Changes are coming...
I really mean that in a good way, but I wanted to give you some warning that the blogging system will be undergoing some definite changes. The new Blog system will be implemented in two stages:
In the first stage, the existing "Blocks" or "Widgets" will almost certainly be going away in the short term. There will initially be a standardized layout for all blogs and unfortunately some of the blocks we have now won't be available.
On the up side, the new Blogs should be nicer looking and better integrated into the system. You should be able to embed YouTube vids etc like so:
And I hope to finally get the image drop in from our gallery WORKING!
There will also be a workaround to get notice of new Blog entries showing up in the "Recent Posts" results, which will help a lot.
The second phase of the Blog update should just be a few weeks after the new site goes live and it will include the ability to have "Shared" Blogs. So you can invite others to contribute on a Blog you start. There will be new blocks available, as well as the ability to customize the *look* of the Blog to some degree.
During the change over the actual entries and comments will be preserved, I've spent a lot of time running test imports and debugging it, so I'll have the kinks out by the time we do it for real.
As soon as feasible, we'll be opening the new site up for Blog Beta testers to get a look at how the new Blogs will look/function, so stay tuned!
James
Oops! Forgot to mention that the second phase will also feature Tags, Categories and other bells an whistles. First version will, unfortunately lose the "Blog it!" function that currently lets you grab a forum post as a Blog entry, but I'm hoping to get that back in with the second phase.
