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Orion Elenzil   (Aug 12, 2007 at 09:48 GMT)

i love gg blog but why aren't more of those posts in the regular GG news section or similar ?

Tim Heldna   (Aug 12, 2007 at 12:27 GMT)   Resource Rating: 3

I think I know where you're headed Orion and if I'm correct about my assumption, I tend to agree.

One problem I have with GG is that they love to spread information out all over the place. The documentation for the engine is a classic example. People complain about the lack of documentation however I suspect that's because they can't find it - I've found the TGE documentation to be quite extensive, it's just not organized within a central location. For instance, there's some useful information here and some more over here and here. Then there's the Torque Developer Network (TDN), the resources and all the other various pieces of vital information scattered all over the place within the forums. Speaking of the forums, there's about a million different topic categories, no sticky topics and the search mechanism leaves a lot to be desired. I can't preview a post before submitting it and there's a bug that kicks in every so often that marks all posts unread.

Aside from all that we have the "News" section within the What's New page, a snapshot of the day section which usually mirrors what has been posted within the news section and finally a blog section. Now we have another whole new site dedicated to another news and blog section - it just seems like too much. I think we need a little more solidarity and continuity.

Mike Rowley   (Aug 12, 2007 at 14:11 GMT)

The blog would be better if the text were at the top instead of under the side bar.
You can see a pic here

As a side note, are you going to make a small graphic that people can use to link from their websites?

And...stupid newbie question....
How do you add an rss feed to an html page?? I tried copy/pasting the feed info to my html page but it came out looking all wonkey.

Benjamin Bradley   (Aug 12, 2007 at 18:03 GMT)   Resource Rating: 1

Why would I promote your garageblog, when I can promote the RSS feed for employees / associates / people who write blogs with substance? Not trying to be aggressive or combative, but what does your little garageblog side project bring to the table?

RSS Feed for Employees
RSS Feed for Associates
RSS Feed for News Items

All of these already exist. Your garageblog isn't telling me anything new about how to make my game. Is there future direction to your garageblog that will talk more about using Torque technology to make my game? Or is it kinda a "watercooler" blog where we can learn about your fascination of coffee and all things lebowski?

Matthew Langley   (Aug 12, 2007 at 19:15 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5

It seems to me the general goal with the GarageBlog is for Curt to post general info about GG, like GameFest, job postings etc, as well as anything interesting we've internally shared with him. Considering GG employees haven't been the best at posting our own blogs over the past few months this gives a single outlet that we can pass some info that we are intrigued with on to the GG community, for those that are interested.

I think its great because if I, or any other GG employee, has found something interesting (like an article, non GG product release, posting thread, random event at GG office, etc) that I think the community might be interested in I can pass it on to Curt and he can blog about it.

Guess in a way the goal is to better our general communication with the GG community since we've been slacking on personal blogs. Also some things don't completely justify a personal blog so this is a great place for them to go :)

Dan -   (Aug 12, 2007 at 22:57 GMT)

Is the plan then to link new topics on this blog on the whats new at GarageGames page? Honestly if I have to go to another site/web page/whatever I probably wont. Not sure if others are that way, but I use the "Whats new at GG Page" as "one stop" to see if something interests me.

~ edited to read better.
Edited on Aug 12, 2007 23:00 GMT

ArmedGeek   (Aug 12, 2007 at 23:29 GMT)   Resource Rating: 1

Personally, I'd rather see GG spend more effort on, you know, their code.

Orion Elenzil   (Aug 13, 2007 at 00:10 GMT)

Quote:

---

I use the "Whats new at GG Page" as "one stop" to see if something interests me.

---

Dan put it well, and i think Tim and myself agree: i just don't have the time/diligence to check yet another outlet of GG news. i also use the "What's new" page as my home. i refresh it often.

having an easy outlet for GG employees to get interesting stuff published is totally great,
and Curt's articles are well written and definitely interesting, it's just the choice of outlet which is weird.

there's a perfectly good "news" section as well as a blogs section on the main GG site.
why not send the news-style items to .. well, the news section of the GG site, and the less-newsy but no less interesting posts to a special GG blog account in the .. well, the blogs section of the GG site ?

as for the job postings,
i have to say that putting them in a blog just seems crazy.
i've never seen that anywhere else.
what's wrong with putting them in the .. well, the jobs section of the GG site ?

again, i don't want to give the impression that i'm down on the content: the content is great. it's just the outlet which seems wonky.

James Brad Barnette   (Aug 13, 2007 at 14:39 GMT)   Resource Rating: 1

You guys please focus on the engine and stop all of this nonsense. The what's new page is more than enough.

Mark Hendrickson   (Aug 13, 2007 at 17:55 GMT)

I think there is a misunderstanding, Curt is our social media guy, that's what he does. He has no control over the engines or codes or anything, and his job is in fact to focus on "all of this nonsense." I think that everyone should just ease up for a second and take a breath. There is still a long way to go and no one can say what the garageblog will become. So instead of blindly bashing it from the outset, why not offer constructive criticism while remaining cautiously optimistic at the very least? Nit picking doesn't help anyone.

James Brad Barnette   (Aug 13, 2007 at 18:23 GMT)   Resource Rating: 1

ok I have an idea. once a week on the blog post a list of what is being worked on and what progress has been made. Then people will always know what is going on and no one will have anything to fuss about. When a developer has a delay on fixing something have him tell curt and curt can put it in the blog then we can adjust our dev schedules accordingly.

My appologies to Curt. I'm sorry for starting off that way. I know you are just doing your job. I'm sure you are very good at it. I will add the GarageBlog to my site.

Stephan (viKKing) Bondier   (Aug 13, 2007 at 19:49 GMT)

Wasn't the point of garageblog to help GG staff knowing what users want?
I think this is part of the reply from the community.

I don't mean garageblog is a bad idea; it's always better to have someone bringing news from GG than being too silent.
So, I think Curt will bring some GG life here. :)

On the other hand, maybe this new blog was not perfectly planned, and I too do admit another site is a bit too much.
Maybe an email to people interested in receiving the blog directly at home?

James Brad Barnette   (Aug 14, 2007 at 13:51 GMT)   Resource Rating: 1

you mean like a newsletter?

Stephan (viKKing) Bondier   (Aug 14, 2007 at 14:09 GMT)

@James: yes and no, an email could be sent to subscribers of the blog each time it is updated.
A weekly or daily option could be provided too.

James Brad Barnette   (Aug 14, 2007 at 14:10 GMT)   Resource Rating: 1

or you could just use the RSS feature that is there.

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