Kids today
They listen to the rap music, and that’s what gives them the brain damage.
Like most of you, I got older this year. Also, my blog is turning right around 6 months old. So I’m taking some time to reflect on the nature of this beast. I think the internet is a great equalizer, as evidenced by the recent Gender Drama sweeping the aniblogosphere.
I initially started out trying to be an island, a Google magnet living on the long tail and providing a little insight for people who aren’t necessarily hardcore anime people. Frankly, I think what I was trying to avoid by isolating myself were pictures of Shin’s crotch (don’t click that), i.e. link-baiting, attention-whoring, and retinal-burning. No offense to the trap-in-training himself, I am more inclined to believe you than call you a link-baiter but you sure have talked a lot about it lately, and hey — you got my link. 
But my digression actually strengthens my point: No one on the internet is an island if they want to get anywhere, and the community is the logical place to go. What I found were a lot of really interesting conversations, and people generally getting along better and expressing more entertaining opinions than on forums, my previous exposure to anime discussion on the web.
So, I got sucked into this world and now I probably provide very few resources for non-otaku, but it’s fun. And as for that great equalizer, I’m talking age too: I’ve found that other bloggers around these parts, aside from the old school Lawsons and Kabitzins, average about 7 years younger than me, some quite a bit younger — but they’re my “virtual senpais,” as it were, and have managed to teach me a little something by virtue of their blogs’ age.
Contributing to the echo chamber is a great way to get traffic in this space as well as the blogosphere as a whole, but I’m still holding out on too much participation. I just want to talk about anime. But it does seem like exciting things are happening, so, uh… yay! And thanks to everyone, the anime world has been a great place to blog so far.
It would take me back to those days sitting around a tiny crummy apartment in Pittsburgh watching Evangelion on VHS, except that apartment had a carbon monoxide leak and I lost most of those memories.
Pretty much my story too. My site was an island for two years (1.5 of which were in Pittsburgh). I assumed that if I kept writing, I’d eventually get traffic. I was wrong. Then a few months ago I sold out: redesigning the page, adding RSS, writing about anime only, commenting on other blogs, etc…, and so far it’s at least doubled my traffic (and possibly tripled my page rank, 0 x 3 = 0).
But like you, I’ve also tried to hold out on too much participation.
UGH why did you link to Shin’s post? X(
I am surprised to see all this talk about the ‘Burgh as well!
I find participating makes blogging more fun. I’ve tried to be a community member pretty much from day 1.
That’s not a real picture of Shin!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s been floating around on the net foreverrrr.
I sort of tried the island thing too, but since Maestro adds all affiliates into his blog directory and Antenna, people were visiting anyway. Eventually it turned into what it is today.
BTW, Steven den Beste is in his 50s. So it’s not like Lawson is old by some standards… Did you see his infamous Ronery post on V-day? Heck I’d love to have half his hair!
Which crummy apartment in Pittsburgh would you be referring to?
S’all cool, I really did it because of all the possible feedback anyway(just as planned!), though at the same time because of my 4chan roots, I enjoy posting stuff that makes people want to claw their eyes out lawl.
@Baka-Raptor let me get Google on the horn, Talk-a-Raptor has to be good for a couple pagerank points. You want to talk sellout, do a tech post. My “animu media center” post got just under quadruple my normal traffic.
@Kabitzin does that mean yinz are in the burgh n’at too?
@Nagato I really hoped not. Nonetheless, it did the job, no?
@Author I have not in fact seen a picture of him, I will seek that out.
@Jason not the one we lived in with the carbon monoxide leak (that was a large crummy house not a tiny crummy apartment), this is the dump I lived in with the misses, well after you left.
@Shin Well like I said, you got my link. I think I have to give you props for peppering twitter and people’s blog comments with innuendos leading to that post o’ horror.
I was wondering if it was Allegheny or post-crummy house. But that works, too.
post-house … although Agony was probably where I saw my first non-Robotech/Voltron/Speed Racer/Dragonballz anime.
Now you are just being nebby ;D.
Well, as I’ve experienced, if you only blog about one thing people will want to see it. My Anime posts are my most frequented posts on my blog, however my attempts at addressing non-Anime geeky issues have met with indifferent silence (maybe this is a blessing, do I really want criticism of my analysis of Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore’s fashion and style choices?).
otou-san, you were one of the people who inspired me to blog about Anime, and also the guy who inadvertently informed me I needed a WordPress blog. I’ve been blogging for a while, but until I started the “Geek Philosophy” blog I didn’t realise there was such a big community to interact with in the blogosphere. Keep it up and I hope to grow old with your articles and blog posts! (scary thought, but eventually many bloggers who are young as I write this will be middle aged about ten years from now)
To a degree. I worked for a long time trying to find a niche while blogging about music, my other big passion/nerdism, and I found the only time people really wanted to read was if you pissed them off and baited them into commenting. Some spaces encourage positive conversations more than others, and this seems to be one of them.
Maybe it’s because we don’t have enough friends in the real world who are as into these things as we are, maybe it just lends itself to it. I dunno.
I do know that I’ve been into anime about ten years, and I’ll probably still be in another ten years, but I’m not sure if I’ll be blogging about it (after only 6 months it’s hard to estimate). Hell, who knows if blogs will still be around.
Also, that is the first time I’ve heard “Alan Moore” and “Fashion” in the same sentence
I think I may be in the stage of blogging about various nerdy subjects (anime/manga, music, and left-libertarian politics, apparently). Also, I’ve discovered the only comments are usually on the anime posts–go figure
. Much kudos on blogging about anime in a way accessible to non-otaku or mere semi-otaku (like myself).
…
And I’m saving that picture of Bill Cosby ^^.