Blogs: An Alternative to the Traditional Post-and-Reply Grow Journal

[Proph]

I'm a fan of the blogs for sure. I prefer it to the traditional journals.. But the traditional journal style will always have it's place/usefulness. But the blog style is perfect or testers, sponsored grow off ect.

 

[Hypathetical Gardener]

Okay, full disclosure I didn't program this and it's 3rd party software that I didn't write. Not everyone is an English major That is funny though, I see typos in the programming from time to time. I'll see if there's a way for me to fix it lol.

Never disrespect. Only wanting the the best for AFN. Im no english major. A quick read thru a journal and many a typo is visible.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Never disrespect. Only wanting the the best for AFN. Im no english major. A quick read thru a journal and many a typo is visible.

No offense taken, I know you were poking fun :smoking:

 

[noone special]

ok you convinced me ... I have some testers and some others stuff so ... umm Ill need help @Damien50

 

[Mushinronsha]

So I have just started a new blog as grow journal, and it appears there are 3 ways to go about it. It seems what most people are doing, is creating a new blog post for each update. To me this seems to fill up the forums with a non organized list of post for each person's updates. The other method is the traditional create a new post on the forums, and provide your updates in the comments ( Basically avoiding the blog feature all together) The last, I am figuring out from following the blog guide would be to create a page for each of your updates in your grow journal. Which btw is awesome and very organized, once I figured out how it works. (Still learning) But I guess my gripe with it is this. So say I just add a new page to my grow journal, Day 30 let's say. I add all my content, its saved and organized, easy to find if you go to my blog. I really like it. However, I just noticed, it does not pop up anywhere on the forums main page or anywhere as being an updated blog. So I think adding the pages is really nice but I was also thinking it would great if something grabbed that info and highlighted it for people to find and see.

In summary, New page to blog = my latest update to my grow journal = maybe recent blog updates on the main page or something similar. If that makes any sense lol

 

[Death The Cultivator]

So I have just started a new blog as grow journal, and it appears there are 3 ways to go about it. It seems what most people are doing, is creating a new blog post for each update. To me this seems to fill up the forums with a non organized list of post for each person's updates. The other method is the traditional create a new post on the forums, and provide your updates in the comments ( Basically avoiding the blog feature all together) The last, I am figuring out from following the blog guide would be to create a page for each of your updates in your grow journal. Which btw is awesome and very organized, once I figured out how it works. (Still learning) But I guess my gripe with it is this. So say I just add a new page to my grow journal, Day 30 let's say. I add all my content, its saved and organized, easy to find if you go to my blog. I really like it. However, I just noticed, it does not pop up anywhere on the forums main page or anywhere as being an updated blog. So I think adding the pages is really nice but I was also thinking it would great if something grabbed that info and highlighted it for people to find and see.

In summary, New page to blog = my latest update to my grow journal = maybe recent blog updates on the main page or something similar. If that makes any sense lol

The software won't auto update when you add pages. You have edit the blog entry that has the pages and that pushes the notification or you can post in the discussion section. There is a sidebar option that shows updated entries but you have to intentionally be looking for these functions.

You can make multiple blog entries in a blog space but it makes a bunch threads. Pages are the nicest way to go but you have the same complaints I do. You can also do threadmarks in threads to get the paginated feel but it isn't the same as the blog space in look or feel.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

The software won't auto update when you add pages. You have edit the blog entry that has the pages and that pushes the notification or you can post in the discussion section. There is a sidebar option that shows updated entries but you have to intentionally be looking for these functions.

You can make multiple blog entries in a blog space but it makes a bunch threads. Pages are the nicest way to go but you have the same complaints I do. You can also do threadmarks in threads to get the paginated feel but it isn't the same as the blog space in look or feel.

I'm going to check for the latest updates on the software to blogs; and aside from that if you had any suggestions (as one of the biggest pushers/users of blogs) for us to try to implement, I'm 100% game to try to make it happen.

And on the flip-side, if it just seems more trouble than it's worth? I'd also like to know. I see merit in it totally, just not sure how to mainstream it or if that's what people even want Grow the better grow journal. Easier said than done. That's where I have to give kudos to Grow Diaries (booooo) lol, but they do some stuff well. BUT, that stuff is stuff we can replicate here. Or even make better potentially.

We also found out custom dev for this platform isn't nearly as expensive as thought depending on complexity of project. So.... we just need ideas.

 

[Death The Cultivator]

I'm going to check for the latest updates on the software to blogs; and aside from that if you had any suggestions (as one of the biggest pushers/users of blogs) for us to try to implement, I'm 100% game to try to make it happen.

And on the flip-side, if it just seems more trouble than it's worth? I'd also like to know. I see merit in it totally, just not sure how to mainstream it or if that's what people even want Grow the better grow journal. Easier said than done. That's where I have to give kudos to Grow Diaries (booooo) lol, but they do some stuff well. BUT, that stuff is stuff we can replicate here. Or even make better potentially.

We also found out custom dev for this platform isn't nearly as expensive as thought depending on complexity of project. So.... we just need ideas.

I think the blogs would be good for product reviews, AMA's, grow journals etc. but I do think people struggle the most with pages. There's a learning curve to indexing the pages and I think using the forum functions in general.

Thought about using the AFN community blog to manage vendor sales, competition progress, testing highlights, and general news of the month. It would be centralized rather than going through the Forgotten Library of AFN.

Not trying to complain but there are some limitations. I still like the blogs and I wanted my SSSC and Dinafem journals in there but there is no option to put them in those sub forums. I was thinking about the old forum and how the latest reviews streamed across the home page. The blogs are hidden on mobile at least that if I didn't know what I was looking for I wouldn't find them.

 

[Mushinronsha]

I think the blogs would be good for product reviews, AMA's, grow journals etc. but I do think people struggle the most with pages. There's a learning curve to indexing the pages and I think using the forum functions in general.

Thought about using the AFN community blog to manage vendor sales, competition progress, testing highlights, and general news of the month. It would be centralized rather than going through the Forgotten Library of AFN.

Not trying to complain but there are some limitations. I still like the blogs and I wanted my SSSC and Dinafem journals in there but there is no option to put them in those sub forums. I was thinking about the old forum and how the latest reviews streamed across the home page. The blogs are hidden on mobile at least that if I didn't know what I was looking for I wouldn't find them.

Regarding the learning curve on the pages, I think some of that could actually be overcome by changing the wording of the feature. (If possible) I also believe that seems to be the part, myself included at first, that people miss. If the tag/label could just be changed to something like "share next update" or "new post" I think it would be more natural to a common or new user. I saw the option but avoided it because I was thinking, I dont know what a page is or what it does lol. It wasnt until I got a little bit into the guide that I realized "manage pages" is designed to add new content, without making a whole new blog entry/forum thread.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Regarding the learning curve on the pages, I think some of that could actually be overcome by changing the wording of the feature. (If possible) I also believe that seems to be the part, myself included at first, that people miss. If the tag/label could just be changed to something like "share next update" or "new post" I think it would be more natural to a common or new user. I saw the option but avoided it because I was thinking, I dont know what a page is or what it does lol. It wasnt until I got a little bit into the guide that I realized "manage pages" is designed to add new content, without making a whole new blog entry/forum thread.

Let me see if I can do something with these suggestions.

Also, @damien50 and @Mañ'O'Green , there have been MULTIPLE updates to blogs since I put it on here; I'll get the most recent version installed soon. While I'm doing this, I have to disable the add-on, so don't freak out if they disappear a hot minute lol. I'll put up an announcement for when I official do it.