The technical wizards of the Mormon Archipelago have devised a site that displays feeds and links for most Bloggernacle weblogs (grouped under various headings). It will only take you about six seconds to say, "Wow, this is cool." The whole interface is about five times slicker than any aggregator I've played with and will certainly change the way I read and visit the B'nacle weblogs I follow, as well as broaden the list of weblogs I review. This should get an award for "Best New Blogging Community Application." Very impressive. Well done, Archipelagans! Now someone explain to me ... exactly how did you do this?
This is different from Planet LDS how?
Posted by: darby howse | Mar 04, 2005 at 10:23 AM
I liked the Planet LDS concept, but it got clogged up with a lot of, uh, diverse blogs, and it puts up an entire post rather than a scannable scroll of one-line entries.
LDSBlogs.org groups the B'nacle blogs, segregating the mega-blogs so small blogs don't get lost in the crowd. "Isles of the Sea" have their own scroll box! Plus MA controls "registration" at LDSBlogs.org.
Posted by: Dave | Mar 04, 2005 at 10:48 AM
. . . exactly how did you do this?
Russ, one of the MAer's brothers, is a code-meister. He based it of magpie. Making it look pretty, that was the easy part.
Posted by: J. Stapley | Mar 04, 2005 at 01:19 PM
This is different from Planet LDS how?
Dave hit on the major points, but there is also *The Search* function.
Posted by: J. Stapley | Mar 04, 2005 at 01:21 PM
I like it myself.
Posted by: Stephen M (Ethesis) | Mar 04, 2005 at 05:16 PM
I am really interested in seeing the LDS blog community gather strength but in areas of interest. Right now I see a lot of listing of blogs, but not really communities forming. We are generally interested in LDS themes, but one theme is not like another. Some are interested in social issues, others doctrinal commentary, others intellectual debates, and so on. It would be useful if we could find some categories that were general, but that individual bloggers could self-select so they could find an area they-we-I fit into. Just a thought.
Posted by: Mark | Mar 04, 2005 at 05:36 PM
Dave, I just went nuts after reading your post, thinking about what is going on, and what could take place. I wanted to get your reaction. Come read my post and tell me what you think.
Mark
http://www.virtualtheology.org/?p=35
Posted by: mark | Mar 04, 2005 at 07:20 PM
Mark, I tried leaving comments at Virtual Theology, but they don't register. I think the B'nacle does pretty well at fostering community and interaction. It's harder than you think to categorize blogs, and if it were done I'm not sure it would really have any postive effect. Most people are general purpose bloggers rather than specialists (or "LDS blogger" is as much specialization as we can get in this community).
Posted by: Dave | Mar 04, 2005 at 09:51 PM
I’d like you ask you do do as I did (here http://ethesis.blogspot.com/2005/03/alessia-by-wilfried-decoo-alessia-i.html) and link to the Times and Seasons thread with Alessia’s name in the link to increase the chance that a web search in her name will lead her to the story.
Posted by: Stephen M (Ethesis) | Mar 04, 2005 at 10:26 PM
It took me forever with two very bright guys on the wordpress IRC channel to fix my problem, but now you can post comments.
Posted by: mark | Mar 05, 2005 at 02:36 AM
I tried posting over there with no luck yesterday too, Mark. It looks like you're working now.
I think we will never be able to segment blogs or even posts by category... We have looked at logisitics and it just doesn't seem feasible. However this search function my brother Russ fired up for us may serve the purpose you state. We are looking into archiving all the posts so we can search past posts by topic/keyword in addition to th info available in current feeds.
Posted by: Geoff Johnston | Mar 05, 2005 at 05:39 PM
This sounds very interesting. I am trying to find a dissertation topic right now. I am fascinated with blogging and on line communication and interaction. That is probably why I seem a bit overboard with the analysis of the thing. I have a new post on the subject. I would be interested in your thoughts.
http://www.virtualtheology.org/2005/03/05/researching-the-bloggernacle/
Posted by: mark | Mar 05, 2005 at 07:18 PM
Mark, I cleared out some space on my Second Twelve list and added Virtual Theology, and left a garbled comment over at VT.
Posted by: Dave | Mar 05, 2005 at 10:19 PM
Hey thanks for the link inclusion. I am reading a paper that you might be interested in. It is written by David Wiley and Erin Edwards-Brewer: Online self-organizing social systems: The decentralized future of online learning. http://wiley.ed.usu.edu/docs/ososs.pdf
I will write a post tomorrow or Monday if I can about it. It is thought provoking. I know Dave (He is my chair). I want to talk with him about this paper and what people are trying to do with the Bloggernacle (I really don't like that term).
Posted by: mark | Mar 06, 2005 at 12:48 AM
Mark, I find that the term "LDS blogging community" sounds better, at times, than "Bloggernacle."
Posted by: Dave | Mar 07, 2005 at 04:17 AM