Forum:Opinion Blogs - Time to go?

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Let's keep this short and sweet. The opinion blogs on the front page haven't been updated in nearly a year. That's an awful long time considering there must be plenty of people who want to create their own high quality blogs addressing their issues and thoughts regarding Call of Duty. The last one was an opinion blog based on first impressions of Advanced Warfare. So...is there going to be a follow-up? No thoughts on how BOIII is going to go and analyzing the new features as they're revealed?

I think it's time we got rid of this pointless section. We could replace it with something more interactive or a new kind of blog, but now it's over to the wiki to decide what we should do with what is currently clogging up space on the home page. YELLOWLUCARIO ^TALK  16:43, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

Discussion

To be fair I think there is a good amount of blogs that have been made in the mean time that could've been categorized as opinion blogs, but never did for some reason - probably admin activity that slowed down recently. Personally I don't mind the section, but if it's never going to be updated then it's better to replace it with somethign new. User:RainingPain17 - talk 16:56, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

iirc, only certain users can add the opinion category to blogs, and that doesn't apply to all admins. I could be wrong about that though. Conqueror of all Zombies (talk) 17:35, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

It's actually the News Team that can only add it, iirc. DremYolLok  17:46, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

Yup, now that you remind me it's the news team that adds this category. But you'll note they've been inactive as well - aside from ZH115's blogs I haven't seen any news for some time. User:RainingPain17 - talk 17:49, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

Most of the blogs seen from awhile ago were low key and most was not on par to be an opinion blog. Lowering the standards would be best to gain opinion blogs if that is what is needed. Argorrath _{おしゃべり}01:05, October 8, 2015 (UTC)

I don't consider the fact we haven't had an Opinion blog in a while as reason to remove the feature. Mainly because they were made to stop all the opinion blogs appearing as "Community News". I mean we also very rarely get Help Desk or Watercooler forums any more, but we keep them because their purpose is to hold specific types of forums. Personally, I don't think we should be rid of it unless we're willing to accept that no opinion blogs from now can be added to any type of news. Otherwise, the category exists for a reason and shouldn't be removed based on activity alone.

Crazy sam10 • Talk

18:07, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

While the Helpdesk and Watercooler forums are dead but still serve a purpose, we need to promote them more. New users don't know about them because we simply don't tell the users about them any more. Nobody reads the welcome message, so there needs to be another way if we were to improve activity there.

It's different to the opinion blogs though. After 11 months of no activity, it's hardly serving any purpose. We can't really promote them either as only news team members can add the categories and literally nobody knows about it because it isn't prominent and can't be used by new users as a result of them having no knowledge about it. YELLOWLUCARIO ^TALK  18:48, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

Only news team can add the category, but that doesn't mean people can't write them. I mean by similar logic if only admins could add the watercooler template, would that make forums redundant? The reason we made the opinion blog category was specially so users that made good opinion blogs could get a mention on the main page without it being community news. Just like Watercooler and Help Desk, this category serves a purpose. The issue has not been in the fact that there have been no news team members to add the category or anything like that, the issues has lied in no one writing any opinion blogs. Also, we're currently in a limbo state as Black Ops 3 approaches. There's no real opinion to voice right now, as there's already a consensus on Advanced Warfare, so no one really wants to write about it. And Black Ops 3 isn't out yet so in theory one could only have speculation blogs. There's a fair chance when BO3 comes out we may get some more opinion blogs regarding BO3. But we can't retire something based on people not writing anything. At most I'd say removing it from the front page if it doesn't pick up around BO3 release.

Crazy sam10 • Talk

20:06, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

"The issue has not been in the fact that there have been no news team members to add the category or anything like that, the issues has lied in no one writing any opinion blogs."

sam, theres been many opinion blogs in the past year. and before anyone says its that none of them were "good enough", i disagree. theres been plenty of good ones. although, i cant name any off the top of my head because it has been a little while since ones been made, but not almost a year. so i would say its either the news team not feeling like adding the categories, them not noticing the blogs, or there not being enough active news team members. no offense to anyone on the team, but id have to vote for one of the two former, because the news team hasnt been less active for that whole time, only for a month or two.

now, regarding the idea of doing this, if the opinion blogs section isnt gonna be updated really, for whatever reason (whether it be lack of people making them or one of the reasons i said about the news team members), then i agree with the idea of either removing the section from the main page or replacing it with something else new. RisingSun2024 ^{(Talk Page 🎌 Blog Posts 🎌 Contributions 🎌 Social Activity)} 21:52, October 7, 2015 (UTC)

We can include RisingSun's polls... I honestly don't believe they should be removed though. As much as it's been a while, when it does happen, then where will we put it? And I'm hoping to restart my previous blog series. http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/276/1/2/bionicle__unity_duty_destiny_by_cyberpictures-d6p3li2.pngLegos-Rule-15 ^Talk 00:38, October 8, 2015 (UTC)

i definitely wouldnt be opposed to my polls getting the category. :) RisingSun2024 ^{(Talk Page 🎌 Blog Posts 🎌 Contributions 🎌 Social Activity)} 00:43, October 8, 2015 (UTC)