I have spent the last few days customizing the website theme to allow me to separate the changelogs into their own section from the main blog roll, this is now live and future changelogs for all projects will be posted to the blog category “changelogs” as opposed to the forums.

Changelogs will now appear on the homepage above the blog roll in their own changelogs section. In reality these are still blog posts, but in the changelogs category which is separate from the main blog roll and will allow me to post smaller updates faster that wont be lost in the forum feed.

Why not just post to the main blog?

Im still fighting with this mindset, All the small updates I do, sometimes 2-3 a day would look terrible as “main” blog posts, so I wanted a way to separate them, keeping the main blog roll to major events or major upgrades with loads of visuals or in-depth write-up.

Custom Category Page

I made a custom category page for the changelogs blog category, if you click the “View all changelogs” button on the homepage, you will be taken to the changelogs category, this page shows links to the old forums for backdated changelogs, but also shows a sub-navigation to each changelogs sub-category, Survival, creative etc, so you can find changelogs for a specific category.

Changelog Icons

Each changelog will have an icon related to the sub-category it is, displayed on the homepage.

Benefits

• Prime location on the homepage, for anyone to quickly see changes over time, instead of having to go through forums.
  
• You can be notified via browser notification and email if you choose when new changelogs are now added.
• I can have the changelogs listed without the worry of other people posting in the category (The forums allowed anyone to post in the updates forum and I couldn’t stop this!)
• Im able to set sub-categories for the changelogs category, so each server/project now has its own blog category, all shown on the changelogs category.
• I added a sidebar widget for all blog posts, including changelogs so they are separate from the forum feed, so they wont get lost when people post in the forums.
• People can leave a reply on the blog posts without needing an account.
• Search engines will pick up that I have made updates better than being in a forum.
• Cleaner RSS feed, This can be pulled into existing apps, and hoepfully a plugin in the future to display in the /motd in game (requested, not made yet)
• I have full use of the WYSIWYG wordpress block editor.
• Auto-sharing to social media, these will be auto posted to Facebook & Twitter!
  

Negatives

• The last 5 years of changelogs are on the forums and links still point to them, so there will be a transitional period for people to learn they  have moved.