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It seems like there are a ton of 40k-related blogs running, that all seem to be the same thing - one guy talking about his (or possibly her) opinion on what works or what doesn't, and filtering/screening/controlling any comments that disagree. Is this sort of lack of discourse worth anything to anyone?

I was looking at Bell of Lost Souls this morning, and they've got a fairly interesting article about guard, but damn if I didn't have to click through four separate blogs to read it. What gives, are they counting on page impressions to generate ad revenue? What's wrong with putting something in one place?

I dunno, I don't get it. I prefer the open discourse that you get in a forum, where everyone is on equal ground and discussion is between equals, rather than portrayed as between the master and his students, as it feels on many of these blog sites.

Blogging work on a project is one thing. Blogging yet another opinion about why guard rocks in 5th edition just screams of egotism to me.

Yeah, I'm not getting the whole blog thing either especially when the bloggers reply in the thread with a link to their blog. Why don't they just post their thoughts in the thread at hand?

Forums have their disadvantages too as its run by moderators, administrators, regulars, and many hot topic threads/posts seem like trollbait. Blogs at least offers the creator control of their work to reach their e-goals especially when it comes to cussing. What the feth is feth!

As for why a blogger would use multiple pages - perhaps for ad revenue but IIRC some blog sites have a character and overall filesize limit for individual entries which may be an additional factor to consider. From the bottom of page 1 of this article, mentions "running out of space":" (Editors note: Ack!! Running out of space! Click here for part 2 for tactics and how to deal with codex creep from Space Wolves and Blood Angels.)" What really grinds my gears are those slideshow articles from professional magazine publications like Forbes; they have articles such as the "top 10 best businesses" but instead of having a list on one page its divided up into 10 slides that you have to click through.

As for egotism, you'll find that not only on blogs when it comes to tone and presentation since forums arguably offer more in the way for e-ego's through signatures, forum reputation systems (Dakka doesn't have one but others do), post counts, friend lists, etc. Nothing really wrong with that imo as long as its not used to troll incessantly however some may not like to deal with such qualities for whatever reason as well. Wouldn't you want those egotistical guys to be on a blog than on Dakka anyway?

Cane wrote:Forums have their disadvantages too as its run by moderators, administrators, regulars, and many hot topic threads/posts seem like trollbait. Blogs at least offers the creator control of their work to reach their e-goals especially when it comes to cussing. What the feth is feth!

This is the biggest reason why I have one. I often go to many sites gleaning feedback for certain projects and it is just simply easier to give a link to a blog than it is to copy/paste the post (and then reformat it if the other sites don't use the same type of forumware) into each different forum site. If someone is trolling my blog I can simply remove their 'contribution' instead of relying on somebody else's moderation.

That and not allowing certain sites to retain any type of rights over the content you produce. You have complete control over what content you are sharing.

Lots of advantages, very few disadvantages. In fact, for project blogs, its the only way to go.

On the ego thing, I think its part of it, some moreso than others. But it is a factor. Mostly when it concerns army lists and 'why X army is crap and why you can never beat my list because you're too fething stupid to know so go back to your basement newb' type of shenanigans geared solely for stroking the ego seeking validation behind a veil of 'helping the hobby become better' through pontification.

I piggy back off of Danny Internet's blog when I want to talk about something not allowed here. Then I link it in my signature.

Bell of Lost Souls is hardly a typical blog. It appears to be some sort of quasi-corporate entity with more interest in monetizing a product than participating in the hobby.

Your analysis of forums and blogs seem accurate - open discussion vs soap box. Each style has its time and place.

A lot of blogs, such as my own, offer a plethora of hobby information. They're a very good resource, public and personal for project logs and their progress. Blogs are also an avenue that allows the blogger to be more open with their dialogue and not worry about forum moderators.

There are blogs that sadly have no useful content, but the blog sphere is worth wading through to find the good ones, try it, you may like what you find.

To shamelessly plug my own... I've introduced hobbyists to products that they've never heard of, have given tutorials on magnetizing and have even held a contest where I gave away a $50 GW gift card.

Click the picture in my sig if you'd like take a look for yourself.

I don't really see hobby blogs the same as these faux-strategy prostheletizing sites.

But, really, how strict are the hobby forum moderators on most sites? Do you find that you get more or less hits on your blog than views on posts here?

Redbeard wrote: Do you find that you get more or less hits on your blog than views on posts here?

I would say blog posts rank much higher than forum posts in search engines. The articles on my blog get hits and links from all over the place, such as forums I've never been to (extra fun when the referencing post is not in English), non-hobby sites, how to articles, etc ... While it may not be true, a blog feels like a much more permanent record than a forum.

A quick look at the Dakka modeling page & the army list page shows about 200 views per post. The front page of my blog has 5600 hits during the past 30 days & 400k total hits over the lifetime of the site. And that is from posting only 2-3 times per month. Big advantage to my blog over Dakka.

All it takes is a troll or two to get one's thread locked on forums whereas on a blog its up to the creator; sucks to have your content out of your hands. Also somewhat awkard to repost locked material.

I also like the replies sytem more on blog websites than forums since its easier to follow that chain. On message boards the replies are sorted solely by the time it was posted whereas blog replies are sorted by time and what posts they were replying to, if any.

Redbeard wrote:
I dunno, I don't get it. I prefer the open discourse that you get in a forum, where everyone is on equal ground and discussion is between equals, rather than portrayed as between the master and his students, as it feels on many of these blog sites.

Blogging work on a project is one thing. Blogging yet another opinion about why guard rocks in 5th edition just screams of egotism to me.

First of all, I have never felt the teacher/students analogy.

Blogs are a very nice medium as oppose to forums. They let the author post something that can then be discussed in depth. Where as forums, people come by, read 1 or 2 posts, post their 2 cents and then never come back to the thread.

In my experience there is actually much more back and forth on blogs and better discuss due to the reduced amount of "threads" and topics remain around a lot longer. Which of course, increases the back and forth between repeat posters. As oppose to 30 people posting random comments into one thread.

Everybody wants to be a unique little snowflake and have a website that reflects that. They think their opinions are so good that they deserve to have their own site. It's basically the same reason anybody else has a blog.

Brother SRM wrote:Everybody wants to be a unique little snowflake and have a website that reflects that. They think their opinions are so good that they deserve to have their own site. It's basically the same reason anybody else has a blog.

How is this any different from posting on a forum? I'm so important that people on the internet should listen to what I have to say on this topic!

Brother SRM wrote:Everybody wants to be a unique little snowflake and have a website that reflects that. They think their opinions are so good that they deserve to have their own site. It's basically the same reason anybody else has a blog.

Thank you Brother SRM for reminding us why some people prefer to blog over the noise of an open forum.

Another great thing about blogs is that the blogger controls how the information is presented. No conforming to a forum layout/structure, the blogger creates his own.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Brother SRM wrote:Everybody wants to be a unique little snowflake and have a website that reflects that. They think their opinions are so good that they deserve to have their own site. It's basically the same reason anybody else has a blog.

And it's gak like this can be avoided having a blog.

Redbeard wrote:I don't really see hobby blogs the same as these faux-strategy prostheletizing sites.

But, really, how strict are the hobby forum moderators on most sites? Do you find that you get more or less hits on your blog than views on posts here?

I agree , a Hobby blog serves as an album of things you have accomplished.
I guess a blog talking about how a strategy completely pwned an opponent is similar.... but i guess the 2 mind sets and purpose are very different.

Me tau blog {shameless plug!} is more for my own enjoyment and to help encourage other average gamers/painters/players. It's a plog rather than a

I think that oh too often are we assailed with epicly painted minis painted by people who clearly don't have the rest of an army to paint/job to do /wife to please/kids to cook or whatever and that it can be refreshing to see 'average' minis. I like when I see other painters who do a decent tabletop standard. It makes me feel 'normal'.

I don't get what makes BOLS so special or different. It's got opinion. Decent opinion? - sure - but so do a lot of other people. I don't see who or what has made them any sort of 'authority'...

I agree , a Hobby blog serves as an album of things you have accomplished.
I guess a blog talking about how a strategy completely pwned an opponent is similar.... but i guess the 2 mind sets and purpose are very different.

QFT

Phototoxin wrote:...people who clearly don't have the rest of an army to paint/job to do /wife to please/kids to cook or whatever and that it can be refreshing

Please tell me the bolded section was intentional...

These kids! they can take like seven minutes a pound. Who can be bothered!

I am trying to check out these blogs and I see Blogspot and Blogger.com. Are they seperate things, or the same? I feel like I am missing out. Where are all these 40k blogs anyway?

@oadie: Yes 'twas an ill attempt at humour

I have a blog to make it easier to get my pics to the internetz from my phone with the greatest of ease.

I also rarely read blogs. I prefer free and open discussion, even with it's nasty byproducts.

CptZach wrote:How is this any different from posting on a forum? I'm so important that people on the internet should listen to what I have to say on this topic!

On a forum like Dakka, you can't post like Stelek does on his blog...

I have what some have come to call a "blog". Really, I have a couple. The first one I post interesting 40k related stuff on, and the few friends I play with have accounts and post stuff back. It's not about having a world-wide audience, it's about sitting down to better collect and articulate your thoughts and get them solidified in writing somewhere. We've discussed Adepticon, I've whined about 'ard Boyz, and we've mentioned generic tactics. They're personally hosted, not cheap blogspot cutandpaste sites. We only post to it about once a month. No, I won't plug it here, or anywhere, and I don't care who reads it. If I had anything there that was relevant to a current discussion, I'd consider linking there. The other one I keep as sort of a "live notebook", maintaining important thoughts I've had, including code snippets and technical issues I've run into. Again, this is done for my benefit, if you stumble onto it, and it helps, good for you. I pay for mine out of pocket, and run zero ads, with zero intention of putting ads on them, even should I magically end up with 10,000 clicks tomorrow.

Cue fogey speak: I've always hated the term blog in general, but I recall a simpler internet, one before the facebooks and youtubes and googles of the nowadays. Back in my day, we called them by the ultra trendy term of "personal websites," i.e. all they really are. There was no fancy-schmancy hip "web 2.0" name for it, it was just what it was. I actually remember having a "*.edu/~" site; one that I actually used at that. Blogs are just a natural extension of that. I don't mind that, and I think they serve the same purpose they did back then. The only difference is that while back then they were difficult to get, requiring a moderate amount of technical experience and savvy, which meant that when you did get such a thing set up, you would usually do something valuable and meaningful with it. The problem nowadays is that I could go to blogspot and pick up a blag with little to zero effort, further diminishing the signal to noise ratio on the internet. Really, that's kind of the greatest power and biggest issue with the Internet as a whole; that is, everyone's voice is as loud as the next. Unfortunately, however, when everyone's voice is as loud as the next, no one really has a voice. It requires stumbling across the diamonds in the rough like Dakka in order to find anything with any real substance, and even then, filtering the gems within from the crap, if I might be blunt. But you get that anywhere you go. Evidence of this lies on the youtube frontpage and the farmville requests on my facebook page. Here we are, 21st century, able to stream 720p video to/from devices anywhere in the world, and the best we've got is Most Popular: "Secret Gay Agenda to Kill Puppies". Really, the more and more time goes on, it seems that Eternal September is reality.

And in response, Redbeard, I would say yes, it is all about maximizing the ad revenue. But only halfway, because it's just as much about ego stroking. But even then, it's only the terrible bloggers running bad and broken blogs that have to hide the comments they don't want to hear.

Brother SRM wrote:
Everybody wants to be a unique little snowflake and have a website that reflects that. They think their opinions are so good that they deserve to have their own site. It's basically the same reason anybody else has a blog.

I think I agree with that for the most part. Technical blogs and places containing more fact and substance than "ZOMG Leafblower!" excepted, of course. I've read a good many blogs that are quite informative without any snowflaking going on at all. Perhaps you're looking in the wrong places? Pretty much my rule is that if they shelled out the $10 to get a domain name for the thing, it's worth me at least glancing at. Only terrible site with a registered name I've found is Stelek's blog, but what would life be if every rule didn't have an exception somewhere, right?

Blog=Online Journal of sorts

many people use to keep journals of their lives/hobbies. why not use the net and save a few trees?

I find certain info from blogs have more info and point of view to share and less "all over the place" than the posts here not to mention forum trolls. To each his/her own.

JohnHwangDD wrote:

CptZach wrote:How is this any different from posting on a forum? I'm so important that people on the internet should listen to what I have to say on this topic!

On a forum like Dakka, you can't post like Stelek does on his blog...

I'm sorry, what does that have to do with people posting in blogs because they want to be listened to vs people posting on forums because they want to be listened too...

Oh right it doesn't, just a random shot at this Stelek fellow, whoever he is.
Someone apparently holds a grudge way too long for no reason...

CptZach wrote:

JohnHwangDD wrote:

CptZach wrote:How is this any different from posting on a forum? I'm so important that people on the internet should listen to what I have to say on this topic!

On a forum like Dakka, you can't post like Stelek does on his blog...

I'm sorry, what does that have to do with people posting in blogs because they want to be listened to vs people posting on forums because they want to be listened too...

Oh right it doesn't, just a random shot at this Stelek fellow, whoever he is.
Someone apparently holds a grudge way too long for no reason...

No i think on a forum , people are free to argue / debate against OP's idea.
On a blog the owner can choose to delete anything unfavorable to themselves .

LunaHound wrote:
No i think on a forum , people are free to argue / debate against OP's idea.
On a blog the owner can choose to delete anything unfavorable to themselves .

This is gospel.

RanTheCid wrote:
Thank you Brother SRM for reminding us why some people prefer to blog over the noise of an open forum.

oni wrote:

And it's gak like this can be avoided having a blog.

You guys are too funny You wouldn't happen to have blogs, would you?

Also, for anybody curious about Stelek's blog, it's called "Yes The Truth Hurts" and it's the most self important garbage I've seen this side of Tim Buckley. It's exactly as bad as it's title would make you think.

Brother SRM wrote:

LunaHound wrote:
No i think on a forum , people are free to argue / debate against OP's idea.
On a blog the owner can choose to delete anything unfavorable to themselves .

This is gospel.

Does that mean you agree o_o?

LunaHound wrote:

Brother SRM wrote:

LunaHound wrote:
No i think on a forum , people are free to argue / debate against OP's idea.
On a blog the owner can choose to delete anything unfavorable to themselves .

This is gospel.

Does that mean you agree o_o?

Yes, because it's true!