Are 'blogs' old fashioned?

[DinoToyForum]

While the DTB is still technically a 'blog', I wonder if that's a misleading these days, and maybe it sounds a little outdated and amateur to people not already familiar with the website. If I were creating the DTB today I'd likely avoid calling it a 'blog', and call it something like 'Dino Toy Site' or 'Dino Toy Reviews'. Same for the Animal Toy Blog. Interested in your thoughts about the word 'blog', especially from younger members! 

[Stegotyranno420]

not that i wish to sound this rude, but if there are people who are so shallow they will judge a forum/blog just by a name like that, i would not want them here 

Besides, the name we have is already iconic and nostalgic.
I do appreciate the concern and awareness though 👍🏻

[Faelrin]

Tbh I'm fine with it. Too much of the older internet has been replaced with social media, and not for the better.

[DinoToyForum]

not that i wish to sound this rude, but if there are people who are so shallow they will judge a forum/blog just by a name like that, i would not want them here 

Besides, the name we have is already iconic and nostalgic.
I do appreciate the concern and awareness though 👍🏻

Of course people judge it a priori based on its name and that's perfectly understandable. The trouble is the name makes it sound like something it's not.

Often, when I tell people I have a website called the "Dinosaur Toy Blog", I can tell from their reaction they're visualising something much more amateur, like a diary.

[DinoToyForum]

Tbh I'm fine with it. Too much of the older internet has been replaced with social media, and not for the better.

I'm fine with what the website is, I'm just not so sure about the name.

[Faelrin]

I meant being fine with the name (and the site too of course, but yeah).

[stargatedalek]

I see what you mean, "Dinosaur Toy Library/Review Congregate/etc." or such would likely be closer than blog to the ultimate function of the site.

I wouldn't necessarily say blog comes across as outdated, so much as it comes across as "collection of personal musings", when in reality this one is more of a collective set of musings.

[DinoToyForum]

I see what you mean, "Dinosaur Toy Library/Review Congregate/etc." or such would likely be closer than blog to the ultimate function of the site.

I wouldn't necessarily say blog comes across as outdated, so much as it comes across as "collection of personal musings", when in reality this one is more of a collective set of musings.

Exactly. If I were starting from scratch I might pick something like:

Dinosaur Toy Zone
Dinosaur Toy Box
Dinosaur Toy Central
Dinosaur Toy Site
Dinosaur Toy Hub
Dinosaur Toy Library
Dinosaur Toy Parade

Or something completely out of the box and less 'on the nose' than any of those.

[ceratopsian]

I was surprised when I first found the blog, because it wasn't the sort of content that I would have expected from a "blog". But I did manage to find it via a search for dinosaur reviews!  Whether a similar search some years later would give it such a prominent place in the results or whether it would be overshadowed by YouTube style video reviews I can't say.

[Federreptil]

From a purely technical point of view, the Dinosaur Toy Blog remains a blog and changing the URL would be a big mistake.

So it's about a new cover with a new name. Of course you can do that and "Dino Toy Zone" would certainly be more neutral. But I don't think it's a matter of cosmetics.

In my personal opinion, blogs in general are losing their importance in the online mix of users. I see this all the more clearly because the blogs I run hardly get any response anymore. This is probably true for forums and classic websites. Many users are simply on social media channels like Instagram and Facebook and then on to TikTok. But the communication is different there. Texts play a subordinate role on Instagram and the depth of information and attention to detail achieved here in the forum and blog would not be feasible there. Facebook groups also work differently. If it's not going to be another image-heavy content and a lot of superficial hi-hi contact with lots of emojis, there is no alternative for me to the existing formats.

Of course, this makes it more difficult to keep the forum young and active. I also have the suspicion that some nations, such as France or South America, are easier to find on social media channels. The sensible solution would unfortunately be to use these platforms as well and to share content there as well, and to try – which is difficult enough – to attract interested parties from there to the classic formats. The alternative to the toy blog would be the YouTube channel.

But all this means a permanent effort and a lot more work. And we have to ask ourselves, who can afford this in the long term?

[Torvosaurus]

A couple points from an outsider, one who hasn't been with the forum/blog from Day 1.

Dinosaur Toy Blog is already recognized by Google when searching for specific species. I just typed in Ramphorhyncus, the first prehistoric creature that came to mind, and was surprised that DTB was the 22nd site. It was the first "blog" recognized, with a single Jurassic Park page, a Safari Ltd. page and a Reddit page before it. All other points of reference were either to Wikipedia or to a paper on the species. Now I'll venture a guess that there are likely more folks collecting dinosaur toys than those using the web as a reference source. Google Scholar is more likely to be used than Google for actual research, anyways. At least Google Scholar, along with various journals, is what I used for the starting point of research in the past.

Second, Dinosaur Toy Blog is iconic. I joined in 2015, IIRC, but the name had been attached for a few years longer. The name "Cleveland Browns" was retained by the city when the old team moved to Baltimore. I mean seriously, could you really call them the Baltimore Browns? I actually have met a few people here (in a metropolitan community of 100k) who have found or been referred to DTB. There are only 575k people total in the ninth largest state, BTW, so a 100k is a lot of people here. We have two Walmarts and a Target, so you can guess what the dinosaur toy trade looks like, virtually nil. DTB has been a boon for me and other folks in the region. Anyways, I have to wonder if DTB is iconic enough and if a name change would help or harm the site.

Finally, I used to be quick to change something because of someone else's thoughts. What other people think really doesn't matter to me anymore, however. If something is appropriate and fitting, then it stays. I like the name being Dinosaur Toy Blog, but if you don't @DinoToyForum, then go with your gut and change it.

Torvo

[bmathison1972]

I like the Blogs for the same reason I like the old forum format (and the one thing I think STS has going for it over ATF and DTF), and that is information retreival. Having categories/tags (Blogs) and boards and child boards (fora) allows for organized information retrieval. For example, if I want to see what figures were in a specific Kaiyodo Capsule Q Museum collection.

I would hate for the blogs and forums to follow suit with social media posts, which are just short-lived instant gratification to be forgotten in three days...   

[Joliezac]

I'm in my early twenties and I'm fine with the term blog. I don't think its outdated and it describes what goes on here. Although I find myself calling it a forum more often, after all that is the title of the banner. I personally don't think its a misleading title. I'm glad it has an "older fashioned" name as it doesn't confuse people into thinking this is a social media site like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc...

[DinoToyForum]

I'm in my early twenties and I'm fine with the term blog. I don't think its outdated and it describes what goes on here. Although I find myself calling it a forum more often, after all that is the title of the banner. I personally don't think its a misleading title. I'm glad it has an "older fashioned" name as it doesn't confuse people into thinking this is a social media site like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc...

I'm talking specifically about the blog (dinotoyblog.com) rather than the forum. The forum was a later addition to supplement the blog. The DinoToyForum is a perfectly fine name because it's a forum through and through.

[Joliezac]

I'm in my early twenties and I'm fine with the term blog. I don't think its outdated and it describes what goes on here. Although I find myself calling it a forum more often, after all that is the title of the banner. I personally don't think its a misleading title. I'm glad it has an "older fashioned" name as it doesn't confuse people into thinking this is a social media site like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc...

I'm talking specifically about the blog (dinotoyblog.com) rather than the forum. The forum was a later addition to supplement the blog. The DinoToyForum is a perfectly fine name because it's a forum through and through.

My apologies I misread. I think that term is still appropriate for the site but I think of it more as a review website than a blog. But blog still identifies it correctly so I don't really see a need to change it personally.

[DinoToyForum]

I'm in my early twenties and I'm fine with the term blog. I don't think its outdated and it describes what goes on here. Although I find myself calling it a forum more often, after all that is the title of the banner. I personally don't think its a misleading title. I'm glad it has an "older fashioned" name as it doesn't confuse people into thinking this is a social media site like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc...

I'm talking specifically about the blog (dinotoyblog.com) rather than the forum. The forum was a later addition to supplement the blog. The DinoToyForum is a perfectly fine name because it's a forum through and through.

My apologies I misread. I think that term is still appropriate for the site but I think of it more as a review website than a blog. But blog still identifies it correctly so I don't really see a need to change it personally.

Thanks for your thoughts! The part of your quote I bolded is exactly why I think the 'blog' name is probably misleading to anyone not already familiar with the content of the DTB.

[Federreptil]

The renaming of the Dino Toy Blog to another name is really not decisive for me. Because Torvosaurus is right. In case of doubt, new interested parties would not search for a "blog" or "zone" or whatever with Google. They would probably search for a specific species or even a specific model. And especially when I use the image search to quickly identify the available models, the Dinosaur Toy Blog is always well represented in the results. And for habitual users, the name doesn't matter.
So it's really cosmetics or a question of good feeling.

[DinoToyForum]

The points about search engine rankings are well made. I'm not planning to change the domain name. But as an aside, search engines, especially Google, are evolving and small to medium sites like DTB are suffering in the process.

One of the reasons I'm curious about this is because I'm thinking of setting up a brand new third sister site to the DTB and ATB and wonder, if I do, whether I should change the domain format for the new site and lose the "blog" part.

[Torvosaurus]

The points about search engine rankings are well made. I'm not planning to change the domain name. But as an aside, search engines, especially Google, are evolving and small to medium sites like DTB are suffering in the process.

One of the reasons I'm curious about this is because I'm thinking of setting up a brand new third sister site to the DTB and ATB and wonder, if I do, whether I should change the domain format for the new site and lose the "blog" part.

In that case, you would definitely want the "blog" attached. It comes down to a matter of branding. If you have Dinosaur Toy Blog, Animal Toy Blog and a third site, say Kaiju Toy Express, for example, I could start up a site called Kaiju Toy Blog and would probably get hits that would come from your two existing blogs. It doesn't have to be for profits, mind you, but in the consistency of the naming. You have a name that is recognized with DTB and ATB, and you have a brand. As such, you would want to keep that format. I would keep the two sisters and add a "kaijutoyblog.com", for example.

Personally, I would stick with the "brand" I happened into and stick with the format.

Now that I think about it, the dino/animal toy forums and the DTB/ATB come up separately, which keeps them in line as a blog and a forum as they should be.

Torvo

[DinoToyForum]

The points about search engine rankings are well made. I'm not planning to change the domain name. But as an aside, search engines, especially Google, are evolving and small to medium sites like DTB are suffering in the process.

One of the reasons I'm curious about this is because I'm thinking of setting up a brand new third sister site to the DTB and ATB and wonder, if I do, whether I should change the domain format for the new site and lose the "blog" part.

In that case, you would definitely want the "blog" attached. It comes down to a matter of branding. If you have Dinosaur Toy Blog, Animal Toy Blog and a third site, say Kaiju Toy Express, for example, I could start up a site called Kaiju Toy Blog and would probably get hits that would come from your two existing blogs. It doesn't have to be for profits, mind you, but in the consistency of the naming. You have a name that is recognized with DTB and ATB, and you have a brand. As such, you would want to keep that format. I would keep the two sisters and add a "kaijutoyblog.com", for example.

Personally, I would stick with the "brand" I happened into and stick with the format.

Now that I think about it, the dino/animal toy forums and the DTB/ATB come up separately, which keeps them in line as a blog and a forum as they should be.

Torvo

That makes sense.