People ask me all the time, what do I have to do to get into the Eve Blog Pack? And despite all the complicated bullshit I've written about it in the past, it really comes down to a few simple things.
1 Have a strong voice.A strong voice isn't one that is always opinionated, angry, or ranting... although it could be. More importantly however is having something to say that others might find interesting. Having a blog is a lot like having a soap box in front of the entire Eve Community. Use it.
2 Be Consistent.This might be the hardest one. While you don't have to post every day, posting often and consistently is important. The Eve Community demands fresh new perspectives and the EBP needs to represent that. It is a tough row to hoe and not everyone is up to the challenge. That's ok in the larger sense, but not good enough for the EBP.
3 Luck of the drawVariety is the spice of life. And I strive to keep the EBP as full of variety as possible. This means that while you might have a great blog about low-sec pirating, there are already plenty of great blogs about low-sec pirating in the EBP. This is going to make it harder for you to get in. That's just the way the Cynabal spins.
So today, in the first major upgrade to the Eve Blog Pack for 2012, it is my honor to introduce six new members. Each one of which has consistently written from a strong voiced perspective and deserves to be included. Welcome to the Blog Pack.
Dsan's EVE-Online BlogSand, Cider and SpaceshipsGun Turret DiplomacyA Scientist's Life in EveThrough Newb EyesArdent DefenderBe sure to update your blogs with the EBP Feed to support the other members as they support you. And feel free to grab some swanky EBP Badges from the EBP Page to dress up your blog and announce to the world your new membership in an exclusive club.
Keep up the great work guys and welcome aboard.
Back in August when I first took over the Blog Pack from CK, I tried to keep things running as smoothly as possible. Any change like that is going to be problematic in many ways, so the idea was to keep it as simple as possible and minimize the bad.
This worked pretty well if I do say so myself.
Since then there have been a number of EBP Updates, changes and issues that have popped up. And, in my humble opinion, the EBP continues to be a vibrant reflection of the "best" of the Eve Blogging Community.
And there is that word.
I thought it would be a good time to define a bit more what I believe the Blog Pack is and isn't as we move into 2012. To me the EBP is a snapshot of the Eve Community of today, not of yesterday or tomorrow. A snapshot, not an album. Other people have lists, my personal favorite is Eve Blogger for example - it does an excellent job of linking Eve Blogs. Other people also have limited lists, or Best of lists, or friend lists, or any number of other ways of linking to Eve Blogs. But none of them are the Eve Blog Pack.
I am, in many ways, honor bound to uphold what I believe to be the spirit that CK created the Blog Pack for in the first place. Not to provide a comprehensive list of Eve Community Blogs, but to provide a snapshot of the ones that stand apart and that represent a wide selection of topics interesting to other members of the Eve Community.
So the EBP is about the reality of today. Getting on the EBP is no guarantee that you will be staying on the EBP. This isn't a Hall of Fame. It is a vibrant, living list. If you stop blogging for three months and then return, don't expect to see your blog on the list. It doesn't work like that. You will be replaced with someone else.
You need to write about Eve and write about Eve often. You need to do so in a way that is interesting, vibrant and important to the greater Eve Community. If not, you will be removed. And there is no warning, no head's up. I do try to help our EBP members if they are having problems, and they all know this is true, but I am not your babysitter. I still love you, but the list is the thing when it comes to EBP.
So moving forward the list will be updated more often under slightly more stringent personal guidelines from me.
The goal isn't to favor anyone, or punish anyone, the goal is to create a vibrant, strong, important snapshot of the Eve Blogging Community. It isn't easy to get on the list, it shouldn't be. And it isn't easy to get taken off the list. But staying on the list is more than getting on it in the first place. It isn't easy to continue to write about Eve and to stay excellent, that should also be true.
There will be changes coming this week. The first update of 2012 has been in the works for several weeks now. Already Eve A to Z has been removed due to non-Eve related postings.
More updates coming.
UPDATE: The Altruist moved his site. The Feed should have been working fine for a few weeks now, but I finally got around to fixing all the other links on here as well.
Since Ninja are sneaky and covert and clever, you might not know that there is such a thing as a Ninja Blog Pack. But there is. My good friend Aiden Mourn ( who just happens to be a Ninja, shhhh ) runs it over on his awesome blog that he calls Finders & Keepers.
Memorize that link and then destroy this... oh wait. Huh, quandary. Ok then, this blog post will self-destruct in five, four, three, two...
A permanent link will be going up around here shortly.
Some housecleaning items:
CommissionsBetween today and the end of the year I will not be taking on any additional commissions. That doesn't mean you can't continue to email me your requests, you can, it simply means I won't be working on anything "new" until the first of the year. I have enough on my table at the moment and some of these poor people have been waiting a long time. So my focus between now and then will be to clean off the work table.
This is good news for all of you that are currently waiting. Once again, thank you for your patience. I hope the final results will have been worth the wait.
Blog PackThere will be another update in the next few weeks. So keep your eyes open for that.
For those that have written and asked me to share the process for getting selected to the Eve Blog Pack, it is extremely simple. Make sure I am aware of your blog and add it to the "Eve Sites" Blogroll in the right sidebar. That blogroll is my own personal reading list and the source of my opinions about the blogs that get added to the EBP. Please remember, there are well over 500+ blogs currently active about Eve! Selecting the blogs in the EBP is a purely subjective process and is based on my own personal opinion regarding quality, longevity, subject matter, interest to the Eve community at large, and the sheer amount of bribery involved! ( That is a joke, I don't accept bribes.)
Seriously, if you want to be considered, send me a link to your blog. And then write awesome stuff about Eve.
Please update your feed links on your blogs.
A couple of additional changes to the Blog Pack today, which will complete the current slate of changes. Hopefully these latest changes will be the last for awhile and the Blog Pack members you see today will constitute the roll for a long time to come.
First of all we welcome The Beginnings of Piracy back to the pack! Mail Lite's excellent blog was removed simply because he was having Malware issues and those have been resolved now. So it is good to have his blog back in the Pack.
And we also welcome our newest member to the pack, The Altruist is an excellent blog that gives extremely solid advice on playing Eve for both the new and older members of the community. Check out his latest post on the upcoming Winter Expansion changes for a great example of this. He doesn't post all that often, but when he does it is valuable. So it will be a great addition to the Pack.
For those of you wishing to have your own blog become a member the process is simple. Make me aware of your blog! I will add a link to your blog to the Eve Sites list in the right hand sidebar, this means you've been added to my own personal reading list. When a slot becomes available I use that list to decide who to add next.
Remember that ALL BP members should have a link on their blog to ALL other BP members! I've been extremely lax in enforcing that rule, but that will start to change. We're all adults here, so hopefully by the time I get around to you, the list is already up and running on your blog.
Thanks and enjoy the Eve Blog Pack.
It has been about a month since the last Blog Pack Update and that is way longer than it should have been. My apologies. So today I've cleaned up several inactive blogs, added a few new ones, updated the link for another and also created some spiffy NEW badges that you can use on your BP Blogs!
There were two sites in the Pack that had not updated in over 2 months, without any word on their sites about when they might be back. I'm sorry but that is grounds for removal. Should the blog authors in question return they can ask to be reinstated to the Pack. But the idea of the Pack is to present active, engaged community Blogs.
Marc Scaurus changed his blog from Wanderlust to Malefactor, so it has been updated on the list and the feed.
Welcome Nashh Kadavr back to the Blog Pack! When I took over the pack from CK Nashh had been inactive for awhile, but he has been back at it full steam for almost two months now and is welcomed back into the Pack.
And we also welcome Helicity Boson back to the land of the living! Helicity is a long time member of the Pack and I'm glad to see her back to blogging again.
That is it for new Blogs for today, there are several other ones that may be included in the next update two weeks from now, so keep your eyes open for those. I decided not to add them today because I am honestly not sure which of them will be added yet, so I'm going to keep an eye on them for the next two weeks to see if a few rise to the top.
As always, clicking on the graphic under the banner will take you to the Blog Pack page with links to all the sites and a link to the Blog Pack Feed.
It is amazing how quickly things change. I went thru so many blogs the past week that are gone, inactive or otherwise dark. But there are also tons of new ones rapidly taking their place. As always, I am only one dood, so if you want your blog to be considered please feel free to send me a link, leave one in the comments, or otherwise make sure I know about you! Enthusiasm counts in the Eve Community.
Keep the courage.
