I've seen this software on several sites now. It's called Planet, and it's a nifty blog aggregator, meaning that it collects the latest posts from user's blogs, and makes it into a news-like, seamless piece.
An example would be: http://planet.gnome.org/
Each post shows the user's head (called a hackergotchi), and the post right beside it. Users can visit the personal blogs to post comments, and everyone gets a good amount of traffic.
Planet's an Open Source project, it aggregates from many different kinds of blogs (Blogger, Wordpress, Myspace blogs, Wordpress, Livejournal), and it does it through reading the RSS feeds (it also supports RDF and Atom feeds), and it's highly customizable.
Why am I bringing this up? Well, I've seen about a hundred zillion posts on these boards about "Hey, I have a blog", and sometimes that person doesn't get all that much traffic on their blog. I figure this would be a unique way to open up the community in whole new ways.
To join, a user only needs to fill out a form, which is mailed to the maintainer(s), and they set everything up. That way, no spam bots get in, and everyone can enjoy reading everybody's blogs in this way.
It's just a thought. I'd love to see the AGS community use this. It'd be neat for different game developers to talk about their lives on a day-to-day basis in a format like this.
You can check it out at: http://www.planetplanet.org/
I like this idea a lot.
One of the reasons I've never kept up with blog-writing much is because I don't have an audience... I can imagine it's the same for a lot of people... If we did something like this, then it would inspire more of us to blog knowing that we are more likely to have our stuff read by other people.
I am against it just by the sake of being against it.
Quote from: radiowaves on Sun 09/03/2008 22:20:21
I am against it just by the sake of being against it.
Radiowaves, radiowaves, radiowaves.
Your humor never ceases to impress.
But, you could be AGAINST being against it, and hate people who disagree with the original concept.
Sounds like a neat idea, says I. Let's have one! (Planet)
Seems like a good idea. There's lots of people with blogs on this forum, so that wouldn't be a problem.
Quote from: Stupot on Sun 09/03/2008 22:12:05
One of the reasons I've never kept up with blog-writing much is because I don't have an audience...
My problem excactly. Also, I don't have a focus. But that's just me.
LOL, first thing I read on planet.gnome.org (http://planet.gnome.org) is
QuoteDon't like what someone usually posts? Remove them from your personal display of Planet GNOME.
Wait a bit - AGS is the right concept to grow very fasten. There will come a day, AGS is THE PLANET and the most busy and talented game authors are on its top.
Success can not been made by will. Success is the logic result from "make a good idea a reality". AGS is a best idea. Hundred times better (because transparent and easy to handle for laymen) than other game maker programs.
@Carsten Schermuly - hehehehe, however how does this relate to the topic of the thread?
@Stupot - I must've checked your blog 20 times for updates man. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Just because we're not commenting, doesn't mean we're not reading.
@Planet topic - I guess this would be cool. Wouldn't it get awfully crowded awfully quickly though, with any old body writing their grand ideas on game design? I only do a minimal amount of blog reading, and when I do, I like to read things that are either very informative or very funny. Many blogs out there turn into yawnfests as their creators run out of things to post about. Not that me whinging about it should stop y'all from doing it if everybody else likes it.
Ha, ha, ha! Have a blessed day - and alot of joy with AGS!
Quote from: Ben304 on Mon 10/03/2008 12:29:26
@Planet topic Wouldn't it get awfully crowded awfully quickly though, with any old body writing their grand ideas on game design?
It wouldn't get TOO crowded, as users would have to submit their blogs, the blogs would have to be approved, etc.
And on the contrary, I think it would give the writers an opportunity to introduce fresh, interesting material on their blogs, because their chances of being read would have gone up, therefore their motivation to GET read goes up.
So are you saying, (sorry I didn't quite get it) that the program would collect all of them, or that there would be some moderation to what gets released in the all eligible form, because the thing Ben pointed out, I might as well be interested in adding some AGS related to my blog if it would make it more read in this way, and I'm certain alot of others might too. And wouldn't this then lead to crowding?
Quote from: Tuomas on Mon 10/03/2008 21:37:21
And wouldn't this then lead to crowding?
Well, it ultimately depends on who you let on the planet. Besides, old posts are pushed back, there's never a big chance overcrowding.
I like this idea too. Would it just be for game-related blogs?
Quote from: The Ivy on Sat 15/03/2008 20:01:57
I like this idea too. Would it just be for game-related blogs?
Well, it would probably be the daily occurences that AGS game developers have, so yeah.
I am all for this idea, having a blog relevant to this myself, however there are some things I would like to know.
1. Ultimately whose decision would it be to approve such a thing?
2. Would it cost a lot of money to maintain it?
3. If this is a serious possibility shouldn't you pm that person mentioned in question 1 and refer them to this topic?
4. Wouldn't a poll would be a more appropriate way of showing whether numbers are in your favour for this idea?
Quote from: rock_chick on Tue 18/03/2008 15:50:56
1. Ultimately whose decision would it be to approve such a thing?
2. Would it cost a lot of money to maintain it?
3. If this is a serious possibility shouldn't you pm that person mentioned in question 1 and refer them to this topic?
4. Wouldn't a poll would be a more appropriate way of showing whether numbers are in your favour for this idea?
1. Ultimately, that would probably be up to AGA, Darth, and Pumaman, though that's just my assumption.
2. No. Planet is Free/Open Source Software, and it's lightweight, meaning little strain on the server.
3. Probably, but shouldn't we get the community to back something like this first?
4. Maybe, maybe not. I just figured doing it this way would be best.
I don't see how it should depend on the CJ's opinion here as the admin, IF it's not directly related to this site.Or did i miss the line where it was referred, that the planet application would be accessible from the main AGS site or the forum? If you want to do your own, basically I should think collecting AGS related blog entries would only require access from all the authors of the posts.
Also, we don't have a poll application on this forum probably because a wide range of opinions and reasoning is more supported :) So a poll wouldn't work.
Quote from: Tuomas on Wed 19/03/2008 22:12:52
I don't see how it should depend on the CJ's opinion here as the admin, IF it's not directly related to this site.Or did i miss the line where it was referred, that the planet application would be accessible from the main AGS site or the forum? If you want to do your own, basically I should think collecting AGS related blog entries would only require access from all the authors of the posts.
Also, we don't have a poll application on this forum probably because a wide range of opinions and reasoning is more supported :) So a poll wouldn't work.
Okay then go for it and I suggest you make it yourself, many posts on this have been in your favour. And it goes without saying you'd be the mod and have the responsibility to do all the dirty work if you're up for it. Perhaps having 2 moderators would be a good idea, might take some strain off the workload. Also one thing(if possible) if a blog is rejected could you tell them why? People who get turned down for things often like knowing why.
Murray: There's something I wanted to talk to you about actually, Jemaine. Umm, it's not good news. Planet Jemaine... supernova'd. Yeah, there's nothing left of it, apparently -- just a huge gaseous cloud and the beginnings of a black hole.
Jemaine: When did this happen?
Murray: Uh, about 4 million years ago.
That's nice, I'm reading Planet KDE and I like it.
My only problem is that I don't have a server, or webspace. So I'll have to look at the pitiful free services (ULMB is pretty good, though)
I'll try setting up a demonstration/temp site for it. Maybe if it gets popular enough, it can be included on the main AGS servers. Who knows?
EDIT: Well, crap. It looks like ULMB doesn't support tmpl types. Looks like I'll have to either find another free host, or if someone would be so kind to help me buy some webspace/offer me some of theirs, that would be swell.