Sometimes, things in the blogosphere surprise me… particularly which posts and issues get attention and which do not. I thought I’d tell a little about my “Wait WHAT?” moments of this week. (Warning: this is a little meta and quite boring.)
Trying To Find Content
It’s Monday morning. I haven’t posted a blog post since last week. Last week, I only had 2? 3? posts. Something like that. And the week before, I was on vacation. What should I write about? Oh, 2-healing came up this weekend. I freakin hate 2-healing.
I Post
Shortly thereafter: Post up! Yay! Content! I’m a little disappointed that I ended it with a question for discussion like I did with the last 2-3 freakin posts, but oh well.
I Get An IM
Just then, Lono pings me asking about 2-healing… as if he read my mind (but apparently has not yet read my post – which causes me to snicker). We rationally and politely discuss strats for Baleroc, including 2-healing, 1-tanking, and 1-tanking with a DPS soaker for the decimation blades.
You don’t need to hear what our positions are. We already posted them. Duh. Rehashing would be boring.
I Get Another IM
Later that day…
Lono: OMG ZEL!
I just read you latest post
me: yah?
Lono: yah! you’re trying to weasel out of 2 healing by gathering interweb support
I’m on to you
/suspicious eyes
me: I wrote that before you started harassing me
At which point, he tells me he’s gonna write a rebuttal.
It doesn’t appear soon enough. I pester Lono. I wanna read it!
The Rebuttal
The rebuttal is, as expected, a rational and respectful disagreement about a proposed raid strategy. Basically he’s making the same points he made to me earlier that morning. I don’t find the post aggressive or offensive. It’s a disagreement about ideas. And honestly, not all that different than some comments I received on the original post.
Attracting Some Notice
Suddenly, there are more comments! I think Lono has more readers than I do… (OK, I might be jealous)
The next day, I see 2 pingbacks from other blogs (Repgrind, Slice) in my email and remark to the husband “oh, there are multiple blogs talking about the same issue in the blogosphere. I bet MMO Melting Pot picks this up.”
5 minutes later I get a pingback from MMO Melting Pot. LULZ!!! Hey, they even quoted me swearing profusely. What is better than that?
Why this probably got more attention than usual: Tobold posted on it (which I did not realize since blogspot doesn’t do pingbacks)! I’m relieved that I didn’t get trolls.
Comments That Are Not OK
Of course (and this is the whole point of me writing this), some people were absolute dicks to Lono which is not cool, regardless of his opinion on this (or any) issue. I’m wagging my finger at you nasty trolls.
Also, as a complete surprise to me, some commenters made far-flung assumptions about Eff the Ineffable. I admit, I was sparse on background information. Lono was too. This was about the issue of 2-healing essentially by itself, not a commentary on our guild. For people to extrapolate bad things with little to no information was baffling.
(Don’t even get me started on “the twitterz” which I thankfully was not watching.)
I Get Philosophical
One Monday morning, I gave my thoughts in a half-assed off-the-cuff post and it turns into a big fucking deal. And it’s not. As you can see, Lono and I respectfully disagree on a raid strategy. It isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time.
You know I’m a big pansy about people in the blogosphere being nice to each other and avoiding personal attacks. However, this is a disagreement about ideas without any hint of personal attacks. It’s normal. It’s what bloggers DO. How does it lead down the road to anger and name-calling by commenters?
TL;DR
How can I TL;DR this when I’m not sure I have a point? I’ll try…
1. Murphy’s law of blogs: If you write something without much thought, it will get the most attention. If you put a lot of time and effort into something and proofread it thrice, it will likely be ignored without comment.
2. Respectfully disagreeing on ideas is OK.
3. Personal attacks are never cool.
4. Don’t assume. Something about asses, and I’d rather not be an ass.
P.S. If anyone tries to troll THIS post you’re totally missing the point to CEASE AND DESIST!
I have a post about healing BGs and whether you should bring 2 or 3 healers ALL READY TO GO Zel. You give me the word, I’ll help add to the drama!
Rule number 1 is absolutely true, by the way. 16 hours on a post? Doomed to failure (but long-term success.) Dash something off in 15 minutes? Huge burst of traffic and linkage.
“How does it lead down the road to anger and name-calling by commenters?”
I’m sure you’ve been on the internet long enough to know how this happens. And if you do not then I shall start name-calling, you squishy little… GNOME!
I think it was a rhetorical question. Since I am moderating comments!
ZOMG, calling me a gnome is RACIST, you jerk, QQ.
I see my error and apologize for the racist comment. There’s no call for that.
Particularly when there’s plenty of reason to knock you for being a Priest!
CLASSISM! Because Paragon says so!
Your al noobz.
Don’t ask me who Al Noobz is or why you own him, I couldn’t honestly tell you. I’m actually surprised it exploded and people couldn’t discuss it in a civil manner.
What’s your typical raid make up?
While I didn’t get a chance to read the comment in question, I do follow and read both parties involved. It was a bit surprising to me. Part of my shock is about how anyone could get irate with Lono over his post. As you said, it was “a rational and respectful disagreement about a proposed raid strategy” and nothing offensive about it.
Thereafter, I was shocked that the commenter, who is also a blogger, got upset that they got moderated. As a [part time and lousy] blogger myself, I don’t feel I need to justify moderating anyone on my blog. My house, my rules; clearly stated or not. I’ll try to be reasonable about it, but if it crosses that undefined line where I get upset…then I’ll deal with it as I see fit.
But oh well, I guess this is what it’s like for you famous folks.
I saw both posts and thought it was more of a discussion / response in a light hearted manner since some of the other team heal posts have that same vibe. It sucks though that people had to be asshats in comments.
See! That is a SENSIBLE reaction! (Thankfully the asshats thought my blog wasn’t important enough so I suppose that’s good…)
I think they are just more afraid of you Zel.
@Regis: I don’t know where you got that info but I don’t think I’m anywhere near famous…. Zel on the other hand
Famous by association?
I actually read both posts in about the same order and time frame you did, Zel, except obvoiusly without the intervening conversations. That’s a good thing, BTW, because if I had been involved with those, it would be creepy as fsck.
Anyway, I think this one got a lot of discussion because raid comp is SERIOUS FREAKING BUSINESS. Because of this, people get up in arms immediately, and transform into Al Noobz. Get enough of em together in one place, and they’ll combine to become Horde O. Noobz, a powerful force of EVIL.
On the flipside, posts that you spend hours on get little commentary because you’ve spent so much time and effort on research and writing for there to be much else to comment on, so rational people will read the post, go ‘DAAAAAYUM! awesome!’ and press on without commenting.
Also the one blogger who actually seemed up in arms over it has always seemed to be…. twitchy on the trigger finger, as it were. I wouldn’t read much into it, either you or Lono. Passion is what makes a lot of blogs worth reading, but sometimes it makes bloggers really bad at commenting on other peoples’ issues, because they have to pick a side or else.
I wouldn’t have bothered to write a whole post due to just one commenter. Unfortunately, there were more.
Ah just read the comments on lono’s blog to realize you guys are talking about Baleroc. Well the gatekeeper is tough nut to crack if you are doing it with 5dps .. its either go 2 tank 2 healers or 1 tank 3 healer.Since you don’t have a bear (high dodge chance) or Dk tank (lots of self heals/cds ) your only option is to go for 2healers , or wait till the rest of dps gears up enough to push it past the enrage timer.In our case my(me being a dk) co tank(pally) goes dps for this fight .. while he does 16-17k in os gear , but that’s enough to safely kill the boss with other 5 main spec dps doing 20-25k dps.