Great post, hopefully all the tiny nuances with the system have been sorted out and all the features work as intended. I do feel that featured blogs should get visibility on the main page (as the sidebar currently shows most recent blogs instead of featured blogs, which was part of throatslasher's initial concerns with the blog system as-is). Currently, to get to the list of featured blogs, it's a distance of 2 clicks from the Mobafire main page, which non-regulars will probably not bother with since it's rather well-buried.
Once the featured blog system settles in and we feel featured blogs are consistently high quality we plan to move the blog feed up on the front page and put only featured blogs there.
It's in the plan, it's in the plan. ;)
It's in the plan, it's in the plan. ;)
Thanks to GrandMasterD for my sig!
We decided against allowing anyone other than mods to decrease the feature level of articles, to avoid situations where someone demotes a lot of blogs for the "wrong reasons", and to avoid potential struggles where two people continually promote/demote an article.
If you accidentally promote one, just use the report system to ask a mod to undo it :)
If you accidentally promote one, just use the report system to ask a mod to undo it :)
afaik all blogs are just 'listed' and there's a drop down menu that scout ranked or higher members can change from 'listed' to 'featured' to get a blog featured.
Thanks for undoing that, Matt :]
Thanks for undoing that, Matt :]
@throatslasher, if you go to the blog homepage, there is a featured blogger box in the right hand sidebar. There are 5 authors listed there (including you), those are the only featured authors right now, no one else is featured as an author.
Now, featured AUTHORS, are different from featured ARTICLES. Being a featured author means that you have the power to feature your own articles, and the articles of others. Regular users that are not featured authors, cannot feature any articles.
So when you are viewing an article written by someone else, you will see a dropdown at the top left, that allows you to select a different feature level for that article. You only have access to that because you are a featured author.
Additionally, when editing your own articles, you will have a dropdown at the bottom with three settings; Featured, Listed and Delisted. Non-featured authors do not have the "Featured" option included here, so they can't feature their own articles.
Sorry it's a little hard to explain! I hope that helps.
Now, featured AUTHORS, are different from featured ARTICLES. Being a featured author means that you have the power to feature your own articles, and the articles of others. Regular users that are not featured authors, cannot feature any articles.
So when you are viewing an article written by someone else, you will see a dropdown at the top left, that allows you to select a different feature level for that article. You only have access to that because you are a featured author.
Additionally, when editing your own articles, you will have a dropdown at the bottom with three settings; Featured, Listed and Delisted. Non-featured authors do not have the "Featured" option included here, so they can't feature their own articles.
Sorry it's a little hard to explain! I hope that helps.
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For Featured Bloggers:
For those that are featured bloggers you have to follow a few guidelines if you want to remain featured bloggers.
2. You must remain well behaved and respectful in your blog / blog comments
3. If your blog gets defeatured, don't refeature it yourself
You will also notice there is a drop down list when making or viewing a blog. This dropdown will allow you to control the feature level of your own blogs, as well as promote other user's blogs by making that specific blog featured. If you want to feature a blog select "featured," regular listing select "listed," and if you don't want your blog in the regular listings select "delisted." Blogs written by featured users will be set to "Featured" by default.
As a featured blogger you only have the ability to promote blogs, and not to reduce their visibility. If you see a blog you feel should be removed from the listing it's in, simply report it and a moderator or admin will take a look at it.
For Scouts / Veterans:
Scouts and Veterans also have the ability to promote an individual blog to the Featured tab. You can do this by using the dropdown menu and selecting the "Featured" option. Make sure you read the rules for Featured Bloggers above before you feature any blogs.
If you feature a blog and you later find it's defeatured do not refeature it. Only Mods and Admins can reduce the visibility of blogs so do not go against their decision.
If we find that users are abusing this system we may reduce / remove this power. For all of those that have the power to feature guides please be smart and objective about which guides you feature.