Warzone Tube

[Emdek]

The one of issues with Warzone is that there is nearly no PR (as Public Relations) work done, which would be especially useful now, when we are going to finally see long time awaited new major release. So I'm proposing some preparations like creating new content dedicated to new release (maybe some banners and other artwork) but also to consider adding new feature to main site, blog as main project's speaking tube. Some will say that forums are enough, and maybe they are. But not necessarily for new users who currently only get basic extract in form of posts from "News and announcements" and they need to dig into forums or search through trac to get other possibly interesting stuff...
So I'm proposing to add such new section where could be put also "less" important but more detailed information (probably it would be best to keep current separate infrastructure for announcements etc.), maybe even kind of planet, aggregating posts from different blogs (like for example this one), others could use it to post progress on WZ related projects (like aubergine ), like wikis, AI scripts and others. It would be best if core developers would add there something from time to time, at least in form of digest like for example done here:
http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2 ... 13-week-2/
Not necessarily so regular since there might be not enough data to get such summary each week.

Such thing would be really useful, would be good way to show to outside that project is alive and progressing but the main issue is that there could be lack of enthusiasm or it could dry off quickly (since blog is additional thing that eats time).

As side note, in case of KWin there was always issue that there is only one (very active) developer and that blog helped to get enough attention to get some help from others. Another thing are irregular posts to get help on some specific tasks (also called "junior jobs").

[aubergine]

Good idea!

I'm pretty sure zxq's (nameless') site doesn't aggregate - his blog is just temporary since he had some troubles with his previous site where he was making a strategy guide (then his computer blew up).

Enabling (moderated) guest contributions would be essential so content production doesn't turn in to a headache for project team.

I would certainly like to see some "future direction" posts coming from project team though, so we (particularly as modders) get some idea where things are headed.

I'm sure NoQ would want to post occasionally about unique map features & terrain achievements, NullBot / Scav AI releases, etc. And I'm sure ArtRev would also want to post occasional updates. As for myself, compared to some of the amazing things others are creating, my contributions are somewhat peonistic in comparison.

A while back I was planning to create a magazine for iPad about Warzone, but currently ditched that idea. However, I still have a fair amount of content that I did -- maybe that could be drip fed in to a blog, or maybe even use it as the basis of a new PDF guide to the game? (it's in super-high resolution to get best quality on recent iPad screens so it looks v. nice, especially thanks to some art from Jorzi/ArtRev).

What s/w or service were you thinking of for the blog? Maybe something like Tumblr -- it has nice ready-made themes, plus moderation features, comments integration with Disqus, very nice features for adding screenshot galleries, etc. However, it's grim if you want to post snippets of source code. There are prolly other blog s/w or service that can handle all kinds of requirements -- I would say whatever is used needs to handle screenshots, comments and code snippets very well.

[Emdek]

aubergine, probably it would be best to go for planet directly and let users decide which platform they want to use, only requiring it to be compatible. There could be some kind of guidelines for them that would help to get account on blogspot etc. or setup own blog from scratch.
One blog shared by many users may be a pain and require lots of manual work (constant moderation). Instead we could get one official blog shared by core developers where on certain circumstances others could publish own content (or developers would post it for them). But preferred way would be to have separate blogs only aggregated by planet.

[aubergine]

Aggregators tend to have ugly design and output though, I've not seen many that work well. IMHO it would be better to find a nice, modern-looking blog service that allows people to submit content directly to it (including image uploads) for moderator review and approval.

[Nameless]

I second aubergine and Emdek; and in fact, the original format of my.. subdomain, the "guide" as aubergine put it, it did in fact aggregate. Before my computer blew up I had been thinking of about separating any random ramblings into it's own area instead of mixing it into the entire lot ( see this and this), two posts that got lost in the mix as I added stuff).

As a matter of fact, if and when and once I do get my original format back; I wouldn't keeping said blog for purposes such as that as you mentioned.

[Emdek]

aubergine, output etc. can be always customized.
But in case of "shared" approach we will need at least one moderator and those who want only to share their content from their existing blogs will need to have two copies of one content etc.
Just example case (I'm not sure if there is such blogger already), someone has blog where he puts stuff (tagged or categorized) for subjects like Warzone, WordPress, Personal, SomeOtherStuff. And he would like to see own content on main site but wants to have it also on own blog, and doesn't want to have comments split between two different content management systems (also, in the "main" one he probably won't have enough permissions to manage them).
Personally I've seen only planet approach so far, the closest to your idea is blogs.kde.org, but I'm not sure if want to host own instance of for example WordPress...

[aubergine]

In many cases articles often get tweaked when sharing them with other blogs. It's one thing to write an article for your own blog which, in many cases, people end up using their own blogs as public journals of their interests... It's completely another thing to produce an article for a central blog of a large community. The way in which its written often needs changing at least a bit to make it fit the audience better.

[Emdek]

aubergine, that depends on users themselves. I only want to say that shared blog will be bigger burden than planet.

[aubergine]

I've maintained blogs before - the big time drain is content creation. If the blog has decent comments system, eg. Disqus or similar, spam isn't a problem. Admin workload is relatively low. And in terms of approving content submissions, it's possible (at least on some blogs) to allow multiple moderators and also define approved contributors who don't need their content approving.

What people will need is ability to make their posts look nice, otherwise you end up with just a techy developer blog. This is where most aggregators fall down - they make content look ugly. A blog should be something that end users will want to follow and subscribe to. And it should allow contributors to easily submit nice-looking content (ie. no HTML or other weird markup needed -- the blog should have rich text editor with ability for people to upload pics directly to it).

The blog should also be externally hosted, so if there are server issues with the main site the blog can be used to keep users informed (or at least confirm that there are server problems).

IMHO, if we're going to promote warzone, the bulk of the promotion should be aimed at end-users, with nice pictures, creative content, etc., with occasional posts about development stuff to encourage more people to start modding. It might possibly be worth having separate developer-targeted blog which is more techy and aimed at recruiting more C++ developers.

[Emdek]

aubergine, whatever, if someone will volunteer (ideally at least two) then why not.
But I still find planet being more flexible and more automatic.
Also most of bigger projects decide to use such solutions instead of shared blogs, surely for a reason.