recommendations for a novice blogger

Matrix Games Forums

Forums Register Login Photo Gallery Member List Search Calendars FAQ

My Profile Inbox Address Book My Subscription My Forums Log Out

recommendations for a novice blogger

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [General] >> General Discussion >> recommendations for a novice blogger

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

recommendations for a novice blogger - 4/8/2010 4:09:40 PM

dogancan

Posts: 189
Joined: 9/25/2007
From: Ankara - Turkey
Status: offline

hi all,

I am planning to launch a blog in Turkish on 'serious' wargames. I have been playing a number of matrix titles for 3 years and just began to try some boardgames as well. even if I donot (i.e. cannot) play enough to become a 'good player' in any of those titles, I am still eager to launch a blog about these.

Wargaming and board gaming are not really known in Turkey, and I want to introduce the Matrix titles and some boardgames to those who think that command and conquer is a strategy title and risk is the ultimate boardgame on war.

So here are my questions:
1) which host fits best for a blog that will have many aar photos and spossibly ome videos. I do have a blog on blogspot, but that is on politics and I need nothing but uploading my texts. I am not sure if blogspot/blogger is the best place for a blog with much more multimedia content.

2)is there any software (hopefully freeware) that can simplfy the process of taking screenshots, writing some texts on them, drawing one or two arrows, and than saving the file as jpg? or am I limiteed with the printscreen key and GIMP?

3)Is there any freeware to capture my play as a video file, so I can publish them on my blog?

4) uh, and will that be legal to capture the gameplay of matrix titles for introductory purposes?

thanks for your help. I am hoping to launch it somewhere around june with plenty of content. Hope I can attract some attention and find someone with whom I can play boardgames in Ankara...

Post #: 1

RE: recommendations for a novice blogger - 4/8/2010 5:56:33 PM

Widell

Posts: 913
Joined: 4/27/2005
From: Trollh�ttan, Sweden
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: dogancan
1) which host fits best for a blog that will have many aar photos and spossibly ome videos.

I prefer to set up my own server hosted by a solid provider (I use www.one.com and is extremely happy with them, but there are many others out there). Then set up your own blog using any of the free blog server packages (Search for PHP Blog or something similar and you'll find a bunch of free packages to set up on your server) or if your host provide it as part of the package. I have tried http://www.mediawiki.org, but I'm sure there are simpler and more developed alternatives out there (?)

quote:

ORIGINAL: dogancan
I am not sure if blogspot/blogger is the best place for a blog with much more multimedia content.

Can't say, but what if you go blogspot/blogger and combine with flickr and youtube? Would that solve your issue?

quote:

ORIGINAL: dogancan
2)is there any software (hopefully freeware) that can simplfy the process of taking screenshots, writing some texts on them, drawing one or two arrows, and than saving the file as jpg? or am I limiteed with the printscreen key and GIMP?

I think you may end up with one app that captures your screenshot and saves it in a useful format, and another to add the arrows and text. I used (lost it at last computer change and forgot the name. There are many out there, so go Google or whatever) a free screenshot app and the OpenOffice version of Powerpoint which is free to add the text and stuff, then you can copy/paste to GIMP and export as whatever format you need for your blog.

quote:

ORIGINAL: dogancan
3)Is there any freeware to capture my play as a video file, so I can publish them on my blog?

I use http://camstudio.org/ for this. Not the most user friendly, but it's free and does the trick!

quote:

ORIGINAL: dogancan
4) uh, and will that be legal to capture the gameplay of matrix titles for introductory purposes?

Given that AAR's with screenies are allowed and encouraged, I can't see why not, but you may want to check with Eric Rutins just to make sure if there are limitations in general or for specific titles.

Good Luck!

< Message edited by Widell -- 4/8/2010 5:57:05 PM >

_____________________________

(in reply to dogancan)

Post #: 2

RE: recommendations for a novice blogger - 4/8/2010 7:40:52 PM

vsadek

Posts: 125
Joined: 1/3/2010
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: dogancan

2)is there any software (hopefully freeware) that can simplfy the process of taking screenshots, writing some texts on them, drawing one or two arrows, and than saving the file as jpg? or am I limiteed with the printscreen key and GIMP?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Widell

I think you may end up with one app that captures your screenshot and saves it in a useful format, and another to add the arrows and text. I used (lost it at last computer change and forgot the name. There are many out there, so go Google or whatever) a free screenshot app and the OpenOffice version of Powerpoint which is free to add the text and stuff, then you can copy/paste to GIMP and export as whatever format you need for your blog.

I agree with Widell. In the end you will probably combine two utilities, one for captures and the other one for editing your screenshots. From my own experience I can recommend you: Cropper for screen capturing and Paint.NET for editing. Both of them are freeware and I use them extensively on my work and at home.

Wish you all the best with your blog project.

_____________________________

(in reply to dogancan)

Post #: 3

RE: recommendations for a novice blogger - 4/8/2010 9:23:45 PM

Arctic Blast

Posts: 1168
Joined: 4/4/2007
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: dogancan

hi all,

I am planning to launch a blog in Turkish on 'serious' wargames. I have been playing a number of matrix titles for 3 years and just began to try some boardgames as well. even if I donot (i.e. cannot) play enough to become a 'good player' in any of those titles, I am still eager to launch a blog about these.

Wargaming and board gaming are not really known in Turkey, and I want to introduce the Matrix titles and some boardgames to those who think that command and conquer is a strategy title and risk is the ultimate boardgame on war.

So here are my questions:
1) which host fits best for a blog that will have many aar photos and spossibly ome videos. I do have a blog on blogspot, but that is on politics and I need nothing but uploading my texts. I am not sure if blogspot/blogger is the best place for a blog with much more multimedia content.

2)is there any software (hopefully freeware) that can simplfy the process of taking screenshots, writing some texts on them, drawing one or two arrows, and than saving the file as jpg? or am I limiteed with the printscreen key and GIMP?

3)Is there any freeware to capture my play as a video file, so I can publish them on my blog?

4) uh, and will that be legal to capture the gameplay of matrix titles for introductory purposes?

thanks for your help. I am hoping to launch it somewhere around june with plenty of content. Hope I can attract some attention and find someone with whom I can play boardgames in Ankara...

How comfortable are you with actually running and maintaining a blog? Even if you're a relative novice, you'd probably be better off checking out something more customizable. Wordpress doesn't take long to get a basic handle on. If you're going to have your site hosted on a rented block of server space (which is the way to go), I would definitely look in to Wordpress. You can customize everything. If you want to write out your own script, you can build a site from the ground up. If not, there are thousands of themes and add on plugins to customize it to the way you want it, and that now has automatic updating. Also, if you flat out don't like the Wordpress posting software in the back end, you can use something like Windows Live Writer to post to your blog.

There are two Wordpress varieties...the kind that you host on rented server space, and the kind that's hosted by WP(but has far fewer customization options).

I have 2 active blogs that are both of the hosted variety...you can take a look if you want. Neither is anything too fancy, but it might at least give you an idea of what you can do. My blog, and The DRM News (which I do with 2 other people).

_____________________________

Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily.

(in reply to dogancan)

Post #: 4

RE: recommendations for a novice blogger - 4/10/2010 12:31:02 PM

cantona2

Posts: 3749
Joined: 5/21/2007
From: Gibraltar
Status: offline

Not ever having got into Blogs but recently having come across some useful ones, what blogs do you guys follow?

_____________________________

1966 was a great year for English Football...Eric was born

(in reply to Arctic Blast)

Post #: 5

RE: recommendations for a novice blogger - 4/17/2010 11:28:36 PM

dogancan

Posts: 189
Joined: 9/25/2007
From: Ankara - Turkey
Status: offline

many thanks to all for your help. I began using wordpress, and mentioned programs. But am still in the warm-up phase...

(in reply to cantona2)

Post #: 6

RE: recommendations for a novice blogger - 4/18/2010 9:12:59 PM

Arctic Blast

Posts: 1168
Joined: 4/4/2007
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: dogancan

many thanks to all for your help. I began using wordpress, and mentioned programs. But am still in the warm-up phase... �

Glad to be of help. Hopefully it works out for you.

_____________________________

Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily.

(in reply to dogancan)

Post #: 7