Tuesdays with Judge: The Urge to “Fix” Your Old Work

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May 082012
 

Another edition of “Tuesdays with Judge.” What’s the topic today? Fixing your old work. As any artist will tell you, they don’t like looking at their old work. Ok, generalizing here, but most will say that (ok maybe I’m still generalizing). The reason? They think it’s crap and and want to A) destroy it B) fix it. Like artists, I can’t stand looking at some of my old writing. I think it’s awful. Why is this? C’mon, do I really have to spell it out for you?

It’s only natural that the moar you write, the better you get. The moar you practice anything, the better you get. Articles that I wrote 6 months ago, pale in comparison to my writing now. Friends tell me otherwise, but you are your harshest critic; you notice even the smallest things that you have changed over time. That’s why I try to refrain from reading my older articles unless I have to.  The urge to “fix” my old articles becomes too strong. I admit, I’ve already gone back and changed a few of my older articles.

But is this such a bad thing? To go and “fix” your old work? Yes and no. Yes because part of me believes your work should remain intact as written, for historical purposes (yup, 100 years from now, people will be looking back at Moar Powah and marvel at my writing).  And no because it is tangible proof, at least to me, that I am becoming a better writer.  This brings up a point I’ve wanted to make.

Part of any craft is to not only practice, as stated earlier, but to study others’ work. I look at many other bloggers and study their writing.  Hell, I even study my own writers’ writing! There are some incredible writers scattered across the various blogospheres.  People erroneously think “study” means “to copy.”  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  For me, I particularly focus on how bloggers use syntax and diction in their writing. My goal is to become a writer whose material flows smoothly, and I feel studying syntax and diction is the best way to achieve a “good flow.”  Hopefully, I can get there one day, as my dream would be to write for a living (yes, that is my silly dream).  Until then, I’ll continue to write, continue to study. Everyday, I’m shuff–ahem–improving.  Until next time people…

Tuesdays with Judge: Website Design Is Srs Business

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May 012012
 

I wanted to do a quick “Tuesdays with Judge” on web design. Many of the comments and critiques on the Aniblog Tourney have been about design. Is design that important? That is the question of the hour. I’d like to quote MotsuQC, who has provided many critiques for the participating blogs:

Judging design is like judging a book by its cover, but more often than not it reflects the overall competence of the blogger. Bad design choices tend to mean that there’s an unfavorable user experience across the board.

Those who value their time would not waste it on sites with major issues. The most common problem that matters is the dreaded wall of text. There are some exceptions, but content that is easy to digest usually wins.

However, I don’t quite agree with everything he said. sdshamshel had a good response:

While I agree that better, or at least decent, page design makes for a more comfortable experience with a blog, to judge the competence of a blogger by his or her web design ability is something I have to call into question, if only because writing ability and design sense do not go hand in hand.

Marow also weighs in:

While it is true that design and writing does not always go hand in hand, just denying the fact that design is important it is plain ignorant. With a proper design it becomes much easier to digest the content itself, which is a blessing when it comes to longer posts. You just need to break it up with pictures and paragraph breaks, and voila, it’s already a lot better. As for the overall design of the site…just use common sense.

Bottom line? Content comes first to me. I don’t want to just whore myself out for hits; I want our content to be interesting. That being said, I stress a lot on design. My girlfriend will attest to this. I ask her at least once a week if I should redesign the site (I actually AM going to within the next 4 months).  I’m always changing around things, albeit small things, just to see if it makes the user experience better. I’d like to think Moar Powah! is pretty decent. I could be wrong. I will say that when it comes to me reading other blogs, I don’t really prioritize design. Yeah, some blogs would be moar pleasant and easier to read with a better design, but I’m looking for good content. With my own site of course design is very important. Maybe it helps that 80% of the time, I read through RSS feeds (pending that they use RSS…talking to you Charles).

It is interesting to note that a few blogs on our blogroll have redesigned their sites after receiving criticism for their design. Anime Tree, Kiddtic’s Anime Blog, Organization ASG, and The G-Empire have all changed their designs.

Tuesdays with Judge: Analytics and the Aniblog Tourney

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Apr 242012
 

It’s that time again. Another “Tuesday with Judge.” As if you guys had anything better to do on a Tuesday right? Well, first things first: my presence. I’ve decided to take a moar backseat role on the site; in other words, I’m now your everyday webmaster/administrator (and editor), making sure things don’t fuck up. In my last “Tuesdays with Judge,” I mentioned my interest in the subject material was waning.  That’s still true, which is why I am taking a moar backseat role. Moar change and health problems (again).  However, I’m feeling pretty upbeat lately, so I’ll try to tack on a few moar posts to further expand my lead over silverwolf in post count.

Everybody loves analytics. At least I think.  I’ve always been a numbers type of guy; it’s the beauty of numbers that separates the true sports fans from the casuals. Knowing stats and dates of important events really proves your sports IQ. Anyways, back to analytics. In case you knuckleheads forgot (or didn’t care), Moar Powah’s 1 year anniversary was last month, March 5th (but posted later, because I felt like it).   I didn’t install Google Analytics, however, until April 1st, 2011. So here’s a nice little graph to show our growth over the past year.

Pretty cool. Since you can’t see the actual numbers, I’ll tell them to you. Consider yourself lucky ;)   Continue reading »

Tuesdays with Judge: Lots and Lots of Change…and Yeah, Happy Belated Birthday Moar Powah!

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Mar 132012
 

I’m writing this on a Wednesday. It’ll appear on a Tuesday (yesterday).  Who cares. I can do what I want. Seeing as everyone else does it, why not? This column was supposed to be about my blogging experiences and site updates. Well it’s also going to be used for my personal rants.  ”The Courtroom” column is a rant in a sense; however, they’re (usually) well thought out rants.  I’m talking about raw emotion rants.

I haven’t written a single article all of March. Last time I wrote this column, I worried about lack of motivation. Now it’s even worse. Now my interest in the actual subject material is beginning to wane. Due to…lots and lots of change recently. My life is in a state of flux again. Not that I didn’t expect it; nonetheless, change is never easy. You know, I’ll probably be fine. I just need to write a few articles and “BLAM!” Everything will be back to normal. It’s spring break now, and I’ve just been enjoying myself and drinking a lot. Anyways…

For site news, nothing really new.  Our new column “Objection” is off to a good start. Hope you’re enjoying that. I really want to get our vlogs going again somehow. I have one ready with SIYM.  Recorded it a while ago, but keep forgetting about it. But it will definitely be up this Friday in honor of SIYM. In honor you say?  Here’s some moar news regarding change.  SIYM will be leaving the site.  This Friday, his last article will be going up.  And you guessed it, it’ll be a review on Mass Effect 3.  He’ll also say his goodbyes to all you readers. This news was especially shocking to me; SIYM has been one of my best friends since my childhood.  He’s been here for almost all of Moar Powah!’s existence, which is why I’m particularly saddened.  I can’t thank him enough for his hard work and dedication.  I wouldn’t have been able to keep this site going without him.  A machine is only as good as the sum of its parts.  SIYM was a key cog in the Moar Powah! machine, and it’ll be hard to replace him.

So yeah, there’s all this change happening.  And all this change caused me to forget that last Monday was Moar Powah!’s one year anniversary.  One year down, hopefully many moar to come. The future is always uncertain, but gotta keep chugging along.

Tuesdays with Judge: Where Do I Go from Here?

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Feb 012012
 

The long and winding road...

NOTE: Yes it’s Wednesday. But I wanted to wait until the start of the new month to write this.  This is going to be a new column on the site focusing on my thoughts about blogging and such, as well as site updates.  The title was inspired by the popular book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.

Hello readers of Moar Powah! This past month I’ve had to do a little self-assessment of sorts.  Basically, I asked myself if blogging was worth it.  In the summer, my posting drastically reduced due to my job.  Thankfully, that’s about the same time I started bringing on moar writers to help keep the site going.  Then in the fall, I started up again, only to lull in and out of posting due to personal and health reasons.  Now it’s the beginning of February, and looking back at the past month, my posting has been a bit paltry.  I have come to the conclusion that I simply find writing a chore.  It’s not like I have a shortage of ideas nor have I lost interest in the subject matter.  But right now, I just don’t feel like writing (moar in-depth explanation in a bit).  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not disappearing; a lot of discussion happened last week when 2DT announced his farewell.  Fellow blogger Charles of Beneath the Tangles wrote a nice tribute post to 2DT.  Akira of Moe Fundamentalism did as well.  And AceRailgun touched on the reasons why a blog dies.   Continue reading »