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Updates about the world or the blog at large.

SYTYCB: Week 2 Cuts

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I wish I could keep everyone. The standard this week has improved so much that it’s becoming more difficult to choose. I knew it would be hard, but I didn’t anticipate it would be this hard. Every blogger (yes, you are now all bloggers) deserves their own blog. Reading and editing these posts has shown me that they can blog just as well as the rest of us out there.

Who knows why they aren’t doing that already?

In any case, it’s with a heavy heart that with I announce who will be leaving us this week.

Crutch

You did well, my friend. But the competition really pushed it to the extreme. I know when we were chatting, you mentioned briefly about the desire to start writing no matter what would happen. I want to see you pursue that desire. And when you do start blogging under your own name, make sure you send me a link. You have great talent, and I know the blogosphere would benefit greatly from your experience and your voice.

Matt & Wyn Live

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We’re about to go live soon on UStream soon. It would be cool if you made a user name, but it’s not required. It just means we address you as “Uberustreamgamer-87277875143742135248624”. Or something.

How to get in

Link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/twisted-nether-blogcast

Password: tnb73

Then you might have to enter it again.

Join myself, Wyn, Fim and Bre!

Podcast over! Thanks to everyone who joined!

State of the Blog Address

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My friends,

It’s been a rough few days here in the World. First week of school, blog randomly breaking for reasons yet unknown and so forth have kept me frantically working to keep this ship afloat. The theme you see right now is only temporary. But I’m also excited. The great blogtastrophe could very well be a blessing in disguise. I’ve wanted to do a new layout for the new year and spent most of my time scheming, planning, and drawing. Alas, I can’t wait until the Fall semester is over to put my plan into motion. What you see right now is a temporary look designed to keep blog functionality going. I have a very limited window here since exams and assignments start piling up towards the end of September and late October.

On a side note, if you have two midterms, how does that work if they’re supposed to be done during the middle of term?

Anyways, with that in mind, I’m setting an extremely ambitious plan to have a functional blog layout operational by Monday the 8th. With luck, I’ll finish in time before my hockey fantasy draft (Ovechkin or Crosby first pick?)

Schedule

Friday

0600: 20 Questions with Veneretio (tankingtips.com)
1000: SYTYCB Bloggers critique and bottom 3 announced (and an explanation on Tulani’s absence which I’m sure many of you have noticed)
1800: SYTYCB cuts announced
2130: TNB Podcast (Live!) hosted by Fimlys and Breana (Matticus and Wyn guesting)

By around that time tomorrow night, I should have a theme ready to go.

Saturday

0600: Responding to the Where the hell was I? meme from Gamedame
1200: Assigning Healing Strategy: Part 5 of 5 – Things to Watch For

Blog logistics and other minor and trivial details need to be handled. Certain categories will be axed and remade. Lots of retagging and reorganization of posts will be happening. I have like a billion posts. This is going to take a while :(.

Sunday

Blog will be in maintenance mode for the entire day which means it will largely be inaccessible. I have to raid from 1630 onwards until 2100 which means I may not be able to finalize deployment just yet. If all goes according to plan, then you’ll see the 4th reincarnation of the World.

I’d like to take a moment to recognize Lassirra for her tremendous support and technical expertise in troubleshooting the majority of the cataclysms affecting World of Matticus recently. Thanks Lassirra!

I have to confess. I came *really* close to throwing in the towel and calling it a career. That feeling only happened for a split second but it was long enough. Of course, I needed only to look up at the Feedburner counter to realize that I had at least 731 reasons to keep pushing.

All I ask is for more patience.

In the mean time, here’s a trip down memory lane:

v1

Version 1: This theme ran from early August until late September. I didn’t care much about the layout at the time. I focused more on writing as much as I could.

v2

Version 2: I opted for something new and fresh. Something that was more vibrant. Something more… me! This one was live from September on until towards the end of December.

v3

Version 3: The longest lasting theme thus far, this theme served me well from the start of 2008. My only regret is that I could not make it work long enough for the whole year. This was by far my favourite and I’m disappointed that I have to retire it earlier than usual.

Go beyond what’s asked of you. Never settle for just being “good enough”. This new theme will be better than the old one. It has to be. I won’t be happy with anything less. I will do whatever I can to make sure it reaches that point. My readers deserve no less.

Thanks for sticking it out this long.

Your friendly Priest blogger,
Matt L.

An Explanation is in Order for the New Look

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In short, my blog broke. Something bad happened with the numerous scripts that has occurred. As such, this has forced my hand. I’ve been meaning to work on a new layout for some time over the winter break before New Years. Now technical difficulties have ramped up the schedule a lot. School just started for me so I’ll need to work swiftly. I had narrowed down my theme choices to a few and this was one of them. Customization tends to take a bit of time. This will be no different.

So if you’re reading this in a feedreader or via email, please keep it up.

What this means to you

Absolutely nothing. What this means is that some functionality is reduced. No Twitterfeed, no recommended readings, no recent posts, etc.

I’m so embarrassed. Bear with me. Thank goodness for four day weekends.

SYTYCB: Week 2 – The List

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This week’s blog posting format, with some special dice rolling help from Anna, is the list post. It should be a little easier for the bloggers to do now compared to week 1 when I dropped the rant bomb on them. However, while it’s easier for them to produce something, I think it’s only going to get much more difficult for me to judge and critique them accordingly.

An excerpt from the EMail I sent out:

The list post is my baby. I don’t think I’d be far off from the truth if I said that it’s one of my signature style of posts ;). Again, like last week, you think up your topics and your points… I’m expecting top quality stuff here. You guys know who you’re up against and what everyone has to offer.

Examples of lists:
13 Things Every WoW Player Should Know How to Do
9 Traditional WoW Posts (with examples!)
11 Excuses: How to Tell the Real Life Professions of Your Healers
20 Characteristics of a Mature Guild Member
10+3 Personalities Every Guild Leader Needs Around

Note, I couldn’t think of any other lists that were off site off the top of my head so I poked around my archives.

Remember length doesn’t matter but you do want to provide enough to show that you’ve put some work into it instead of just randomly listing stuff. Think to yourself how you can not only list your points, but elaborate on them further.

In the critique post, I mentioned that you should look at different blogs and authors and find out what makes them so appealing to you and that you should try and emulate their style. Use their elements. Take that extra step. The rant post, while not the best week 1 post, helped demonstrate to me who’s a writer and who’s a blogger. The bar has gone up.

A successful list post provides just enough information but also leaves the option open for readers to comment and contribute, to agree and disagree, etc. Look at each other’s critique that Wyn and I wrote and see if there’s anything from there that you can apply.

Speaking of List Posts, I said that I had trouble scouring the WoW blogosphere for list posts. If you have any that you’ve written in the past that you’d like to share, please leave a comment with a link! I’d love to check them out and read (or re-read them) again!

3 more upcoming posts today at 6 AM, 10 AM, and 2 PM.