I'm full of opinions today. Enough to break my, "try to keep it to only three posts a day" rule.
Marc Scaurus posted on his blog today that he is giving away custody of EveBloggers.Com and the Eve Blog Pack. I've been waiting for him to do so for a while and to see what happened. Between TMDC and IRL his interest in other Eve Blogs and such, including his own, has waned. It happens. Life, the Universe and Everything else. Etc, etc.
He poses a thought at the end of his post:
The question is, if I am irreverent, where do I go to become relevant? Or should I just allow my posting and words to drift away into the sunset of nothingness because blogs are no longer a thing. One reason I blog is not to spam the people who spend time with me in game with my thoughts and pondering and musings. Yet, I do like to write them down and I do know that sometimes others do not mind participating in the event. I'm no reporter, journalist, expert, or anything else. I am one individual that is passionate about a game and shares and soaks in the varied daily aspects of actually playing the game.
I'm not here to report on CCP, have tinfoil hats over conspiracy, catch the best and juiciest meta-game gossip or interview people. I will never have beautiful graphics and lovely, cold, technical articles devoid of my view of the world. None of that is my thing. There is more to the world, in my mind, than the shiniest stars. When you look into the sky you see a sky full of stars but in those black places between each star are billions, upon billions that you cannot see. Just because their light does not shine as brightly as others does not make them any less interesting or possibly relevant to things.
Perhaps, it is just my justification for my own existence as a little spot on the internet. There is no place for me at TMDC or EveNews or any other 'news' or 'gaming' industry website. I have nothing to offer them. My creativity is made up of my reflections of the world and game around me mixed in with my love of writing fiction. There is no news. Nothing world breaking. No twitch stream and amazing game play to share.
The most interesting thing in Eve are the people in Eve. Their daily lives, the struggles, the conquests, the wins and the loses. These things are not restricted to just what is the most exciting. Maybe this is why I never found an interest in journalism and loathe the television News. I guess it makes me one of the not all that still like blogs and blogging. This post, I'd assume, qualifies as a fight against it.
But it is not. It is not as if someone is steamrolling my blog away and I must chain myself to it to stop it from leaving. My words are but my thoughts on a topic where it has been asked, is it relevant?
I don't know. Is it? Am I? Is any of it? And what relevance is in question? Blogging is just another way to communicate. A place where people share their opinions in a very direct manner. There are no editors debating if the topic is interesting enough, or critical enough, or to or not explosive enough, checking word counts and trimming away the irreverent things. It's not professional. It's nitty, gritty it's down and chat in many ways. I can see how it becomes a lesser thing, a less interesting thing, when one moves into the professional realm. A toy of childhood that was once treasured and dreamed with and now is but a relic of the past.
Maybe I don't want to become a writer as much as I believe I do if that would be my future. Or maybe I can move forward without losing my past. And maybe I am irreverent and an echo that does not know it is about to fade from hearing. But I do like my little bit of internet lawn, while I chat over the fence with my neighbors about our day and about our tomorrow. I'll probably stay disconnected with reality and continue to blog regardless. Because I like it. Because I enjoy it. Because, when I was looking for information, the only place that I found what I needed was the blogs. I'll stay. And write my words, my guides, my stories and my thoughts for I write them simply because I wish to and that alone is reason enough.
Marc Scaurus posted on his blog today that he is giving away custody of EveBloggers.Com and the Eve Blog Pack. I've been waiting for him to do so for a while and to see what happened. Between TMDC and IRL his interest in other Eve Blogs and such, including his own, has waned. It happens. Life, the Universe and Everything else. Etc, etc.
He poses a thought at the end of his post:
"Now, I’m personally still of the opinion that we should probably just let these things go. They are a remnant of a time when blogging was the next big thing on the internet. And no offense to any bloggers out there (I still read a lot of you and appreciate the work you put into your projects), that’s just not the case anymore. One could argue that blogging has become, for many (but not all) in the EVE community, simply a point of reference that you can tweet to in conversations that require more than 140 characters. Blogging just isn’t the same these days, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing or something we should try to fight against."I'm one of those Eve Bloggers that puts time into their project. I also participate on Twitter. However, Twitter would not and could not ever contain the information that a wall of text does, be it a blog, an article or a forum post. Also, Marc may not have noticed because he is a 'somebody' but many, many people on twitter, especially particular Eve Famous people, are very selective in who they have conversations with. It is not nearly as open a ground for chat and communication as it seems up front. But then, it is my habit to people watch, or in this case, twitter watch and notice these things.
The question is, if I am irreverent, where do I go to become relevant? Or should I just allow my posting and words to drift away into the sunset of nothingness because blogs are no longer a thing. One reason I blog is not to spam the people who spend time with me in game with my thoughts and pondering and musings. Yet, I do like to write them down and I do know that sometimes others do not mind participating in the event. I'm no reporter, journalist, expert, or anything else. I am one individual that is passionate about a game and shares and soaks in the varied daily aspects of actually playing the game.
I'm not here to report on CCP, have tinfoil hats over conspiracy, catch the best and juiciest meta-game gossip or interview people. I will never have beautiful graphics and lovely, cold, technical articles devoid of my view of the world. None of that is my thing. There is more to the world, in my mind, than the shiniest stars. When you look into the sky you see a sky full of stars but in those black places between each star are billions, upon billions that you cannot see. Just because their light does not shine as brightly as others does not make them any less interesting or possibly relevant to things.
Perhaps, it is just my justification for my own existence as a little spot on the internet. There is no place for me at TMDC or EveNews or any other 'news' or 'gaming' industry website. I have nothing to offer them. My creativity is made up of my reflections of the world and game around me mixed in with my love of writing fiction. There is no news. Nothing world breaking. No twitch stream and amazing game play to share.
The most interesting thing in Eve are the people in Eve. Their daily lives, the struggles, the conquests, the wins and the loses. These things are not restricted to just what is the most exciting. Maybe this is why I never found an interest in journalism and loathe the television News. I guess it makes me one of the not all that still like blogs and blogging. This post, I'd assume, qualifies as a fight against it.
But it is not. It is not as if someone is steamrolling my blog away and I must chain myself to it to stop it from leaving. My words are but my thoughts on a topic where it has been asked, is it relevant?
I don't know. Is it? Am I? Is any of it? And what relevance is in question? Blogging is just another way to communicate. A place where people share their opinions in a very direct manner. There are no editors debating if the topic is interesting enough, or critical enough, or to or not explosive enough, checking word counts and trimming away the irreverent things. It's not professional. It's nitty, gritty it's down and chat in many ways. I can see how it becomes a lesser thing, a less interesting thing, when one moves into the professional realm. A toy of childhood that was once treasured and dreamed with and now is but a relic of the past.
Maybe I don't want to become a writer as much as I believe I do if that would be my future. Or maybe I can move forward without losing my past. And maybe I am irreverent and an echo that does not know it is about to fade from hearing. But I do like my little bit of internet lawn, while I chat over the fence with my neighbors about our day and about our tomorrow. I'll probably stay disconnected with reality and continue to blog regardless. Because I like it. Because I enjoy it. Because, when I was looking for information, the only place that I found what I needed was the blogs. I'll stay. And write my words, my guides, my stories and my thoughts for I write them simply because I wish to and that alone is reason enough.
Of all his post I think the backhanded "blogs are passe" comment is probably the least thought out. I'd call it an afterthought of an overworked and burnt out guy, so don't take it that harshly.
ReplyDeleteI comment now because I did not comment before when it came up. I work through it because it is a direct question. And yes he is burnt out with it but that does not mean everyone is.
DeleteBut it is a good question for thoughts have cropped up over this. And if it is something I care about perhaps I should do something about it.
foo-blogroll.blogspot.com is an implementation of an inclusive eve blogroll.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I get more value in reading blogs than the 'exclusive' consolidators provide.
Portable device users should view the site as a website as it does not play well in mobile mode
An interesting thought I wanted to add. I am very sorry to hear things like the blog as a platform is dying, whether or not its actually true. My character was born in late 2005, and yet I have only 26 million SP and I am almost certain that I have spent more time finding blogs and reading them than I have playing the game. They are always so interesting to read. I have always wanted to do such cool things, but never really have the time for it or the connections. I play EVE vicariously through blogs. Maybe I'm an edge case, but without the blogs like yours and others like it. EVE would just not be as interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you are an edge case. My playtime waxes and wanes with time and most importantly fun with the game but my readingtime with eve-blogs is steady even when I'm not actually playing.
DeleteThe final and best argument for blogs and the blogpack is simply diversity in my eyes. I like reading articles on TMC but I like to read some shiptheory on Azuals blog, general eve theory on Jesters Trek, Trading and (slightly over the top) philosophy on gevlons blog, botting on Noizygamer, tinfoilflavored news on Peotics blog.
EVEs community is the most active (in creating out of game content) I have ever seen and for me this diversity is one of the main attractions of the game itself.
PS.: If I had to trim down my slightly insane EVE-category in my RSS fee (31 sources) down to 3 it would be themittani.com for news, jestertrek.blogspot.de for a theoretical take on the game and lowseclifestyle.blogspot.de for a social and emotional take.