We have to do it

How to do blogs

Why would I want that?

I happen to like comments from others on my blog/journal. Even critical comments are OK with me as long as they don't cross any lines one wouldn't otherwise cross on the forum. I've gotten all kinds of great ideas and good advice from people posting comments and it's always nice when other people enjoy your work and let you know.

Nice to see an "I" in your comment, 

Nice to see an "I" in your comment,  But the "I" in my finds it rather annoying when trying to write or read a blog and it is full of a bunch of useless mud to slog past.

Blogs should have the option to let authors lock out comments,  or in your case as "I happen to like comments" then give you the option to let people "Track Mud through your kitchen" comment.

Some days you just do not want a person to walk onto your new carpet with muddy boots.

Joe Fugate​ - what a BLOG is vs what a TOPIC is

Maybe have it as an option that is pre checked to not allow comments in Blogs,  If you want comments on your Blog uncheck it and allow comments.

If a person is looking for comments post as a Topic. 

I think this would put a perfect line between what a BLOG is vs what a TOPIC is.

I think at the start of MRH 2.0 would be a perfect time to draw that line.  Not sure what or how your software works etc.  Once a person opens a Blog up for comments,  it can no longer be locked for comments.

with a bit of luck...

Hi Az,

the "Like" facility and/or Follow facility on the new forum might reduce some of the "atta-boy or atta-girl type posts that people have been using on this forum version to keep track of a topic that they are interested in. If I post a simple "Following" or "I like that" message here then I can use the tracking facility here to keep tabs on threads that interest me. It's not needed on the new forum. 

Wit a bit of luck this should reduce some of your "mud".

We can lock threads, sure

We can lock threads on the new forum, sure. But you have to request it.

First, we need to get moved over to the new forum. Then if we need a new feature like the ability of bloggers to make a new blog post and turn off comments, we can request that as a feature enhancement.

Just remember, though, feature enhancements get prioritized with all other feature enhancement requests, so it could be months or even a year or more before the request actually gets implemented.

P.S. The software on this site is so old that if we wanted a feature enhancement the open source guys who develop Drupal would just laugh at us. At 14 years and counting, we're LOOONG overdue to move to something newer.

Also note, this is a phased conversion

Also note this is a phased conversion to get us totally off Drupal.

First, we're moving the forum to its own subdomain: https://forum.mrhmag.com...

Next, we will be moving the web pages on here to a new site that's just mrhmag.com, not model-railroad-hobbyist.com.

We're in the very early stages of moving the rest of this website over ... you can have a quick look here:

https://joef-model-railroad-hobbyist-magazine.cheetah.builderall.com/mrhmag-home

This is in the very early stages of construction, so it's got a lot of missing pieces yet. But this will be the new 2.0 website and you will use mrhmag.com to get to it, we're retiring the old model-railroad-hobbyist.com URL and making it always default to the new shorter mrhmag.com URL.

On the new site, there is no login unless you visit the forum tab.

Easy

Easy AzBaja, just post about prototype operations stuff, you won't get any comments even if you wanted them.  

Blog comments?

I welcome them. How could someone ask a question if they can't comment? or what if they have a solution to some problem I'm writing about, how could they help me?  A non interactive blog seems like a pretty stagnant pool to me.....DaveB

I really don’t see the desire

I really don’t see the desire to not have comments on a blog. The comment about mud on a carpet seems to be rather insulting. I suspect that a desire to post a blog with no other commentary will be something that can be attained. Just begin every entry with the phrase comments not desired and it is likely no one will comment or continue to read it, works for me.

In-between option

Hi,

there is some advantage in either standpoint: "locked" blogs or "community-discussed" blogs.

As I'm not sure if the software supports this... Maybe there is an in-between option:

If (on a blog thread) there is an option for the thread's owner to mark comments that are "blog entries" and have them stand out when displaying the thread, it will be very easy for the reader to focus on the original blog or delve into the discussion. Would that (or something similar) satisfy your request, AzBaja?

Looking forward to the new forum

Have fun!

Best Practices

I really appreciate Joe F's explanations of the back end logistics of keeping things running on here. I've noticed several best practices that are within the control of the blog authors: 

1) Start a new post in the blog whenever you have fresh content to share - if you want readers to follow updates from you - OR drop content into the comments regularly to create a mega thread - if you want readers to be parties to a long conversation with you. (think layout article presentation vs. layout lounge discussion)

2) Tell others what your preferences are in your blog posts (I see some gentle policing in the comments about off-topic remarks and think that it's a good way to resolve those things without having to resort to harder measures) 

I'm really looking forward to the new forum and the additional ability to 'like' a post or comment. I frequently want to do this but restrain myself from adding a new comment to a blog or forum post because I don't want to add an additional line of text that simply contains a 'well done' or 'thank you' comment. (If you're reading this and you have posted on here in the last several months, you can safely assume that I would have upvoted your contributions - I've really appreciated so much of what I read on this site!)

Index page

The one blog/topic entry I could see having a universal ban on comments is the index pages we are creating.  Comments would serve no purpose on those pages and they really don't need discussion.  They should be kept "clean" to make it easy for people to navigate.

The reason why no comments in blogs, 

The reason why no comments in blogs, 

For example I have a blog and another person using it as a spring board to their project.  If you want to bring your new product to the world, start your own Blog.  Talk about your new project or money making enterprise  in your own blog.  Do not come into my space and track mud all over it.  

At this point when I have a new Up Date on my project,  I will strip everything out of that blog and start over with a new one.   

As Joe says he does not like conversations that are disjointed or hop all over the place and or missing parts etc.  So I can run it as two parts or just move it all to a new section and let this person take over the space.  I have done that in the past on some of my older blogs that were take over.  Change the tittle and let them have it.  I can start over.

WAY too much effort......

....is being spent on this.

This is why I prefer to let you guys have this forum, and the rest of us who don't carp at Every.Little.Thing., have another, much more focused one to enjoy.

You can not edit post in MRH 2.0?

Some place I just read that I can no longer edit or correct post in MRH 2.0...  If that is True I'm pretty much gone from the MRH 2.0.  (I can hear the cheers and clapping all ready)

"Can not spell, has limited writing skills and failed reading comprehension.  A true indication off no education and well below average intelligence."

I know for a fact I can not type or spell and have very poor grammar.   I added it to my signature.  When I post on the forum I type what I'm thinking and for what ever reason and do not see those Typing, Grammar and Spelling mistakes.  It just does not register.

I do read very well and have a very high reading comprehension.  When I come back to my post a day, a week a month later, I reread them, being a hours or days out of the moment.  All those mistakes show up.  Yes, I do see them too.  I think to my self who wrote this a 2 year old with a fat crayon scribbling on wide ruled practice paper.  I know people on this list think I'm a complete idiot and a moron, that is fine.  I just do not want to give any one an excuse that I lack intelligence, I'm not a copy editor.  I know very well that I can not type and make those mistakes all the time.  No need to give the Grammar Nazis any fodder to graze through my post and feed on that.

I'm not a writer or speaker, I know I never will be, but I also know from many years of hands on work a lot of those silver tongue speakers and writers that people look up to do not have the skill to operate a roll of scotch tape with out hurting themselves. (In many professions)

Seems like

Seems like dissatisfaction with the rules and practices of a forum on MRH would be motivation to create one to your own personal standards elsewhere.  As Mr. Fugate has pointed out, there have been previous posters who have wanted to manipulate forums here to their own liking, and people who attempted to limit discussion to suit themselves and discard posts with which they disagreed.  It simply has not been MRH's choice to have anything other than a free exchange of ideas.

Back when MRH offered a monthly space for people to express their own opinions, there were few takers.

absolute power

If you want full and absolute control, start your own page on wordpress, blogspot, etc.

Spliting posts

This is why I thought it would be useful to be able to either have the owner/author of the blog or author of the comment be able to move it to its own blog/topic heading.

AzBaja, yours is not the only one I have seen go off topic. I also have seen when I have made an off handed comment that starts an entirely new subject not related to the original. I wish I could go back and create a new blog/topic to remove the mud. If owner of the blog could push topics/comments out of their blog, but not delete them as they can be deleting useful but non-relevant to the original topic information that would be good.

Editing posts

Nope, that’s not correct.

Normal users have two weeks to edit posts before they no longer can edit them.

If you have a blog or otherwise need more power, just like on this forum, ask to be upgraded to super user and if we know we can trust you then we will upgrade you and you can edit your posts forever. Obviously if you want to make posts to the journal/blog category, we need to upgrade you to super user. That’s one example of how being a blogger gets you some extra power on the new forum. Over time, we plan to ask for more enhancements for bloggers.

We just need to know you’re not going to go postal like some have on here in the past and re-edit all your posts to just be a period (effectively deleting their posts).

  "I just do not want to

Maybe you should take that line out of your signature then?   As for the writing,spelling,punctuation errors I make them all the time too. The way to minimize them is slow down and read everything as you type it and let spell check do it's thing. After posting read it again and fix anything that doesn't sound right. If you do it as soon as you post there will be no need to edit it later.....DaveB

New forum spell check

Maybe you should take that line out of your signature then?

Every line is copy and quote of something a person said about me in the MRH forum,  I figured it it was so important for them to say that about me,  I might as well keep it for them to look at every time I post.