The NXT Resource Collection
Calling all NXT Fans...
Okay, the contributors here at The NXT Step need your help. The number of blogs, websites, forums, and more dedicated to the NXT are growing and growing and we're just not able to keep up with everything new that's appearing out there.
We've decided to create an HTML webpage to organize all the NXT resources out there. (We may also make this a downloadable document as well.)
How can you help? Easy. Go to our Forum and look under the General Category (the first section of our forum). Inside there you will see a new category called "NXT Resource Collection". Open the Collection thread and help us build the new webpage.
The rules are simple -
1. Provide us with the URL of an NXT resource that you'd like to add to the collection. Please do not provide URLs that already exist on our blog's homepage; we're already aware of them :)
2. Provide us with a short (3 sentences or less) description of the site if you can.
3. To help us categorize the resources, choose from the following categories that best fits the URL: website, blog, building instructions, programming instructions, forum
4. Please read through the previous posts to avoid submitting a site that's already been added. (Use the Search feature to search for the URL.
5. One URL per post. REPEAT - ONE URL PER POST - if you post 2 or more URLs in a post, the post will be deleted and no credit given.
6. Duplicate posts will be deleted.
7. We will check all URLs for content - as with our blog, content and any URLs provided must be child-friendly and contain no adult-content, adult advertising, etc. We'll use our best judgement when selecting/omitting URLs for the list.
Finally, once the HTML webpage is created, if you'd like your name added to the "Resource Contributor" list, let us know how you'd like your name spelled.
All The NXT Step blog contributors would like to thank you for helping us build this resource.
Comments
do you accept site in foreign languages (not english)?
Jim
Terry
(devoted fan of nxtstep)
Thanks for your support for our blog - we're always glad to hear from our readers. That said, I strugged with whether to delete your comment and I may still do so, but let me explain.
First, I don't really care if Guy or anyone else at nxtasy posts comments here or in our forums. They've got a nice blog/forum going over there that's very useful to a lot of people and I have no problem with them trying to make newbies to NXT aware of their existence. So, Guy's posting about nxtasy.org here isn't really a problem for me (I can't speak for the other contributors, but I imagine they're not super concerned).
Second, I think you were joking, but we do NOT sell advertising space on our blog.
Third, one of our original contributors, Brian Davis, is actually a forum moderator over at nxtasy.org, so there is some crossover between the two blogs.
Now, to address your grievances:
1. Does nxtasy advertise/promote their blog here? Sure. Yes, Guy has frequently said "Hey everyone, look over at nxtasy for XXXX" - again, I don't care. We don't do it because, frankly, I think most people who know about nxtasy know about nxtstep and vice-versa. There's also the fact that they've disabled commenting so we really couldn't do it if we wanted to.
2. As for our building a resource collection, I can say that nxtasy had its repository up and running a long time ago. Does this mean that there can't be more than one place to go for website/forum/blog links? No. We're trying to build our own so we can manage it ourselves. (Yes, Guy's post did sound a little "Waah" as you put it, but he is correct that it's been around a while.)
3. Lastly, please keep in mind that nxtasy and nxtstep come at things from slightly different directions IMO. I try not to post duplicate news items (and frequently mess up and do) because I've gotten emails from people who subscribe to both blogs and have asked that we not do that. Sometimes, though, news is so big that we're going to share it whether nxtasy already has or not... and again, they'll do the same and have done it.
Sorry for the long comment, but I hope you'll understand that most of the contribs at nxtstep are not that upset when nxtasy posts a comment (in our posts or our forums) that promotes its blog. (Now, if every day they posted a comment that said "Hey, visit nxtasy.org", well, Guy and I would be having a conversation...)
Thanks, Terry, for your support of our blog.
Jim
Melissa Ryan
a HUGE DEVOTED FAN of THE NXT STEP
Seriously, though - thanks for your comment, Melissa. I'm at a coffee shop trying to get some work done, so I apologize that my response to you will be quite short.
I'll talk with some of the other blog contribs later, and maybe we'll come up with an official response to you and Terry, but for now, let's hold off on any more comments on this subject. I don't want a flame war started on our blog and I want to put this back on subject - building our resource collection.
SO...
If you have a website, blog, or forum that you'd like to add to our collection, please visit our forum and do so - and we THANK YOU in advance!
Jim
nx733t
theNXTstep was Jim's baby, I think originally as a fun way to document the new NXT from LEGO. But with his help, & his encouragement of others (like me for instance), theNXTstep has grown into a, wait for it...
Community Resource.
Well, NXTasy is part of that community too. So is LUGNET, and many other blogs, forums, official LEGO websites, etc. I'm involved in several (yes, both theNXTstep and NXTasy, as well as NXTlog and LUGNET, to name just a few), and I do sometimes cross-promote them, because there are folks in one that might be better served in another. I don't feel Guy was out of line - he was pointing to another resource list that might be helpful. And truthfully, having multiple source out there, cooperating & competing, is a *good* think (IMO) for all concerned. Heaven forbid anything should happen to Jim or theNXTstep... but the community will still exist, and still be linked, because of just this cross-talk.
There actually are people who don't know about NXTasy... or even, in some cases, theNXTstep. I think I'd be doing a disservice if I thought that such cross-fertilization should be shut down, or even reduced. You should see the *very* blatant "ads" we've allowed on NXTasy - if it's a good site, they are valuable. And if it's not worthwhile, they're shooting themselves in the foot by drawing attention to it. Either way, it's not a problem for the community unless they end up "spamming" so much it reduces productive dialog. And this is not, in my opinion, anywhere close to that as yet.
Now, that's my much-more-the-two-cents. Take it, evaluate it... and then let's keep building a community.
--
Brian "can you tell I was raised on USENET?" Davis