Forum:Expansion of blogs

In the spirit of expanding community involvement, I've been thinking of an idea regarding blog posts on The Sims Wiki. Specifically, I'd like to see the wiki take a more proactive role in encouraging users to produce Sims-related blogs here on TSW.

My idea is motivated by the response I've seen to many popular blog posts written on The Sims Wiki in the past. On several occasions, these blogs have become popular enough to be commented on by several unregistered contributors. While I don't delude myself into thinking that every anon that comments on a blog will run off and create a Wikia account, I am at the same time heartened by how they choose to interact with the words of others.

Presently, our blogs are in a state of disarray. We have no real rules, or even any firm guidelines, regarding what should or should not be blogged about. Users frequently use blogs as a means to talk about the games or to ask for help, even though we have forums specifically for these things. However, I see a lot of untapped potential in blogs, as being a place where players can talk about their games (not completely unlike the the former Player Stories, but with an emphasis on substance over the long term, versus short paragraphs about Sims played), or talk about other experiences they've had. The key in all this would be to encourage quality posts, to encourage repeat postings by the same individuals, and to encourage active commenting on these blogs.

Some of you may lampoon this idea as being another step towards the Facebook-ification of The Sims Wiki, but I see this as a real tool towards building community involvement over the whole site, as a means to ultimately improve our encyclopedia. Getting users to visit and to edit an encyclopedia is not the simplest task, especially if the user believes that everything to be said about the games has already been said, or if they believe that the community on the wiki is too exclusive, and that they will not be welcomed. Showing regular users, non administrators, writing blogs and getting positive feedback might do some good towards eroding this image.

To get down to details, here's a rough idea of what I'm envisioning. First, we create a page - something like 'The Sims Wiki:User Blogs' or a similar title - where we have a running feed of new user blogs. This would be similar or identical to the blog feeds on the main page, except they would not be category-specific, but would encompass all blogs. The reason I feel this is important is because blogs are not housed and shown in any centralized location, aside from the blog post category. Putting up a page showing the blogs (especially recent ones) would do a lot to bring attention to them. Additionally, I'd like to implement a blog showcase (notice, not a Featured Blog per se), where one or several popular, poignant, insightful or well-written blogs could be selected and showcased. I'd prefer to keep this selection in administrator hands until such a time (if ever) that the feature becomes popular enough to allow selection by the community at-large. This page could also display some guidelines for writing blog posts (I'd prefer not to create a formal policy for them, as I feel we might be getting a bit too "policy-happy" lately), such as suggestions on quality and topic.

So ultimately, I'm bringing this up here. I'm not seeking permission, but rather am seeking some constructive criticism and ideas. I encourage you to be optimistic when discussing the possibilities, and to keep your mind open to what can be achieved. I may begin to draft some page ideas on my Test Page, but we'll see.

Let me know what you think. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 06:02, April 2, 2013 (UTC)

Discussion
LiR, I agree with you. A blog post repository is something that could be of use in the Wiki. As for whether we should have policies or not, I think that one that isn't too "dictatory" could be good for us, since I frequently see blog posts with one line or two where users complain about their personal lives or give us updates that to be honest, I am not interested in them. So a small policy restricting the quality could be useful.06:27, April 2, 2013 (UTC)
 * I Agree with your point. I'm thinking we would outline in any sort of guidelines that blogs which are incredibly short or off-topic would be deleted, though this is pretty much already done despite us not having a policy in place. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 06:31, April 2, 2013 (UTC)

I like this idea. Blogs have already begun to be created more often, and we may as well take advantage of this fact. However, I believe that part of the appeal of blogs is the creative freedom in being able to write about whatever you want, be it something in your personal life or your game. I don't think that a policy should be made surrounding what users should blog about, but perhaps a policy about what types of blogs could be eligible for specific prizes or whatever. -- Bleeh (talk) (blog) 21:12, April 2, 2013 (UTC)

I may as well bump this seeing as despite it being dead, this proposal does have some potential.

It might be a good idea to showcase some of the listed blogs on the mainpage (next to where we list the news blogs, if possible). I think this would be an effective measure to not only raise interest in certain blogs individually but also raise general interest in blogging, such as news blogs, opinion blogs, game experience blogs and even getting users writing more blogs about the game, which is essentially what they're there for. I've seen this showcased on another wiki with opinion blogs and it appears to work quite well. 21:41, May 13, 2013 (UTC)
 * A policy instilled for blog creation is what I see as a curb for freedom of expression. However, I'll support a policy that isn't too "upfront" or one that will perturb the TSWikians. Ѧüя◎ґ (talk) 01:36, May 17, 2013 (UTC)
 * On the subject of a blog policy... The other policies and guidelines of the wiki seem to serve us well as it is. It is already standard practice to delete blogs that are irrelevant, very poorly written, or that violate established policies. This proposal would not affect that. I do not believe anyone here has made any sort of push towards limiting expressive freedoms. However, I think there should be some suggested guidelines which would be applied to blogs to ensure that only well-written and relevant blogs end up featured on the main page or on a dedicated blogs page. Nowhere in this proposal would I suggest weeding out and deleting blogs, at least not any more than we already do. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 02:37, May 17, 2013 (UTC)
 * For what it's worth, we're fairly relaxed on how blogging works and it doesn't appear to have caused any issues. Off-topic blogs are allowed and are generally only deleted if they're inappropriate or if the content is sparse. Obviously this proposal would be geared towards blogs that are related to The Sims but nowhere does it mention placing any barriers on blogging nor do I personally see a major need for any at this point. 18:56, May 20, 2013 (UTC)
 * Agreed, though I would think that any feature we implement that highlights blogs would only highlight Sims-relevant blogs, since we are The Sims Wiki, after all. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 19:48, May 20, 2013 (UTC)

Conclusion
There was support for some program to feature and expand blogs, though nothing definitive was settled. Boldness is welcome, within reason. Otherwise, feel free to re-start the discussion in a new thread. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 16:34, June 19, 2013 (UTC)