See, we aren't a blog.

[schild]

Top 100 Blogs for MMOG gamers.

What?

[Venkman]

I liked Raph's chart of it, using that TouchGraph thing from Google.

Otherwise, yea, F13's a community site. I'm sure your webhost tracks this, so I'd be interested to know how many people hit forums.f13.net versus www.f13.net, linking directly to the forums instead of the front page.

[schild]

Frontpage has more unique users than the forums.

[Venkman]

Which one is more sticky though? I get that uniques are important, but given the rate at which the front page is updated (not a dig, just a fact), I can't see how the uniques stick there long. How many are from Google bots and MMOZ type stuff?

The reason I'm asking is because I casually rate a site either as a blog or a community based on where all the obvious activity is taking place. Here is definitely a community.

[Triforcer]

The only explanation is that EFP and Boog put together the list.

[schild]

Which one is more sticky though? I get that uniques are important, but given the rate at which the front page is updated (not a dig, just a fact), I can't see how the uniques stick there long. How many are from Google bots and MMOZ type stuff?

The reason I'm asking is because I casually rate a site either as a blog or a community based on where all the obvious activity is taking place. Here is definitely a community.

We're working on the second part.

Bots are mostly on the forums, so yea, obviously most activity is there. But then, the forums here get more activity than most of those blogs put together and cover all of the topics aside from the non-wankery. But ya know.

[stray]

The Escapist, CNN, and Dilbert...

[UnSub]

Actually, f13 could still could be a blog - just one that's not very popular.

[Engels]

Excuse me while I rant a sec here.

What the #*(#$ is a blog anyway? Back in the day, Tweety or Lum would use html to post an essay, or a commentary, put it on their website, and noone went around having delusions of grandeur about having a 'blog'. They actually had to bother knowing a bit of html. Nothing fancy, of course, but it essentially meant that you had to master some basics of teh web before you could spew forth your pearls of wisdom. A small speedbump, I know, but it probably kept quite a few idiots at bay.

Nowadays, anyone can set up a blog. In a way its worse than MySpace, because whereas myspace users are largely considered to be narcissistic in their motives, that stigma has yet to affect the bazillion bloggers out there who think that they're now worthy of people's particular attention.

Don't get me wrong, I think Lum and whoever else from days of yore who want to use a blog format to post what they had previously edited through html has that right. But for the rest of them, I wish it weren't that easy.

I've come to the conclusion that BLOG must mean Boorish Luddites Online Groping. For every decent 'blog' I run into, 12 of them leave me feel vaguely awash in the poster's ego and somehow molested.

[Margalis]

I read somewhere that the average blog has one reader.

Blogs are just the new personal home page.

What makes this generation of web-stuff interesting is that it makes it easier to put out content and do the parts people are interested in without having to bother with the other parts. I you want to put a movie online you just make the movie and some host handles the rest. If you want to put your thoughts online you use some simple blogging software.

When people want to put some essays online they don't want to have to wade through HTML of tweak a bunch of shit themselves, set up their own forums, etc. Now they can concentrate on the part they like (writing useless shit nobody will read).

Less flexibility but more ease. Blogs are just a simpler, easier version of the personal home page you had in 97 that had pictures of your cats on it.

[squirrel]

"I would never want to belong to a club that would have me as a member."

etc.

[Venkman]

But then, the forums here get more activity than most of those blogs put together and cover all of the topics aside from the non-wankery. But ya know.

This I actually consider a fallacy of that table (and the chart at Raph's). When most of the conversation about MMO happen on forums, you need to include forums to get a true assessment of community. Blogs are just people standing on a box and talking to a wandering crowd. Some communities can come from there (Brokentoys, Raph's), but it's still generally one voice.

Forums are about many voices. And the constant seeking of clarity to find that middle ground (or not  ). They are more akin to the games they talk about, for the messiness that is social interaction.

[Sky]

"Oh, my cat did this CUTE thing this morning, omg I just HAVE to share it all with you!"

....that's a blog.

I hate the word blog. It's your website, or an online journal. I never use the word blog seriously. My supervisor asked me if we should start a library blog and I picked up a length of pipe and gave him the evil eye, after which he kinda slunk out of the room, ashamed.

[NiX]

You're gunning for Employee of the Month, aren't you?

[Soln]

I wouldn't worry about it.  None of it.

[waylander]

I prefer to hit up a few fan oriented news sites each day, and then beyond that I like articles written by guilds that actually play a game. Its easy to find guilds that play on your server ,or similar type of server, that will write articles, quest logs, reports, etc.  So when I want opinion, I check places like this or other well run guild's homepages. I certainly don't waste time chasing down blogs.

[Endie]

1) I really like that new song by My Chemical Romance.  They understand me like my parents never will.  Nobody round here gets me because I am really unique...

or

2) Bush is a terrible liar and please read this article in the NYT (hat-tip to CrazyChick, who got it from Pamplemouse via Death to Fisk) about why we are living in a fascist state far worse than Germany, Soviet Russia or even Cambodia.

There. Now we're a blog.

[Dundee]

But then, the forums here get more activity than most of those blogs put together and cover all of the topics aside from the non-wankery. But ya know.

This I actually consider a fallacy of that table (and the chart at Raph's). When most of the conversation about MMO happen on forums, you need to include forums to get a true assessment of community. Blogs are just people standing on a box and talking to a wandering crowd. Some communities can come from there (Brokentoys, Raph's), but it's still generally one voice.

Forums are about many voices. And the constant seeking of clarity to find that middle ground (or not  ). They are more akin to the games they talk about, for the messiness that is social interaction.

I almost did a network graph of forum users, but that was more work than copy-n-pasting data from bloglines. Seemed too silly to put a lot of work into, to me.

In the "f13 is a community site" vs "f13 is a blog" debate, "f13 has a feed" is the winner.

And I take the whole thing waaaaay less seriously than many of you guys.

Next time I'm just going to post pictures of my cat.

Well, since I don't own a cat, just a cat.

Possibly a list of cats.

Top ten MMO cats.

[Venkman]

You sound surprised we're (I) take this seriously :)

Once a list and a chart go up, the average not-seeking-deep-understanding folks (like, say, business decision makers) see "established fact". You threw yourself out there by putting together the list ;)

[Trippy]

In the "f13 is a community site" vs "f13 is a blog" debate, "f13 has a feed" is the winner.

Heh, that's only cause the first prototype of Feedbot used the Nucleus RSS feed feature to get the article information. The current version just sucks things out of the database but I never bothered to turn off the feed.

[HaemishM]

WTF? It lists CNN.com and The New York Times home page as MMOG BLOGS?

I'm sorry, exsqueeze me? I cunt hear you through this ear infuction I have.

I realize they have some bloggy guys and that said bloggy guys might actually deign to discuss SWG, EQ or WoW every once in a while, but how in the fuck does that make them MMOG blogs? I've written more about MMOG's in 2006 than they have and I haven't written about MMOG's much at all this year. They haven't been worth the effort.

Oh wait, this was from one of the SWG devs, right? It's all become clear to me now. He's using an Oracle DB to score the blogs and each blog can only have one character per account. And there's no collision detection.

What a tool

[Dundee]

WTF? It lists CNN.com and The New York Times home page as MMOG BLOGS?

It lists feeds that MMO blog readers on bloglines subscribe to (many of which are MMO blog feeds, and many of which are not).

Apart from the list itself, there were some words and such explaining this.

[Dundee]

In the "f13 is a community site" vs "f13 is a blog" debate, "f13 has a feed" is the winner.

Heh, that's only cause the first prototype of Feedbot used the Nucleus RSS feed feature to get the article information. The current version just sucks things out of the database but I never bothered to turn off the feed.

Feeds are good.

Websites without feeds are bad.

[Krakrok]

It should have been titled 'Top 100 Feeds MMOG Nerds Read'.

[Morfiend]

Hey at least we got our own little corner on Raphs map. I feel so special.

[Dundee]

It should have been titled 'Top 100 Feeds MMOG Nerds Read'.

I fixed it.

[Xilren's Twin]

Hey at least we got our own little corner on Raphs map. I feel so special.

Man, if we could just get listed in wikipedia we'd be famous!

[schild]

My position was explained in real words by Darniaq instead of the grunts I made on my side of the monitor.

[WindupAtheist]

I envision Schild banging his fist and screaming "I AM NOT IN THE TOP 100?  THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!" as his monocle falls out.  But I can't see why anyone should take remotely seriously a list of "MMO blogs" that includes things that are clearly neither MMO-specific nor blogs at all.

[WayAbvPar]

We are indeed schild's blog, and all the posters are figments of his imagination and/or alternate personalities. Except me. I am a government bot. In fact, this post never happened.

[WindupAtheist]

I told you all a long time ago that I'm Schild's Tyler Durdenesque alter-ego.  He thinks he has narcolepsy, and everytime he wakes up in front of his PC there's suddenly a new post about how new games suck and UO is awesome and also Star Wars owns.

[schild]

It's not "sleeping" it's "blacking out."

And it wasn't that f13 wasn't on there. it's why are things like Boing Boing on there. But that's been cleared up.

[Dundee]

It's not "sleeping" it's "blacking out."

And it wasn't that f13 wasn't on there. it's why are things like Boing Boing on there. But that's been cleared up.

f13's feed is hard to find. Your related feeds would have been another vote for Boing Boing, though.

I think Escapist+CNN+Dilbert=MMO nerd is pretty amusing.

[Nonentity]

It's not "sleeping" it's "blacking out."

And it wasn't that f13 wasn't on there. it's why are things like Boing Boing on there. But that's been cleared up.

f13's feed is hard to find. Your related feeds would have been another vote for Boing Boing, though.

I think Escapist+CNN+Dilbert=MMO nerd is pretty amusing.

There's a feed?! I've seriously looked twice on the main page for the feed, like spending more then a few seconds trying to find it, and I have yet to find it.

[Lietgardis]