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attroll
02-23-2007, 01:47 AM
I have a very large suggestion on changing the way blogs are being done now. I do not like the way they are submitted and laid out. Let me try to explain what I mean by this. This is just my opinion and I wanted to share it.

Here is what I found. If you submit a blog the way it is set up to do it then I think it is really screwed up in the sense that what it does is creates a new thread for every entry you have.

What I found what seems to work and look better and looks cleaner, is easier to manage is to create one entry and then to just turn the replies on and then just reply to your own thread. The only downfall to this is that everyone can reply to your thread if you have replies on. Brian, Is there any way you can add the option in the Category Permissions like VB has to set in forum permissions where is has “Can Reply to Own Threads”. This way we can set it so that only the person that created the post can reply to the thread. I hate the way it creates a new thread every time you submit a blog entry. I see the reason behind it, it is because you are using the replies as user comments, but that in my opinion stinks. It is going to take away from the blog or journal idea and end up being like a forum thread. This is just my opinion.

Here is a suggestion.

1. Why not set it up like I said above and let the creator reply to his post only and create a link so that someone can click on to leave comments and all comments for that blog will go in one thread by themselves linking it to that blog and listing the newest first and also let the user of that blog be able to edit those comments.
2. Then under the blogicles navbar My Stuff menu change the My Entries to My Blogs and then it would list the blogs as one blog. The way it is now it lists every single entry ever submitted. If you do it the way I am suggesting then it would only list the blogs created and all other replies you submitted would fall under that.

Here is a sample of that I am talking about.

Here is what a blog would look like http://www.vbadvanced.com/blogicles/members/attroll-91/.

Now if you click on that thread/blog it brings you to this http://www.vbadvanced.com/blogicles/main-category-2/2006-my-first-thru-hike-20311/.

Now you can see that postbit1 is the thread that started the blog. Now postbit2 is all the replies to the blog. I personally think this is a much cleaner way of doing a blog then how it is being done now through the SUBMIT Entry link.

I hope what I am trying to bring across makes sense.

Brian
02-23-2007, 10:14 AM
I sort of had it in the back of my mind that some permissions like you mentioned (can view own entries, can reply to own entries) needed to be added. That's been added to the to-do list though and should make it's way into beta 2.

For the reply stuff, are you basically saying that you would like to be able to force all replies to a users blog under one entry? And also an option to control if posts are displayed as oldest or newest first?

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attroll
02-23-2007, 12:49 PM
I sort of had it in the back of my mind that some permissions like you mentioned (can view own entries, can reply to own entries) needed to be added. That's been added to the to-do list though and should make it's way into beta 2.

For the reply stuff, are you basically saying that you would like to be able to force all replies to a users blog under one entry? And also an option to control if posts are displayed as oldest or newest first?

Well when I mean that all replies are put under one entry. That they all go in the same location with the newest post listed first or maybe have that option so the blog user can control what order the replies are in. I prefer newest first. It would be just like a guestbook in a sense.

Here is an idea I came up with to get around this. Is there a way when a user creates a sub-category that they can set it so that no replies are allowed and have it override the ADMINCP? The problem with this is that it would also allow users to set their other categories that way also. I don't want the other categories turning into threads that end up like forums with it turning into a long thread having nothing to do with their blog.

Another option is to create a module that the user can add to there blog that allows others to click on to add replies to there blog in a seperate category. This would probably be the better option.

Here is my test web site and a joural I created to show the effect I am trying to get. I am still working on it and ironing some things out. If you click on the "AT Trolls 2007 Thru Hike" for the thread you will see what I mean about how I would like the blog to look like rather then how it was intended with the SUBMIT ENTRY key as it is now.

My journals (http://www.athiker.net/journals/browsecategory.php?c=3&entryuserid=8)

I have many other ideas, but I only want to tackel one at a time and make sure you understand what I mean by each one first.

attroll
02-23-2007, 09:39 PM
Brian

I just want to make sure you understood what I meant and what I was talking about? If not I can explain more in detail and try not to make it confusing. Just let me know.

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attroll
02-25-2007, 12:50 AM
Just a followup on the SUBMIT ENTRY and the replies all being under one entry that I mentioned in post #3 of this thread. I have the hang of the SUBMIT ENTRY now and think at this time it should stay the way it is. I was not real familiar with it before. Now that I have played around with it I understand a lot more now. So leave it as it is now.

I would like to see all replies go into something like a category of its own sort of like a guestbook maybe. I can live without this though, but it would be nice.

Brian
02-25-2007, 05:47 PM
Glad it seems to be working better for you.
I'm not sure about the guest book thing... I can see how that could be useful, but to be honest, it's probably not going to be high on the priority list at least for right now.

attroll
02-25-2007, 06:15 PM
Glad it seems to be working better for you.
I'm not sure about the guest book thing... I can see how that could be useful, but to be honest, it's probably not going to be high on the priority list at least for right now.

I have found a way around this but there is a problem with it.

The user can create another sub category called "Guest Book". Then if they could let users reply just in that category it would work as a guest book.

There is an issue with this though. If the ADMIN has replies turned off then it will not let the user allow set replies to on in that category. I also went into category permission for "Guest Book" and tried to change just that category permissions so that replies can be used in that category, but it will not let me change the NO to a YES. It seems that the admin section overrides the category permissions.