On blogging success and failure
June 17, 2008
I was just perusing a Warhammer author's blog, looking for something specific, found it, and then considered posting a trackback, more preferably a pingback, to find that his track- and ping-backs were flooded with spam. My legitimate sourcing would have been lost in the noise.
Part of this was clearly a poor choice for a blogging engine. Another part his lack of attention to the blog. Now, I've been guilty of the latter (but getting better). In the former, I have decided opinions about blogging tools... I'm a committer to the http://blojsom.sf.net project, albeit mostly patches nothing functional. None the less, I'm committed to understanding and making blogging better. I sensed from reading some of his posts, the author was frustrated, but lacked motivation to switch, or technical cahones to switch to something hosted or better than ASP-dot-whatever.
So success is commitment. Failure is not engaging the audience. The author in question clearly has fans that want to know more about what he is writing. There were significant comments, when he posted. If he was not failing, he tempts failure every month.
Sadly, without a way to know that a trackback would not be lost, I can't cite his work or the information. Other than to say, a sequel to Defenders of Ulthuan has a completed outline and looks to be in queue for late 2008. In the interim, I'll be getting Guardians of the Forest to build my elven repertoire at the gaming table.
Yes, the “author” is Graham McNeill. He is also just the resource to settle the “debate:” is High Elven chain mail canon or just a wishful “Tolkein-ization” of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay? Graham McNeill, are you reading? 