Blogs - You don't need a hack to host blogs

[FASherman]

Why does anyone feel they need a hack to host blogs on their site? Its not necessary.

1. Create a forum called Blogs
2. Select 'NO' for "Act as Forum" - Now you have your Blogs category.
3. When a user requests a blog, create a forum under Blogs. They should provide a title, a description, and whether or not they want to accept comments. You can also add options like password protect to make it private. Much more powerful control than any journal hack. Blog entries & comments count against post counts. Reputation system extends to the blogs, etc.
4. Edit the permissions for the forum. Generally, people should be able to post, but not create threads.
5. Make the requesting user the moderator of their forum. Give them full reign over the forum BUT DO NOT ALLOW THEM EXPANDED user moderation roles.

Minimal effort user blogs fully integrated into all VB functions. No hacks necessary. Future releases of VB will not break it. Blogs easily tied into subscriptions. RSS publishing as easily as any other forum. Blogs can have polls. Persistant read marks for blogs. New entries displayed via new posts. Multiple authors (moderators) for shared blogs. Ajax editing of entries. The list of things that make this better than any journal hack are nearly endless.

And just because it doesn't NEED any hacks, doesn't mean other hacks won't enhance the functionality. Use the "Split Forumhome into several pages" hack to give your blogs their own home page. Thread Description v1.2 hack to give entries a description. vbSpell to spell check entries. Post Award Hack to recognize particular entries, etc.

[Brinnie]

Worst Idea EVER!

That's not a blog, it's a hack of a forum.

Blogs can be skinned and customised. Livejournal and MySpace are great examples. Next time go check it out before you...

...Nope I'm not gonna say it. :surprised:

[Cyricx]

Wow Brinnie, that's a pretty rude response...

Fasherman is on to a possibility. You could even use vbadvanced cmps to give them the home page with it pulling latest threads from only that forum, they can customize the blocks this way and that, could tie into a gallery section for their pictures, let them create a style for their homepage look etc.

The possibility is there for this to be a very feasible option Brinnie.. sometimes you just gotta pull your head out of...

.. Nope I'm not gonna say it. :surprised:

On a side note, Fasher - I think the reason people are lookin for hacks to tie them in, is most have already created their blogs and don't want to "recreate" them. It would work well for people just starting blogs, but those that already have one going don't want to waste what they've already got going.

[Nephand]

That's exactly what I've been mulling over lately FASherman. The only thing I'm trying to get straight in my mind is being able to provide a url to the 'blog' page - but I'm thinking if the RSS feed is stored in a directory then a domain/subdomain can easily be applied.

The first post to the thread being the blog post - subsequent replies being comments on the 'blog post'. Lock the thread if you don't want comments. It seems simple (I've only just picked up vBulletin so I'm working my head around it at the moment).

RSS can be skinned and customised, I don't really understand Brinnie's violent reaction to the idea.

[Andreas]

This has 1 major Problem: Managability.
What if you have several Thousand Users, and quite a "few" of them want a Blog?
You'll be creating Forums all day long ...

Furthermore, it blows up forumcache massively.

[amykhar]

Actually, a modification of my hideaway hack could do a lot of what he wants. It's just that the permissions need to be changed. Then, the users in the allowed usergroups could create their own Blog. ;)

Amy

[mholtum]

Wow Brinnie, that's a pretty rude response...

Fasherman is on to a possibility. You could even use vbadvanced cmps to give them the home page with it pulling latest threads from only that forum, they can customize the blocks this way and that, could tie into a gallery section for their pictures, let them create a style for their homepage look etc.

The possibility is there for this to be a very feasible option Brinnie.. sometimes you just gotta pull your head out of...

.. Nope I'm not gonna say it. :surprised:

On a side note, Fasher - I think the reason people are lookin for hacks to tie them in, is most have already created their blogs and don't want to "recreate" them. It would work well for people just starting blogs, but those that already have one going don't want to waste what they've already got going.
Brinnie was the same way over at www.vbadvanced.com when he/she first joined there looking for support. It is amazing to me the outright rudeness of some people... Amazing

[amykhar]

Just a thought, it would probably be best to click ignore on offending users and report them directly to the admin staff rather than complain about them in the threads.

Amy

[dwh]

I find the usergoup permissions too complicated to feel safe making users moderators. One small change in a future version and boom, moderators see something they're not supposed to. Also, way too much administration.

If vbulletin would have blogs in mind for a future version and allow users to create their own blog subforum automatically that would be great. But I don't see it happening. As it is you can't have more than about 1200 forums anyway. Because they are pulled into the datastore which has a limit.

[Andreas]

As it is you can't have more than about 1200 forums anyway. Because they are pulled into the datastore which has a limit.
Let's see if you're right ... 670 and counting up :D

[dwh]

Let's see if you're right ... 670 and counting up :D

Haven't tried on vb 3.5 but 3.07 it goes to around 1200 (on my site) depending on certain variables it can be more or less. I heard some people got to 1500.

[Logikos]

The max number of forums you can have is 65535. Thats because the forumid field type is smallint(5). :)

[Marco van Herwaarden]

There is no absolut limit. If you have short forum descriptions, you can have more.

[Logikos]

What do forum descriptions have to do with it? :confused:

[Andreas]

forumcache gets insanely large and exceeds mySQL max_packet_size.
But other then that it should work

[Marco van Herwaarden]

What do forum descriptions have to do with it?
Because the descriptions are in the datastore row for the forumcache. The total number of bytes is limited. So a lot of forums with long titles will quicker be full then with short titles.

[FASherman]

Worst Idea EVER!

That's not a blog, it's a hack of a forum.

Blogs can be skinned and customised. Livejournal and MySpace are great examples. Next time go check it out before you...

...Nope I'm not gonna say it. :surprised:
Were you aware that you can apply unique styles to individual forums? If a user has a style that they want for their blog, they can have it, giving them their own distinct look.

[Cole2026]

Ok well, it is not the best idea, I would rather have a blogging system to do what I want. But, he is trying to help the people that need a bloggish type system for 3.5, and cannot find one. (Luckily, amykhar helped me out with this one!).

It is very rude to flame his suggestions when he is just trying to help, good or bad suggestion, you really should say thanks to Fasherman.

[Logikos]

In reply to FASherman's first post:
Its just not the same feeling. Plain and simple. :ermm:

[Brinnie]

I'm just playing devil's advocate to the 4th power.

[Boofo]

Were you aware that you can apply unique styles to individual forums? If a user has a style that they want for their blog, they can have it, giving them their own distinct look.

Ok, I'll bite ... how do you apply unique styles to individual forums? ;)

[amykhar]

In the control panel. You just set it to make the forum style override the user's choice.

[FASherman]

In the control panel. You just set it to make the forum style override the user's choice.
Yes ma'am. You are correct. :classic:

[Boofo]

Oh, ok, I thought you were talking about something else.

[Brinnie]

Ok well, it is not the best idea, I would rather have a blogging system to do what I want. But, he is trying to help the people that need a bloggish type system for 3.5, and cannot find one. (Luckily, amykhar helped me out with this one!).

It is very rude to flame his suggestions when he is just trying to help, good or bad suggestion, you really should say thanks to Fasherman.

You're very right... Sorry Fasherman. :(

[Boofo]

Can someone explain to me what a Blog actually is? I've never messed with any of it and I hear about it all the time. What is the difference between a Blog and something like Amykhar's Userpage Mod?

[sabret00the]

blogging alternative but it's a far cry from actual blogs. thanks for sharing none the less.

[M.Smith]

Can someone explain to me what a Blog actually is? I've never messed with any of it and I hear about it all the time. What is the difference between a Blog and something like Amykhar's Userpage Mod?

A blog works similarly to a forum in that a user makes a post about something and people can comment on it. The main difference is that the whole of the post is shown on the main page and to view the comments you go to another page.

I tried making what FASherman is talking about a while ago but didn't get round to finishing it.

The thing is, by modifying the templates and applying a different style to one forum or category you can easily transform vB into another kind of software like a blog or an article system with comments etc. vBulletin is by design forum software but with a bit work it can easily become something else.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

I'm just playing devil's advocate to the 4th power.
Then i hope for you that the Supreme Court don't come with a decission on you soon.

[Boofo]

A blog works similarly to a forum in that a user makes a post about something and people can comment on it. The main difference is that the whole of the post is shown on the main page and to view the comments you go to another page.

I tried making what FASherman is talking about a while ago but didn't get round to finishing it.

The thing is, by modifying the templates and applying a different style to one forum or category you can easily transform vB into another kind of software like a blog or an article system with comments etc. vBulletin is by design forum software but with a bit work it can easily become something else.

Thanks for explaing that. ;)

Then, basically, if you take Amykhar's Userpage hack and re-work it a little, that could be made into a member blog then, right?

[M.Smith]

Thanks for explaing that. ;)

Then, basically, if you take Amykhar's Userpage hack and re-work it a little, that could be made into a member blog then, right?

I've never used that hack but just by looking at the screenshots and demo I'm guessing it would need to be coded in as a feature and not just a template mod.

[Boofo]

I've never used that hack but just by looking at the screenshots and demo I'm guessing it would need to be coded in as a feature and not just a template mod.

But it probably wouldn't take a lot to do it, I would think. ;)

[sabret00the]

vBulletin and/or Amy's hack are and never will be IMO blogging scripts, while Amy's would be a perfect profile replacement script, blogging scripts carry so much extra weight, it's why we're as of yet to see one that's truly integrated to vBulletin, the closest we've come is AN-net's, oh well the 3.5 generation of hacks may bare from nice fruit in that department but we'll see.

[Brinnie]

Then i hope for you that the Supreme Court don't come with a decission on you soon.Can someone explain to me what a Blog actually is? I've never messed with any of it and I hear about it all the time. What is the difference between a Blog and something like Amykhar's Userpage Mod?

"Blog" is short for "Weblog" and it is a Journal.


#1
The prime difference between a blog and a forum post is control.
The owner of a weblog can administrate many aspects from the design, layout, font color, link color, background color, & logos all the way to specifying who he wants to be able to post in his weblog as well as the ability to edit his entrys and delete any post or journal entry he wishes.

For the record, I would like to present the grand jury with EXHIBIT A1 (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/elab/services/webtools/blogs/faqs/general/forums/)

#2
In a forum, anybody (let us say registered) can start their own thread and anybody (let us say registered) can respond. In a blog, the owner(s) are the only ones who can start a discussion.
Also, blogs are chronological. When someone responds to a blog, the topic does not move to the top of the heap, whereas on a forum it does.

Let the jurors note EXHIBIT A2 (http://www.wou.edu/ucs/faq/blogging.html) for the record.
EXHIBIT A2 is a trusted unnoficial blogging FAQ from Oregon State University. Note line 642 states that:
What's the difference between a blog and a forum?

most blogs maintain a distinction between the blogger and the readers, while in a forum, anyone who is a member may post. Forums are also designed to maintain many different discussions at once, while blogs are more linear, in that they are date-based. The distinction blurs a bit when a blog allows readers to comment, or when a forum only allows a few people to post but many people to read.


That is only the second most important characteristic of a blog and it is the primary focus of this discussion. This man, wants to create that effect and call it a blog... As a MySpace freak and a LJ fanatic (with over hmmm, let's say 30 accounts?) it's in my nature to object... Sure, I did it in a disruptive manner, but what's new? It's not a blog. It's a hack of a forum- and I object, your honor.
The main difference is that the whole of the post is shown on the main page and to view the comments you go to another page. That is A single feature but note: forums can do that as well in Linear Mode. It's a very common blog feature but hardly the "main difference".


The evidence before the court is... Incontravertable, there's no need for the jury to retire.

[FASherman]

Thanks for explaing that. ;)

Then, basically, if you take Amykhar's Userpage hack and re-work it a little, that could be made into a member blog then, right?
Not really.

There is function and presentation. Many of the previous comments have focused on presentation, but the reality with respect to presentation is that one can develop a custom style, complete with a style templates to emulate the look of their personal favorite blogging site and apply it to the blog forum and subforums. VB already has the capability to address the presentation layer if one chooses to do the work.

In function, a user blog is nothing more than a forum where the author (or authors) are the only ones able to create threads. If they choose, users may post in reply. Or they can choose to close the thread and make it purely informational with no responses. Usually, blogs also incorporate RSS feeds of the blogs in some format.



"Blog" is short for "Weblog" and it is a Journal.


#1
The prime difference between a blog and a forum post is control.
The owner of a weblog can administrate many aspects from the design, layout, font color, link color, background color, & logos all the way to specifying who he wants to be able to post in his weblog as well as the ability to edit his entrys and delete any post or journal entry he wishes.

For the record, I would like to present the grand jury with EXHIBIT A1 (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/elab/services/webtools/blogs/faqs/general/forums/)

#2
In a forum, anybody (let us say registered) can start their own thread and anybody (let us say registered) can respond. In a blog, the owner(s) are the only ones who can start a discussion.
Also, blogs are chronological. When someone responds to a blog, the topic does not move to the top of the heap, whereas on a forum it does.

Let the jurors note EXHIBIT A2 (http://www.wou.edu/ucs/faq/blogging.html) for the record.
EXHIBIT A2 is a trusted unnoficial blogging FAQ from Oregon State University. Note line 642 states that:



That is only the second most important characteristic of a blog and it is the primary focus of this discussion. This man, wants to create that effect and call it a blog... As a MySpace freak and a LJ fanatic (with over hmmm, let's say 30 accounts?) it's in my nature to object... Sure, I did it in a disruptive manner, but what's new? It's not a blog. It's a hack of a forum- and I object, your honor.
That is A single feature but note: forums can do that as well in Linear Mode. It's a very common blog feature but hardly the "main difference".


The evidence before the court is... Incontravertable, there's no need for the jury to retire.
Its a good thing you aren't a lawyer. You wouldn't make a very good one. You source impeaches your argument:

The exact definition of "blog" is open for debate.
You repesent it as though there is a generally accepted definition.

Most people agree that the key feature of a blog is that it has dated entries, like a diary or journal.
This meets the key feature.

The main difference between a blog and a forum is that most blogs maintain a distinction between the blogger and the readers, while in a forum, anyone who is a member may post.
My suggestion would also meet this criteria. The rest is your opinion which, as usual, you present in a confrontational manner.

The question left unanswered is this: Can you provide a better option for VB3.5 that integrates the user database?

Short of a better alternative, you're just whining. Very unbecoming - even for a girl.

[Boofo]

I thought Brinnie's post was entertaining myself. Good job! ;)

@ FASherman - So a blog is more of a personal type forum then?

[FASherman]

I thought Brinnie's post was entertaining myself. Good job! ;)

@ FASherman - So a blog is more of a personal type forum then?

Functionally, yes, with the proper permissions set.

[Brinnie]

You source impeaches your argument:

Yes, me source impeach mine arguments, lolz.

The question left unanswered is this: Can you provide a better option for VB3.5 that integrates the user database? Yea... A link in your profile is better than this... whatever you call it.

[sabret00the]

lol @ this thread, very entertaining.

[phenom]

So I've set up a sort of generic "blog" area at my forums - one where only the original thread starter (and me, of course, as admin) can post in, just by modifying permissions. You start a thread, and it's yours and yours only. Sure, it doesn't have customization that some people's definition of a blog has, but for the people on my site, they don't really care to have all that. They just want a place to spill their guts, so to speak.

http://www.takemybagel.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=34

[john1744]

I've tried it out at my forums on sheepownage.com and its working quite well. Not as active as I hoped, but the users seem to be quite happy about the format thus far.

I've made it so that only the Blog Owner can post threads, but anyone even unregistered users can post comments/replies into the thread.

IMO its a fine temporary solution for the blog integration into vBulletin.

So I've set up a sort of generic "blog" area at my forums - one where only the original thread starter (and me, of course, as admin) can post in, just by modifying permissions. You start a thread, and it's yours and yours only. Sure, it doesn't have customization that some people's definition of a blog has, but for the people on my site, they don't really care to have all that. They just want a place to spill their guts, so to speak.

http://www.takemybagel.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=34Agreed my users aren't that interested in advanced features, most just wanted a place ot rant and rave their thoughts.

[Boofo]

Did you guys do any special modifications to templates or anything to make it more blog-like (is that even a word?)? ;)

[john1744]

Nah, I'm not worried about that stuff, I just want a simple easy to read place to post my thoughts.

[FASherman]

I've tried it out at my forums on sheepownage.com and its working quite well. Not as active as I hoped, but the users seem to be quite happy about the format thus far.

I've made it so that only the Blog Owner can post threads, but anyone even unregistered users can post comments/replies into the thread.

IMO its a fine temporary solution for the blog integration into vBulletin.

Agreed my users aren't that interested in advanced features, most just wanted a place ot rant and rave their thoughts.
Sounds like the true jury...our community users...really have spoken.

[Adrian Schneider]

I think all this just comes down to getting what you pay for.

[libertate]

Hmmm... This might come very handy!

Thank you for the suggestion FASherman!

How about "microblogs" (or micro-blog, or mblog, or ?blog)? Microblogs are short lived blogs that people abandon, or have a preset life length. For example a vacation trip blog (ends once the vacation is over), or a surgery blog, or a sporting season blog, contest blog etc.

Excellent!

Now for the next piece to get this to the next level...

How about.. some sort of a "request blog" form which would allow queueing of requests for "blog space" from users, with all the appropriate fields filled in.

Then the admins, super-mods, etc can just say yes/no through a single click and the forum is created, rights set, user notified, etc!

THAT would be awesome! Any takers? I'll even throw a crisp 10 after this one, and a bag of apples.

[phlogiston]

I always liked the basic idea of simply using forums as blogs/journals and have set up a couple on alternativenation.net for tour diaries from a member there.
(example link (http://www.alternativenation.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=578))

It's not great but as an example of what inspired this thread it fits - it mainly just suited the quick set-up and needed integration for our New Posts users at the time though!

For 3.5 I've taken things a bit further using just the plugins and have almost managed to set up a system of one forum = blog for every user - filtering & sorting the thread results by userid. I think that would be much more practical than adding a forum for each user, a halfway house between completely no hacking and a fully fledged journal system add-on.

[john1744]

How do you guys allow your users to have mod positions in just their forums and nowhere else? I found that if I set a user as a moderator for their forum, they were also able to see into my mod staff forum.

I take it, I need to make a Blog Owners Usergroup?

[TCM]

How do you guys allow your users to have mod positions in just their forums and nowhere else? I found that if I set a user as a moderator for their forum, they were also able to see into my mod staff forum.

I take it, I need to make a Blog Owners Usergroup?You don't need to change a user's usergroup to make them a mod. :P

[soniceffect]

This thread is a hilarious read I gotta say LMAO ...Personally I still don`t see what the big thing is about these blogs ... Can`t ya just put your thoughts in a thread?

bare in mind I`ve yet to see one in action, I may change my opinion then :)

[TbChampions]

It took 4 pages but someone finally asked what I've been wondering...

If a person's in a FORUM, why would he need a BLOG to spill his guts when he already has the FORUM at his disposal?

I honestly don't understand the appeal of blogs... ?????

[NWN]

Just get a Blog script make a HTML page & you have a blog for users quests ect to post on. It's not that hard. And the appeal of blogs is many sites allow anyone to post a blog without signing up to your forums to make one rant or rave.

[Cap'n Steve]

I honestly don't understand the appeal of blogs... ?????

I think it makes people feel important that they have an entire section dedicated to them.

[PennylessZ28]

Wow Brinnie, that's a pretty rude response...

Fasherman is on to a possibility. You could even use vbadvanced cmps to give them the home page with it pulling latest threads from only that forum, they can customize the blocks this way and that, could tie into a gallery section for their pictures, let them create a style for their homepage look etc.

The possibility is there for this to be a very feasible option Brinnie.. sometimes you just gotta pull your head out of...

.. Nope I'm not gonna say it. :surprised:

On a side note, Fasher - I think the reason people are lookin for hacks to tie them in, is most have already created their blogs and don't want to "recreate" them. It would work well for people just starting blogs, but those that already have one going don't want to waste what they've already got going.

Already been done.

[lordnex]

What about the VB Journal? Isn't that a type of blog? Perhaps not as customizable but i think I'm with Bofo on my lack of blogging experience :D

[Yorixz]

Hmmm... This might come very handy!

Thank you for the suggestion FASherman!

How about "microblogs" (or micro-blog, or mblog, or ?blog)? Microblogs are short lived blogs that people abandon, or have a preset life length. For example a vacation trip blog (ends once the vacation is over), or a surgery blog, or a sporting season blog, contest blog etc.

Excellent!

Now for the next piece to get this to the next level...

How about.. some sort of a "request blog" form which would allow queueing of requests for "blog space" from users, with all the appropriate fields filled in.

Then the admins, super-mods, etc can just say yes/no through a single click and the forum is created, rights set, user notified, etc!

THAT would be awesome! Any takers? I'll even throw a crisp 10 after this one, and a bag of apples.

I'm still hoping someone will do like you just suggested; wouldn't need to be big at all but having it automatisated is just a way better than having to make everything yourself; especially if you have a big forum that's a way too much work.

[tgreer]

I've thought about using the forum system for blogs, similar to what has been suggested. However, I don't want the blogs to be "part of" the forum system. I don't want a "Blog" forum.

In fact, I'm looking to incorporate an "Opinion & Analysis" section of my site. I would have specific "Staff Writers". They would offer analysis and opinion on specific topics related to the site. There would be an index for this section, and it would work like a blog: the analysis, with a link to comments.

I could simply use a stand-alone blog system, like WordPress, except I do want some integration with the forum:

1) I want posting and display managed by vBulletin. A new blog entry or comment should work just like "New Thread" or "Quick Reply".

2) Staff Writers should be able to "assign" a blog to a certain Category. Thus, when users are looking at a Category, they will see the standard index of forums, plus, underneath, titles and short excerpts of the latest blogs "associated" with that forum category.

So in essence, a forum per Staff Writer would work, however, I think I'd have to modify it drastically. I wouldn't want these blog forums to display in the forum index... I think I'd have to set up some separate SQL tables to associate certain blog entries with certain forum categories... modify the templates... a lot of work. That's why I've searched for a "plugin", it would save me doing this work.

[Kran]

Brinne basically covered it but whatever. A blog is basically where 1 person for lack of a better term +++++s all the attention, where as a forum everyone is trying to get attention.

[lazytown]

I like the idea, but there are a couple of problems. For one, administration on giving users permissions when they decide they want a blog. For this to be feasible, there would have to be an addon that automatically creates the forums for users (within the blog section) and gives the proper permissions. The other problem is the format. Don't blogs usually go on one page? Using the forum system, I would assume each entry would have to be a separate thread (to allow comments after each).

-vissa