I don't really understand what the purpose/desire is to having blogging capability in a forum software.
I'm sure there are valid reasons, I just can't seem to get my head around what they might be.
I can only speak for myself of course, but I run an automotive discussion forum and use subscriptions to provide different "benefits" for my users. Since most of my users are car enthusiasts, I offer blogs for a certain level of membership (Gold) so they can chronicle their car-related activities, for example). The blogs allow my members an easy way to have their own web space on my site and they are very popular.
My 2 cents.
Thanks Basil for your perspective on the blog feature.
Like I said in my post, I just couldn't wrap my head around how they would be used in a forum system.
Now I can see where a expanded user profile in a "miniblog" form could be a useful thing to build interest in the community members, and by extension the community itself.
I never said they were a bad idea. Although from a development perspective if revamping the UI helped ease the integration of features such as, blogs, classified ads and whatever else Rick may have in mind, I think it makes sense from a project/resource efficiency perspective to lay the groundwork first.
Which ever gets done first is fine by me!
