# Would you want your own, speedsolving.com, blog, free?



## pjk (Oct 3, 2007)

Hey.
vBulletin (the forum software of this forum) recently came out with a new feature which basically allows members to have their very own blog within this forum itself. Here is an example:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php

And you can read more about it, and its features here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/features_blog.php

Please reply here or PM me if you think you would be interested. My main thought about this would basically be to allow users to write basically whatever they wanted about their speedcubing life, whether it is a competition review, or just sharing your times. Let me know.


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## gillesvdp (Oct 3, 2007)

I think it is a good idea because it might push some people to publish reports and/or pictures of championships or cube meetings.

As for me I already have my own website so I do not need this system but I think some others might be interested.


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## AvGalen (Oct 3, 2007)

I just checked the features, but I don't think it would be very usefull for me. I like that you can add attachements, but I miss pictures/database/server-side-code.

I will probably setup my own webserver by the end of the month and start building my own website. It will contain a lot of cubing tutorials and programs that (hopefully) will all work without downloading. I am also planning on a "Graphic representation" of the results for the weekly competition and maybe an "enter your own scores directly into the database" feature.

However, I need to do a couple of other things first:
-World Championship 2007
-Dutch Open 2007
-Finish everything in my new house (includes getting internet again)


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## ExoCorsair (Oct 3, 2007)

I honestly don't know of any forums in which people actually use this... Of the many I have been to, only one even has this feature.

While it's not a bad idea, I do think that there are better blogging alternatives.


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## Johannes91 (Oct 4, 2007)

AvGalen said:


> ... programs that (hopefully) will all work without downloading.


Just being curious, are you going to use Java or JavaScript (or something else)?



ExoCorsair said:


> While it's not a bad idea, I do think that there are better blogging alternatives.


I agree. After all, this is mostly a forum, and the blogging is just an extra feature. Naturally some websites that are solely concentrating on blogging should be better.


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## TimMc (Oct 4, 2007)

*Yes, but...*

Instead of integrating a blog in a forum system it might be better to create a new system from scratch...

It'd be a big job for one web programmer...

Design ideas would be good first 

User Pages <- Journals, Commenting, YouTube embed videos, Solve Times, Graphs, Statistics
Private Messages
Forum
Chat Room
Statistical Analysis of entire database (user comparisons etc, e.g. Fastest/Slowest type of Solve)

It is a pretty big job, and there aren't really any commercial benefits other than the pride and joy of creating a web site for a community of "speed solvers" where they can interact at their leisure 

Tim.


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## Lt-UnReaL (Oct 11, 2007)

Sounds like a good idea to me.  I just have a bunch of .txt's for averages from JNetCube in my documents, could make a blog out of it.


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## h3ndrik (Oct 11, 2007)

it could be used as a cube log, or as a travel diary for tournaments. i would use it, but i am still bad at cubing, so i 'd only use it as cube-log. i started taking an average every day one month ago and since then i am saving the jnetcube sessions and best averages as i cube.


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## AvGalen (Oct 11, 2007)

> Originally Posted by *AvGalen*
> 
> ... programs that (hopefully) will all work without downloading.
> Just being curious, are you going to use Java or JavaScript (or something else)?


JavaScript (clientside) + .NET (serverside) + probably SilverLight


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## Johannes91 (Oct 11, 2007)

AvGalen said:


> JavaScript


Nice.



AvGalen said:


> probably SilverLight


Not for me, then...


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## AvGalen (Oct 11, 2007)

> Not for me, then...


Why not? The download will be a lot smaller than Java and the programming languages (.NET) behind it are a lot better than Flash/Actionscript. Plugins for all major platforms (including Windows/OS X/Linux) and browsers will become available.

I am always sceptic about Microsoft technologies, but .NET is something they did pretty well. SilverLight will take a while to become as common as Flash, but I don't see any problem with the technologie itself.

Maybe you should check out this example? Or some others.


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## Johannes91 (Oct 11, 2007)

AvGalen said:


> Why not?


Not open source and doesn't work on Linux (at least not yet).



AvGalen said:


> I am always sceptic about Microsoft technologies, but .NET is something they did pretty well.


So am I, and I don't care how good/bad software they write if it's only for Windows.


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## AvGalen (Oct 11, 2007)

I don't want to turn this into a pro/con about Microsoft or open source, but if you are serious about only using open source software you are missing out on a lot of incredible software (Cube Explorer for example).

And .NET and Silverlight will not be only for Windows. Microsoft will write the software for Windows (and in the case of Silverlight also for OS X) and they will help Novell (Mono) write it for Linux.

I think Silverlight 1.1 (.NET) will be a great technology. I don't really care about Silverlight 1.0 (JavaScript). It is not available for Windows or Mac at this moment also (Alpha-only), but by the time I will have my ideas turned in to programs Silverlight 1.1 should be ready.


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## Johannes91 (Oct 12, 2007)

AvGalen said:


> I don't want to turn this into a pro/con about Microsoft or open source


Yeah, neither do I.



AvGalen said:


> but if you are serious about only using open source software you are missing out on a lot of incredible software (Cube Explorer for example).


Hasn't been a problem so far. If I wanted to use Cube Explorer (but I don't, for a few reasons) I'd have to use wine anyway because there isn't an executable for Linux. I guess I have to write my own solver...


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## Lt-UnReaL (Oct 13, 2007)

Well, any chance of this blog add on happenning?


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## pjk (Oct 13, 2007)

I am still thinking about it. Also thinking about integrating and "articles" section where users can type up articles on various things such as competitions, techniques, opinions, etc. Of course, a blog would be great for this, but maybe articles are just as good. I will probably start planning it all out and I will keep updating here, and will try to get it done over winter break if we do decide that is what we want to do.


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