say.

(discussion about what kind of news that The Simutrans Blog could publish, see here)

Requesting a blog account

If you are:

- DevTeam member
- PakSet maintainer
- Project leader (translations, docs, tools, resources and so on)
- WebTeam member
- Board moderator

Please, send a PM to me or Vilvoh asking for account, and provide us an email address too. Then one member of WebTeam will register you with your e-mail address of your forum account.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Please note that the blog's theme (graphics) will be changing shortly - today or tomorrow; also, the commenting system will change. So if you wish to discuss those two, give it until tomorrow, if you don't mind. Or go ahead, but just be aware it's about to change.

[DirrrtyDirk]

Now, I don't want to be Mr. Negative (again), but since I have the feeling that we'll actually hear lots of "hooray" for this, I think someone needs to play the devil's advocate  for the project.

Ok, to be honest: I didn't like the idea very much from the start. I don't think we actually need to have a blog. To me a blog is just what appears to be the "in" thing to have nowadays. Seems like everybody just gotta have a blog. No, actually everybody and his dog... and the fleas on the dog as well.

So far I, personally, haven't yet run across a single blog that interested me. Also for me a blog is quite the opposite of well enough structured to provide information in a way that makes it easy to find. So I really doubt that a blog will be able to accomplish what you just described.

Also you said that it's not supposed to substitute the forum. Good - but IMO it couldn't, even if it was meant to. However, I think it will unnecessarily split things up (even more). We have information already spread around so many places... and now we have one more. So now, for news we don't only have to look up the forums, no, we need to check the blog as well (as I don't see people willing to post things both there and here). And if developers were too busy (or for whatever other reason unwilling) to post news about what they do here... does anyone really believe that having a blog instead of "only" a forum will suddenly change that? Why should it? They'd have to spend the same amount of time and basically do the same work there - just under another URL. And as soon as there'd be questions or a discussion sparking up, we'd need to come back here anyway...

So, as you can see: I'm not sold to this idea at all. Time will show if I'll have to change my mind (which I'm ready to do, by the way!) But so far I'm simply not convinced by the whole thing. Sorry.

Somehow I can't wait to see people putting Simutrans on Twitter...  (sorry, yes, that's a cheap shot - but I could not resist that one.)

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Please note that the blog's theme (graphics) will be changing shortly - today or tomorrow; also, the commenting system will change. So if you wish to discuss those two, give it until tomorrow, if you don't mind. Or go ahead, but just be aware it's about to change.

Okay, theme updated. It may not be the theme we settle on, but it'll do for now - and it shows the author.

Also, Intense Debate is working. Facebook is giving me problems right now - as soon as the fix their system, you'll be able to use your Facebook account to post, if you like.

EDIT: OpenID and Twitter are enabled now, as well as name/email (i.e. 'anonymous') posting... Comments are moderated until you have one approved, so you are better off going ahead and connecting OpenID, Twitter, or Facebook so your subsequent comments will automatically be approved. No easy way to tie it into the forum, unfortunately.

EDIT2: Facebook integration should be working.

[IgorEliezer]

I think someone needs to play the devil's advocate   for the project.

You asked it:



LOL (just kidding)

I have some few points to... to point out:

- the current Simutrans' site architecture/network is a mess. Fragmented, inconsistent, unharmonious, has bad flow among sites; well.. try to find a tutorial about anything, you'll need to visit at least 5 sites (5 sites absurdly different from each other) and probably you'll not find what you want.

- the current Simutrans.com portal is poor and don't offer what visitors want at glance, i.e. basic info to get started and news (yeah, the Simutrans moves). About the news part: people want to visit a project portal and see that project is going forth. If you visit a site that doesn't show you any signal of life for months you'll think that project is died. What we have now is a nice wall (a static site in HTML) that separates the community from the world. A visitor that visits (uh?) simutrans.com doesn't have any idea of what happens here. We are opening a little window in the wall by creating a blog and putting a link there. This little window is just a start.

- current there's no integration between community and simutrans portal. The blog is the first try to create an integration between community and simutrans portal (and the world). It's just a start, not the final solution: we need to go beyond putting a simple link in the Simutrans site for the blog. The idea is to create a dynamic site with a news system. Visit these sites http://www.blender.org/ and http://www.kompozer.net/, they have a portal with a news system that publishes blog's posts. And obviously, my dream is that all simutrans sites become integrated to simutrans.com, with no fragmentation, consistent and facilitate the things for the users.

- the blog aims at visitors of Simutrans.com, not the forum members (sorry, I didn't mention it). I for one want to aim at visitors of Simutrans.com and attract them to us. Obviously a forum member will prefer to use "Show unread posts since last visit" from the forum, perhaps, they will want to mess around the blog once in while.

[VS]

Dirk - hmhm. IMHO you are confusing content with vehicle. Or judging the latter by former.

I absolutely agree that Simutrans does not need a typical blog, where people complain about dirty socks, horrible boss and trouble with grandmother's pet.

What we do need is some way to get project news out, consistently and comprehensively.

People intuitively understand that forums are "not good for news" and shy away from that. Maybe it's that forums = dialogue, while blogs = monologue. Also - there are design rules for web, and news on forum violate most of these: more clicks, actively seeking the content, surrounded by irrelevant information, potentially below the visible part... Anyway, freegamer blog (sic!) mentioned precisely us saying that "forums not good homepages make" (that was before portal so it's not valid anymore... hopefully). So in short, news on forum = no.

Let's pretend we don't want a blog, but "news platform". What should it do? Allow multiple users to add their news, have (automatic) archiving capability, easy navigation. In short - a blog!

As Igor says, it is not for us. We don't have to follow the blog, we make it. I view it as a digest of what happens in the community. Whether we talk about dirty socks there - that's up to us

Even as the last argument, obviously a blog-like form does not cater to those who don't like blogs but to those who don't mind.

Ok, ok, I'll shut up already

[jonasbb]

I think a blog is a good idea.
I would prefer if the blog is on the start-page of simutrans.com (or some similar page) and not as a additional page.
I think the blog only makes sense if ALL news are posted there and not in the forum.

I have two questions about the blog:
Who can register to the blog and who can write new blog messages?

[MoTw]

I think a blog is a good idea.
I would prefer if the blog is on the start-page of simutrans.com (or some similar page) and not as a additional page.
I think the blog only makes sense if ALL news are posted there and not in the forum.

To have the blog on the front page of simutrans.com would be great, I think. But I think news have to be posted in the forums, too.

I have two questions about the blog:
Who can register to the blog and who can write new blog messages?

=>

Igor Tekton, first post in topic
Developers, project leaders, language moderators, pak Maintainers and few more dedicated people will be able to post freely news about anything they consider interesting to be aired for the community and visitors of simutrans.com.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

The nice thing about a blog is that you can subscribe to the RSS feed.

For instance, I use Outlook 2007 for my email. In fact, since I use a ton of email addresses, I don't browse my Inbox, I actually use a search-folder that contains all unread email. The really really nice thing is that RSS feeds appear here, like new emails - so it works perfectly for me. :-)

The advantage over the forum is just that I always have my email client up - so I find out about news faster.

[IgorEliezer]

I did a little "art" in the blog's header. I hope you like it.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Well, assuming we're happy with that template, I like it quite well.

I guess nobody has objected to the template, so perhaps it was an easy choice: I changed it, and it sticks? hehehe

[prissi]

Actually, for the intended use, I do not like the name "BLOG". I would rather suggest something like the "Simutrans News Centre" or so. Imho blog carriers some conotation that is vertainly not fitting to this page. (Others than that is is very visually appealing, and could  be a start page for simutrans come.)

[Spike]

... is is very visually appealing, ...

I like the looks very much, too.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Actually, for the intended use, I do not like the name "BLOG".

I wouldn't fight too hard against changing the name, but many projects have a blog like this and use it for this purpose, so I disagree with the connotation - but again, I'm not trying to shut down discussion.

[IgorEliezer]

Well, it won't hurt if I "bump" this topic. I edited 1st post with this:

Requesting a blog account

If you are:

- DevTeam member
- PakSet maintainer
- Project leader (translations, docs, tools, resources and so on)
- WebTeam member
- Board moderator

Please, send a PM to me or Vilvoh asking for account, and provide us an email address too. Then one member of WebTeam will register you with your e-mail address of your forum account.

Also, I would like to receive some feedbacks about what do you thing about The Simutrans Blog.

 

[vilvoh]

Imho, It's working pretty well. It's updated reasonably often with news from differents sections but actually we don't know its impact. Do we have statistics about the amount of visitors and views of every blog entry? Do we know how many people is subscribed to the RSS feed?

[knightly]

The blog is really nice.

There is one thing which I wonder if it can be changed : when I hover my mouse over an item in the drop-down menu, the item's text colour becomes white, which is almost indistinguishable from the light-grey background of the drop-down menu. Is it possible to change it to some other colour?

Tested in both IE8.0 and Firefox3.5.6 and got the same results. Please see the attached image.

[Spike]

I like it, too. I have been busy with other things lately, but every now and then I think I'll have something to write for the blog, too

[VS]

I think it's exactly what we needed, so I'm happy to see we've got it Thanks to everyone who writes something there!

[IgorEliezer]

YYYYYAAAAYYYY!! Cute!



Blog is getting cutier. I'm proud of our blog editor. Guess who is he? (not me ).

And I'd like to sum up: I miss people posting comments on our blog. I encourage you member and visitor to post there, even if it's just for fun. No account is required.

[vilvoh]

I know him. It's not a bad writter, is it?..

And I'd like to sum up: I miss people posting comments on our blog. I encourage you member and visitor to post there, even if it's just for fun. No account is required.

Well, we have a lot of comments but it's mainly spam so I encourage to do so too.

[z9999+]

Is it possible to change it to some other colour?

Change from

style.css:624-639

ul#nav li ul a:hover, li ul#nav ul a:hover,
ul#nav a.active ul a:hover,
ul#nav li.current_page_item ul a:hover,
ul#nav li.current_page_ancestor ul a:hover{
  color:#fff;
}

ul#nav ul a:hover, ul#nav ul a:hover span,
ul#nav a.active ul a:hover span,
ul#nav li.current_page_item ul a:hover span,
ul#nav li.current_page_ancestor ul a:hover span,
ul#nav ul li.current_page_parent a:hover span,
ul#nav ul li.current_page_item a:hover span,
ul#nav ul li.current_page_parent li.current_page_item a:hover span{
  color:#fff;
}

to

ul#nav li ul a:hover, li ul#nav ul a:hover,
ul#nav a.active ul a:hover,
ul#nav li.current_page_item ul a:hover,
ul#nav li.current_page_ancestor ul a:hover{
  color: #0071bb;
}

ul#nav ul a:hover, ul#nav ul a:hover span,
ul#nav a.active ul a:hover span,
ul#nav li.current_page_item ul a:hover span,
ul#nav li.current_page_ancestor ul a:hover span,
ul#nav ul li.current_page_parent a:hover span,
ul#nav ul li.current_page_item a:hover span,
ul#nav ul li.current_page_parent li.current_page_item a:hover span{
  color: #0071bb;
}

should solve this problem.
Tested with IE8, QtWeb 3.2, Fx 3.6, Opera 10.10.

But I don't have right to change this.

[knightly]

Thanks a lot, Z9999+

I thought nobody noticed my suggestion.

[IgorEliezer]

CSS was edited as suggested.

[z9999+]

Actually, for the intended use, I do not like the name "BLOG".

Blog is blog. This article explain it.
It can not be official news nor official announcemant.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Well, that was a quick reply to Prissi's message. hehehehehe

[IgorEliezer]

Blog is blog. This article explain it.
It can not be official news nor official announcemant.

th'hat^'s why I posted th'hat^ news under Community and Miscellaneous category with the tags "breaking news", "hat", "hoax" and "prank".  If it was an official announcement, I'd posted th'hat^ under Announcements.

See, the blog is a channel between the community and the people th'hat^ lurk around the Simutrans for fun. A little prank will make the forum look a tad less monotonous, making our relationship with the public friendlier and more receptive to the new members.

[Frank]

http://blog.simutrans.com/?p=1207

link to survey stats on wiki is wrong ( end of item )

and the http://www.simutrans-germany.com/wiki/wiki/tiki-survey_stats_survey.php?surveyId=2 is from 2008

this http://www.simutrans-germany.com/wiki/wiki/tiki-survey_stats_survey.php?surveyId=3 is from 2010

[IgorEliezer]

Fixed

[sdog]

can we have the blog posts automatically posted to the simutrans facebook group?

[vilvoh]

Sure but I don't know how to do that. Using the tracker, perhaps?

[VS]

Hmmm... no way to get a rss feed?

[vilvoh]

The rss is already activated.

[VS]

I meant, add rss to facebook... or is that not enough?

[jamespetts]

Might I make a small request that, in addition to the link to "Multiplayer servers", there also be a link to Simutrans-Experimental servers (perhaps under the title, "Multiplayer servers (Simutrans-Experimental)")?