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Geek Culture / blogs, what's the point!

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shadey
14
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Joined: 25th Jan 2010
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2015 18:27 Edited at: 3rd Aug 2015 18:33
Every time I do a blog I get no comments what so ever from the visitors, am I expecting too much? The whole point of doing the blog and this time keeping it up to date was for feedback and possibly even a bit of motivation, rather than bombarding the forum here with all the updates and such... I find it no wonder that some indie developers simply jack it all in. Not even worth the effort in updating the blog as usually there's lots of work to do for an average indie developer! I will code on regardless, but might give up the blog as a waste of time. It just seems crappy to me, and really makes me think twice of even bothering with the 2d editor tutorial and the editor I was going to give away code wise. I would feel different if others were different!

Hail to the king, baby!
http://davidjohnwheeler.blogspot.co.uk
Yodaman Jer
User Banned
Posted: 3rd Aug 2015 18:47
Uhmmmm, how shall I put this...

For one, I've not seen you post that much, so how would I know about your blog?

Secondly, you don't have a link in your sig - just plain text. Nobody is going to take the time to copy>paste a long string of text to go to your blog.

Thirdly, I'll wager you probably haven't advertised it, have you? Putting a link in your signature is not enough. You need to bring attention to it - maybe make a logo of some kind!

And finally, from what I gleamed on your blog, you ramble and post a lot of similar-looking screenshots that show VERY little progress, if any, on your project. You need to keep readers updated, but if the visual updates are not obvious or you post too many similar-looking screenshots, people will think "Oh, you're still stuck on that? What gives?".

I've never gotten comments on my blog, but I don't really care - I keep it as a personal journal which just happens to get a few hundred views a year. That's perfectly fine.

If you want to make a professional-looking blog with more features and code formatting, you need to move away from Blogspot/Blogger too. Try WordPress since they have a TON of plugins and probably could help set you up with a proper website!


Forum President until June 20th, 2016. Bow down to me!
Ortu
DBPro Master
16
Years of Service
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Joined: 21st Nov 2007
Location: Austin, TX
Posted: 3rd Aug 2015 18:57 Edited at: 3rd Aug 2015 19:03
how much traffic has it actually had? I've never heard of it, or you, or what your working on, or what ever the blog is about.

the point being discoverability.

it is difficult to get random blog X to take off. it isn't enough to have something interesting to say, you have to get people to find it.

there is no harm in cross posting both here and the blog. the more points of exposure the better.

what are you using for your comments? something local to the site which requires people to do yet another sign up / registration will get many fewer comments than hooking in to a popular api like disqus or facebook where people can just log in with thier existing external accounts.

do you offer an option to subscribe to updates? do you utilize social media to generate exposure, drive traffic, and keep people engaged?

are your articles designed to generate discussion, and ask questions or are they a one way flow of information from you to the reader?

to make a blog successful, you really have to approach it as product in its own right, with marketing and user experience right up there with actual content.

shadey
14
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Joined: 25th Jan 2010
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2015 19:38 Edited at: 3rd Aug 2015 21:15
About the reply I was expecting to be frank, and about the attitude I kinda guessed most people have. And actually I have reposted it on reddit and places like that, so you would've lost your wager. Also you have made me decide, so thanks for that.

**edit** just to add I have tried adding the link properly to my sig, but cannot seem to do it for whatever reason: and if my blog was looked at then there is signs of a lot of progress...
I can do fps games,platformers, tilt games of course, all with the same editor, I have done so much that you cannot see by screenshots, the rotation is better when the ball is on something that rotates, effecting the ball differently depending on clockwise/anti-clockwise rotation, every single value of a object can be changed to be visible or not at first, to have collions or not, to be transparent or not.. Objects can be paired together creating loads of possibilities now, I have used it to add transporters to the levels making more gameplay, I have a door and key system going..the list is massive and growing daily, another point is that it was recently recoded for all this power making older posts pretty extinct.. So really!! But you see.. There you have it, you made a prime example of what I was actually moaning about!


Ortu: Your reply is more helpful, but yes I have widgets and things for people to follow/subscribe, also I near beg for comments. But anyhow. thanks for the effort

Hail to the king, baby!

Yodaman Jer
User Banned
Posted: 3rd Aug 2015 19:57
Uh, ok.


Forum President until June 20th, 2016. Bow down to me!
Ortu
DBPro Master
16
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Joined: 21st Nov 2007
Location: Austin, TX
Posted: 4th Aug 2015 01:33 Edited at: 4th Aug 2015 01:36
took a quick look, it has some good stuff, but couple of things stood out.

1) default 'classic' view is an endless scroller, this causes all posts to sort of blur together and it is tedious distinguish between posts or to find the end of a post while skimming. There also doesn't seem to be an easy way to link or bookmark a specific post.

Suggestion: scrollers are good for previews, but each post should have its own page & address.

2) comments are collapsed/hidden by default, you have to click show comments to unhide them before you can leave a comment. The more work you make users do, the less likely they are to put in the effort.

Suggestion: default to visible comment block.

3) Comment block formatting is messed up in flip card view, it gets squished into a 50px wide column that can't be read or used.

4) You talk about what you have done, but it is surface only and gives no real details on how.

Suggestion: don't be afraid to get technical. Share some code, design principals, techniques, etc. People like tutorials and examples.

-well looking a bit deeper, I do see some links to code in pastebin so nevermind I guess, but:

Suggestion: make it more obvious and accessable. embed into the blog itself, the more links people have to click through, the less likely it is to be seen. At least include a short preview with a link to full source etc. If you dont want to serve the content yourself due to bandwidth concerns, use an iframe to embed the pastebin.

5) the link in your signature doesn't tell us anything about the blog, or what it is about. people aren't going to randomly click it.

Suggestion: make it a proper link and it needs a clear call to action: 'Check out my tilt game and level editor [\href=www.linkygoeshere.com]development blog[\/href]'

(remove the backslashes)

Phaelax
DBPro Master
21
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Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 4th Aug 2015 04:03
I would set the default look to either Timeslide or Sidebar.


"I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended." - Linus Torvalds
bitJericho
21
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Joined: 9th Oct 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 4th Aug 2015 06:39
If you don't write for yourself, you're never going to go anywhere with it, you might as well close it down.

You remind me of those bloggers who are always asking for feedback or comments on the topics they are writing about. (I didn't see you do this.) They are notoriously bad bloggers cuz here's the PROTIP, nobody wants to read a non-expert. I want to learn something from an expert on a subject, not some newb who's asking me for my own opinion. You may not think of yourself as an expert but you can be. You are an expert on your own project and the code therein.

Most bloggers don't start to get a readership for years. 2 years, 3 years, 5 years. You're not writing for your fans, you have to write for yourself, and then you'll eventually figure out a rewarding and interesting style of writing. You won't know though, unless you write. I once did a stint where I did satirical writing. I loved it and my writing was good but I noticed people actually believed my writing and so I was a bit uncomfortable with misleading people.

http://witscience.org/wit-helps-produce-safe-driverless-cars/

Right now your posts are too specific to your own games, which I find uninteresting cuz I can't play them as far as I can tell. I wouldn't even post about a game I was working on except in a promotional, one day you can buy this, sense. Instead perhaps you can write about specific coding ideas and concepts. For example, what is your way of programming multiple balls at once (if you allow it). Do you program them as completely separate entities or do you loop through an array? It looks like you put thought into inputs, how exactly is that setup.

Instead it looks like you paste long lines of general code and talk about it. Your code is also completely unformatted and not styled on the blog. Anyway, I would post about specific things instead.

I would say posts about AppGameKit probably is going to be of interest to only a small handful of people. If I were to estimate probably less than 1000 people regularly use AppGameKit (though perhaps even less than 100). It also offers no modern programming paradigms, and so is of no interest to anybody using OOP or functional languages (the majority of modern languages).

So you have a blog discussing a relatively little used engine, procedural programming, about a monkey ball clone and you're complaining about a lack of commenters. I think some of your stuff is interesting. Your song was neat, how did you write it? What are some of the musical theories you used.

If you want my comment on that, I thought the song was interesting but the drums were not thought out. I would never go with a boom ta boom ta drum loop. It's super annoying. I'm sorry to tell you this because now all the songs that use the boom ta beat (and it's a lot) will perhaps annoy you as well. Put in a real drum loop and I think you'd have a winner there. That said, I would use a boom ta beat on something like a racing game or some other speedy type action sequence. The beat lends itself well to fast and forward moving scenes.

Van B
Moderator
21
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 4th Aug 2015 10:04
A blog is for people who need to express themselves, professionals who keep blogs are most likely doing it as a requirement of their position - if you aren't enjoying it, then drop it, but that surely doesn't mean that what your doing falls of deaf ears.

Really the whole written blog thing is only still there for people who like writing blogs, maybe you would get more traffic making youtube videos - I watch a lot of developer video blogs, I don't read blogs, few people have time to actually read something these days. Also - people often just disregard a blog, for the sole reason that it'll probably be abandoned before long!

shadey
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Joined: 25th Jan 2010
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Posted: 4th Aug 2015 11:19 Edited at: 4th Aug 2015 12:22
Well,hmmm.. Screw the blog anyhow

The engine is only used little because there is little I can do in the way of the 3d commands currently available, of course the whole physics thing will be added when it comes, along with hopefully bone animation and whatever else is added. I am only limited to a ball moving coz really what else do I do in the meantime?! Though this hasn't stopped me from setting the engine up for future additions! Be it platformers or fps's,which are all set up and ready as far as I can go with them.. Then it will be far from little used!

The music was simply messed around with,using generators in sequencers and messing with loop generators mostly to get something vaguely interesting, the levels will be on a timer and are pretty short so it all sounded kinda racey, I ain't no musician though and will never try to be! Also the code on the site is rubbish. I would ignore it because that was not planned out until the 2nd time around after hitting brick walls! I might just finish off the 2d editor and paste the improved code before I shut the blog down. My whole intention of the blog was to write it with insight for other wannabe programmers into the day to day life of my programming, kinda they learn as I learn thing, maybe even inspiring somebody else when they realised it ain't too hard and mostly to do with ones attitude.. I guess I was thinking too much! If you think about it I could have simply developed both the 2D and 3D editor all for my sweet self and just outputted games to the various app stores at an incredibly and hopefully profitable pace! But I really honestly had the intention of helping others also just as I was helped at first... just feels like a kick in the balls if I am permitted to say! But to justify myself then yeh, thinking about it, I will complete the 2D editor soon and paste the whole lot on the blog before, finalizing my intentions. Today I will put aside the 3D editor for it.

Hail to the king, baby!

Yodaman Jer
User Banned
Posted: 4th Aug 2015 16:30
shadey, I'm sorry if I came off a little sarcastic/unhelpful in my last posts.

I would still keep the blog. Don't stop writing just because you aren't getting comments. Honestly, begging for comments is almost a surefire way to NOT get comments. I know this from personal experience because a few years ago I started a blog that covered a wide range of topics and got nowhere fast. I kept it for about a year before deleting the whole thing.

Then when I made my new blog, which just keeps track of my programming progress or talks about computers, I realized I don't really care if I get comments or not. People still look at it and read the posts, so that's enough for me. AS long as I can tell that people are reading what I'm writing it still feels good at the end of the day!

Ortu definitely has the best advice in this thread, and I'm with Phaelax - change the look and it will help!


Forum President until June 20th, 2016. Bow down to me!
shadey
14
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Joined: 25th Jan 2010
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Posted: 4th Aug 2015 20:48
Yeh, ok thanks man! I am working to complete the 2d Editor now so I can give it away and at least feel happy!

Hail to the king, baby!

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