Welcome to the latest edition of the OPML download update.
I have spent a great deal of time validating the blogs listed in the OPML as there have been quite a few changes.
As some of you may recall, a few months ago CCP and GameScribe engaged in an enrollment promotion. Create an account on GameScribe, blog about EVE and win some prizes. Many of the EVE community noted at the time that there would be a large number of blogs created on the GameScribe site for the sole purpose of winning some of the prizes. Once the promotion was over, those blogs would most likely either become inactive or be deleted completely. As it would be, this has come to pass and over 100 blogs have been purged from the site.
We have spoken with management at GameScribe concerning the cleanup and we received the following response:
What you are seeing is the fallout of the contest being over. Pretty much what happened was I moved to a dedicated server a while back, and rather than bring all the “dead baggage” I decided to do a little clean up. The criteria for the blog being removed was:
A. It had not been accessed within 2 days of it being created
B. It had not been accessed in over 3 weeks(at that time the contest had ended 3 weeks prior)
Pretty much I deleted all the blogs that were not in use and had no content, though all the usernames were kept. So anyone that had an account before still has an account, just their inactive blog was removed(and in most cases can be recovered by request).
So, if you had a blog on GameScribe that became inactive, it was removed from the server, but your account is still there for you to re-create your blog. With such promotions, this sort of thing will happen. People will always flock to a feeding frenzy when there is free stuff offered. We all knew this was going to happen, it was only a matter of time.
Services such as GameScribe and PodLogs will moderate their content in so much as to remove inactive accounts. Having many inactive accounts slows down server performance and thus results in a diminished user experience for both the members of those services and the readers of said blogs. Performing periodic account purges ensures the continued stability of those services.
Now, many of you asked why I “blindly listed” all these blogs in the OPML. I have always tried to maintain the following position concerning the content of the OPML file download.
If it’s an EVE blog, it’s listed in the OPML Download.
When you offer a service to the EVE community, you can’t play favorites. You have to take a neutral position. You think Chribba enjoys all the videos that are posted on EVE-Files? I won’t speak for him, but I am willing to guess that he hates some of them. Why does he keep them posted to his site? Because he is offering a resource for the community.
So yes, I listed many of the blogs from GameScribe knowing full well that they would be removed later on. I felt that every blog should have a fair chance to receive traffic and to receive readers of their content. It’s unfortunate that many blogs were created with no intention of maintaining content beyond the promotion.
And that brings us to our update for the OPML download. With the recent cleanup, we now have 344 blogs in the OPML download. Do remember, the EVE Online Blogroll Lovefest that CrazyKinux maintains (http://www.crazykinux.com/2008/04/eve-online-blogroll-lovefest.html) is a listing of blogs that are active. The OPML download has some of the defunct blogs as they are still worth reading if you never had the chance to read them, like the EVE Online 0.0 Experiment (http://00experiment.blogspot.com) and a few others.
To get your blog listed on CK’s Blogroll Lovefest, simply post a comment on the post with your blog’s information. I check his listing from time to time to add blogs to the OPML download. I also add people when I learn about a new blog. If your blog is not listed on the OPML download and you would like it listed, just drop me a line at galen@eve-druid.com and I will get you added.
Some good news, we do have one a few additions this week.
- Pirating By The Numbers (http://www.piracy-by-numbers.blogspot.com)
- EVE Stealth Project (http://www.hacksplat.com/main.html) Yes, he has his RSS feed working now!!!
So let’s give a big welcome to the latest member of the EVE blogging community!
See you out there!!!
