Crazy Kinux has finally become active after a long absence for the better part of a year and announced that he has decided to revamp the his Blog Pack. He announced that he was seeking submissions on who should be added to his blog pack and he would hold a vote. He would then select the top 20 from that voting process and add his own blog to the mix for a total of 21 blogs.
I’ve read the comments and I want to thank everyone who has listed my blog as a potential inclusion for CK’s blog pack. It’s gratifying to see that many people like my blog’s content and I am truly touched.
However, I am a bit torn by some of the discussion I am seeing on this topic and I too want to chime in here.
Roc of Roc’s Ramblings voiced some personal opinions concerning the elitist concept around the formation of a blog pack. I posted my comments on his blog, but I have more to say and I didn’t want to cloud up the discussion.
I feel the need to point out that Casiella Truza posted a good response asking everyone to stop being all emo about this situation. I need to quote my friend here because he has a great point:
But you know what really gets me madder than a sack of hornets? When a sense of ownership turns into a sense of entitlement. “The list is popular and therefore we should get to decide what’s in it, because otherwise I will be sad and left out and the community will die.” As much as I appreciate CK’s hard work, the EVE community won’t die based on what one single person does or doesn’t do. We’ve grown past that. I’ll keep writing what I write (and so will many of you) because of the people that read it, not because I want some badge of approval from one single person.
People feel like they are being excluded because they are not in CK’s blog pack not listed in Capsuleer and that’s why they are all acting emo. I agree with Casiella and this is why.
You should really take a look at the many other things the community has down on it’s own without CK taking the lead to help us all grow. A few of them are listed here:
- I created an OPML file of EVE blogs well before I ever met CK, however he was one of the many bloggers who suggested make it public for everyone to use.
- 00sage00 created the tweetfleet.
- Alexia Morgan created The EVE Online Portal (evebloggers.com) for all EVE blogs to have a fair shot of exposure to the world.
- Eddie Gordo created PodLogs to provide a place for anyone who wanted to blog about EVE to be able to do so easily.
- Mandril created the “streamlined OPML download” based on my original work years before meeting CK. Mandril is also working on a categorized directory for all the EVE blogs.
All these endeavors have done very well under the guidance of the EVE Blogging Community in general. We all build and contribute to our community in such a way that is inclusive of everyone. We don’t isolate those few from obtaining the traffic that they should be able to obtain. We keep things fair and we have done so very well. We always have and we always will.
And for a final note, no, you don’t have to be listed in CK’s Blog Pack to be in Capsuleer. This discussion has come up before and it’s mentioned on their forums. Head over and simply ask to be included in the application. Work Roc and Pyjamasam and see what your options are. There is a lot of love that goes into developing Capsuleer, you should share in that effort and respect their time, an offer of compensation for their work would be most welcome.
What would a post about our community discussing an issue without yet another shared Google Items page. Yes, I am a Google Reader shared items whore and I am proud of it.
You can catch all the content I am aware on this issue at: http://www.eve-druid.com/ckbpd. If I’ve missed anyone, comment here and I will get you added into the page.
February 24th, 2010 at 1:21 am
Agree with this. In fact, I as I just tweeted, I'd be perfectly fine with being taken out of consideration for inclusion in the Blog Pack (which may happen anyway in CK's decision making process, who knows) so that an energetic, quality newcomer could get a leg up.
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Galen Reply:
February 24th, 2010 at 1:30 am
Wow, you get the award for the fastest comment post when a blog post goes live. Damn, not even 3 minutes.
As for CK's decision making process, I too don't know what he's thinking most of the time. With the Tweetfleet and evebloggers.com, is there really a need for a blog pack anymore?
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February 24th, 2010 at 2:38 am
I am one of those that falls under casiella's "Emo Post". I just want to clarify why I am upset. First off CK wanted to give the community some say, HE WANTED HELP running the pack(choosing its members), which I thought was a step in a good direction for the community, people having a say over who is "the best of the best".
Then Roc(who i normally agree with, and who i respect very much) decided to go and post about why he thought it was turning into a popularity contest, and how didnt want to remove the old blog pack from Capsuleer.
a. The Capsuleer matter is your own roc, maybe you should create your own list, instead of complaining that the new blog pack will make more work for you.
b. Popularity contest… The best blog are read the most, making them popular. The longer a blog is around, the more reader it gets, and more popular it gets. I should say I am not a fan of popularity contests, but the way I see it is that in this case whats wrong with being popular? Contrary to what people have said, the best blogs get the mot views, and if someone doesn't want to get their feeling hurt then they should grow a pair.
In regards to your comments about "Do we need a blog pack"… YES! and here is why.
EVE-Bloggers.com doesn't fit the bill for a very big reason, too much stuff. You can post and a few hours later your post if off the front page and no one will see it. There is no easily visible way(to my knowledge) to subscribe to the feeds that he has created. In short, its not friendly to newcomers wanting to subscribe, and its not good for the blogger's that post early in the day.
The blog pack provides a easily subscribe-able group of blogs that is supposed to represent the best the eve community of bloggers has to offer. New people that want to find stuff can, and always will start with CKs blog pack.
One more thing, to those who have said "go make your own list then".. sure we could go make another list. But it will fail, why? I can see it now "why bother with your list when we have the blog pack?" , in my opinion any kind of list must come from CK, or have his approval, or it is destined to fail(sure some might make it, but chances are lower than if CK did it).
In short, im fine with whatever CK does. I was just very happy to see more community involvement and was very unhappy to see it taken away because some people didn't want their feelings hurt. Also, I think another hidden motive is, its easier to convince CK your blog is good than the whole community.
//end huge emo comment post
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Brent Reply:
February 24th, 2010 at 4:00 am
I partially agree with you Anthony. There’s really only three things I disagree with.
1) Most popular does NOT always equal the best. That’s evident in everyday life. Although, I doubt the bloggers of EVE have these horribly diabolical plans where they’re just trying to win over our praises only to throw the oppressive shackles of a horrible, malevolent tyranny on us. But you get my point.
2) I actually started blogging BECAUSE of evebloggers.com. I know I’m the exception and not the rule, but there are some people who prefer starting with such a huge selection as opposed to a slimmed down version, but I think that really just comes down to personal tastes.
3) New lists could have some great potential (but yeah, that doesn’t equate to success). CK’s list is pretty broad on topic, so if you start a list of mining, exploration, pirating, etc., like has been suggested, then you could really hit the sweet spot and get a good thing going.
Ultimately, I think this whole thing will blow over without much of an impact on people. My personal opinion; just let it figure itself out.
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February 24th, 2010 at 6:29 am
I still follow Lady in Space – inactive for 15 months but the linked blogs update, and I like the selection
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