User:Forgottenlord/Blogs

This is a draft page for the new blogs policy page

Blogs Generally
Blogs are, well, blogs. More accurately, its the community opinions through a critique-- check out Special:ArticlesHome. Blog pages are wiki pages like any other, except that they are framed so that they have only one author. Edits are typically of the non-substantive variety -- that is, edits for formatting, grammar, layout, wikification are accepted, but changes to the authors tone or thesis are discouraged. Blogs use a custom skin specific to the Blog: namespace. Moving a page into the Blog: namespace will result in that page receiving that skin. Skin nuances:
 * The page has an author attributed to it. The author can be added/edited by adding the page to
 * The author’s name appears on a by-line and in the “About the Author” box. The author’s “About Me” section from his or her Social Profile is also in that box.
 * The page’s creation and last edited date appear under the by-line
 * Other contributors (that is, others who edited the page) appear in the “About the Author” box.
 * Users other than the author who voted for the article also appear in the “About the Author” box

Blog articles make it to the top of the blog homepage -- Special:ArticlesHome -- when they receive a certain number of votes and/or unique commentors commenting.

Commenting
Each blog article has comments at the end of it. You can add comments to any page on the site -- not just blog articles.

To add comment functionality to a page, put on the page.

You can also add the following elements within the &lt;comments&gt; tag: Enter usernames separated by commas to allow only those users to add comments. You can, effectively, lock comments by putting something like Allow=DNL there. By default, comments can be rated positively or negatively by any logged-in user. This allows users to only give pluses to comments.
 * Allow=Usernames
 * Voting=Plus

Blogs vs Forums
Blogs are not meant to be a replacement of Halopedia's forums. While forums are meant for discussion, blogs are meant to present the viewpoint of a single author. If your intent is to gather opinions or input of other members of the community, it belongs on the forum.

If the blog is more suited for the forums, the admins will indicate that it belongs on the forums and a minimum of 24 hrs will be given to move the blog to the forums

Blog rules
Blogs must:
 * 1) Be Halo or Halopedia related.
 * 2) Have a thesis or purpose
 * 3) Be understandable to the average user.

Warnings for violations will be given and 3 consecutive warnings will result in a ban.