It just occurred to me that a lot of readers tend to skip over anything that’s italicized. As a result, if you read the Doomsday Raiding column this morning that was written by my Guildmate Aylii you might’ve missed that subtle fact. Although there were some particularly stinging comments directed towards me, I definitely will not shy away from them.
Aylii came to me late last night and raised some points about it. I encouraged her to run with the idea and I’d help her make any technical edits and formatting along the way. I couldn’t pen the post myself as I was already committed to a last minute Karazhan and Arena point earning (which by the way culminated in Brutal Gladiator’s Mail Leggings for my Elemental Shaman and Brutal Gladiator’s Mooncloth Gloves for my Priest).
I’m delighted at the discussion that’s happening. One camp’s just shrugging it off and believe it isn’t going to be a big deal. The other thinks that it’s something worth stopping and pausing over.
My personal belief? Whether or not there are sweeping changes, I will welcome them with open arms and adjust to them as necessary. I’ve never really been one to complain about changes to classes or gear or what not. I’d discuss it, analyze it and try to give a thoughtful opinion about it. But I’ve always been one to accept changes to the game without fuss. Because I know that despite how much I may hate changes, I will always be a fan of this game and I know I will play this game for a long time. Even Starcraft 2 will only hold my interest for so long before I come back to WoW because so far no other game has offered the type of experience that WoW offers.
So I can either spend my time depressed about the patch or I can spend it constructively and devise new tricks to take advantage of it. And that is the way of Matticus.
Back to the post, I probably should have spent more time editing it and back checking it myself. My fault entirely and I certainly deserve all the criticism mentioned in the post. Everyone makes mistakes except when I make mistakes, it’s viewed by over 1500 people =D.
Identity Crisis
I’ve had difficulties in the past trying to ensure that guest bloggers and writers would get the proper credit they deserve. A post by Wyn announcing open season recruiting by her guild had readers think that it was Carnage which was recruiting (Matt’s guild).
Currently, I’m experimenting with a WordPress plugin called Post Avatar which would give authors the ability to embed a picture or a graphic to their post to help visually differentiate it even further. Italicizing and other text effects have failed me. I want to make sure that anyone who writes and anyone’s work who I showcase gets the proper credit that they deserve. I toyed with the idea of setting up individual accounts for people, but for security and practical reasons I shot that down. I may yet revisit that idea later on.
Ergo, I’ve decided to (at least as a temporary measure) append a little graphic in the corner of guest posts to serve as a gentle reminder that although it’s a damn thumpin’ good post, it’s not written by me.
(Mental reminder to crop out the whitespace on the left and top part of the image)
Guest posts right now usually have a little emphasized blurb at the top along with a link back to the original author’s blog, if applicable. Right now, if I were to publish a guest post, it would say that I have written it. Again, for practical purposes, it’s being served under my administrative account even though I was not the original author.
Now let’s hope it works!
On another side note, I hoped you’ve enjoyed today’s SYTYCB posts! You’ll be getting 3 more tomorrow with the remaining 2 on Thursday!
My raid’s been cancelled tonight which is a mixed blessing for me. That does give me ample time to work on the 3.0 version of Matticus, however.
Cheers and have a good evening!
The thing is that you’re taking a solo blog of which you’ve been the main writer for so long and attempting to convert it into a hub which houses several writers.
And it’s not surprising that people are not catching the distinction or transformation. After all, it’s called “World of Matticus”, not “World of Matticus, Wynthea, and random other friends”.
You might want to consider a re-branding (new site, new site name, new URL) if this is no longer a solo endeavour. Of course, that may have problems in converting traffic, and you’d have to rebuild your site’s identity.
Rohans last blog post..Targeting
Rohan: Yeah, the thought occurred to me not too long ago. Lots of pondering to do.
Matt, for what it’s worth I wouldn’t change the site name. There will be an adjustment period as people learn to look for author bylines, but it will become automatic for your readers. You have a great following here, and it would be a shame to have to rebuild that!
Besides, in any “world” there is ample room for all kinds of things. I love blogs with multiple authors, as it means there will be more to read!
Which has been my stance on it for a long time. It’s not Matticus.com, it’s the WorldofMatticus. And whoever Matt chooses to include in his world – it’s still his world.
Matt’s the grand pooh-bah, and editor-in-chief. Those of us fortunate enough to be on staff are just that – fortunate to be on staff.
Luv,
Wyn
I personally wonder why people have trouble distinguishing between two different authors. I always notice the different byline straight away, and even if I somehow missed it the style of writing is different enough that I can tell – which is a good thing by the way, I wouldn’t really like to see a bunch of mini-Matticuses writing here (a horrible thought on SO many levels).
I really don’t believe that you need to rename the blog or re-identify yourself. As both Wyn and Sydera state, it is called “World of Matticus”. I consider Wyn to be the Luigi to your Mario (but more attractive and intelligent), able to inhabit and participate in the blog without being in the name.
As for the angry comments, I have to admit I haven’t read them since I am a slacker and rarely click through to read comments. I’ll put that on my to do list.
Saresas last blog post..Can I live in a bubble?
Damn some guy linked to your site from the wow general forum content post, which I read because all of the ‘Sky is falling posts’ make me laugh, saying you make good points.
I had to come here and flame you after I saw that. Now I see in addition to thinking the world ends with every patch, this guy can’t even read who an author is before making attributions. Maybe I’ll go read the actual post on your site and flame it anyways.
(Other changes aside, the new raid wide buffs,that will be part of the patch as they are a mechanic change and one of the jobs of the pre-xp patches is to adjust players to mechanic changes in upcoming content, will gg all current raid content. Once this patch hits it’ll be a rush to ZA to get your bear mount + some super hardcore guilds that manage not to run out of players will breeze through 90% of Sunwell content if they haven’t been already)
Sar: Now THERES a question. Luigi to my Mario? Odie to my Garfield? Robin to my Batman? Joey to my Chandler? Invisible Woman to my Mr Fantastic? Mary Jane to my Spiderman? Brian Griffin to my Peter Griffin?
I don’t see any reason that you should have to re-brand just because some people cannot manage to spot bylines.
Ego Priest has several bloggers these days and I think that works just fine – even though her blog-title is priest-centric and the blog content is now broader.
Your idea of avatars per ‘standard’ blogger and one for guest posters would be a good idea though for the byline-challenged… 😉
Matt Im the hero and you are the dumpy sidekick
I am guilty as charged and fixed my link back post. 🙂
An idea I had and am going to use although I don’t have nearly the audience that you do is a secondary account called Guest Author. It’s still my account, it just gives me someone else’s name other than my own to post with.
With the series that is starting, I have pieces from 4 different author’s already and this was the best way I could come with to help keep straight whether it’s Auragirl, a guest author or myself.
Knurds last blog post..The World is Still Coming to an End!