Considering merging feeds

Would it bother anybody if I merged together my feed from this blog and from my EVE tumblelog? Just a thought, since I tend to throw smaller bits over there, particularly if I have little or no additional commentary. The actual content would stay all EVE-related, though! (I’d make the feed URLs redirect appropriately, so my readers shouldn’t have to do anything yourselves.)

I’d appreciate any feedback (positive, negative, neutral, orthogonal) you might have.

Emo critics

Roc Wieler posted a fairly thoughtful response to CrazyKinux’s desire to revamp his Blog Pack. Some of that response had to do with the feed in Capsuleer, the iPhone application Roc helps develop, possibly including less reading material. As far as that specific concern goes, I think that the Capsuleer devs need to consider their own data sources. Whether they want to continue depending on one data source really goes to the heart of what that part of their app does, and as I don’t use it, I don’t have much of an opinion there. The team there can undoubtedly decide for themselves how they’d like to proceed.

But then CrazyKinux responded that he would personally choose the blogs and increase the count to 50. At least one other blogger put together a great response, with which I agree for the most part.

Oddly, some folks got even more upset. I can’t speak for them, but to represent their views fairly, I think I can say that they feel that the blog pack should be determined by a larger group of people based on varying criteria. They feel a sense of community ownership in the listing, and CrazyKinux should feel pride that his efforts have created that sense of ownership.

I’m not CrazyKinux so I don’t have to feel that. Instead, I’ll speak bluntly.

Have you lost your ever-lovin’ mind?!

I’m not kidding. CK does a lot of work trying to filter through the huge number of EVE blogs out there to assemble his blog pack. Personally, I don’t know that I agree with every assessment he makes, but he does a good job overall. Some folks make the leap from there to assume that everyone thinks that these blogs represent the “best” in some universal way, as if that could even happen.

Some time ago, we had the EVE Fiction Blog Pack. I’ve seen lists of pirate blogs, too. If you think we should have additional sub-communities, great. Go create it. Self-organizing, ad hoc communities can really survive and even thrive, so show us what you can do. Or don’t create one: personally, I’ve opted to list every active EVE blog I can find in my own blogroll without highlighting the “best”. I’ve considered doing themed listings, too: exploration, industrial, fiction, etc., because of my own interests. Personally, I’d like to see CK put together a list of the blogs he thinks represent the best of what the EVE community has to offer, but I’d also like to see you (and you and you and you, too) put together a similar list. Not by voting someplace, as if that can be quantified, but so I can say, ‘hmm, I like blogger X’s stuff, I should read the blogs he likes because I’ll probably like them too.’

But you know what really gets me madder than a sack of hornets? When a sense of ownership turns into a sense of entitlement. “The list is popular and therefore we should get to decide what’s in it, because otherwise I will be sad and left out and the community will die.” As much as I appreciate CK’s hard work, the EVE community won’t die based on what one single person does or doesn’t do. We’ve grown past that. I’ll keep writing what I write (and so will many of you) because of the people that read it, not because I want some badge of approval from one single person.

Just please stop going all emo on us. Nobody likes emo. And if you think I mean you, then I probably do. So pull up your big-boy underwear and help with whatever crowd-sourced ad hoc folksonomy flash mob <insert more buzzwords here> you want with your own project. Or tell CrazyKinux what you’d like to see in his list. Or just enjoy what other folks do, because after all, that’s why they do it.

Referrer traffic distribution

I looked over my referrer[1] stats this morning and noticed something interesting. As you might expect, the sources for my traffic don’t have a uniform distribution. Some sites send more traffic than others. But, even more interesting, they have a fairly classic power law distribution. For example, I threw together this chart of my January 2010 referrer stats[2]:

Or see the actual table:

referrer	count
Google Reader	229
crazykinux.com	169
lifeinlowsec.blogspot.com	159
ninveah.com	135
eve-wormholes.blogspot.com	127
twitter.com	127
evebloggers.com	107
EVE Online Forum	57
iGoogle	41
minuitsoleil.blogspot.com	33
rifterdrifter.com	26
eclipticrift.wordpress.com	25
myrhial.blogspot.com	24
danteedmundo.blogspot.com	18
nashhkadavreveblog.blogspot.com	18
evenewb.blogspot.com	18
Massively.com	16
johnamenta.blogspot.com	15
eve-druid.com	14
nosygamer.blogspot.com	14
podlogs.com/findersandkeepers	14
twitter.com/00sage00/tweetfleet	12
My Yahoo!	12
WordPress Dashboard	11
evetimecode.com	10
google.fr	10
00sage00.wordpress.com	10
Gamer Blips	9

So, lots of love to CrazyKinux, Mynxee, Kirith Kodachi (one of my ‘blog idols’), and Star Defender!

[1]: Yes, I know the official spelling is “referer”. But the official spelling is wrong, so let’s not go there, okay?
[2]: Stats for different referrer URLs from the same site have been combined. For example, if I got traffic from a blog’s home page and several separate posts, I combined them for this analysis.

Blog testimonials

Some of the fine comments I’ve received about why Ecliptic Rift is great:

Easily, the post is actually the greatest on this worthy topic. I fit in with your conclusions and will thirstily look forward to your incoming updates. Saying thanks will not just be adequate, for the great lucidity in your writing. I will immediately grab your rss feed to stay privy of any updates. De lightful work and much success in your business efforts!

–Neda Ahrenstorff

Thanks inasmuch as great article. And I very I like your website sketch out its candid and brisk rendering.

–William Carlsen

Super-Duper install! I love it!! Intention come abet again – entrancing you feeds also, Thanks.

–AdheraHeeva

Greatings, Interesting, did you plan to continue this article?
Thanks

–DingoDogg

Hello. And all nice words. great site great yes it is.

–browlusj

I would like too take some time too thank the active members for doing what you do and make this community great im a long time reader and first time poster so i just wanted to say thanks.

–aNestyappergy

Hi and many thanks for a intriguing site. I appreciate what you wrote.

–Elisha Isa

I’m so happy that so many automated comment systems love the site…

Miniblogs and EVE

Anyone here use Posterous or Tumblr? I’ve started to consider expanding to use those services for smaller bits that don’t necessarily need a long article of the sort I prefer to write but probably need a bit more than 140 characters. I know at least one EVE blogger who primarily depends on Tumblr, but this site would really just pull together smaller bits of text and other media. So what suggestions might you have on miniblogging or whatever the social media “gurus” call it these days?

Come to think of it, I really should find a way to rationalize my own social media ecosystem in some sense.

Blogroll moved

Due to its increasing size, I’ve moved my EVE Online blogroll to its own page. This includes every reasonably active blog I can find. Some of them blog about other things as well, usually gaming or digital media. So where possible, I link to their EVE Online category or tag, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check out the rest of their content!

And as always, you may find more satisfaction in just using Ga’len’s EVE Player Blogs OPML. I like the little thrill of finding new blogs the old-fashioned way, but you may just want to get it all at once.

Text color poll

I’ve received some reader feedback regarding text colors for this blog and I’d like to get your opinion. Do you prefer the current setup (light text on a dark background) or the inverse? Does it hurt your eyes to read it, one way or the other? Do you only read the feed anyway?

Your thoughts (and of course comments below) will help me guide me as I decide whether or not to make a change. Thanks!

Image credit onkel_wart

8 ways to publicize your EVE Online blog

The other day, I got a conversation request in-game. Due to circumstances of the moment, plus not recognizing the character name, I rejected the request. (Nothing personal, but like many pilots, I just can’t always chat.) The other player later sent me an EVEmail letting me know that they sought advice on EVE blogging, particularly in attracting readership and getting a bit of attention from other EVE bloggers.

After apologizing for my inadvertent rudeness, I sent a list of advice. But I thought that maybe it might assist some other folks getting involved in the EVE blogging world. Most of the advice is EVE-specific, but bloggers can apply it in other areas as well.

(Please note that this list only covers blog publicity. The specifics of how and what to write, site design, and all that jazz lie slightly outside the scope of this particular post.)

(more…)

Fiction blogfest from EVE Monkey

EVE Monkey recently pointed me to an EVE fiction blogfest idea he has started. I knew I had seen this somewhere but couldn’t remember where, or who, or… yeah. I know. My bad, for sure. Despite that, I really would like to see this take off in addition to the blog carnival and podcast I’d like to get started. More EVE fiction > less EVE fiction, to be totally obvious about it.

But anyway, the idea is a set of monthly themed fiction posts, to all get published simultaneously on the last day of the month. Go check out his post for this month’s theme. It rocks.

Image credit r3v || cls via Flickr

Let’s get connected: Guide to EVE social media

So you like EVE. And you evidently like social media, or at least don’t mind using it (or why would you read an EVE blog?)

If so, you might also want to know about some other great ways to get connected with other EVE players with similar interests.

Come join the in-game channel EVE-Bloggers, for one. We usually number more than a dozen in there, sometimes close to twenty. Generally speaking, this channel contains some of the most intelligent discussion about current topics of interest in EVE with a huge variety of perspectives, not to mention pointers and tips about blogging, podcasting, tweeting, and other EVE-related social media.

Also, check out The Tweet Fleet, a list maintained by 00sage00 of EVE-related Twitter accounts. Of course you can find my EVE Twitter account on there, but you’ll also find a lot of others with other viewpoints and styles (and frequently a lot better conversation!)

Of course, you probably want to read more EVE blogs than just mine. Ga’len puts a lot of effort into keeping a listing of all active (and some inactive) EVE blogs, then making them available in the EVE Player Blogs OPML Download. At this moment, the listing includes 437 (!) EVE blogs, so clearly it includes a lot of great sites. If all you read is the CrazyKinux EVE Blog Pack, you will miss a lot of outstanding articles and writers.

Alexia Morgan also maintains the EVE Bloggers aggregator. This includes all the (known) EVE blogs as well as podcasts, videos, Flickr images, and EVE-related stories from Massively.

Image credit gmayster01 via Flickr