Blaugust and Questioning If Running a blog is Lifeless?

August 17, 2024

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And, whether it is lifeless, what I’m nonetheless doing right here?

I jumped into running a blog again in direction of the tip of 2006 when the recognition of the medium was, if not at its peak, definitely near it… although some the place saying it was already previous its prime by then.

We have been most likely lengthy past the purpose the place having a weblog made you particular in any manner, and getting previous the place running a blog a couple of matter would possibly get you a profession transfer or a guide deal. I imply Julia & Julie was already a guide (and later a film) earlier than I began running a blog (although that was a weblog on Salon, so maybe not consultant of the medium), as was that one in regards to the lifetime of being a waiter and some others.

And whereas running a blog being a extra widespread follow makes it tougher to be seen and referred to as out as particular, it didn’t imply the medium was lifeless. And I wasn’t searching for a profession transfer out of running a blog in any case. As documented, I already managed that with a BBS again within the early 90s and by the point I began a weblog I had a profession and a place that paid higher than any equal in video video games… plus a household and a mortgage that might be troublesome to maintain had I any expertise in online game improvement.

So the medium was maybe lifeless by the point I began within the sense of being a straightforward solution to be found as a stepping stone to one thing else, although that was not completely unusual for a while after I began.

Nonetheless, it was a heady time. There have been numerous blogs round it doesn’t matter what matter you have been delving into and extra confirmed up day by day. I jumped into the MMORPG sub-genre zone, the state of which was immortalized by Michael Zenke as he took the 2007 XKCD on-line communities graphic and made a little bit map of our nook of the blogosphere. Have a look at us.

The neighborhood of previous

A few of these website persist. Heartless nonetheless posts and Raph nonetheless retains his weblog going. Just a few nonetheless stand, like Kill Ten Rats and Terra Nova, however get no updates. Others are round, however on completely different mediums. Lum, maybe the ur MMO blogger, left behind the numerous iterations of Damaged Toys and now has a substack or one thing prefer it… I don’t know, Substack had a nazi downside at one level and I don’t keep in mind the place he landed… whereas Damion Schubert of Zen of Design principally trolls individuals on Twitter with unhealthy opinions about Star Wars.

Extra although are simply reminiscences, shadows on the Web Archive. Lengthy was the attain of VirginWorlds and its podcast at one time, however now the location stands no extra.

Throughout that period being an MMO blogger of any high quality and ample amount may push you into the assumption that you just would possibly precise be related that to the style, that your opinions would possibly matter. They didn’t, however neighborhood managers, at all times searching for some solution to escape the inbred echo chamber that official boards are likely to grow to be, appeared eager to pay bloggers some consideration every now and then if solely to interrupt up the perpetual complaining of their website regulars.

Brent from VirginWorlds acquired a card

Individuals may afford to be choosy. You could possibly take a stand, take a aspect, champion a trigger or a really slim standpoint and get a following. I acquired kicked out of the EVE Weblog Pack for not being sufficiently dedicated to the subject. (Additionally, JFC there’s a form remark from Gevlon on the submit at that hyperlink. That belongs in a museum!) Devoted WoW bloggers would discuss to me as a result of I wrote about different video games. We argued with one another. SynCaine and I used to have at one another in what grew to become often known as the Friday Weblog wars. I used to be almost a part of a holy struggle as a result of I used to be insufficiently effusive about Warhammer On-line, solely to have most everyone dump the title and stroll away a pair months later.

It was a contented and chaotic time and, not coincidentally, the height period for Google Reader, the useful, simple to make use of, free RSS feed reader that Google killed in 2013 as a result of they wished everyone to make use of Google+ as an alternative… after which Google+ was so flawed that they killed that too.

Certain, new venues present up. There have been podcasts, and for some time podcasters have been all the fashion, taking the limelight from all however essentially the most well-known bloggers. After which there was Fb and YouTube and Twitter to take care of, and even Tumblr appeared to be a factor… till Verizon purchased that and screwed it up.

XKCD, once more on the heartbeat of the web, had a comic book about that too!

However all of these acquired alongside fairly nicely. I appeared on fairly a couple of podcasts, syndicated my weblog feed to Fb, made some YouTube movies, and even did issues on Tumblr. I simply acquired my 11 12 months badge on my Tumblr account in June.

Then got here Twitch, and I type of need to blame the demise of blogs on that. Actually if we have a look at the annual web page views for my weblog for all the total years from 2007 to 2023, issues begin to go down hill not too lengthy after Twitch turns into a factor in 2011.

Web page view for TAGN by 12 months

I imply have a look at that line. It feels just like the physique blow of Twitch and the demise of Google Reader conspired in opposition to me, to combine a metaphor.

And I’m particularly prickly about Twitch as a result of it now dominates the eye of neighborhood managers, nonetheless eager to flee their self contained discussion board hell and no matter sub-reddits they’re being assailed from. The height of my ire stays the EVE Vegas 2018 the place I gave a presentation in regards to the EVE On-line running a blog neighborhood and the worth of the written phrase in recording the colourful historical past of the sport… and so they put my presentation up in opposition to the Stream Fleet broadcast, which meant about six individuals sat and tolerated my plea… truthfully, I ought to have purchased all of them a cocktail for enduring me… whereas actually everyone else, all CCP workforce members included, went to the Twitch occasion.

My sole recorded contribution to the discourse is that this meme.

Spotlight of my Presentation

Okay, there have been a couple of extra individuals than that. However nonetheless, as a metaphor for the state of running a blog within the eyes of the neighborhood workforce it was unparalleled in its poignancy.

And that’s definitely a technique to take a look at issues. The written phrase out maneuvered by a bunch of shallow consideration seekers like Asmongold, who most likely couldn’t string collectively three coherent sentences a couple of day on the zoo with out checking to see which animals have been trending and ought to be featured in his newest tirade in opposition to the individuals who dumbed down zoos in order that their no enjoyable anymore.

Or, you understand… perhaps it’s my matter of selection.

I imply, if you happen to have a look at the arc of my so-called reputation, it’d very nicely describe the ascendancy of MMORPGs and their eventual fall from the highest of the meals chain.

I imply, WoW hasn’t been on hearth for the reason that run as much as Cataclysm and has felt the pinch of declining subscribers since Warlords of Draenor, which is when the panic actually set in down in Anaheim. Star Wars: The Outdated Republic was in some methods the final gasp try to get an old style subscription mannequin expansions and so forth MMORPG off the bottom… and it needed to go free to play.

In case you go have a look at EVE Offline, the location that tracks the New Eden on-line person depend and has finished so for ages now, you will note that the height of on-line concurrence was in Could of 2013, when 65,303 accounts have been logged into the sport. That was earlier than free to play, the height of EVE On-line’s paid reputation.

Perhaps in my pursuit of the identical matter time and again for 18 years I’ve ended up in an web backwater, not of curiosity to any kind of mainstream viewers. Perhaps it’s merely MMO running a blog that’s lifeless.

Or perhaps it’s the written phrase, or the lengthy kind written phrase that has fallen out of favor… not that I might name what I do “lengthy kind” in a world the place Stephen King exists. Magazines are lifeless, newspapers are lifeless, books usually are not lifeless however not as fashionable, and we wish to get our each day doses of stories and gossip within the quick little squirts of social media.

Perhaps it’s the phrases… or the amount of phrases? Perhaps I might be extra fashionable if I simply stored to 140 or 280 or 500 or nevertheless many phrases are the restrict of the trendy consideration span.

Ought to I eschew phrases and simply do footage? Take the final word path in opposition to the development in opposition to studying?

No, that may’t be it. I actually have one other weblog that’s simply footage and it isn’t even a tenth as fashionable as this, my bloviation platform. Although, then once more, it’s footage from an MMO… a fairly, spaceship MMO, however an MMO all the identical and people aren’t so fashionable any extra as famous above.

After all, the actual query on the coronary heart of this isn’t whether or not or not running a blog is lifeless, however whether or not or not it issues.

I’ve mentioned on quite a few events that I might preserve doing what I’m doing, cranking out an extra of phrases on the trivial or obscure twists of destiny and enterprise in a distinct segment sub-genre of the PC gaming market even when I had no readers.

I’m not positive that’s 100% true. Zero readers is likely to be an excessive amount of quiet. However I’ve stored going on the similar tempo… hell, an elevated tempo if phrases per submit are any measure… whilst readership has declined. For a short peak interval I may depend on as many as 2,500 web page views in a day frequently. Now I’m completely satisfied if the quantity breaks 500, and I think that I might proceed to cater to an viewers that added as much as simply 100 web page views a day, even when most of them have been remark bots.

The writing isn’t the enjoyment… the writing is figure and I typically stare at my drafts folder and say, “Nah, not prepared to complete that one. That one is for one more day… or perhaps by no means.” Then all of a sudden one thing will come up and I might be impressed and I’ll crank out 500 or a thousand phrases in a fast burst of power, a flurry of phrases and typos flooding the display screen, and I’ll press the Publish button and off it can go, one other submit finished.

And there may be the pleasure, the having written. The power to return and filter by what occurred a 12 months in the past, 5 years in the past, and so forth, the act of going again and studying one thing you wrote in a unique period to see if or how your opinions have modified. Did I soften on this growth or that launch? Am I nostalgic for some title I panned? Perhaps?

Typically I type of need to return and take a look at Warhammer On-line. Not sufficient to play the pirate server model of it, however I give it some thought typically. Was it actually that unhealthy? Did I miss one thing in it? Is the me of 2024 kind of more likely to play one thing like that?

In all probability much less probably, in all truthfully. My persistence for the style has constricted fairly a bit.

And infrequently anyone else comes alongside and finds some previous submit of mine, some piece of historical past from the style and will get a kick out of it or is reminded of some previous enterprise. Simply the opposite day Asher Elias, chief of the Imperium, was writing one thing up and mentioned that he was completely satisfied to have discovered some written data of previous Reavers operations someplace on the internet.

Preserving a small sliver of the participant lore of New Eden is simply a part of the job.

And anyway, how can running a blog be lifeless if all these individuals confirmed up for Blaugust? Have a look at all of them! Right here, in 2024, in an age the place some individuals can’t string collectively three sentences on what they did over the weekend with out injecting a meme or an emoji, 117 blogs made the checklist.

I imply, two of them are mine, and a kind of is simply footage of web spaceships, however nonetheless, that’s fairly a end up for our little nook of the web.

As at all times, if yow will discover the time, please go to a few of our individuals. All of us like a web page view or three once we can get them.

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Blaugust and Questioning If Running a blog is Lifeless?

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