Prog-bloggin in 2008

[prog]

So after a month it's become clear to me that one can't just leave LiveJournal to start one's own blog and expect everything to be the same. Movable Type is excellent fun to run and tinker with (at least if you're a software tinkerer), but no combination of plugins can replicate LJ's community features. I particularly miss comments, which for a number of reasons lack the spontaneous and conversational nature of the comments here.

I find that I don't want to return to LJ as my blogging home, though. On reflection, I've decided that the "Flag this post / Flag this journal" controls offend me beyond reconciliation. They are idiot "How's my driving? Call 1-800-555-1234" bumper stickers, implying that I write at the convenience of a higher authority, who depends on you! loyal reader! to come running to them with reports of my transgressions. And if the LiveJournal AUP has in fact made this true since 2001, and it's just been easy to ignore until now, then all the more reason to take my business elsewhere.

So, I am going to start regularly cross-posting to this LiveJournal, by way of a cross-posty Movable Type plugin that someone else wrote. It's not perfect - in fact it is half-broken, and I aim to fix it as a small side project - but it will do for the nonce. This will probably make jmac_org redundant, and I apologize for the implied suggestion that you muck further with your friends list for my sake. But I invite you to wait and see how it actually ends up working out.

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I'm also going to start using the Gameshelf website as a blog (since it is one, after all) posting my own game news and reviews and stuff there. I would also like to extend an invitation to people in the Gameshelf community to join the blog as a games writer. Basically, if your name has appeared in the show's credit roll for any reason, consider yourself invited. Please comment here or contact me elsewhere if you're interested.

The prerequisite is another side-project: I've got to redesign the site template to have a big fat link to the show's most recent episode up at the top of the page somewhere, safe from off-scrolling due to new posts. And I'll slap a less-obvious-but-still-obvoius link to the show archives somewhere, too. I have some big new ideas for the 'Shelf this year, and I love the idea of meeting them with the potential of a blog-based online community, oo la la, instead of the crusty static website that's was there for years.

Comments

[cnoocy]

Next time you see me, ask me about the decentralized-LJ idea that jadelennox, temvald, loreleisakai, and I had last summer.

[keimel.livejournal.com]

Erm, not sure if it'd be appropriate to leverage myself into this, but I'm looking at adding a blog for some other interests and like some of hte features of LJ but wouldn't want to add the whole darn thing to me own servers. I'm just liking the idea of being able to add my own adverts into something, which I can completely control with my own server. It would be better for me to reap the benefits of traffic as opposed to another server admin.

If you're looking at something that might be more far reaching, I might be interested. prog has enough IRL contact info for me.

Better to rule in Hell than to blog in LJ

[taskboy3000.livejournal.com]

While I too enjoy the BBS-like feel to LJ, I'm going to own my content and publish it my way. Maybe that's just due to my early experience with use.perl.org.

Also, I'm happy to attempt to contribute to the GS blog, but I'm fuzzy on the details. Perhaps you can spam me with details offline?

Thanks.

[queue.livejournal.com]

Do you have any interest in book-related tidbits for the Gameshelf blog? (frex, we're publishing a book soon on the history of computer role-playing games, although most of our (computer) game books tend to be focused on game design and/or devleopment).

[prog.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it would fit!

I also gotta draft a shared philosophy document for other people posting to the blog. It will be something along the lines of "Stick to discussion of the sorts of games that would be likely to get mentioned on the show." So, yes, game history good; latest Wii sales figures, not so much.

[doctor-atomic.livejournal.com]

I always look at "flag this"-type stuff as just for liability purposes; like those warnings on every product in America warning you not to ingest WD-40 or let your infants plays with plastic bags. They are total "duh" warnings, but you know someone is out their ready to sue when little Johnny chokes on a shopping bag, and then the shopping bag company can dodge it by saying "we told you so".

[prog.livejournal.com]

There's a difference between having a string of "Don't be an idiot" text in a user policy, and actively asking every visitor to one's journal to click a big red button if they see something out of line in the journal they're reading.

A lot of this perception is entirely subjective. I'm sure I'd feel differently if it were always there, while it feels like an affront to have it appear after many years of use. Really, this button is the biggest and most unavoidable reminder that this space does not belong to me. There is a camel with a broken back here.