Announcing EntropiaForum Blogs!!

711 · 11-19-2007, 18:30

An exciting and powerful new feature has been added to EntropiaForum, allowing members to create personal blogs.

This new blogging application employs all the common features used on many of the most popular blog platforms, such as Wordpress, Blogger, etc.

Features:

Fast Start - EntropiaForum Blogs makes it simple for EntropiaForum members to create their own space within the community. Getting started is as simple as posting the first message (using the same familiar EF editor). There is no lengthy setup process - blog owners are free to personalise their blog at any time by defining a title and a description that will appear at the top of every blog post.
Fully Featured - EntropiaForum Blogs is a feature-rich blogging application, with support for fully formatted WYSIWYG posts, images, bb code, smilies, comments, trackbacks and pingbacks, draft posts and categories, as well as seamless integration with EntropiaForum.
Categories - Each member can create up to 12 customized blog categories, allowing for sorting of your blog entries (e.g. Hunting, Mining, Society, etc.). Each blog entry can then be associated with one (or up to four) of those categories.
Blog Home Page - Available via a single click from the navigation bar on every EntropiaForumn page, the blog home page aggregates activity from all member blogs into a single page – with information about the most recent and highest rated blog posts, recent comments, a featured blog post, full support for browsing posts by date and overall blogging statistics.
Syndication and Subscriptions - Site wide and per-blog RSS feeds allow syndication to external readers, and full support for forum subscriptions enables users to join their favorite blogs and receive regular email updates.
Profile Support - Member blogs are integrated with the EntropiaForum member profile system – profile information is displayed alongside blog posts, and existing profile pages are enhanced with information about blog activity.
Blog Control Panel - The Blog Control Panel empowers members to control every aspect of their blogs, from permission controls (who has access to view and comment on the blog), to full management of blog categories, draft posts, trackbacks/pingbacks and subscriptions. Blog owners also have the ability to moderate comments on their own blog.
Flexibility - Uncompleted drafts can be saved for later review, editing and completion. Entries can be scheduled for future publication. Published entries can be edited or deleted by the author.
Spam Control - Members have the ability to use an Akismet key to help prevent spam comments from appearing on their Blog. For more info visit Stop Comment Spam and Trackback Spam « Akismet

Notes:

A link to the EF Blogs has been added to the navigation bar at the top of every EntropiaForum page. (**Note** to make space for the new Blogs link, the Arcade link has been moved to the Quick Links menu in the navigation bar).

More info on using the EF Blogs features can be found in the Blog Faq

As the new EF Blogs software duplicates the purpose of the Diaries subforum, that section will be closed to new posts. Any members who have existing and active diaries are encouraged to transfer those diary entries over to the new EF Blogs area. If you need assistance with this process, please contact me via PM.

EntropiaForum Rules apply to all content posted in blogs. Blog entries may not be used for the trading of EntropiaUniverse items; please use the Trading Forum for such announcements.

Please provide any feedback or feature requests in this thread. I will be adding several features soon, such as a module on the Forum Homepage, and other integration features.

Enjoy!

Jimmy B · 11-19-2007, 18:50

Cool, nice idea 711

Moonfish · 11-19-2007, 18:53

Great ,,, Very exciting idea.. full marks

Moonfish

waperboy · 11-19-2007, 19:03

Excellent!

somon90 · 11-19-2007, 19:07

Greatly done 711!

MindStar9 · 11-19-2007, 20:52

This is QUITE cool ... thanks for your continued efforts to make this forum a really great experience with awesome features ... it's greatly appreciated.

Tidesong · 11-20-2007, 08:59

Thats a really nice feature to have. Thanks!

I would like to know if the diary section will ever be completely removed? This is because as much as I would love to move my diary over. I have so many old posts that I'm not sure I want to go through such a long copy paste process.

711 · 11-20-2007, 09:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tidesong

Thats a really nice feature to have. Thanks!

I would like to know if the diary section will ever be completely removed? This is because as much as I would love to move my diary over. I have so many old posts that I'm not sure I want to go through such a long copy paste process.

The old Diaries subforum will remain on EF forever, however it is now closed to new posts. At some point in the next few weeks, I will move the subforum out of the EU Creative section, and over to the archive subforum, where closed or obsolete forums are placed.

I have been investigating an easy way to import the diary threads into the new EF Blogs system, but it's a lot more difficult than expected. I fear that the only way to fully transfer those diary entries will be good old cut-and-paste

I have been very busy with the EFD Store upgrades, so I have not had much time to address the Diary => EF Blogs issue, unfortunately. I will give it another look tomorrow.

Paolo · 11-20-2007, 13:20

Wow, that's great news 711!
I still got to read it through since I'm at work, but there seems to be the basis for another wonderful development for our EF!

Just please work out the Diary->Blog import if possibile, as I'm really looking forward to it.
Plus, I'd like to keep the date of the posts, if doable.

Keep it up!
P.

711 · 11-21-2007, 00:27

Members can easily and quickly link to their blogs using the following format:

Code:

www.entropiaforum.com/forums/blogs/<membername>/

Replace <membername> with your forum user name. The URLs are not case sensitive.
***Note that if your forum username has a space, you need to use a dash.***

Example 1 (No Space in Username):
Username: JackFree

Code:

www.entropiaforum.com/forums/blogs/jackfree/

EntropiaForum - JackFree's Blog

Example 2 (Space in Username):
Username: Midori Fairlona

Code:

www.entropiaforum.com/forums/blogs/midori-fairlona/

EntropiaForum - Midori Fairlona

This linking tip is great for use on other websites you visit, or for creating linkbacks with other blogs.

Enjoy