A New Project: CSM Wire

If someone tells me I can't find out about something I'm interested in, I'll often try to find out anyway.  I'm kind of nosy that way.  So when I kept reading that the only way to really tell what EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management is doing is to read the minutes of their summits with CCP, that was like throwing a red cape in front of a bull.  Really?  Hasn't anyone heard of Kremlinology?  With all the information on the internet know-a-days, players have to have some clues, right?

So on the theory that keeping track of the CSM isn't that hard if the information is properly organized, I created a web site, CSM Watch.  I built it using Google Sites so CSM Watch is pretty basic right now.  Currently I have RSS feeds for the blogs of each of the CSM members who maintain one.  For purposes of blogs, Xander Phoena's CSM updates he publishes on Crossing Zebras is included in this section.  I also have RSS feeds for the two podcasts that have CSM members as hosts, Crossing Zebras and Declarations of War.

The big section for me, however, are the RSS feeds I've installed from the EVE Online forums.  That's a feature I really wanted to include, as I hate wading through the EVE-O forums.  The feature is a little wonky (meh, Google) but in the few days I've had the site up and running I've found following the activities of the CSM very informative.  For example, this morning I found out that any connections from known space to C6 wormholes are the result of a bug that's been in place for five years.  So in addition to figuring out what the CSM is doing, I think I'll learn a lot more about EVE in the process.

Of course, if I want to use the site for any serious research, I do need to keep track of the information it provides.  So I've also included a section called news in which I write little blurbs about the activities of the CSM.  Sort of like a wire service, complete with an RSS feed.  I did have to do something tricky to get the feed into the blog, though.  I'll have to document that sometime.

The site is still a work in progress, but I'm already seeing results.  Searching on the term "freighters" shows me some of the activities surrounding the freighter and jump freighter changes.  Yes, the search functionality actually works.  I don't have tags like a blog, but I think the search functionality will work adequately instead.

Like I mentioned above, the site is still a work in progress.  If anyone wants to let me know what I need to include or change, please let me know in the comments.  I'm not an expert with Google Sites, but I see areas for improvement so I'm sure others will as well.