Blogging in (the end of) 2018

[grant]

I’m all in favour of flogging in 2018. Corporal punishment really should be brought back.

Wait, sorry, blogging ... I’m in favour of that too.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

While it's true that people "migrated to social media" and views are a bit down (never got all that many replies to be honest, but I think that's due to the format of my blog), there is a HUGE surplus value to blogging vs. the use of social media.

Blogging is grafitti, social media is shouting at people on a bus. While some may not be cool with either, blogging lasts. You create something. People will use your blogposts for reference, you can use them for reference. With social media (I'm an avid user of Twitter and a grumbling slave to Facebook) things don't last. Within hours your stuff will be gone, or, if it draws attention, will have turned into a horrible cesspool. That's basically the two options on Facebook that I noticed.

Also: Writing or creating something is never a waste of time. Blogs are good. Writing in general is good.


As for the technical stuff: I use blogger. I know, the people who are in the know tut at it and use Wordpress (a while ago I heard an estimated number of websites worldwide which are built on WP, and it's staggering), and it's great if you know what you do. I don't, and didn't have the time to properly get into it, so Blogger works for me. You get a ton of Space along with your blogger blog, so don't worry about picture hosting. It's all there. I participate in larger blogs (Tale of Painters, Skirmishwargaming.com and others), some of which being WP-based, and it's a more elaborate thing with plug-ins and all, and indeed it doesn't belong to Google, which always is a plus. But I'm ever-thankful that someone else does the technical side of it.

As for the language - there are some notable blogs which work in dual languages (like Chaosbunker). My mother language is German, but I blog exclusively in English. It IS the lingua franca of the internet after all and my content is more about 'pretty pictures' with the odd review/show report. Very eager to hear how Google translate works for you. I post on several forums in German and English and usually just translate everything by hand. The approach of using Google Translate and then go over the text and correct errors is novel to me, but maybe Translate is so good already that it's a viable approach.

[Suber]

Sigur just made some fair interesting points, so I second each word. I think that the true key here is to do whatever you feel comfortable with. I've been on Blogspot for 6 years now and it does work for me. I've found an easy way of having my stuff organised, it's kind of a reference database of what have I done earlier (what colours I used, techniques, etc.). It works in a similar, yet different way tan comments on a forum, I'd say; pretty more personal. It's worth of the tiem you spend there.
I write in English, my native tonge being Spanish, and I tend to read mostly only-English written blogs.
Whatever you decide to do, good luck!

[Wyrmalla]

And I'll third those sentiments.

The fleeting nature of social media is one of its largest flaws, as is the horrible way its recorded and present on sites like Facebook (who's ordering of posts makes it difficult to find things even if you know they're there). Particularly on sites like Reddit, again partly due to things being ordered not by date by default, multiple threads discussing the same topic can be common as well.

Meanwhile, assuming that the site doesn't go down, threads and blog are there in perpetuity. You can trawl through years of posts on a blog in one neat package and see how things develop, along with the discussion on the topic. Regardless of that, they also keep all the content in one place (on Facebook even if you search a user's posts you'll either not find the content, or it'll be among other stuff - at best). Of course here if you search posts you'l find the other stuff too, but at least you'll eventually find it...

Personally I find that Social Media is good for drawing attention to other sites (the ratio of clicks on forums vs from Facebook/ Reddit/ etc is night and day), but it isn't a good format for long form posts or discussion. That and it seems like its much easier for people to be gits there as moderation isn't all that great / the platform isn't as well, formal, as somewhere where one has more of a reputation and consequences to being a dick.

...On which note the level of control you have on this forum and blogs is greater than platforms like Facebook too. I mean besides all the formatting, etc. Moderators on Facebook can kill a post without warning, here they at least contact you and advise on their concerns (presumably as that requires more effort / there's a different culture on these forums).  I see a hell of a lot more victim blaming in the face of trolls on that site than anywhere else, and people seem to be much more touchy and liable to go off on you over the oddest of things / miscommunication.

So yes, blogs are perhaps less of a cesspit than some Facebook comment sections, which is always a plus too.



 

[Arlequín]

Forums are communities, social media is less, well, social. It's the difference between a wargames club night and trying to get everyone to listen to you at Crisis or Salute. Blogs are somewhere inbetween, depending on your content. Some blogs have small number of regular readers who comment, while others have more passing trade, who might never read a post or comment there again. Most are again, somewhere inbetween.

One thing I don't recall being mentioned for Blogger (and I presume Wordpress too), is that you can actually back up your posts and comments as a file, and subsequently import them to the original, or another blog. Useful for those folk who run several blogs and want to downsize to fewer, or even in case the sky falls one day. While it doesn't save the template of the blog itself, the content itself is preserved.

Another thing I've noticed is that some bloggers don't use labels, or are inconsistent in their use; use the same label for the same thing! 'WWII British' is not the same as 'British WWII' as far as labels go. Blogger archives are a bit of a waste of space too. I don't care how many posts you made in March 2014, I want to know what they were about and I'm not going to check them all to see if they were of interest.

 

[vexillia]

Blogger archives are a bit of a waste of space too. I don't care how many posts you made in March 2014, I want to know what they were about and I'm not going to check them all to see if they were of interest.

I agree.  Beyond the last dozen posts they don't really help.  That's why I took the trouble to set up a proper index page using the Google API - https://blog.vexillia.me.uk/p/full-post-list.html

God knows what I'll do when I have over 500 posts.

[Wyrmalla]

I'm not sure I can fully speak for Wordpress, as its content is fragmented across payment plans. When cross posting content from here to there I'll just copy/ paste the raw text (as one would do when quoting a post here for example). Which as I said however, doesn't translate well all the time as that site uses its own formatting and images can screw with that. I don't bother writing posts in raw HTML - which would resolve that - because who writes their posts in that?

Wordpress seems to rely more on plug ins. I haven't investigated those much, but I assume there's ones out there which will fix its rather measly formatting options - which I criticized in an earlier post. From what I've seen of other platforms - like Wicks - formatting is much more conventional (why can't I set fonts within a post? And no, I don't mean the HTML...).

Regardless, I also noticed that as for external links, the same content would receive more clicks if hosted on a Wordpress blog rather than here on Lead Adventure. Perhaps as Wordpress is more well known and people know what they're getting into when clicking a link, but it did seem odd looking at the analytics.

[Mars Miniatures]

This thread was useful to me and how Ive been wrestling with the idea of getting my foot into social media.
Ive been using blogger for 4 years and its been rewarding to me as a scrapbook for my own campaign.
Whether other people read/enjoy it was always a secondary motive, but is icing on the cake.
I dont social media, well I do Google+ only because I use Blogger and its automatically integrated.
But now Google+ is going away (next year?), I was wondering if I should dip my toe into facebook.

I like how Sigur put into words what I couldnt: that blogging is graffiti and social media is yelling on a bus.
My blog is indeed a "kilroy was here" as opposed to a yell louder for some quick attention that fades.
So no social media for me, I will be sticking to blogging and my favorite forums.

[bluewillow]

Use your native language I think, you will be surprised how many will follow because of google translate.

Salute
Matt
France

[Warboss Nick]

I love blogs, especially when they have a good index. While I follow only a few blogs on a semi regular basis, I often read through projects and search for additional posts. That makes them very valuable sources for me.

While I thought about blogging myself several times, I can‘t even keep a half decent project journal on a Forum due to lack of time. So I stick to trying that.

[El Grego]

I love blogs, especially when they have a good index.

Blogs without a decent list of labels/tags are quite frustrating   

[chickenbane]

I enjoy forums but prefer blogging. A blog is personal and is just what you yourself want to say without it getting derailed on other forms of social media. I must admit this forum has one of the best online communities I've encountered but blogging for me is my go to hobby outlet. Write it in your own language if that is your preference, for me, the blog is for the blogger not so much the reader. I use mine as a record of all the things I've achieved.

[MustContainMinis]

I would say that Blogging is still worth it. I started mine to keep my writing in practice. Taking pictures was also something I was very happy to start doing again.

I've been at it for 2.5 years now. You have to personally enjoy the experience and want to Blog to make it. If I didn't do it because I enjoyed the experience, I would have quit long ago. The economic returns versus time spent aren't there for small blogs.

That said, if you want to showcase your work, a Blog is still a great way to go. I use word press, but Blogger is great too. I started on Blogger and the best thing about Blogger is that it is free!!! I have to pay for my site now.

As for language, you would have a larger audience in English, but if you are blogging for you, make it your site and write in any language you are comfortable with.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

I agree.  Beyond the last dozen posts they don't really help.  That's why I took the trouble to set up a proper index page using the Google API - https://blog.vexillia.me.uk/p/full-post-list.html

God knows what I'll do when I have over 500 posts.

That is very useful, any pointers on how you accomplished that?

[vexillia]

That is very useful, any pointers on how you accomplished that?

Here you go:
[1] Create a new page (not post) in blogger.
[2] Add the code below in the html tab.
[3] Edit replacing http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2202580486252841248 with your blog ID.
[4] Edit replacing http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheWavingFlag with link to your rss feed
[5] Add page to your blog by either a menu bar or a side bar link.

Notes:
[1] Blog ID number - http:bit.ly/2ooVPjG
[2] Source - http://bit.ly/2CgTUXE (do not use code from here as it missing a closing </div> tag).
[3] Please note care is required when posting in to Blogger as the html checking routine can break the script.  Best to change html settings and repost.

Code: [Select]

<div class='entry'>
<script type="text/javascript">
var postTitle=new Array();
var postUrl=new Array();
var postMp3=new Array();
var postDate=new Array();
var postYear=new Array();
var postMonth=new Array();
var postYearMonth=new Array();
var postYearMonth2=new Array();
var postTanggal=new Array();
var postLabels=new Array();
var postBaru=new Array();
var sortBy="titleasc";
var tocLoaded=false;
var numChars=250;
var postFilter="";
var numberfeed=0;
var month2=["January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"];

function loadtoc(a){function b(){if("entry" in a.feed){var d=a.feed.entry.length;numberfeed=d;ii=0;for(var h=0;h<d;h++){var m=a.feed.entry[h];var e=m.title.$t;var l=m.published.$t.substring(0,10);var p=m.published.$t.substring(5,7);var g=m.published.$t.substring(8,10);var n=month2[parseInt(p,10)-1]+" "+m.published.$t.substring(0,4);var c="/"+m.published.$t.substring(0,4)+"_"+p+"_01_archive.html";var j;for(var f=0;f<m.link.length;f++){if(m.link[f].rel=="alternate"){j=m.link[f].href;break}}var o="";for(var f=0;f<m.link.length;f++){if(m.link[f].rel=="enclosure"){o=m.link[f].href;break}}postTitle.push(e);postDate.push(l);postUrl.push(j);postYearMonth.push(n);postYearMonth2.push(c);postTanggal.push(g)}}}b();displayToc2();document.write('<br/><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheWavingFlag" style="text-decoration:none; color: #616469;">Subscribe to Our RSS Feed and get all updates instantly</a>.</br/>')}

 function displayToc2()
 {
 var a=0;
 var b=0;
 while(b<postTitle.length){temp1=postYearMonth[b];
 document.write("<p/>");
 document.write('<p><a href="'+postYearMonth2[b]+'">'+temp1+"</a></p><ul>");
 firsti=a;
 do
  {document.write("<li>");
  document.write("["+postTanggal[a]+'] <a href="'+postUrl[a]+'">'+postTitle[a]+"</a>");
  document.write("</li>");a=a+1}while(postYearMonth[a]==temp1);b=a;document.write("</ul>");
  if(b>postTitle.length){break}
  }
 }

;
</script>

// Working script call - limited to 500 posts
<script src="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2202580486252841248/posts/default?max-results=500&alt=json-in-script&callback=loadtoc"></script>

</div>