Blogging back for March, and thoughts on April and beyond

Sorry for not being more active, real life takes its toll once again.

I haven't really had any time to read around the blogosphere or to get anything written, but here's a whistle stop tour of the (active) blogs that sent me hits in March, as a thankyou!

of Dice and Dragons, of course, has been keeping the RPG Blog Carnival rolling - please go show your support if you can, there are still some slots available to sign up to host in 2023 I believe!

Seed of Worlds has several very readable recent posts, and many better and more frequent blog link lists than I do (or can)

Hobgoblinry showcases some Oathmark Orcs and some Mordheim Skaven and terrain

Sea Of Stars has not only been hosting the March carnival but is also embarking on an A-Z blogging challenge for April (good luck!)

DIY & Dragons has a 2022 in review (not just gaming) in a smorgasbord of interesting things

and Shuttered Room has been cataloguing creatures, all the way to Z! (more talent and tenacity than I)

I'm planning on getting back on this horse every month, as part of my bid to be a more sociable blogger, and trying to participate in the Carnival and just see what great stuff is going on.

Dungeon23 has burned me out but I'll hopefully be back on that as well ... I have a whole shelf of stuff I could review ... comments welcome on anything you'd particularly like to see more of!

Building Robots (for World Domination)

Image (cc) Cameron Daigle

I happened to chance upon the brilliant Twitter bot @doskvolscores and it prompted me to start thinking about bots and automation.

I had been playing with some of the old automation stuff the blog was set up with long ago; it seems the feed aggregators are mostly gone, as RSS has gone out of fashion, but the feeds are still going strong. They're what power a lot of the links in the sidebar as well as the blogroll, so I started seeing what I could do with them.

5 Ways to Support The Blogosphere (And Why You Should)

Image (cc) Ivy Dawned, on Flickr

Way back when, round about 2010, there was something called the RPG blogosphere.  It was awesome. It was like some kind of interconnected network of blogs, a web that went worldwide. Then with the increasing uptake of "social media" the blogosphere dwindled - but now it's back I think it's important that we keep it running.

Comment
We like comments, that's why we have them enabled.  These blogs are public spaces to share thoughts, ideas, and resources where feedback is always welcome; nobody likes to think they're just shouting into The Void.  As a bonus, comments on blogs add links back to the author's blog and links mean a) more curious traffic shuttles between them and b) better SEO because it counts as a word of mouth recommendation as far as search engine spiders are concerned. It was part of the original design philosophy and it's why spammers spam and why some blogs have limitations on who can comment, or require moderation.

This is a social medium, so lets be social.  And it only starts there...