Yes, user generated content. Web 2.0. Blah blah. Yet another site which tries to cut down on the own work load by hiring the users to generate the site's content for free, you might think. But in reality, it's the other way round. Any site - and Apolyton of course is no difference here - is all about the users. As a coder you see users as something somehow ambigous - the paranoid in you always thinks of SQL injections and XSS attacks and of other malicious ways people try to to exploit your beautiful code, your creation. Somehow you tend to forget then that the users are the only reason why any site exists. Web design is no purpose beyond, no state of the art, no thing good in itself. As any art it needs the beholder.

We at fastmoves - and I'm sure our fellows and now colleagues at apolyton think not differently - started out with the users in mind. We first felt that there was need for a certain quality of articles, a quality we thought was not there in any of the forums - especially for multiplayer. Sure, CFC and WPC and all the others (not to mention apolyton itself), are great sites which offer lots of knowledge. But to dig through endless counts of forum posts, supported only by a more or less efficient search function, is not everyone's style and taste. We believe that presenting the knowledge in a way that is known from print media has its merits, and is actually the way to go if it comes to sharing knowledge concerning a Civ game.

What has that to do with you now? You can be a part of this. You don't need to be a journalist. You don't need to be a Civ expert. But you can start your own blog at apolyton.net now and share your views on this world of Civ we all so passionately love. Even if you don't want to do so you are still part of the whole - by commenting articles, pointing out mistakes and flaws, or simply by reading and approving the content you fulfill a valuable part contributary to the community itself.

Starting a blog was never easier than with the new apolyton environment. If you click on the blog link you are at the starting line of a maybe miraculous race in the blog stadium. As a first step you may want to edit your blog settings and give your blog a title and description. In the various setting possibilties you can fine tune your blog - and if you have questions concerning some of them, I'm sure our staff will help you in the forums.

After you have saved your new settings you can start out. To add a new entry to the blog you just have to click on the + Create New Post Button and you're forwarded to a WYSIWYG Editor where you can write your first blog post! You can add attachments like pictures or the like to your blog post as well. After you have entered in your blog post you can either decide to save it as a draft, or to publish it - either immediately or controled by a deadline. Try it out, it's really easy! If we think that a blog post is of particular quality it will be featured in the spotlight - apolyton's main page!

We hope that you have fun with the new blog system, and we look forward to the blogs that will be created at apolyton.net over time. Content is king. Quality is king. And finally and consequently, the user is king.

Have fun at this place and stay tuned for the exciting new stuff we'll have in store for you in the next weeks,

Imhotep