CUNY Academic Commons

This isn't a bug. It's how the plugin is supposed to work. They're just two different themes for the same blog data.

I understand why you did what you did, but I think that it's a little confusing since the rest of the links on the group nav bar keep people within that group navigational space. They'll probably be surprised to be taken out to a blog and then not have any idea how to get back, especially since the blog is unlikely to have reverse navigation unless the group has added it.

So, two thoughts:

1. If I remember correctly, the plugin actually showed excerpts of blog posts. Is that right? If so, that's cool and useful in the same way that showing excerpts of group forum posts is useful.

2. I'm not opposed to send people directly to the blog, but I think that users should be aware that they will be leaving the group page and going to the blog. Wikipedia handles external links with an icon (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Icon_External_Link.svg). Maybe we should do the same?

I'm open for discussion of this. What do you think?

or maybe "visit blog" in the left-hand group nav bar, along with that icon? I guess that there are two separate things to think about -- the nav bar and then the main space on the group page.

I disagree that being led to the blog itself is confusing. At least, when you compare it with the alternative of having the blog posts appear in two different themes. (Remember how forum posts used to appear in bbPress and in BP? Same issue.)

If a user is surprised that he was led to a non-BP page, he can always hit the back button in the browser. Or perhaps I could find a way to automatically add a "Group Home" link to the Meta section of each group blog.

The convention of the external link icon is not sufficiently embedded in the terminology of the web to be transparent for users (especially the kind of users who are apt to be confused by the fact that a link called "blog" takes them to a blog).

I'm not sure if I understand your final suggestion. Is it just to change the word "Blog" in the group optionsbar to "Visit Blog"?

I also suggest not looking at the page for a day or two and then going back. If I hadn't been the one to remove that sidebar, I don't think I'd even notice the white space there. Just a thought.

Hitting the back button is hard!

I hear you on not wanting to publish info twice (though isn't that what the group pages now do with forum posts?)

I actually do think that changing the group optionsbar entry from "Blog" to "Visit Blog" would go a long way towards disambiguating the link, since it indicates that one will be traveling to a different place. That alone would probably be enough to clear everything up.

I disagree that it makes it clearer, but I don't really care one way or the other, so I've changed it.