Yesterday member dobar asked why nobody had told him that a blogging facility now exists on FlightSim.com. I told him I was writing a feature article on that very subject. I sent it off to webmaster Nels Anderson early this morning, but I thought I'd give the readers of my blog a chance to see the article before other people do. I'm particularly interested in feedback regarding the parody song lyrics at the very bottom of the piece ...

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In a recent news article located here [Link Expired] webmaster Nels Anderson did a short writeup of the new appearance and features of the revised FlightSim.com web site. I’m now going to write at some length about the blogs feature.

The term “blog” stands for “web log”. A blog is effectively a person’s personal forum, but one that is open to the public. The blog owner (an ordinary forum user like you or me) can make posts which, if readers care to comment, become de facto threads in the blog. Anybody who is registered to the forums can start his or her own blog. That person can moderate the blog. The blog owner also can post comments to the threads in the blog (or to other peoples’ blogs), so each blog truly does behave like a privately manged forum. (Note: As often as not “blog” here will be used in lieu of “post”. So it is perfectly correct Internet technobabble to say that a blogger is someone who blogs to blogs. J)

As one blogger said, “Why on earth would anybody be interested in anything I have to say?” Well, mon ami, all people are interesting, everybody has something important, or educational, or entertaining, to say to the world on many different subjects. Blogs are a terrific way to do this. Blogs let you too be an author, and they let you write articles on essentially anything you want without having to submit them in advance to the Great Webmaster In The Sky, and therefore with no waiting.

Maybe you will write about your job, or your other hobbies, or the feminine curves of your favorite aircraft, or the way your daughter repainted her room. I don’t know. I don’t care. All I know is that if you write blogs I’m going to read them. And I’ll probably engage you in conversation because I love talking with people about the things that interest them, things about which they feel strongly enough to write. (Sure, once this thing gets going I’ll step back and let everybody talk to everybody else. However, I’m still going to blog on my own, and it would be interesting if other people wanted to talk with me.)

What’s different about blogs? What do blogs do for us that forum private mail or real world email don’t do?

The main difference is that even if you and I don’t know one another – even if we didn’t know that the other person even existed – we can become friends because I can see what you write, you can see what I write. We can make our lives intertwine in this special way if that’s what we would like to do. No form of electronic mail can do this.

Now … While I don’t speak for FlightSim.com I’ve been posting to my own blog under the following self-imposed rules …

1 – No politics, religion, sex or profanity. (Maybe tasteful vague hints but nothing overt.) In general, if I wouldn’t be willing to shout <whatever> through a bullhorn at my work because some people might take offense then I won’t write about <whatever>. Similarly, if I wouldn’t want my nine-year-old granddaughter to hear my shouts about <whatever> then I won’t write it.

Beyond those rules essentially anything goes as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been writing about anything and everything and very little of it has had to do with either aviation or simming. As often as not a certain good friend will chime in with some comment or other and that will get a conversation going between us. The conversation can end up being wide-ranging because in my blog there is no such thing as an off-topic post.

Why don’t we have those same free-form rules for forums?

Because people come to a given forum with the expectation that they’re going to be reading or posting on the subject that the forum name indicates, and while I’m too often an offender, there is a similar expectation that a given thread is going to remain on-topic. (Otherwise it becomes difficult for readers to retrieve information later, or to follow a large and complex thread.)

But blogs are different. They’re off in a corner of the site that does not interfere with the mainstream forum activity so there is less need to restrict or police the content. Anyway, if you go to the FSX forum you certainly won’t want to read my scholarly pontifications about Ancient Egypt there. Conversely, if you go to my blog, located HERE https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/blog.php?u=17162, you should not expect threads about tips and tricks for FSX. These MIGHT happen, as with a recent thread about the possibility of my writing some articles about nifty modifications to aircraft.cfg files, but for the most part my blog is about …. … …

Well, to be perfectly honest, my blog is about ME, just as your pending new blog inevitably will be about YOU. So give it a try. I love reading just as much as I love writing, and I guarantee you that if nothing else happens -- if nobody else does it --I’ll read what you write and then have the kind of conversation with you that will show the world what an interesting person you really are.

P.S. To create a blog, log into the forums. At the top you will see a toolbar. The link second from the left says “blogs”. Follow it. You will then see on the left four boxes with dark blue headers. The second one down says Options. The process should now be self-explanatory.

Parodying the immortal lyrics of “Paperback Writer”, which John Lennon did NOT write but Paul McCartney did …

Sir or madam won’t you start a blog?

It’s very easy, just like falling off a log.

Based on a concept that’s so very clear

You won’t be disappointed,

You won’t shed a tear so be a blog writer …

FlightSim blog writer.

Ten thousand chars is all a blog may be

But that is not a problem, not for you and me.

If you need more chars to say what you must say

Then add a comment blog

And you’ll be on your way, a famous blog writer …

FlightSim blog writer.

If they really like it they will tell you so

‘Cause everybody likes being in the know.

You’re someone special and they want to hear

About what interests you

So be a sport and try it. Be a blog writer …

FlightSim blog writer.

Now you can dazzle all those friends of yours

Who have heard of blogs but don’t see the doors

Open to them in this new frontier

But really, that’s okay because

You have no fear so show them, Blog Writer …

Blogosphere Writer.

mike@pcgamecontrols.com

Go Broncos