The LOTRO Follower has posted an idea about a centralized LOTRO blogging community. Many of us have posted our comments and thoughts on the manner. Each and every one of us has our individual blog goals. Some of them overlap, some of them don't. Furthermore, each blog has it's own personality, a reflection of that blogger's take on LOTRO and the world around him or her. While I like the idea of a more cohesive community, I don't think giving up each individual blog to create a unified one is the correct way to go about it.
I'd like to see a post aggregator (much like Google Reader does for blogs, which is what I use to keep up on the ones I follow) either integrated into each blog's sidebar or perhaps a unique site that is functions only in this manner. I suppose an integrated feed might accomplish the same thing, but whatever the system, it needs to retain the individual identities of each of the blogs - to retain the benefits of all of them. We each have something unique to offer and the community would only suffer should that uniqueness disappear in a well meaning attempt to build cohesiveness.
Right now, I endeavor to mention blog posts that I find particularly stimulating (not that all of them aren't worth reading) but I cannot link to all of them all the time. It would bloat my posts and push my own content into the "margins" so to speak. As it stands, I have about 1/3 original content and commentary and 2/3 linked content from other blogs, Massively, or the official site. It's something to think about as an emerging community.
In the mean time I have redesigned my blog roll. It is now divided in two. First is as best of an aggregator as I can manage for the LOTRO exclusive blogs. It includes the name of the blog, the title of the most recent post and the date posted. I thought about including a snippet, but I think that becomes too much text and overpowers the rest of the sidebar functions. The lower blog roll is for all other non-LOTRO or non-exclusively LOTRO blogs but still related to The Middle-Earth Adventurer's interests.
I'd like to see a post aggregator (much like Google Reader does for blogs, which is what I use to keep up on the ones I follow) either integrated into each blog's sidebar or perhaps a unique site that is functions only in this manner. I suppose an integrated feed might accomplish the same thing, but whatever the system, it needs to retain the individual identities of each of the blogs - to retain the benefits of all of them. We each have something unique to offer and the community would only suffer should that uniqueness disappear in a well meaning attempt to build cohesiveness.
Right now, I endeavor to mention blog posts that I find particularly stimulating (not that all of them aren't worth reading) but I cannot link to all of them all the time. It would bloat my posts and push my own content into the "margins" so to speak. As it stands, I have about 1/3 original content and commentary and 2/3 linked content from other blogs, Massively, or the official site. It's something to think about as an emerging community.
In the mean time I have redesigned my blog roll. It is now divided in two. First is as best of an aggregator as I can manage for the LOTRO exclusive blogs. It includes the name of the blog, the title of the most recent post and the date posted. I thought about including a snippet, but I think that becomes too much text and overpowers the rest of the sidebar functions. The lower blog roll is for all other non-LOTRO or non-exclusively LOTRO blogs but still related to The Middle-Earth Adventurer's interests.
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2 Responses to "The LOTRO Blogging Community"
add me too! :) (I'm not exclusive in my blogging but I play Lotro almost exclusively)
I've checked out your blog and like what I see. I've added you to the "Other Adventurers" section of the sidebar. Welcome!
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