A slightly navel-gazing post today..
I started my blog back in 2012, more out of curiosity than anything else and as a way of tracking games and my glacial progress at painting things. Blogs were very popular then and all the cool kids seemed to have one. Compared with many other blogs I have a relatively small amount of views (and some of them are definitely bots!) but it was never about numbers, and the blog has connected me to lots of great people and a whole real-life gaming group.
Since then times have changed and it has felt like blogs have fallen out of favour...these days the cool kids all have Substacks, podcasts and vlogs and people post directly to Facebook and Bluesky (and... god help us... Tiktok)
I've always kept my personal posts on FB largely separate from my gaming life but it's a great way to connect to companies and specialist groups. I've used Bluesky more recently as a platform and it seems pretty good (@red3584.bsky.social) . X/Twitter seems have been largely abandoned thankfully.
But.... I had a bit of a delve into my Blogger reading list which had crept up to over 160 blogs and decided I would cull the ones that were no longer active. I'd expected this to be a lot but to my surprise found most were still thriving. I removed ones that had no posts more recent than 2024 and found this was only about 25% of my list, so maybe the Blogosphere is a lot healthier than I'd first thought. Most blogs had posts in the last month and we all seem to be enjoying playing games, painting toys, and rambling on about it! A nice uplifting moment!
I'm considering a bit of a tidy up of the blog and playing around with the layout and look... time for a freshen up. Although there's a always a danger I'll break something if I do that! Maybe a change of name too although I'll keep the address.
Good news to read! Many of the blogs I follow continue to generate new content. Some are less frequent and some have stopped altogether but the space is still viable. I actively work on culling dormant blogs unless they contain useful resource material.
ReplyDeleteOh, and why is my blog, also started in 2012, not on YOUR Reading List?
ReplyDeleteIt is now!!!
DeleteNoted!
DeleteI've had my current blog since 2014, and have done some tidying here and there. My usage decreased in past years, but this year I decided I wanted to spend more time on my blog and less on social media, which is far more ephemeral. I like being able to look back on what I've done and having a solid record of my hobbying over the past year.
ReplyDeleteI agree... it's nice to have a record of games played and progress (or lack of it) with painting. I'm usually shocked to discover a game I thought I'd played recently was actually last played years ago!
DeleteI do hear the occasional "blogs are dying" but I get most of my online gaming fix via blogs and never seen a problem. Yes, some fade away but most seem to be going strong still after many years. And new ones join the fold. I started mine in 2010 and it has had ups and downs in frequency. The gaming online blogging community is a joy to be part of.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree is is nice to use the blog as a record of games played. A number of times I have gone "I am sure I played a game of that? Maybe? Maybe not?" and found I had posted a long post blog with not just one but a number of played games in it!