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Hi, my name’s Bethenna, and today I’m going to be asking if the blog section deserves to still be a section of Pmc.
Ok, so before we begin, yes I DO know how ironic it is that I’m making a blog in the blogs section accessible by bloggers debating about whether the blogs section should be removed from Pmc, and that it’s pretty obvious what the majority of people will say. I also know that I used the word blog WAY too many times in that sentence… :/ Anyway, let’s begin!
Blogs: What are they?
For those of you who don’t know, a blog is a piece of writing that a Pmc user can create and post. They can be anything from creative redstone tutorials, detailed reviews and even for use of expressing and expanding upon a point in which the writer wishes to convey. They can also include stories, and many more categories. Blogs should generally be more than a paragraph, or at least a reasonable amount of text, and should have some kind of purpose.
So what’s this about Removing?
For a long while, I had no idea that the blogs section was in trouble. Wait, what? It’s in trouble? Well, apparently so! It seems that quite a few people claim that they’d be ‘for’ removing the blogs section. I know this from certain conversations that I’ve witnessed in various areas of Pmc. But… why do some people disagree with blogs? There are many reasons for this:
Reasons Against
Most of the following reasons may be very or slightly bias, but don’t worry, they’re supposed to be. :)
- Impact
One of the main reasons that people seem to have is that blogs are not useable. They are not downloadable or apply-able like texture packs, downloadable projects, mods or skins and have no direct impact on the game. However, as true as this is, this isn’t something that we can improve or change.
- Unoriginality
Another really big issue that the blog section has… is that everything has to be directly minecraft related. Of course, it’s PlanetMinecraft, yet why does this cause issues? Pretty soon topics run dry, become unoriginal, and the whole thing’s already been done about 10 times before. Then people create rants about how ‘used’ every idea is and the whole cycle starts again. However there are quite a few blogs, if you keep looking, with fairly creative concepts, so the unoriginality side isn’t completely lost. You just need to encourage people who use new concepts if you see them.
- Forums
Writing, it belongs in the forums doesn’t it? It’s a place for sharing and discussing your thoughts, which is basically what the blogs section is for aswell, right? I can’t help but agree that some writing in the blogs section would be better found in the forums. For example the short one paragraph blogs and the ‘share your ideas in the comments’ blogs that revolve around the discussion of the topic definitely would probably make better sense to be found in the forums, along with the blogs with spammed text to fit the word limit. The main downside to stuffing all of the writing into the forums however would be that it’d clog them up, and people wouldn’t be able to gain credit for their writing. If you subscribe to someone for their work in the forums, their posts aren’t going to be listed there for you.
What Can We Do?
Personally, I think that the Pmc blogging section has been an official section on Pmc for a bit too long to simply be ‘removed’, but if we want to stop people from having these negative views, then us as bloggers need to try to:
- Think Sections
Before you post a blog, think about if it’s in the right section of Pmc. Would it be better as a forum post? Should you really be advertising a server outside of the servers section? Have you posted it in the correct category?
- Said it and Read it
If your chosen topic is said to be ‘unoriginal’, then re-vamp it! Introduce a new style, concept or personal twist to every piece you write so that it doesn’t get old! Make sure your work is detailed too!
- Dropping Diamonds
New bloggers join the community all the time, be a role model and choose where to put your diamonds! Encourage the creative content, because if you’re just contributing to the placing of certain types of ‘samey’ blogs onto the pop reel, what effect does this give to the new users? Let good writers know that they’re good at what they do, and that this is what new writers should be aiming for!
- Feedback
If blogs have bad grammar or ill-thought out purposes that make little sense, don’t rant about them, offer feedback! It’s the way to help people improve and it’ll make the blogging community better as a whole and appear friendlier. Keep people producing quality content!
- Report and Rules
If you’re noticing rule breakers, report them to staff. It should ensure that eventually bad content will be cleaned up. However this is something that you should be keeping an eye out for on all sections of Pmc. Learn the rules and stick to them yourself J
What Can Pmc Do?
I myself believe that there are a few possible changes that Pmc could make, however these are just suggestions that I’ve thought of, so they may not work, but might be worth you thinking about:
- Status
On a few occasions, I’ve noticed certain users using the blogging sections as a way to ‘let us know’ things. It’s almost like a status update, a message they want to send out to their subscribers. Perhaps Pmc needs this? Some kind of way for users to (without turning this all into Facebook) put a message on their profile to let others know what they’re doing or will be doing etc.
Downsides:
This could be more work for the moderators.
- Tutorials
Wrong posting could be down to lack of knowledge, so something similar to a tutorial of each section could be an option.
- Categories Check-up
Perhaps some categories could be merged (eg. Perhaps art and comics) or what’s allowed changed. New categories encouraging new ideas could be introduced. These could include: ‘User contests’ or ‘Ideas’, a section for ideas which could be added to the game or even Pmc. However these are simply ‘ideas’ (I see what you did there) and some people could disagree.
Downsides:
Again, all the more work, yet it could be worth it.
- Contests
No simpler way to put it. Perhaps some user created blog contests could encourage creativity?
What’s my Point?
The Blogs section is very much a user based area of Pmc, so if we want things on it, and people’s opinions of it to change… then it’s our responsibility as bloggers to make something happen!
Conclusion
So what do I think? I believe that blogs won’t be removed, despite some people thinking that they should be, and I certainly don’t want them gone. However there’s always room to re-vamp or improve the section to give it a boost of life… or at least, hopefully we’re coming close to that happening.
Have a different opinion, any suggestions? Please feel free to leave them in the comments, thanks for reading and give this a diamond if you thought it was worth your time!
Ok, so before we begin, yes I DO know how ironic it is that I’m making a blog in the blogs section accessible by bloggers debating about whether the blogs section should be removed from Pmc, and that it’s pretty obvious what the majority of people will say. I also know that I used the word blog WAY too many times in that sentence… :/ Anyway, let’s begin!
Blogs: What are they?
For those of you who don’t know, a blog is a piece of writing that a Pmc user can create and post. They can be anything from creative redstone tutorials, detailed reviews and even for use of expressing and expanding upon a point in which the writer wishes to convey. They can also include stories, and many more categories. Blogs should generally be more than a paragraph, or at least a reasonable amount of text, and should have some kind of purpose.
So what’s this about Removing?
For a long while, I had no idea that the blogs section was in trouble. Wait, what? It’s in trouble? Well, apparently so! It seems that quite a few people claim that they’d be ‘for’ removing the blogs section. I know this from certain conversations that I’ve witnessed in various areas of Pmc. But… why do some people disagree with blogs? There are many reasons for this:
Reasons Against
Most of the following reasons may be very or slightly bias, but don’t worry, they’re supposed to be. :)
- Impact
One of the main reasons that people seem to have is that blogs are not useable. They are not downloadable or apply-able like texture packs, downloadable projects, mods or skins and have no direct impact on the game. However, as true as this is, this isn’t something that we can improve or change.
- Unoriginality
Another really big issue that the blog section has… is that everything has to be directly minecraft related. Of course, it’s PlanetMinecraft, yet why does this cause issues? Pretty soon topics run dry, become unoriginal, and the whole thing’s already been done about 10 times before. Then people create rants about how ‘used’ every idea is and the whole cycle starts again. However there are quite a few blogs, if you keep looking, with fairly creative concepts, so the unoriginality side isn’t completely lost. You just need to encourage people who use new concepts if you see them.
- Forums
Writing, it belongs in the forums doesn’t it? It’s a place for sharing and discussing your thoughts, which is basically what the blogs section is for aswell, right? I can’t help but agree that some writing in the blogs section would be better found in the forums. For example the short one paragraph blogs and the ‘share your ideas in the comments’ blogs that revolve around the discussion of the topic definitely would probably make better sense to be found in the forums, along with the blogs with spammed text to fit the word limit. The main downside to stuffing all of the writing into the forums however would be that it’d clog them up, and people wouldn’t be able to gain credit for their writing. If you subscribe to someone for their work in the forums, their posts aren’t going to be listed there for you.
What Can We Do?
Personally, I think that the Pmc blogging section has been an official section on Pmc for a bit too long to simply be ‘removed’, but if we want to stop people from having these negative views, then us as bloggers need to try to:
- Think Sections
Before you post a blog, think about if it’s in the right section of Pmc. Would it be better as a forum post? Should you really be advertising a server outside of the servers section? Have you posted it in the correct category?
- Said it and Read it
If your chosen topic is said to be ‘unoriginal’, then re-vamp it! Introduce a new style, concept or personal twist to every piece you write so that it doesn’t get old! Make sure your work is detailed too!
- Dropping Diamonds
New bloggers join the community all the time, be a role model and choose where to put your diamonds! Encourage the creative content, because if you’re just contributing to the placing of certain types of ‘samey’ blogs onto the pop reel, what effect does this give to the new users? Let good writers know that they’re good at what they do, and that this is what new writers should be aiming for!
- Feedback
If blogs have bad grammar or ill-thought out purposes that make little sense, don’t rant about them, offer feedback! It’s the way to help people improve and it’ll make the blogging community better as a whole and appear friendlier. Keep people producing quality content!
- Report and Rules
If you’re noticing rule breakers, report them to staff. It should ensure that eventually bad content will be cleaned up. However this is something that you should be keeping an eye out for on all sections of Pmc. Learn the rules and stick to them yourself J
What Can Pmc Do?
I myself believe that there are a few possible changes that Pmc could make, however these are just suggestions that I’ve thought of, so they may not work, but might be worth you thinking about:
- Status
On a few occasions, I’ve noticed certain users using the blogging sections as a way to ‘let us know’ things. It’s almost like a status update, a message they want to send out to their subscribers. Perhaps Pmc needs this? Some kind of way for users to (without turning this all into Facebook) put a message on their profile to let others know what they’re doing or will be doing etc.
Downsides:
This could be more work for the moderators.
- Tutorials
Wrong posting could be down to lack of knowledge, so something similar to a tutorial of each section could be an option.
- Categories Check-up
Perhaps some categories could be merged (eg. Perhaps art and comics) or what’s allowed changed. New categories encouraging new ideas could be introduced. These could include: ‘User contests’ or ‘Ideas’, a section for ideas which could be added to the game or even Pmc. However these are simply ‘ideas’ (I see what you did there) and some people could disagree.
Downsides:
Again, all the more work, yet it could be worth it.
- Contests
No simpler way to put it. Perhaps some user created blog contests could encourage creativity?
What’s my Point?
The Blogs section is very much a user based area of Pmc, so if we want things on it, and people’s opinions of it to change… then it’s our responsibility as bloggers to make something happen!
Conclusion
So what do I think? I believe that blogs won’t be removed, despite some people thinking that they should be, and I certainly don’t want them gone. However there’s always room to re-vamp or improve the section to give it a boost of life… or at least, hopefully we’re coming close to that happening.
Have a different opinion, any suggestions? Please feel free to leave them in the comments, thanks for reading and give this a diamond if you thought it was worth your time!
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The blog section needs this dearly, especially in the 'story' section. 90% of the stories I see in there look like they have been written by someone too young to write a proper story. Most of them have poor grammar, most have poor writing styles that make it harder to follow what's going on, and many sum up the story, that could be expanded into a great story that is several posts long, into one or two paragraphs.
As if all that were not enough, 50% of the stories out there have something to do with Herobrine. Because of this, they all blend together, and nobody looks at them. As if that were not bad enough, they crowd out those few stories that have a good plot, have proper grammar, good writing styles, and so on. It's really frustrating to me because each chapter of my story only gets about 10-20 views, and only 1 or 2 diamonds, because almost nobody sees it because it gets crowded out by repetitive Herobrine related stories. (Not including the one that is there by default.)
Basically, I'm saying that there should be standards for the quality of blogs in the blog section. If the quality is too low, a mod would disable the submission, and PM the poster, telling them to increase he quality of the blog, or it won't be re-enabled. Forum threads that are practically the same as other ones get locked, so why can't the same happen to blogs? Yes, it's strict, but it will make the blog section something actually worth browsing. Right now, it isn't, because 1/2 the blogs out there are low-quality, and you have to hunt for the high-quality blogs, which really is too much effort.
About the stories, they definitely need tending to. The only story that I've written on pmc I have tried to extend, and I understand you really try your hardest to do so too, but to a further extent than I and most writers generally would. One idea they could implement is to increase the character/word limit. Since spamming to reach the word limit is against rules, this would cause stories to be longer and hopefully more detailed as-well. It really is a shame how, as you say, with common themes the blog story section merges together. Coming up with story ideas for a mine-craft related website is certainly not as hard as most writers make it appear. 70% of the section are Herobrine stories or stories about people who have been sucked into minecraft from real life. There are some really talented writers on the blog section, so it'd be a shame to see this all go to waste because of the odd lousy 1 paragraph blogs that cause some people to question the section's value.
Thankyou for sharing your opinion, and my apologies for the long reply :D
I would say increasing the minimum characters required would help, and then blog mods would certainly help too. Maybe have 2 or 3 mods have to agree on disabling a submission in order for it to actually be disabled? Like, one mod flags it, and it shows up in a list for other mods to see and what not. If 2 others says it should get disabled, it does, if not, it's left alone. That would help to root out any bias due to writing styles and such.
Of course, then more mods would be required, and it isn't exactly easy to find good trustworthy people on the internet. People who already have written good, long stories would be a start, but although I've been putting effort into my story to make it a good one, I wouldn't be too good of a mod because I'm inactive more often than I'm active... so there is that.