Hi! For those of you who don’t know me, I am Saresa from Destructive Reach. However, I am writing here (thanks Fim and Bre!) as a moderator of the Blog Azeroth forums to reintroduce the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, a great concept that has been around for a long time, but has fallen by the wayside a little bit. Fortunately, the Shared Topic has been revived and will be just as interesting and exciting as ever.

To quote Phaelia’s original post, the Blog Azeroth Shared Topic is a wonderful innovation of the Blog Azeroth Community for the following reasons:

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the idea of a “Shared Topic” it’s a pre-designated subject upon which writers are encouraged to post. All those individual posts are then collected into one place for easier access by all. It provides several benefits:

• Helps struggling bloggers overcome the occasional case of Writer’s Block (Blogger’s Block?)
• Increases exposure, especially for newer or less well known bloggers
• Further promotes a sense of community among blog authors

Each week on a Thursday I will post the current Shared Topic of the week, as well as some links to the responses so far. As the Shared Topic has only just officially re-started, this week does not have as much content. However,there is plenty of time to get on board for this week’s post.

This week’s Shared Topic is brought to us by Skarrde of Tank 2 Heals, and concerns the Addon Developer Strike. Bloggers are asked to discuss their opinion and perspective on the controversial change to Blizzard’s addon policy and the addon developer’s reaction. Here is some of what Skarrde had to say:

WoW Insider brought to my attention that Blizzard has changed their policy on addons. And while I would like to compliment them in a way on this I can also understand why authors would have a problem with it. I hate the idea of having to pay for addons and there are a few of them out there that have enhanced versions of their addon like Carbonite and Wowecon. I personally would never bother with getting the enhanced version but if they take the time to come up with these and then go to the trouble to market it, it is in a sense a sign of free enterprise.

Athryn from Athryn’s Tier has come back with a different perspective to most, shown in this extract.

I don’t think many people really understand the work that goes into writing a good mod, or even a small one. I watched my SO work for most of a weekend, just to create a simple mod that would summon a pet for me. Some of these authors have 2nd jobs that are basically dedicated to their mod.

This is a contentious and interesting development, and certainly something that many blog authors feel passionate about. If you would like to see how this Shared Topic is developing, or perhaps even would like to submit one of your own, visit the forum post at Blog Azeroth.