The title is somewhat ambiguous, but bear with me:
Blogs used to be a great part of this site. The way they were integrated into the old forum, they were easily accessible, highly used, and a great way to hold other discussions for everybody, regardless of their interest in the current popular games, hacks, or otherwise. Now, I remember when we transitioned, a lot of people were interested in seeing blogs come back, even more so, in the way they had been previously. Obviously I don't know the limitations of the resources available to you with this particular forum, but the solution we got did seem decent with the blogs tab up top. Unfortunately, it has just turned into the place where posts that don't belong anywhere else go to die. Being set off from the main forum, few visit it, fewer post anything in it, and next to nobody seems to actually read or comment on anything.
Essentially, as it is now, the blogs section is basically a dumping ground for personal posts that people post in general off topic, likely because they know that is where their post will actually be seen, not stashed off in an entirely separate part of the site where it can be buried as soon as enough weeks go by that a few people finally make a few new blog posts.
Onward to my suggestion:
I'm sure this was suggested before, though, I have no idea if it was suggested with this particular forum version as more than a temporary solution, but bear with me. I was thinking we get rid of the blogs tab/section as it is now entirely and change it into a forum off of Other Discussions that doesn't increase post count. This alone would increase visibility of the section, but to encourage participation, I was thinking one of two things:
1) Simply make it so posts in blogs show up in the recent forum posts box on the front page. This would maximize visibility, but may not be ideal when considering other topics, as well as how many different 3DS threads have become priority in the community as the 3DS scene has continued to advance. Another way this could be handled, if possible with this particular forum, is splitting the recent threads box so that one tab displays recent threads, and another recent blogs.
2) Assuming that splitting the box is impossible, my second suggestion would be to make a new block that just holds recent blogs that would automatically be on the front page. This could be smaller, maybe only showing the top five most recent blogs to keep the front page from getting too cluttered, and could be automatically positioned right under the default position for the most recent threads block. Seeing as the front page is mostly customizable, people would of course be free to move it around, but that would certainly make people far more aware that blogs exist.
I don't think that blogs are simply unpopular, but just unseen. This can hopefully be fixed to maybe get more members talking again that aren't all that interested in the happenings of the 3DS scene. Plus, when was the last time we heard one of those delightful stories about Blaze almost dying or kicking someone's ass?
Blogs used to be a great part of this site. The way they were integrated into the old forum, they were easily accessible, highly used, and a great way to hold other discussions for everybody, regardless of their interest in the current popular games, hacks, or otherwise. Now, I remember when we transitioned, a lot of people were interested in seeing blogs come back, even more so, in the way they had been previously. Obviously I don't know the limitations of the resources available to you with this particular forum, but the solution we got did seem decent with the blogs tab up top. Unfortunately, it has just turned into the place where posts that don't belong anywhere else go to die. Being set off from the main forum, few visit it, fewer post anything in it, and next to nobody seems to actually read or comment on anything.
Essentially, as it is now, the blogs section is basically a dumping ground for personal posts that people post in general off topic, likely because they know that is where their post will actually be seen, not stashed off in an entirely separate part of the site where it can be buried as soon as enough weeks go by that a few people finally make a few new blog posts.
Onward to my suggestion:
I'm sure this was suggested before, though, I have no idea if it was suggested with this particular forum version as more than a temporary solution, but bear with me. I was thinking we get rid of the blogs tab/section as it is now entirely and change it into a forum off of Other Discussions that doesn't increase post count. This alone would increase visibility of the section, but to encourage participation, I was thinking one of two things:
1) Simply make it so posts in blogs show up in the recent forum posts box on the front page. This would maximize visibility, but may not be ideal when considering other topics, as well as how many different 3DS threads have become priority in the community as the 3DS scene has continued to advance. Another way this could be handled, if possible with this particular forum, is splitting the recent threads box so that one tab displays recent threads, and another recent blogs.
2) Assuming that splitting the box is impossible, my second suggestion would be to make a new block that just holds recent blogs that would automatically be on the front page. This could be smaller, maybe only showing the top five most recent blogs to keep the front page from getting too cluttered, and could be automatically positioned right under the default position for the most recent threads block. Seeing as the front page is mostly customizable, people would of course be free to move it around, but that would certainly make people far more aware that blogs exist.
I don't think that blogs are simply unpopular, but just unseen. This can hopefully be fixed to maybe get more members talking again that aren't all that interested in the happenings of the 3DS scene. Plus, when was the last time we heard one of those delightful stories about Blaze almost dying or kicking someone's ass?
)