I don’t know the ones for WordPress though, IJ uses a different software as far as I know.

@Noumenon: Absolutely. Spontaneously posted entries are usually the best ones (or at least the funniest ones).

I, on the other hand, need ages to write a single comment, and then usually still have to edit it.

And, for the record, YOU were the first commenter at The Geek Emporium, so congratulations!

I have made it a point to respond to every post, and hope to continue to do so. I just can’t always do it as timely as I’d like. I can’t access wordpress worth a damn at work

I’m thinking of putting something to that effect on my site so people know I’m not ignoring them. Who knows.

Toms last blog post..I Got Skillz

Michael Phillipss last blog post..Fish: The Michael Style Cat Post

Keep posts relatively short, about 600-800 words on average. If you get over a thousand words on one post, you might want to consider sub-dividing it. Not only does being concise like that keep the reader from glaze-eyed skimming, but it makes the idea last longer (particularly useful if you write a daily) and the fact that you’re doing a series means that people who’ve come in for one of the earlier posts are likelier to stick around to see what you say next. Just make it clear it’s a series.

Ravyns last blog post..Conversational Exposition: Execution

@graham – Consider me officially Nyahed…wow…gonna call webster for that one ; ) Rest assured that when you do update, I will be there reading it!
As to style, I kinda have to draft. My writing comes in big messy chunks, and usually requires at least one or two revisions…I wish blogger would let me cut and paste!

Man, I get prolific wheb the boss is out of town…it is getting easier too. It helps having great material to analyze, luckily this community is rife with it. From Trask’s Tyromancing, to Jeff’s old school glory. It’s a good place to be.

donnys last blog post..The circle of dice…of the Elton John variety

My problem in this regard lies in the fact that I just have to tinker with everything to get it to work the way I want to.

The advantage to this is that I learn some new stuff, like CSS.

The disadvantage to this is that I have to get all that new stuff to work the way I want it to, which is not necessarily easy.

I started with a downloaded theme on my new blog, and have been editing it in stages to bring it closer to what I want the design to be. At this point, I’m just starting to become happy with my basic layout. My large-scale tinkering is, I hope, mostly finished, but I couldn’t call it easy.

Fun, yes, but not easy. ^_^

Nyah!

Sincerely,

Graham

Additionally, I disagree with your “never post immediately” part.

None of my stuff has ever been saved in draft form. I don’t work that way. I write it and post it (or, if I wrote a couple things at once, set it to post the next day).

Keeping it around doesn’t help me, and my blog is stream-of-consciousness based anyways.

Online Conflict resolution/aversion is an art more than a science. I say go with the approach that suits you.

A blog is not a Forum. It is like the porch of your front house. It is out in the public, but it’s still your turf, so you’re allowed to make your own rules.

I’m a pretty conflict adverse person, mostly because I HATE getting mad because I just fucking lose it and I almost always regret it.

I therefore tend to always assume that when a commenter is a bit, shall we say, snarky, there’s a good reason I might not know about/understand.

In such cases I’ll inquire politely about the issue and question the necessity of the snarkiness.

If the ‘douchebaggery’, as you so beautifully put it, continues, I’ll either ignore the commenter and/or delete the comments.

Plus, I’m sure I’ve readers who would likely join in the fun and jump on the jerk… while I’d appreciate the chivalry, I’d rather have civility.

Fortunately I never had to go that far, I hope I never do.

As Shamus Young once pointed out… ” If you don’t like it here, feel free to hit the ‘back’ button’

I’m just happy to finally have my “own” place to absord, digest, and regurgitate my own take on all of the great ideas all of you folks throw out there. If you haven’t seen it yet, stupidranger has a gem this morning too!

One quick question for you experienced folks out there. It’s even on-topic! How do you deal with flamers? Where do you draw the line? I don’t mind a few bad words or some heated discussion, but when is it “acceptable” to jump in with a bucket of water? I ask because I have engaged in some douchebaggery of my own on several boards in the past, and it was VERY inconsistent as to what was ok/not ok.

donnys last blog post..The circle of dice…of the Elton John variety

Early posts will suck, I guarantee it, mine did.

Once posted though, there out there, so it becomes an incentive get better.

Don’t let the inner demons take an oblique route to prevent you from posting. You’ve shown potential in our comments and your post on TPK shows the same promise.

It IS rough around the edges… but who cares!

Keep paragraphs short, one core idea per paragraphs and move on.

If you post is a bunch of disorganized ideas, make them into lists… after some time and practice, your mind will get better organized and the words should flow better.

My unasked for 2 cents

I think you deprived yourself of 12 blog posts there. It’s a well known phenomenon of blogging that what you think is the big interesting stuff never gets written, while the stuff that just drives you to your keyboard to pound out a post right now takes over the blog.

Noumenons last blog post..I talk funny one day

SeiferTims last blog post..Zounds! Update

Nicks last blog post..Quick Fix: Adding Aspects to D&D

I vote we chain Graham to his computer until he updates his page ; )

Excellent tips chatty, I’ve been attempting to bring them from text to life, with mixed results. I would strongly suggest adding one other little tidbit:

Never post immediately after writing an article…take a break, drink a pop, play with the kids, THEN come back and re-read it.

Seriously, I have 12 drafts that seemed SO COOL! when I wrote them, only to come back the next day and laugh myself comatose at how silly and poorly organized they were.

Then again, I am all about the rambling exposition (some say pontification) in real life, so I guess we just stick with what we know eh?

donnys last blog post..Constructing a campaign…top down.

@Asmor #4 and Chatty #5: I’m not sure you were talking about Gnome Stew, Asmor, but I’ll follow Chatty’s lead and assume you were. There are actually several reasons we opted for registration — spam is a big factor, and the easiest reason to cite.

Investment: If I’m motivated enough to register for an account on a site, I usually come back — not always, but usually. And I feel like more of a part of the community. We hoped that would be true for GS readers as well.

Quoting rights: Who knows what we’ll do with GS in the future, but if it involves publication in other forms we know we’ll be able to include the awesome things our readers have to say about GMing. Our comment policy spells out being able to quote reader comments in published work (with attribution, of course), which I don’t think we could do without registration being required.

Interestingly, comparing TT and GS both get around the same number of comments per post on average, even though GS requires registration and TT didn’t. I was worried about that at first.

I’m sorry needing an account on GS frustrates you (assuming, again, you’re talking about us!) — frustrating readers is never what we’re aiming for!

I’m really not up to speed on Copyright issues and would love to have a fellow blogger/reader tackle this issue. From my understanding everything you post online is ‘protected’ by your country’s local Copyright laws.

If you intend to publish house rules and material specific for a RPG you should check if there are licenses available, like the Open gaming Licence.

For D&D/d20 3.5 I suggest that you post the entire Open Gaming license on one of your blog’s pages.

If you want to use ‘Open Content’ from someone else’s work, do remember that you still have to ask permission as only part of any material is full open.

I have a Copyrights and OGL notice somewhere on this blog but I think I lost it somewhere.

As for D&D 4e, we’re all waiting for the Fan Site policies from Wizard of the Coast.

I’m seriously considering “applying ” for a Creative Commons license for the blog’s content. SInce I don’t sell my past posts per say (but I may do it in the future) I want to clarify how others can use it in their own published works/sites.

@Others: Feel free to chime in on this.

@Noumenon: I think that the online RPG fan community is empirically much larger than 2000. Johnn Four sends out more than 10 000 copies of Roleplaying Tips every week.

However said population is likely fractionated with a large part on their games’ sites, then EnWorld, then forums like RPG.net and theRPGsite and then the smallest part is reading blogs.

I plan on making that last part bigger, along with the help of the current and next generation of RPG bloggers

Yeah, I’ve some Megalomaniac genes… but many big thing started with a crazy unrealistic vision.

Some of tomorrow’s biggest names in game design will emerge from the RPG blogger community, I’m sure of it.

I have read several articles about “how to be a blogger,” and this has stuff I’ve never seen. I especially like the stuff about commenting.

That’s very high praise. Thanks! I’m glad the reception has been so positive!

Publicize it please! Tell your friends.