"Blog" vs Forum Postings

[clawbennett]

Okay, so I see add-ons for Xenforo and other larger forum softwares for Blogging ability. Why would one add a 'blog' to their forum? In my opinion they're two completely different things. I currently have a blog site and a forum site... and I am really considering merging the two together somehow, but really don't want to lose the revenue from either site if I choose one over the other.

So I guess, why bother with built in blogging scripts in a forum?

 

[Robust]

They're like a personal space in a community (the forum) - actually makes sense to have one for some forum types.

To some extents, profile posts function as a blog (more like a Twitter feed, I suppose, so a miniblog). It's a bit like every member having a forum to themselves to post about whatever. It can be good to make communities more close-knit, and especially good for some communities.

 

[clawbennett]

So, let me throw in another element and get some opinions.

I have a rather popular YouTube channel and I am building a forum at the moment and a rather par blog that I type content into to go along with the videos that are hosted on YouTube. Recently, I have had a lot of people asking about a Facebook page where they can contact me or something of the sort. I am torn really between how to best handle all this content.

My blog site does NOT get a ton of traffic regardless of cross-linking from YouTube. So, the content I create there is just really for myself and possible revenue from those who do come across it because it does have ads on it.

I like the idea of a community within a forum because they would be able to post their own topics, etc. And my forum is a work in progress at the moment and has no real posters on it as I just recently set it up. However, for my own content, I guess it could act as a "blog" but in a post/thread fashion where we can have discussions, etc.

Now, Facebook was brought up, facebook is unorganized, chaotic, and some posts won't be seen by others because of the whole "friends" issues, etc. So, my new question is, do I create a Facebook page for commenting and linking from the blog, kill the blog site and post strictly to the forum and link back and forth to facebook, ignore Facebook altogether or try and manage all three?

 

[clawbennett]

Oh, maybe knowing a bit about the content would help. I do a lot of tutorials, step by steps things, reviews, etc.

 

[Yugensoft]

Both are basically content managers. A blog is content (the article) + content (comments on it). A forum is content (a thread & starting post) + content (the reply posts).

The difference is how the content appears and how it's generated. In a blog, the control and presentation of the content is primarily for "authors", a small set of dedicated writers, often just the person who made the blog. The comments are just supplementary; other people can respond to the blog post, but it's not the core focus.

In a forum, it's more about the discussion. A post at the top of the thread "ranks" about the same in terms of visual importance as a reply post, and there are more features to encourage discussion, and everyone and their content visually ranks the same (host, moderator, or newbie alike all get the same post interface).

Some people don't want to discuss stuff, they just want to read a centralized, easily siftable set of articles. Some people want to discuss more. Forums are bad for the former (good post content can be strewn throughout threads and threads can randomly be gold or junk); and blogs are bad for the latter (usually clumsy interface, visually de-emphasized and compressed at the bottom of an article).

So I think it's good to have both to cater to both groups. It's not too difficult to combine the two into one website, since both are based on LAMP stack.

 

[clawbennett]

I am trying to find a good solution for implementing both into the forum. Like a good article/blog section or add-on.

 

[Digital Doctor]

I am trying to find a good solution for implementing both into the forum. Like a good article/blog section or add-on.

Wordpress and XenWord.
Accept nothing less.

I've never seen a good blog for a forum.
But I've only been interested for 20 years.
Still looking.

Wordpress FTW.

Both are basically content managers. A blog is content (the article) + content (comments on it). A forum is content (a thread & starting post) + content (the reply posts).

The difference is how the content appears and how it's generated. In a blog, the control and presentation of the content is primarily for "authors", a small set of dedicated writers, often just the person who made the blog. The comments are just supplementary; other people can respond to the blog post, but it's not the core focus.

In a forum, it's more about the discussion. A post at the top of the thread "ranks" about the same in terms of visual importance as a reply post, and there are more features to encourage discussion, and everyone and their content visually ranks the same (host, moderator, or newbie alike all get the same post interface).

Some people don't want to discuss stuff, they just want to read a centralized, easily siftable set of articles. Some people want to discuss more. Forums are bad for the former (good post content can be strewn throughout threads and threads can randomly be gold or junk); and blogs are bad for the latter (usually clumsy interface, visually de-emphasized and compressed at the bottom of an article).

So I think it's good to have both to cater to both groups. It's not too difficult to combine the two into one website, since both are based on LAMP stack.

Genius.

 

[Astra]

And how to be those who used to write articles on the forum and then discuss them in the forum? A blog must be necessarily part of the forum. The forum is an elaborate social network and there should be both blogs and social groups. Only the forum is a very narrow neck. At one time vB went the right way in the 4th version, but they could not connect all this qualitatively, so at the moment so many users are looking at XF and thinking how to tie all their systems together. I have several large forums on vB and I also do not know how to switch to XF - and I want and can not find all that is in vB

 

[Golddisk]

I have a rather popular YouTube channel and I am building a forum at the moment and a rather par blog that I type content into to go along with the videos that are hosted on YouTube. Recently, I have had a lot of people asking about a Facebook page where they can contact me or something of the sort. I am torn really between how to best handle all this content.

Yugensoft's message answered the question about the blog vs. forum thing very well. The Facebook question throws a whole another wrench into the situation though. You're right that Facebook can be unorganized and chaotic. However, the "friends" thing only becomes an issue depending on how you setup your account for your tutorials page. You wouldn't want to create a profile, you would want to create page. This would be viewable by everyone, and anyone could like/follow your page.

There are benefits and drawbacks to this. If your focus is really on your YouTube stuff, I think a FB page could be a good way to increase traffic to your videos. On the other hand, Facebook pages and blogs/forums usually don't work well together. There are some exceptions to the rule, but its not across the board.

Looking at just the forum/blog thing:
If you are really just looking to post tutorials, videos, and reviews, a blog and YouTube account would probably be the best vehicle for that. If you want to promote discussions, have others share their ideas, tutorials, etc. then a forum and YouTube account would be your better choice. If you would prefer to use the Facebook option, it could easily fill in as either the blog or forum.

 

[Astra]

Forums very often unite people with a narrow specialization, in FB for example it will not be interesting to have prosthetics and a description of the operation. And the forum needs a blog, for example, in which matter to focus on this particular issue. And then it would be great when this doctor has his blog on the profile forum - where he gives out the material to a narrow circle of people.