Hello everyone, I have a new feature to share with you today! It's not quite complete yet, but it's close enough that I wanted to get it out there and see if there's any feedback.

As the thread title suggests, the idea here is that you can post your own blog entries. These entries certainly aren't as powerful as what you could find on a WordPress-powered site, but they will provide a way for you to write up some text, apply basic formatting, link to images / videos, etc. They operate very similar to stacks in that nobody can see them until you publish them. After that, they're available for all to see! You can always edit the content, even once it's published.

Much like stacks, you can comment on blog posts, but you might notice it looks a little different this time. I tried to enhance the commenting system with some minor UI tweaks and I also added the ability to reply to messages directly. There aren't any notifications hooked into these yet, but that's always a possibility in the future.

You're also able to "like" a blog post (similar to stacks) and you can subscribe to a "blog" (though what you're really doing is subscribing / following a fellow community member).

There are two new menu items that you should now see:

• Content --> My Blog Entries - This is where you can manage YOUR blog entries.
• Community --> User Blogs - This is where you can see all PUBLISHED blog entries (including your own). They're sorted such that the most recently published ones are on the top. You can also filter down to just the users / blogs you're subscribed to.

As I mentioned earlier, this feature isn't complete and there are a number of things left on my to-do list, so things might still seem a little rough around the edges. The curation team has been piloting the system for about a week now. As of this posting, the feature is now available to the entire community, but only curators and Patreon Mega Backers are able to create blog entries for now. Once I'm able to iron things out a bit more, then it will roll out to the rest of the community.

If you have any feedback, please feel free to post here and let me know. I hope you enjoy the new feature!

Hello, when I try and create a blog post, it sends me to the home page and doesn't create anything.

Currently, only curators and Patreon Mega Backers can create blog posts. This allows the system to be piloted a bit and gives me time to finish some of the other pieces. I'm not sure why the button is showing up for you though, that sounds like a bug

EDIT: Should be fixed now, sorry for the confusion!

I pushed out a few enhancements this morning:

• Added a notification (bell icon) when you have unread comments on a blog entry you created
• Added a notification (bell icon) when someone you're subscribed to posts a new blog entry (will drop off automatically after 14 days)
• Added support for strikethrough formatting
• Modified the layout of the Browse Blog Entries page so it works a little better on tablet resolutions

Gotta say I love this idea. This site just keeps getting better and better!

Thank you so much for all the hard work you've put into this! I will definitely be using this feature when it's out, as I find the "thoughts" thing a bit limiting when I am trying to review recent games I've played. =)

yea!! love the blog idea! ditto what method said, thank you for all the hard work to make this site a great place and community!

So just curious. Can this become similar to Articles, except all members (or currently curators and Patreon backers) can make them? So if I wanted to, for example, do a full game review, I could make a blog post?

Everyone should now be able to create blog entries! I still have some enhancements on my list to help flesh out this feature a bit more, but it should be pretty stable at this point.

@Nonemployee - Blog entries are very similar to articles, but will be routed differently throughout the site. You can definitely use your blog to write reviews.

Not sure if this is planned or not, but would be cool if you could add your own images from your local drive to your blog post, though I understand the security risk with such a feature. It would make it easier to post custom images though.

Oh, also, will the blog posts be visible on our profiles? Similar to our stacks, collection and other content.

Just wondering, are reviews of adaptations of video games (e.g. The Super Mario Bros Movie, The Legend of Zelda mangas) allowed since they are video game related (and reviews will likely compare them to the original games)?
Similar question, are posts detailing different media (e.g. movies and TV shows) that would work well as games allowed? (e.g. why these 5 movies could work as video games)

@method - I considered adding the ability to upload images directly, but for now it's not on my radar. Blog posts will be integrated in other places on the site though

@Cheesyben - Sure, everything you mentioned would be fine!

There a way to delete a blog entry? I had a finger pain spasm (thanks early onset arthritis!) and double-clicked the create Blog button which resulted in a duplicate I'd like to delete.