Blog Pack

To answer klok in the previous post's comments, I don't run the blog pack. That's CK's baby (yep, I've met the guy - although I'll start to think he's a figment of our collective imaginations if he keeps never showing up to the Montreal EVE meets).

Now it may be that my posting frequency is maintaining itself. I used to have a blog when I was in FFXI. There was no community support or blog ring when I was doing it then. Regardless of such, I'll keep blogging about EVE as well. Being in a blog roll or blog pack has never had anything to do with what drives me to blog. It's nice having a community of fellow bloggers who all blog about the same things, but the truth is that it's never been why I blog.

Roc's comments about the fact that it needs to be chosen by CK and not selected by some e-peen popularity contest however is dead on the isk. Personally I think 40 or 50 is too much for the blog pack. The other issue is that posting frequency needs to be addressed. I'm willing to entertain the concept I'm one of the more frequent posters, but then my list of blogs i follow is rather limited, so I have no way of judging whether that's the case or not. Going through all the blogs and sifting for post frequency and quality would be a full time job for a publishing editor, let alone someone who has a wife, two kids and a full time job. So I can understand CK's feeling that he's been letting it languish.

The other issue is that You have a derth of leadership blogs (I'm one of the few) or carebear blogs (also one of the few) and a slew of pirate blogs (chatty bunch aren't they?). In the end, whether I'm on or off the blog pack, is CK's decision. I had advised him that I felt that my posting quality had reduced and therefore it warranted my removal from the blog pack (in my view). You have to realize that I made that decision based on my own feel for what I was writing, not based on any qualitative/quantitative analysis of the relative merits of my blogs vs other blogs. Shae Tian also indicated that she'd feel more comfortable if she was not in the blog pack due to the reduced posting frequency, so I'm not the only one holding their presence on a blog pack up to a high standard. I think CK needs to have a regular (every 2 months) going over the blogs in the pack to weed out blogs where the frequency has dropped too low, and get new blood in. Ideally the blog roll needs to be re-organized into categories. Something like The Belfry (web comic list site) would be ideal, but would take quite a bit of coding and what not to setup. No, I'm not volunteering.

In other news - Dwarf Fortress is EEEEBBBBIIIILLLL. Friggen got drowned in dwarf immigrants before I was ready to handle the influx in my latest game. Need to tone down the amenities at the start.... EVE only thinks it's got a learning cliff.