As far as I know, JoeUser.com is the only blog community on the Internet.  There are various blog services out there but each blog is an island. That is, they are completely isolated from other sites on there.

The downside of the way we have JoeUser is that it's hard to avoid having the opinions of those who you dislike show up on your page somewhere as part of the "newest" or "featured" and the like.  Of course, as some people who have left JoeUser because of those reasons have learned, that also helps bring people to their site.  So they may write the most compelling things but few will read them (other than perhaps other former JU people they've met).

What we need to do is find a way to let users have the best of both worlds -- for people to be able to have blogs that they have more control over what shows up on the side-bar but still get lots of people reading what they write.

To that end, we're formulating JoeUser.com premium subscriptions. It would be $24.95 sign up plus $2.99 per month.  The sign-up would give the user the first 3 months plus a copy of Blog Navigator Pro (Blog Navigator Pro is how I write all my blogs these day sand read through JoeUser).  Other bonuses would be a photo album feature enabling users to have a album tab on their blog that they can submit images into and organize.  They would also be able to customize the look and feel of their blog far more so than the templates we have today.

Time-line for this? Probably early next year.  Have to finish WinCustomize.com first. But after that we'll be able to look at putting these features in.

What do you think?

The problem people have been hearing about in the game industry isn't new. But it's good that it's coming out.

Here's a blog I wrote in 2002 about the game industry's dark side:

https://www.joeuser.com/Articles/TheDarksideofthegameindus.html

 

One of the most important new features in Microsoft's next version of Windows (code-named Longhorn) is a technology code-named Avalon.

What is Avalon? Avalon is the new graphics engine for the Longhorn desktop environment. The key feature being the compositer.  It will be the part the delivers a host of new visual effects to Windows. One important feature will be its ability to provide high quality scaling. As monitor resolution increases, the desire for clean, higher DPI displays increases.

Right now, users are stuck with 96 dots per inch (DPI). If you switch to large fonts, apps get broken.  Ideally, what you want is the user to be able to run at say 3000 x 2000 with the text and other elements being increadily crisp and large still.  And to do that, you need to have larger fonts (otherwise everything looks tiny).  And you want to do that in a way that won't break existing apps and works consistently from program to program.

Avalon also will provide deveopers (and Microsoft) with a whole new tool kit of ways to display information and windows on the screen. It is Avalon, more than almost any other part of Longhorn, that we at WinCustomize will be keeping a close eye on.

Betanews.com is reporting that AOL is closing shop on Nullsoft.  Winamp will continue to exist and be supported but it appears it may no longer be actively developed.

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Betanews.com is reporting that AOL is closing shop on Nullsoft.  Winamp will continue to exist and be supported but it appears it may no longer be actively developed.

France, the country whose foreign minister said that there is never a good reason to use violence during the run-up to the Iraq war now has 5,000 troops in Ivory Coast.   Yesterday, they destroyed most of the Ivory Coast airforce.

I assume there will be huge protest marches by the left and accusations that Chirac is like Hitler....right?

Joeuser.com is unique in the sense that it is a blog community. We all have our own individual blogs that then make up a greater blog (so to speak).

During the political season, it was really a challenge to keep the overall community from becoming radicalized. Anyone who has ever run a community knows there are very specific dyanmics that tend to work towards making a community radicalized.

The primary dynamic is critical mass. Critical mass in this sense being where enough vocal supporters of a particular thing are able, by force of will, to drive off supporters of alterantives.  On JoeUser.com during the political season there were various points where both liberals and conservatives came close to reaching critical mass.  What we didn't want to have happen is where the site became so liberal or so conservative that their opponents would vacate the site in frustration. 

In customization, it's letting a particular program take over.  One of my favorite customization sites this Summer became radicalized over a particular customization program to the point that the program's fans essentially drove off supporters of other programs.  At WinCustomize the Stardock-oriented apps have radicalized it to a degree so that users of competing technologies don't feel as welcome as they should (sometimes you can lose the battle).

Right now we have relative equialibrium.  I have complaints from conservatives and liberals in my inbox about the site being too much against them. But radicalization also occurs on a personal level.  I've watched many users become more radical in their political beliefs.  Don't. Take a breath. Step back. Just because some loud mouth who opposes your political beliefs got you mad is no reason to assume that all your opponents are that way.

Not every liberal is Michael Moore and not every conservative is Ann Coulter.  Most people are in between.  It's just that the more active people get on-line in debating a particular issue, the more aggressive they tend to get.  That's why I take regular breaks. You'll probably notice that I'll go a week sometimes without responding or posting on a particular topic. It's not that I'm sick of it but rather I'm pacing myself. 

People who stay intense for months or years at a time burn out. They burn out on their own passions and frustrations. They usually end up flaming out. I've come close many times. 

So if you're mad at your opponents and want to just flame them all or think that "the enemy" has taken over. Stop. Take a breath. And remember, it's about having fun. Write about what you want to write about.  Don't let the "community" control you.

Why did the Republicans win? Two words: Michael Moore.  By embracing such a hateful, disdainful person, the Democrats demonstrated that they're out of touch with the mainstream of America. Read the whole thing.

KickStart News has a pretty thorough review of Object Desktop. Check it out.

This is definitely worth reading.  Here at Stardock, we rarely work crazy hours. 40 to 50 hours per week is  more typical for most people here except during crunch hours where it might go up to 60 hours for a few weeks.

But what you're seeing at EA and other game companies - 80 hours per week - is pretty typical in the game industry.