Sunday 18 July 2010

Web based magazines and forums and blogging

I try to up-load new material to my Blog at least every other day, giving me a total of between 15 - 20 posts per month. If I have more than one articles worth of material, I prefer posting one, one day and another the day after. There are no firm plans or rules, just the way I post on my Blog.

In addition I regularly follow two on-line magazines, The Miniatures Page or TMP, see;

and The Lead Adventure Forum, see;

I also follow two more, Miniature Wargaming and Tabletop Gaming News, but less frequently, possibly once or twice a week. See;

and

In the distant past I also check up on Frothers, but I personally find Frothers a bit 'aggressive' and don't enjoy the posting style or comments, for completeness, Frothers can be found here;

I regularly read and post on TMP and LAF's, for example I posted a comment about the newly released Foul Mouth Freddy miniature from Alternative Armies only this week, (I didn't post a comment about this figure on LAF's, as I am never sure where to post Flintloque/Deadloque threads on LAF's!) The AA posts giving details of this very limited edition miniature (just 250 models are being produced) is then taken up by many other Blogs, Forums and on-line gaming magazines or Web pages, it always surprises me just how quickly and how thoroughly this style of Chinese Whispers posting takes over, maybe it is just an age thing! As when I first started modelling/collecting the only ways to get information were gaming or military magazines, sending away for a printed catalogue (usually involving postal orders) or visits to wargame shows.

Recently a thread on LAF's has got me thinking. For completeness here is a link to the thread;

Tabletop Gaming News have launched Tabletop Gaming News Blog Network, a central point for the more established wargaming , gaming or miniature based Blogs. I was very much in favour of this, thinking it was a great idea, however others have commented that why launch another 'Blog of gaming Blogs?' - as there are already two 'major' Blogs that do essentially the same - La Figoblogotheque and Blogs of War from Steve Blease, see;

and

I, however believe that there is more than enough room on the Web, to have more than two such Blogs of Blogs and actually look forward to seeing how the Tabletop Gaming News Blog Network develops. I was so taken with their aims, that I decided to add Dampf's Modelling Page to the list of proposed Blogs, only to find that I had already been included within the list. A pleasant surprise.

My own view is that these three lists are different enough to warrant them being allowed to exist alongside one another, La Figoblogotheque tends to concentrate on European Blogs (running alongside English speaking and American Blogs) , the inclusion of non-English speaking modelling Blogs adds to the number of Blogs I would normally view and therefore I am all in favour of the inclusion - some of the Spanish figure modelling Blogs are just fantastic, I really enjoy checking out the pictures, as I don't speak Spanish.

Blogs of War is a list that I check back on at least once a week, it gives me a one-stop-shop to see what is new, what others are doing and I never fail to see at least one fantastic new Blog or article that has something to interest me.

Tabletop Gaming News and their new Blog Network, is more focused and because of the different format gives another options, the list of Blogs has a short section of text, giving a feel for what the Blog includes and the option of a detailed search, something that I am not aware the other two have. See;

In conclusion I am looking forward to reading all three of these Blogs of Blogs and believe that I will enjoy and take something from each of them, without feeling that they repeat one another. I would suggest that anyone not familiar with these three Blogs, check them out and see just how active the world of gaming Blogs is. Long may it remain so.

I have possibly gone on a little too far, sorry, but I felt this had to be said.

Tony

2 comments:

Andy said...

I use Google Reader to create my own "Blog of blogs" containing stuff I'm particularly interested in. It includes your blog, which is how I saw this posting!

Tony said...

I've been thinking about this subject recently and thought this comment would be worth posting;

If The Miniatures Page was a club I am sure I would join.

If Lead Adventure Forum was a club I would definitely join and suspect would also meet up in the local pub afterwards.

If Frothers was a club I would have attended once, not liked it and never returned.

If Cool Mini Or Not was a club I would like to think that I would be welcome but would never stay as the skill and ability of the other members would be too daunting for me.

Tony