14

On the main Sci-Fi site is this link:

which goes (correctly) to the Science Fiction & Fantasy Blog.

Blog link

At the bottom of this (meta) page the link is:

which goes to the Stack Overflow blog.

Looks like the link on this page a bug.

14
  • 5
    Good catch! I'm pleasantly surprised to find that the blog link on the main site still goes to our now-unofficial site blog; here's hoping SE's solution to this won't be to make both links go to the SO blog.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Mar 24, 2017 at 14:19
  • @Randal'Thor Thanks. Why is our blog unofficial? Mar 24, 2017 at 14:23
  • 2
    It's no longer supported by Stack Exchange, and is being run and even hosted just by a few SFF community members. See this meta post.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Mar 24, 2017 at 14:27
  • Are you sure the link at the bottom of the page (right above where all the other sites are listed and where there are links to the company and such) going to the main SO blog isn't intentional?
    – TARS
    Mar 24, 2017 at 14:27
  • Actually I think this may have always been the case, and therefore status-bydesign rather than an artefact of the recent changes in both the blog URL and the meta site URL. See Wayback Machine captures of meta and main from years ago - the links in the footer were still different from each other, even then.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Mar 24, 2017 at 14:32
  • @Randal'Thor: or maybe the bug has just been in there and undetected for a really long time! Mar 24, 2017 at 14:40
  • Could you maybe add a little more context and detail where that link "on the main site" is taken from? Is it from the drop-down menu? From the side-bar? Or from the same bottom section you inspected on meta?
    – TARS
    Mar 24, 2017 at 14:40
  • @TARS --- done! Mar 24, 2017 at 14:43
  • 1
    Thank you, the question makes quite a bit more sense now and I see why that's an inconsistency.
    – TARS
    Mar 24, 2017 at 14:45
  • 2
    @Wikis Maybe! In any case, I've pinged an SE employee about this, so I guess we just wait for them to respond, as they're the only people who can do anything about it.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Mar 24, 2017 at 14:46
  • @Randal'Thor - have you heard back? Is there anything we can do or just wait? Seems like a trivial thing to resolve... shouldn't take this long. Mar 31, 2017 at 11:06
  • @Wikis Judging from the edit history of your question, and the two deleted answers below, the CMs/devs are aware of this issue and have been looking into it, but have got somewhat confused and aren't quite sure what they're doing. I guess we wait for them to work it out.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Apr 1, 2017 at 12:55
  • @Randal'Thor - thanks. I'm not sure what there is to get confused about ... I think it is clear to understand and trivial to solve?! Apr 1, 2017 at 15:01
  • 2
    Traditionally the blog link at the bottom linked to the scifi.blogoverflow.com, and we had hoped for it to link to the new location thesffblog.com. Additionally, the blog has traditionally fed the "Featured" box, and would like that to continue to work as well. Apr 3, 2017 at 22:23

1 Answer 1

1

The official-looking links in the footer were never intended to point off-site; that worked briefly for a short time on the main site because it was still pointing to the old Blog Overflow site, which was redirecting to the off-site blog...

The redirect still exists, but the footer no longer links to it, on the main site or on meta.

As a general rule, we're not going to send folks off-site via an official-looking link unless there's an amusing 10-hour YouTube video on the other end.

The footer is kind of a lousy way to promote the blog anyway. I'm not entirely sure why there's even a link to the system blog in the footer, although perhaps it helps with SEO in some way; most of the links there are far more utilitarian - the equivalent of the fine print on the inside cover of a magazine: great when you want to know where to send angry letters to the editor, but not where you go looking for articles.

I prefer the way Worldbuilding does it: a meta post corresponding to the latest post, with an event that announces it on the sidebar for some length of time. That gives y'all complete control over how long each post is promoted, while giving readers some context before they end up off site (and a convenient way to post feedback if there's a problem). See: How can we improve blog promotion?

6
  • 2
    I believe the correct 10-hour YouTube video video to link on this stack is the cantina song
    – Edlothiad
    Jun 20, 2017 at 22:29
  • 3
    The footer was what first led me to this site (from Maths.SE) and caused me to actually set up an SE account and start posting. It's not all that useless.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Jun 20, 2017 at 22:30
  • 2
    Note that community events have to be created and managed by moderators; you can't have users help out with this part. If your blog maintainers are also mods then that works fine; if not, y'all will need to do some coordination. Jun 20, 2017 at 22:37
  • @ed False, this is the correct one for this site!
    – Möoz
    Jun 20, 2017 at 23:01
  • I can't believe you overlooked this one, @Mooz.
    – Shog9
    Jun 20, 2017 at 23:04
  • 1
    @Mooz Incorrect, you should know as a resident Tolkien-ite, I know all the "Lord of the Rings" 10-hour Youtube videos are abominations created by the Tyrant Peter Jackson. The glorious creation that is A New Hope however. Is the perfect 10-hour Youtube video for our site.
    – Edlothiad
    Jun 21, 2017 at 7:08

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .