If you love ROBLOX, there’s a plethora of ways you can express your love: rock a Builders Club badge; make a great game, model or clothing set; print your own “I heart ROBLOX” t-shirt (then proceed to wear it everywhere); build a real-world replica of your ROBLOX character and display it proudly in your room; or just never stop talking about it to your friends. The possibilities are endless.

Of course, some dedicated fans choose to do something more formal and functional. They create their own ROBLOX websites, generally specializing in some niche of the ROBLOX experience. Here are some of the best fan sites out there.

LuaLearners

LuaLearners is a ROBLOX scripting community where newbies and veterans alike can learn about writing Lua code. The site’s membership has grown by more than 1,500 since we featured it here last month, making it an even more diverse resource for coding your ROBLOX games. It’s a shoe-in for “best ROBLOX fan sites” – not only is it bustling and professionally designed, there’s a variety of things to do: read in-depth blog posts, participate in contests, chat on the public wall and more. LuaLearners is a “model citizen” for ROBLOX fan sites. We would love to see other groups and users take a similarly focused and distinct approach.

Arbirator’s ROBLOX News

ROBLOX News is a mainstay in the category of ROBLOX fan sites. The team of writers is well known for publishing regular gear and game reviews and user interviews, but they also produce lots of original content and deeper community reporting – for example, a surprising report that recent Spotlight subject Nytraulics has left the Team Rudimentality development group. Their how-to articles are particularly relevant, providing building and scripting guidance from a user’s perspective. The most recent helps you leverage data persistence.

RoGo Magazine

RoGo Magazine is not your typical, blog-style fan site. While the magazine covers the standard topics, including the latest user-created games and new items in the ROBLOX catalog, it goes a step further with special sections. In their latest issue (January, 2013), you’ll find a community-oriented section and even the start of a story that RoGo is piecing together based on reader submissions. On top of that, each issue is laid out in magazine style. Currently, they’re available as Google docs; it would be great to see a nice, clean, portable PDF download in the future.

ROBLOX Wikia

The ROBLOX Wikia, too, is a non-traditional site maintained by ROBLOX fans. The long-dormant site was revived by user Ajedi32, and it has been a relatively busy place since then. Unlike the official ROBLOX Wiki, this Wikia features a lot of content related to ROBLOX’s culture and community, making it a unique resource for history and information. Just be aware that factual accuracy varies.

TheAmazeman’s Blog

TheAmazeman has a fascinating blog that, unfortunately, hasn’t been updated since September. While we wait and hope he continues publishing to the site (not to mention fixing the broken images), the existing content serves as a good model for someone thinking about starting their own blog. He talks about the creation and maintenance of ROBLOX Titanic (among other successes and failures), ideas for new games, games as education vehicles and more. Bring it back to life!

Creating your own ROBLOX site

It seems to get easier every day to create your own website. If you’re not quite ready to write a dynamic website with PHP (e.g., LuaLearners) but you have a commitment to sharing your unique perspective of ROBLOX, consider leveraging a web-based service:

• WordPress
• Blogger
• Tumblr

Each of these allows you to customize a look and feel, then publish straight from the web. Since your content is created and stored centrally, you can even recruit trusted friends to help you produce more. The first thing I learned when I wrote for a QuakeWorld Team Fortress fan site back in the ’90s was a regular schedule of content will encourage readers to keep coming back. That still holds true today. You should also think about distinguishing yourself from other fan sites in any reasonable way possible.

As you build your site, you might want to incorporate ROBLOX imagery. You can find an assortment of logos and screenshots in our online press kit. Using them is totally optional, but we recommend an official logo over one of your own.

If you’re the type of user who loves building things from the ground up — and we know many of you are — you can take it upon yourself to learn basic web design and create a ROBLOX fan site that is all your own.

Have you started a fan site or become a devoted reader of another? Share it with us!