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| Some imagination still exists on Unter den Linden in Berlin. |
I was reading a post on the Independent Wargames Group about the "death" of a number of wargaming blogs in recent years. It made me think of the long roster of Imaginations Blogs that are listed on the Emperor versus Elector blog, which provides live news feed lists of updated blogs. I'd noticed this same phenomenon awhile ago but hadn't thought to blog about it. So Robbie Rodis's comments got me to thinking about it again.
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| Dead blogs or just casualties of a different kind? |
I did a list of what I consider to be Dead Imaginations and found the following:
Listed by last/most recent blog posting:
Deleted Blog = 1 blog
Ten Years = 7 Blogs
Nine Years = 6 blogs
Eight Years = 5 Blogs
Seven Years = 6 Blogs
Six Years = 9 Blogs
Five Years = 12 Blogs
Four Years = 7 Blogs
Three Years = 6 Blogs
Two Years = 6 Blogs
One Year = 11 blogs
Less than One Year = 27 blogs
I think that the total number of Imaginations listed on EvE comes to 103 blogs of which 38 are somewhat current with recent posts of one year or less. There are some other Imaginations that are listed in the Other Blogs of Interest section, such as The Grand Duchy of Stollen, to name one, that should have been placed in the Imaginations category. So I'm going to adjust that number to 104 Blogs in the Imaginations Category.
In my mind, if you haven't posted on your blog in over 2 years then you are Inactive. If you haven't posted a blog entry in over 5 years then you probably have a dead blog.
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| Where oh where did all of those Imaginations blogs go? |
So what happened? Well if we go back ten years from now we arrive at 2007 which was probably the high water mark of the Old School Wargaming and Imaginations fad. I believe that the term "Imaginations " was originated on the Old School Wargaming yahoo group that was started by Patrick Lewis. That group itself is on life support these days as most of the more active posters in that group sheared away into their own Blogs/endeavors or simply lost interest in OSW. Now a number of the group members have gone on to be regular writers of their own Blogs .
Also, other forums have drawn a good following of people who might have been regular visitors to the OSW group.
Part of me wants to say that interest in Imaginations waned once the central storehouse of ideas fizzled out on the OSW Group. For others, Imaginations were a moth attracted to the bright light and once the flame of enthusiasm began to flicker, so too did interest in writing blog entries. Probably the biggest reason for blog flame out is that interest in blogging on a regular basis simply diminishes. It can take a lot of effort to sustain the blog with creative writing and content. Family and Life Events take precedence over the Wargaming hobby so it is only natural that a large number of Blogs go inactive. I suppose that blogs are kind of like restaurants in that most will fail fail in the first year or two due to lack of interest.
All that said, there are plenty of good blogs that are thriving and most of them have nothing to do with Imaginations. The Elector vs Emperor feed is one of the first blogs that I check each morning because I can see which blogs have something new posted, and this information is all in one place, which is very convenient
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I did a load of imaginations SYW Syldavia and Borduria stuff on my blog a while ago, as background to my imaginations forces for Sharp Practice. It is all here - https://hippolytastinyfootsteps.blogspot.co.uk/
ReplyDeleteI just popped over to your blog, Carole. A great site that I will peruse more when it is not midnight ;-) Cheers, Rohan.
DeleteI also see a lot of former blogger switching over to more general social media platforms like facebook which provides the same functionality but allows easier access to an audience. I'm afraid us bloggers are going the way of the dodo!
ReplyDelete2007 was much closer, too, to the initial splashy idea of "blogging" (web logs) back in the early 2000s. I first read about this in '03 or '04. To a certain extent, it is now older technology if you can believe it.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
It's a natural cycle. Maintaining a blog requires a certain amount of dedication, and any given individual might grow tired after a few years. But new blogs do spring up all the time.
ReplyDeleteTwitter and Facebook are easier... and as humans we are inherently lazy and gravitate to those things... that said I'm a bit of a geek, and my mind goes in straight lines, and tables, and lists, and for that blogging is perfect for me... I like timelines, and being able tosee when I did things easily, and etc.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the OSW group don't even get me started - I loved that forum, I visited daily, posted daily, was active, and then Patrick started to tell us that what we were talking about was not "OSW" (whatever that was to him), and then people started to disappear, and with heavy heart I walked away... still miss it now...
Its just the way of things. Time, technology and people move on. But long may those who still blog prosper.
ReplyDeleteAnother small dynamic observed locally is, when we stop painting for a period, we stop/diminish gaming that period. Respectfully,
ReplyDeleteBill P.
Just because ma blog isn't listed on EvE doesn't mean its not an imaginations blog. I very much game in an imaginations atmosphere although gaming in 10mm and with flocks and shades etc I guess it's a long way from old school.Many of the blog collections are either not available for sign up or can't be bothered to reply to applications so I simply post on FB or other forums that interest me.
ReplyDeleteTradgardland lives!
ReplyDeleteI don't like or use facebook or twitter or other "social media" platforms. The reason I stopped posting to my old "imagiNation" blog is I lost interest in the project and moved onto other things, for which I have a different blog. The main things I use it for is to record things for myself and to have some presence that helps me connect with other people with similar interests. I don't think I get much traffic, and that's okay. I get plenty of enjoyment and inspiration from other blogs and from comments on mine.
ReplyDeleteFear naught! Even though it isn't listed on E vs E, my friend Pechlivan's 'Wars of the Gelderland Succession' is still going strong - tales of military disasters and buffoonery since 2011! There are still true believers in a completely imaginary 18th Century...
ReplyDeleteI have a blog at: https://battlesandcampaigns.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteIt is not an imagi-nations blog (though I have an imagi-nation on the back burner); however, it is an old school wargaming blog which follows my progress as I build up two Hinton Hunt vintage wargame armies.
With the eclectic Orders of Battle that get created (due to scarcity of figures), it will certainly have the flavor of some imagi-nation battles and campaigns.
An interesting post that has had me thinking on the subject over the past few days. Certainly I post less these days but that's down to a general lack of gaming at present. Some of the Blogs I follow have fallen pretty silent over the past year or so. I think the causes for this have been pretty well covered by other respondees to this post.
ReplyDeleteA good friend of mine no longer Blogs as he does everything via Facebook, as it covers his miniatures and terrain business as well as his general gaming. It is certainly a lot quicker than putting up a full AAR on a Blog. A few years ago I worked out that my actual gaming time was a 1/3 of the time taken to sort out a scenario, set up the game, take it down and then Blog about it. I do like to write up my AARs, but I have been thinking is it frankly worth it given how little time I have to game at present?