Forums with Blogs

[Randy]

I've been a few forums that allow members to create and maintain their own blogs. These blogs are integrated into the forum software and have the same appearance plus blog stats may show up on the member's forum profile.

What do you think of this feature?

Do you think its pointless and if people want to run a free blog, they should use a reputable blog host like Blogger or Tumblr instead?

 

[Sinon]

I don't really see the point in it. But then I don't see the point in blogging either.

 

[Wober ELiTE]

i don't see the point to why do we need blogs anyway

 

[Darth-Apple]

I used to participate in an active forum that had the blogs functionality, and I really liked it. It's nice because you already have a platform from the start, so it's a lot easier than just creating one with wordpress.com or something of that sort.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I used to participate in an active forum that had the blogs functionality, and I really liked it. It's nice because you already have a platform from the start, so it's a lot easier than just creating one with wordpress.com or something of that sort.

Yeah but forums come and go... If you were going to make a blog, wouldn't you want to have the assurance that your blog isn't going to disappear if the forum closes?

 

[Kirito]

I've seen the function on a lot of forums.

I've never seen it actively used.

 

[Mr.Panos]

This system is very popular and it is used by many successful forums. The only disadvantage of it is that the content may not be so unique. For example, I have noticed that there is duplicate content from the blog to the forum. And this is pretty annoying. However, if you have a team of Editors ( for the blog ) and a team of Posters ( for the forum ) who are in charge of each site, the duplicate content will be decreased. It needs much spare time and you need to be a professional in order to handle the whole website.

 

[Jazzy]

I used to participate in an active forum that had the blogs functionality, and I really liked it. It's nice because you already have a platform from the start, so it's a lot easier than just creating one with wordpress.com or something of that sort.

Did you create your own blog on that forum?

 

[Death]

I find the feature completely pointless and I never even use it on forums that have it.

 

[J Greig]

I think blogs are a great addition to a forum if you wish to share tutorials or articles. However, it can also be extremely useful if the blog isn't on the same server as your forum. For instance, if your forum goes offline, you then have no way to let your members know what's happening. If they already know about your blog, then they will most likely check their first and that is where you can have any updates for your members to read.

 

[Tolkin]

There is no point in blogging. Its hard to manage a blog as it is to manage a forum. So whats the point in making a blog if you already have a forum to take care of.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

There is no point in blogging. Its hard to manage a blog as it is to manage a forum. So whats the point in making a blog if you already have a forum to take care of.

That may be true for the admin, but this is also about regular members who don't run their own forum and might have more free time?

 

[nomad]

I have 4 forums with a blog section. One of my forums is built on WordPress using wpforo plugin. I launched blog because I wanted to get fast approval from adsense. Mt another forum which has a blog section is built on phpbb and the blog, which is on a subdomain, is built on WordPress.