SF&F Blog Discussion

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12:57 PM

@JackBNimble Sad news: SE is going to stop supporting all per-site blogs :-(

Blog Overflow is actually going to be shutting down completely soon, so it doesn't make sense for us to invest time in fixing any bugs for it. We'll be reaching out to all the individual communities who currently have a blog on their site's Meta over the coming weeks to discuss whether they want to let their blog die or transfer it to an alternate blogging platform and maintaining it on their own, as Worldbuilding does now. Those Meta posts will contain more detailed information than I've provided here. — animuson ♦ Oct 7 at 22:24

in Mos Eisley, 6 hours ago, by JNat

@Adamant That's exactly why I'll be reaching out to everyone. We can help whoever wants to keep their content with some sort of data dump to help them move it elsewhere

in Mos Eisley, 6 hours ago, by JNat

Medium seems to be a good solution, as Worldbuilding's example shows

I hope you'll still stay on as blog admin after the move!

1 hour later…

Jack B Nimble

2:07 PM

Wow.

@Randal'Thor Well that is surprising. I'm guessing they are shutting it down because pretty much none of the other sites post much of anything. We are always in the #1 spot.

@Randal'Thor Where did you see that announcement?

Rand al'Thor

@JackBNimble Adamant mentioned it in Mos, and I went hunting on main meta until I found that comment from animuson.

I'm not sure if there's been a big official announcement yet.

Jack B Nimble

Okay I found it.

A new platform would be nice, because WordPress is so terrible. On the other hand, I wonder what that is going to do to current search results.

Rand al'Thor

@JackBNimble Also, if the style and formatting rules are different between different platforms, how will the old posts look when they're copied over to the new platform? Will the formatting get all messed up?

Dr R Dizzle

Are various blog contributors going to be happy having their work porter to a new platform?

Jack B Nimble

2:23 PM

@DrRDizzle I guess I'm not sure about that. I'll probably have to contact all the authors to see how they feel about it. I think technically all the content is public domain.

@Randal'Thor I imagine that will be an issue for some heavily formatted posts, such as the Live Chats.

Rand al'Thor

@JackBNimble How many posts are there on the blog in total?

I'm wondering how feasible it would be to check the formatting on each one individually.

Jack B Nimble

@Randal'Thor 155 published, 161 total.

I (or a group) could probably validate and fix them all over some time period.

Rand al'Thor

Yes, that sounds like a sizeable but manageable project.

I wonder how many of the contributors are still active on SFF/SE?

Dr R Dizzle

@JackBNimble For the record, you don't need to ask me, I'm happy for anything I've written for the blog to be ported over, or deleted, or whatever really.

Rand al'Thor

There have been 25 contributors so far: Jack B Nimble, Rincewind, Rand al'Thor, Rogue Jedi, Praxis, Donald McLean, Dr R Dizzle, Michael Edenfield, Thaddeus, Major Stackings, Wad Cheber, Richard, Mark Rogers, Beofett, DavRob60, Brett White, Tony Meyer, Keen, apoorv020, Oghma Osiris, Neil Fein, Gilles, PearsonArtPhoto, Tom Negrino, Dori Smith.

The only ones we might have trouble getting hold of are DavRob60, Brett White, Keen, apoorv020, Oghma Osiris, Tom Negrino, and Dori Smith, and even with some of them a superping in chat might work.

Jack B Nimble

2:40 PM

DavRob60 stopped participating in chat, but I think he still lingers around the site.

And I might be able to get a hold of Keen, but like I said, I think it is technically part of the StackExchange license so we shouldn't have an issue moving it.

@DrRDizzle Thanks.

Rand al'Thor

I suppose we'd also have to decide on a copyright policy for the new blog, and make a page somewhere to state that explicitly. Damn, it's so much easier when SE and its team of lawyers could sort out these things for us ...

Jack B Nimble

Yeah, but I understand why, because we are the only ones who use it, so it probably isn't worth it.

Rand al'Thor

Sure.

I know a couple of the people involved with the Worldbuilding blog. They might be willing to give us some help/advice on how to set up our new blog when the time comes.

Dr R Dizzle

Would it not be worth gauging how much interest there still is in a community blog?

Rand al'Thor

Yeah, I suppose I'm assuming there'll be enough interest to maintain the blog :-( I really hope there is. I've enjoyed contributing to it and reading others' contributions.

Jack B Nimble

2:56 PM

We can ask.

5 hours later…