Internet WTF, Khunmar, other updates
Posted: October 5, 2012 Filed under: bitching, blogs, exquisite corpses, LotFP, Mines of Khunmar, weird 11 Comments
OK, whenever I ask people on the Internet, “What kind of blog entries do you like?” I always get people saying, “Write more about gaming and don’t write about politics.” However, when I look at my blogs statistics and see who looked at what and how often (and count comments), gaming is always dead last and my posts about the US election or Rush Limbaugh being a douche bag or the fact that I am irritated over some computer issue are first. Maybe I just write crappy gaming posts… and when I talk about a ‘lot of page views,’ I’m talking an average of 100 views in 3-4 days or so (more views if I post during the week), so I’m not claiming to be creating ‘Grognardia’ levels of interest with my paltry 160 followers. Page views are relative to the obscurity of this tiny corner of the Internet.
I used to think that google+ made the difference, but out of deference to ‘gaming’ followers of the blog who said they didn’t want to read about my political views, I only post blog links to google+ when I am writing about games (and I limit that to my ‘gaming’ circle on google+), so at this point it seems that posting on google+ actually might get me less page views than not posting on google plus — how does that work? If blogger gives a breakdown on who views a page via google+ versus some other source, I haven’t seen it. but other than occasionally looking at the search terms people use to get here (mostly because some of them are so damn weird), I haven’t delved too deeply into blogger statistics. And I don’t know if blogger differentiates between a ‘click through’ and someone spending an hour reading blog posts — I suspect to blogger, a click may be a click.
I’ve gotten a couple of emails asking about Khunmar. I’ll probably try to finish it after I finish Exquisite Corpses v2 (which will be released by LotFP. That project is creeping along right now, due in part to me being really busy (yeah, I know I’m writing this blog, but my boss doesn’t mind if I use a little downtime here and there for writing on my blog) and also me being undermotivated and a bit of a loser when it comes to finishing things. Sorry, internet.
Current conception is that Khumar will be released by ME as either a print-on-demand piece of shit or maybe I’ll print up a ‘collector’s edition’ where everyone who orders one gets 1 piece of orginal artwork chosen at random from the many 1/2 pagers I will be doing for Khunmar. But that waits till after E.C.v2 is done.
Good to hear that Khunmar is still on your list of projects that will come out at some point.
I've got no idea about posting on Google+ and how that affects pageviews, and I'm not sure how Blogger counts those of us who read your posts in Google Reader (or some other RSS reader).
I for one enjoy your political rants – er, I mean analysis – even though I don't follow American politics as closely as I probably should. I would assume the people who say they don't like them are the people who don't agree with your opinions.
Rich Miller: “At some point…” is probably the best way to put it.
ClawCarver: I wish I could be as smart and as well spoken as someone like Paul Krugman or William F. Buckley, but, alas… I try to admit my biases (and I know I have them) but try not to mistake anything I do here as anything other than opinionating on my part.
Well, as I say, I enjoy reading your opinions (on politics and RPGs alike) and for the most part I tend to share them. If I don't comment much, it's because I'd feel silly just putting “+1” or “This.”
By the way, your “paltry” army of 160 followers would crush my pitiful rag-tag party of 20. Although I like to think my lot might be stealthier and get some backstabs in first.
My 'paltry' army of 160 probably consists mostly of abandoned accounts, sockpuppets and spambots.
I don't want to beg for comments — it was just a funny thing I noticed — the posts that get the most traffic are also the ones that are least requested — which makes market research suspect since what people ask for does not seem to be what they want.
Maybe so, but I've just remembered that my band of 20 internet brigands includes you. So much for the element of surprise.
On Khunmar, I'm stony broke after a summer of Kickstarters and whatnot, and my players are busy delving in Stonehell right now anyway, so as far as I'm concerned you can take all the time you like to get it done the way you want it, while I start saving up my pennies again. Daft question, perhaps, at this stage, but would it “just” be the dungeon or would you include details of Hamlet, the Red Dwarves, etc.?
Whoops. That “maybe so” refers to your previous comment.
Don't worry about the surprise… I have multiple personalities and like to keep secrets from myself… no I don't…yes I do… well, nevermind.
RE Khunmar: Well, since you ask (and subject to change), I'd like to include as much as possible… so at least a few pages on the town, details about the red dwarves, etc., plus I need to revise the whole thing. And I'd like to add suggestions as to what might happen when the players return to area X after having cleared it at an earlier date — but when will I write all this crap and illustrate it too? I dunno. Late next year at the absolute earliest (which means late next year I'll still be talking about it).
Political rants and tirades always draw more views, in my experience. It's the nature of the internet beast. But instead of asking what your readers want more of, I'd suggest you post what you feel like posting. After all, unlike commercial sites that live and die based on their readers' interest in them, blogs are generally exercises in personal exposition. Your blog should be about what you want it to be about – unless you're just trying to be popular, that is. 😛
As for the apparent disparity of what people say they want versus what the stats say, I have two possibly related comments:
First, people often don't know what they really want. Yeah, when asked, they'll be pretty sure it's one thing. But when push comes to shove, it's often the other thing that they end up choosing.
Second, bear in mind that many of us who aren't really interested in your political posts still come for them, even if we're not interested in them. (Sometimes we don't know we're coming to a political diatribe, and sometimes (as with this post) we're coming to see if there is any gaming content within. Ya never know…) That makes us a subset of the larger group that is filled with those that are drawn like moths to those flame-y posts, even though we're firmly in the “not interested” camp. The stats can't tell you things like that.
(Also bear in mind that survey data taken from blog posts is spurious at best.)
FWIW, YMMV.
As for: “I would assume the people who say they don't like them are the people who don't agree with your opinions.“
Careful with the assumptions. (You know what they say.) Speaking personally, I usually agree 100% with Stephan's opinions – still don't have any use for the political posts. Some of us just don't like mixing our escapist hobby with the politics we have to suffer with every day.
Its funny, but I mostly look for gaming content in the blogs I read but I read a lot of your posts that aren't about gaming at all because they are entertaining. Particularly the ones where you are going off on some dude who's being a jackass on a forum or whatever. I don't know why forums bring out that behaviour in people but it has a lot to do with the anonymity or the fact that they aren't right there talking to the guy (its actually cowardly behaviour in a way). If they were right there standing next to the guy, there's no way they would say what they otherwise would say from a screen of anonymity on a forum or in an e-mail or whatever using a handle which is sometimes anonymous. I have found over the years (after being involved in a few flame wars that I later regretted) that communicating via e-mail or on a forum is not a very good way to communicate with our fellow man – way too often it leads to misunderstandings or misinterpretations that lead to people getting bent out of shape which can then explode into a whole lot of unpleasantness for everyone involved. A better way to communicate is to talk to someone face to face or even on the phone since text based computer communications are so impersonal. So I read your blog because I agree with a lot of what you say about that kind of behaviour and find your posts interesting and entertaining at the same time.