Blogging is Dead – BlenderNation moves to Twitter
We’ve measured that our readers are getting a shorter attention span – most articles aren’t fully read anymore and people just click the links. Without a doubt, much of this can be attributed to consumption of new media such as Facebook and Twitter.
As of today, we will be adjusting our publication policy to our audience and move away from publishing longer articles – BlenderNation will now exist purely as short messages on Twitter. Accordingly, we have adapted our website to now display the latest Tweets only.
Our news articles will now be published @BlenderNation, and we have created a list @BlenderNation/Community that will include other interesting Twitter streams from the Blender community. If you haven’t already, just sign up to twitter and follow us.
For the editors, this moves makes it MUCH easier to quickly post Blender news. I’m sure this will mean an increased news flow. Twitter FTW!
Update: yeah that’s right – April 1st is over now ;-)
This is the best you got for April Fool’s? Disappointed this year….
I thought it was pretty good. Had me fooled for the first couple of paragraphs :)
So I guess people won’t read this article either and just click the Twitter links…I liked reading the articles. I guess I’ll try it out for a few days before I complain, I don’t right to complain or praise it before I try it out for a bit anyways.
Honestly guys, this prank is as lame as the attempt to switch over to a Digg-like format awhile back. Happy April Fools Day though!
Happy April fool’s day!
Happy April Fools Day! :p
te he! Happy April fools!
Damn, and I really believed it >.< (Till I red the comments)
Quite early here… But I was kind of shocked :P
What is “Blogging”?
lol that may not have had me fooled for long but it sure was funny, had me laughing :-) loved it
Well, I guess I’ll finally have to get a twitter account. There’s no use resisting progress.
;)
Actually I thought the site was hacked.
April fool.
pretty obvious guys, but nice try ;)
Had me going for a minute:)
Please don’t even joke about using twitter.
So what was that all about again? I only read the first few words and then clicked the twitter link…
Nice try – is a joke ? Is it ?
….and wich company buy this year blender ?!?!
Nice one this year! I was shocked at first because I hadn’t visited blendernation for some time…
Got me there Bart. I was really afraid my fav blog was dead. Luckaly the responses lowered my heartbeat. Got me by the nose.
*Yawn*
I just got in to blender towards the middle of last year. I didn’t know that they did April fools, so this scared the hell out of me at first… but thanks to you all comments I can sleep well tonight xD.
almost got me. dammit
Nice, even google ads gave it away :)
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/2353
this one was way to obvious.
btw, is there a summary of everthing after the first paragraph somewhere?
I thought of an april joke… but just after 30 seconds of terror !
Well done guys.
… where are my heart pills ?
lol i saw it and was like what!? now we are rewarding short attention spans?
i got punished for it in school having ADHD
glad it’s just a joke, i refuse to “tweet”
and strongly believe it’s a fad like pet rocks
Ahhhhhhh! I was totally sucked in!!!!
I thought BN had been hacked when I saw the first page of the site!
Man I feel fooled!! ;)
:-D Glad it’s just a joke….
Twitting BlenderNation? What a blend? Or will it blend…?
Got me for exactly 1 second, but still got me :)
april april
lol I didn’t even knew today was 1 april untill I read the comments xD surprised me quite a bit XD
Had me going there for a minute!!! As always, I read the entire article…hahahaha. I just woke up, and didn’t realize what day it was yet…. Anyhow, I’m off to hatch some devious plans of my own, now that I know what day it is……. :D
Had me for quite a while! More believable than your previous April Fools Day jokes! (Autodesk buying Ton?)
Bart – You owe me some screen wipes…. I just spat my breakfast out reading the headline….
+1 Sandking
I also thought the site was hacked :D
Phew! You had me completly fooled!
I saw the headline on Blender.org, Sorry guys NOT even close this year…
If I ignored the date, I would say “YOU POOR TREND-VICTIMS!!!”
Lol if I hadn’t seen these comments and was 1st to read this (and comment) I’d have fell for that completely!!! nice one! :D
Well, @BlenderNation is a nice twitter account and I’m already a follower. So it wouldn’t hurt me that much ;)
I honestly believed that one too. Good thing I’m not so attached to twitter.
April fools on the internet – what a good reason to to just turn off the computer
see ya
April fool, but let me add my vote that I hope this does not happen ever!
Who knows…. gmail was also born in 1st april
I have to say I was fooled until I read the comments. I hope this is a AF joke. The terror truely did set in!
I’m spanish. Here in Spain April’s fools is in December 28th, so I had no way of knowing this was just a joke!. I guess I was the most fooled! =)
“Blender to join forces with AutoDesk”…
The until now free 3D modelling software Blender 3D, has now been acquired by the worlds largest
software vendor of creative software for professional artists & architects worldwide, this doesn’t
come without a price as the community was what made Blender big in the first place, we’re
talking with:
Ton Roosendaal, honorary doctorate & founder of the Blender Foundation says to BBC News:
It’s time to let Blender grow into it’s true potential. We’ve got fantastic programmers that works
for hardly any pay at all, it’s time to reap what the community sow, so we have struck a deal
with one of the biggest vendors of creative software anywhere, and from now on – programmers
and artists alike, will have the opportunity of getting paid for their hard work, after all – this is
just fair.
BBC: But Blender was Open Source software, does this mean that the community now have
to pay a license fee for using Blender?
Blender is still Open Source, meaning – the source itself can be modified by anyone of the license
holders who wishes to add, contribute and modify the code, it still have to be approved by
community members working for AutoDesk, i.e. me, Brecht, Cambell and a few other initiates.
This is truly a fantastic opportunity to watch Blender grow into the big league.
BBC: By “Big League” you mean Maya, 3dstudio Max etc.?
Yes, Blender will not compete against these product, but be an valuable cross platform asset
that can for example be used to convert between the formats, an unique animation tool, and
have certain modelling features that the two other ones doesn’t have, and it will also serve
as an affordable alternative to getting into 3D modelling & Animation in the first place, so this
is good for everyone.
BBC: Is there a price tag for a license yet? And what will happen to all the previous versions of
Blender that people have already downloaded?
This isn’t a problem, people can still continue to use the earlier versions of Blender, even the Alpha
release of the new Blender 2.5, which will be seen as a beta-test, users of Maya & Max have gotten
accustomed to privileged access to beta versions too anyway, so why should Blender be any different.
We’ve not set a price tag yet, but it will most likely be 20-30% of what Maya cost, so it’ll still be an
affordable entry into the world of 3D.
BBC: But aren’t you afraid of the community reactions to this? Won’t this upset a lot of the users
who fought passionately for this software to remain open to everyone?
It’s still open to everyone, just not in the sense we’re used to, it’s still Open Source, but you are required
to acquire a license to use it commercially, that’s how we started it back in the days win NaN as well, users
could freely download the software, and for a fee – release a few extra functions plus use it commercially as
well. This is a vital move to get pay for the programmers, which of course also is a part of the community.
BBC: Thank you Dr. Roosendaal, and we wish you good luck with the Blender & AutoDesk merger, hopefully
the Blender community will feel the same way.
I’m sure they will, and thank you.
JoOngle–blender is open source, and because of the GPL, it would have to remain open source.
which pretty much makes it not interesting to autodesk.
lol. Had me going for a bit.
NOOO!! I dawanna go to twitter!!
-lol.. good one :)
You had me fooled more after reading the article, than seeing the title, as I thought blendernation was already on twitter. :)
:D:D:D:D:D
I feel like an idiot, I actually believed this until I read the comments. I was soo mad!
I was worried to you really scared me this twitter thing is like cancer its gross i actually beleaved for a minute that you guy’s were getting corrupt in my opinion twitter is for losers with no brains that are over social or undersocial depends on how you look at it
Ahahha… good idea ahahahhah, very folks guys!
April’s fool! But it was good to display your Twitter profile for those who still didn’t know. I’m following you now.
Bad try, actually. :D I had even forgotten it was April 1st. But when I saw “Blogging is dead” I thought “who the hell wrote this article?”. And then I saw “BlenderNation moves to Twitter” and thought “uhhh April fools!! :P”.
…so-o-o blogging is not dead then? ;)
this better be a joke or i am paying someone to hack you ;)
just kidding but you really freaked me out
Hahaha, couldn’t you have said all that in one line? ;-)
Happy April Fools :-)
oh damn.. we all have been somewhat April fooled. We all believed this is an actual joke, and that was Bart’s intention. But BN is ACTUALLY moving onto Twitter. Now THAT surprised me =/
Is this really an april fools? The homepage already has the twitter feed up! I really don’t like this at all, I love reading the articles! Or is this just another experiment like the the community news thingy?
alalo unless your telling the truth shut up i am already freaked out enough as it is i am waiting for bart to varify that its all a bad dream :(
ok ok enough you got me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
say somthing somebody
anyone scroll down to the bottom of the homepage…?
no what homepage
I’m glad this is an april fools joke, because I was PISSED!…seriously…I was thinking is the whole FRICKING world retarded?…lol ahh well I guess the joke is on me, and BTW: I hate twitter, facebook, wer-kenn-wen(German take on my space), and, of course, myspace.
Boring….. I like to read, when there is something worth reading, which is actually somewhat often here.
help i am scared i hate twitter (ok i am seriously not joking maby i read the comments the wrong way )
Hey Bart that one was great! Very creative and a nice joke. I really though you’re experimenting with Twitter.
Worked on me for a minute….lol
Heh. Nice one this year. Almost plausible. To the whiners: you can only spoof that Ton is moving to Autodesk, or Blender is bought by Houdini so many times.
you shouldnt do this pranks, my heart almost jumped out of my mouth xD
lol, I can’t believe I actually believed it until I scrolled to the comments! :D
Twitter is so over-hyped. -.-“
O_O
Ack, thank you, first poster! I completely forgot it was the first of April, so I almost deleted the feed from my RSS aggregator in an angry rage!
*shakes fist at Bart*
You got me till I read comments. Actually I thought it would be great idea since I only check titles from rss reader and then click links.
Hmmm… Almost had me, ’til I read the comments. One observation, tho.
Blender users are unlikely to move to twitter for anything, since it is doubtful that a twit could use Blender. It requires thinking, something the twitter users don’t seem to be able to muster.
Just a thought.
Happy April Fools’ Day.
I`m well aware of what day is today but yet you fooled me for like about 3 minutes. The worst 3 minutes of my life :D
i felt sad
and then fool..
Glad it is only a joke! I love BlenderNation too much, for anything to happen to it.
Doh!
Well, to be fair, I came to blendernation today thinking, “I wonder what Blendernation is doing for April fools’ Day,” so I was ready for this…
I must say I also came to blendernation specially to see what you guys had done this year, and I thought it was great. To actually have external links coordinated. Beautiful.
It did take me a while to find where to post this, though.
Got me.
are you serious?? how the hell can i follow a tutorial on tweeting
Oh c’mon. Where’s the April fools spirit? Actually Twitter’s not a bad idea.
Even TOPEKA (Google) has got the April 1st spirit!
Happy April Fools day, too bad last year’s was way better. :)
EDIT: btw, now following. :)
I read them everyday – so I’ ant fazed if no one else is or not.
SMILES – APRIL FOOLS ONLY WORKS UNTIL MID DAY- Twitter sucks, why not keep it on the site you guys pay for!Wasting money is fun on hosting. hahaha you should asked if you can destroy the bird and make it a blender Icon bahahaha.
Bahaha!! The joke on twit is much better! Ton Rosendal to speak at U.N….
Here is another April fool day Blender foundation and Light wave New Tek are joining forces.
But to do what?
lol blendernation keeps taking the joke further with editing the page layout for the main page lol
this article was too long. so many words, my head hurt. couldn’t you have just said:
we’ve gone twitter. follow us for tweets. c u.
or something like that please? Time is money, gentlemen!
I know aprils fools joke and all. But it’s not really a bad idea. I can see this working
I promoted the link on twitter. Its not a bad idea either
ok jokes over, can we go back to the non april fools layout?
It’s about time. Blogging is so 2000’s. Let twitter. I’m sitting on the couch.
I am relieved to see that this was just an April Fools Day prank. I don’t do twitter.
April Fool’s day is over and the Twitter stuff is still on.
Maybe it wasn’t a joke after all. Maybe it was Bart’s ingenious way of realizing his evil plan to twitterize Blendernation after all, without causing an immediate outrage.
:D
Had me! Till I remembered what the date was. XD
For a moment I was like, “OHHH NOOOOO!”, striking a dramatic pose and everything. Had me worried for about 60seconds then.
I was like, “Twitter?… ew. :s”.
LOL FTW!!
what the hell is this “twitter” thing everyone is talking about?
;-)
Had me going yesterday. I didn’t even click the article. I just assumed the date was a coincidence since a lot of people seem to be switching to Twitter and started looking for an alternative to Blender Nation.
I only came back today because I saw yesterday that the community news section was unaffected. Otherwise the twitter page would have been just an extra click on the way to that particular page.
I thought, Noooooooo, not again, Bart’s gone looney. Let me buy the site from him and keep it going. Nice one.
Absolutely not. I was so happy to remember what day it was. I like reading your articles!
This article was too long… The line ‘Blogging is dead’ was enough. ;P
What the fun!
@ nemesis : BEST COMMENT
Please don’t even joke about using twitter
haha… I thought it was true :D
phew… scared me
Wow I totally believed it till I read the comments!!!! :(
I was thinking of commenting about how that would suck cause we would lose the archives and searching for stuff and commetns etc, but ok you just April Fooled me :P