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SalTheChin
Last seen 7 years ago
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Record
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Archive

2016

2016-01-31 06:31:29
rating 3
2016-01-29 05:48:54
rating 2.8
2016-01-26 06:01:17
rating 3.6
2016-01-17 04:43:38
rating 3
2016-01-15 05:45:37
rating 3.4
2016-01-13 05:19:33
rating 3.1
2016-01-11 05:18:33
rating 4.3
2016-01-10 04:43:18
rating 3.9
2016-01-08 05:52:36
rating 4.4
2016-01-06 05:57:50
rating 3
2016-01-04 04:29:11
rating 4.9
2016-01-01 05:59:42
rating 2.9

2015

2015-12-30 06:06:46
rating 4.8
2015-12-27 06:25:22
rating 5.3
2015-12-25 07:02:56
rating 3.8
2015-12-23 06:27:43
rating 4.4
2015-12-21 06:21:00
rating 4
2015-12-20 06:21:28
rating 4.1
2015-12-18 05:49:01
rating 3.8
2015-12-16 06:10:33
rating 3.5
2015-12-14 05:52:04
rating 4.8
2015-12-13 01:45:28
rating 4.3
2015-12-11 06:18:57
rating 3.7
2015-12-09 04:58:50
rating 3.9
2015-12-07 05:38:48
rating 5.4
2015-12-06 03:55:35
rating 3.8
2015-12-04 05:41:11
rating 3.9
2015-12-02 05:59:35
rating 3.2
2015-11-29 17:50:52
rating 4.6
2015-11-29 00:05:52
rating 5.4
2016-01-29 05:48:54
28 votes, rating 2.8
Metablog: Ratings and Comments
This is post has nothing to do with actual Blood Bowl. If that bothers you, please go read something else.

I read all the comments on my posts. Sometimes, I respond directly, but usually I take notes for possible future posts. The main reason I don't respond with a comment of my own is that the my primary topic is rarely addressed. Last time the comments went off the rails again, and harvestmouse said a few things that I felt needs an immediate but thorough answer. Normally, I wouldn't feed the trolls, but harvestmouse is a frequent commentator that I think was sincere:

What put me off his blogs, was when he tried to dictate who was welcome to comment and that comments should stay on topic. Totally against the concept of blog commenting. I don't usually rate, but I rated the blogs with the above comments a 1. So that maybe an issue with his low score.

Just so that everybody is clear, I do NOT care about ratings. I am writing this blog to learn more about Blood Bowl and hopefully help others do the same. As most people use some other criteria for the ratings, ratings aren't useful feedback for me.

If somebody has some constructive feedback, that is welcome in the comments. If you want to correct a mistake or offer a different point of view, please share it. If anybody has anything relevant, I want to hear about it. In short, I write because I want constructive comments.

By my own metrics, my second most successful post so far was Cash Flow which gathered only six comments and 3.5 rating (on 12 votes). The reason it rates so highly is that all of the comments (even the 1st one) are on topic and constructive. I learned a bit writing that post, and I learned a lot after I read comments.

On the other hand, my least successful post so far was Blood Bowl is like Magic which had 16 comments and a 3.9 rating (on 24 votes). The comment section is almost as bad as a random youtube video. Of course, most of this is my fault as the post lacked substance and would not meet my current quality standards. Only thing I learned here was that I need to write better. I think this shows that I don't particularly care about quantity. I prefer high quality readers who respond with high quality comments.

Keep the comments coming. I only ask that you try to keep them relevant and constructive.

Sal-utations

Side Note: At some point, I am going to start aggregating the best of the blogs and responses into a more useful format. Future me appreciates everything that reduces the editing load.
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Comments
Posted by pythrr on 2016-01-29 06:13:03
Hats are amzing.
I have 5 hats.
One is blue.
It is quite nice, and is furry.
It is almost as good as the pink hat.
The pink hat has sparkles on it.
The white hat does not have sparkles on it.
It has a picture of a banana.
I do not have a green hat.
Posted by keggiemckill on 2016-01-29 06:27:14
I don't comment on your Blogs, because I don't want to discourage you. I am doing it now, only because you are asking for helpful advice.

Negative: I think there a lot of guys on here that have played Bloodbowl for many years. I for one have played since 1989. I met a guy that wasn't born until I graduated high school recently. Old feeling. With Blood Bowl being around for so long, most of us have had long discussions on the Topics you have addressed. To some of us seasoned/ grizzled old vets, we find your Blogs are a bit trite. This is not your fault, as you are newer to BB. I by no means want to discourage you, but if you want to know why people may be negative to some of the thing you have to say, I believe it is because of that.

Now some positives. I think that Blood Bowl has had a resurgence as of late. That is super fantastic. Newer coaches need to think about and discuss some of the things that you put forward. Most of us have read and/ or participated in an over abundant of these types of conversations, but there are some that have not. There is value in what you have to say. This is why I personally stay out of your blogs. I don't even rate them. I advise you to keep up the good work, and if people get a smudge out of what you have to bring then its a worth while Blog.

Leave the fugging guy alone old guys.
Posted by pythrr on 2016-01-29 07:41:29
My hat is a bad hat.
I withdraw my hats.
Posted by cowhead on 2016-01-29 08:52:01
Have some Socks instead, they will keep your toes nice and warm.

The odd ones are the best but the stripy ones are also good.

Don't wear holy socks as they could offend Nuffle, and who wants that.

But the holey socks on the other hand should be worn solely at home.

With your feet raised and your legs crossed on display for all to see.

So what will it be?

My guess is that you forego the pleasure of the sock and partake of the leg warmers.
Posted by koadah on 2016-01-29 10:16:03
Maybe part of the problem is that you are writing blogs. ;)

If you want to learn maybe you would be better off asking questions in forum posts.
Then people will hopefully give you a few useful answers before drifting off to argue about CPOMBers, min/maxers, cherrypickers etc.

If you write a blog people expect you to tell them something interesting. If people don't find it interesting then you will got 1s and silly comments. People will then get to competing for the silliest comment and you are pretty much doomed. ;)

The more people have to read before discovering that the blog is not going to interest them, the worse the response is likely to be.
Posted by Throweck on 2016-01-29 10:36:49
I prefer to think of socks as feet hats and hats as head socks. Perhaps leg warmers as lower limb sleeves.



Posted by fidius on 2016-01-29 10:51:07
When I first started playing the game 5 years ago I would have thought your blogs were quite interesting. They are definitely well-written. Keggie's right, the observations are good ones, just a bit old-hat to most of the pharts here. I suspect the format is what is provoking negative reactions. Best way to learn is to play games, watch replays, and read forums. I've played nearly 1,000 games on here (shudder) and do not yet feel qualified to write a blog.
Posted by Dunenzed on 2016-01-29 11:55:28
There are two elements to the comment that triggered this blog. The first element is that Harvestmouse has suggested your stance towards only wanting a certain type of comment on your blogs is counter to his concept of what blog commentary is or should be. The second element suggests the first element is the cause of low ratings on your blogs. You focus on the issue of ratings, which aren't important to you.

What you don't examine is whether it's reasonable, realistic or rational to expect comments to remain constructive and on topic when posting opinions on a game that originates as a parody of American Football and features Orcs, Elves, Zombies, Vampires and the occasional goblin with a chainsaw.

I would suggest that questioning your expectations was the far more important part of feedback Harvestmouse provided.

But then again I'm an advocate of the dreaded Feet Hat/Head Sock/Lower Limb Sleeve combo, so what would I know. FeHaHeSoLoLiS all menz!
Posted by jdm on 2016-01-29 12:04:42
I appreciate you writing the blogs Sal. The information you cover isn't always new/useful to me but would bevery helpful to some players, especially new ones. I'm not going to crap on your parade just because everything you write isn't 100% directly relevant to me.

Keep it up bucko :)
Posted by Wreckage on 2016-01-29 12:51:28
Out of my experience it almost doesn't matter what you write about. If it's something that is remotely controversial it will inevitably get bad ratings.

The only things to get really high ratings are:
1. Pointless personal announcements (I had a child, I got married).
2. Administrative decisions (Your benevolent ruler has decreed that: !)
3. Plain good deeds (donating large amounts of money to the site, contributing something valueable and so on) - but even this will get the occasional bad rating already.

Anything that includes an opinion people can disagree on will inevitably get rated poorly.

The reason why you won't be able to ever limit the scope of your readers here is because every published blog is privileged.
You have an assured reader base not out of yourself and who you are but out of the page.
That means people don't seek your blogs out because they are interested in what you have to say. They seek you out because your blogs are flashing up on the site.
Often they will not even pay attention to who the writer is and just click on something in the blog section because of the title.
If you're beating an old horse topics (which you often do) a lot of people get magically drawn to it exactly because they have been following the topic for years and they will quickly rate it poorly because they will be disappointed.

If you write the magic words CPOMB on the title except hundreds and hundreds of clicks every time. But the quality of comments you can expect to be exceedingly poor aswell.

Back in the day, back in LRB4 cherrypicking was the big the topic. It has gotten silent around it but I'd not make the mistake to think that there aren't a lot of people around who don't have a very well established well argued opinion about it from all the discussions. Then there is fouling of course. Whining and lucking are classics.
Opinions on the matters have largely changed over the years. Whining used to be more accepted and to justify everything with a reference to the dices used to be even the common opinion at some point. And cherrypicking used to be way more rejected than it is now.

There are of course always reasons for this.
For instance: The problem is that whining isn't a constructive way to communicate as to argue with luck isn't one either.
I'm not bringing this up in regard to what you have written so far, I'm just rather trying to make you aware of the big topics.
Clawpomb today shines over everything. It's in every debate and it gets touched in every topic. Even now with me writing this. Cherrypicking is mostly less of an issue because the inducement rules plainly balance matches more than TR handicaps ever did.

If you want to have a good discussion with as few condescending comments as humanly possible, the best way to archieve this is to look for the most exotic topics. Mind you the ratings will be still poor, just the debates will be better as you'll find rather interested people in the topic click it.

The precise question debated of course very much matters and it's good to have sort of constructed a clear picture in your mind where you are going with a topic, which i think you haven't always done.

Mind you even if you would write your blogs with the current knowledge of the progress of topics and the majority consensus that has been reached, you'd still get low ratings because not everyone would be able to follow what you say and not everyone agrees on the majority consensus either.

People have diverse opinions.
Posted by bghandras on 2016-01-29 15:15:07
I think a well written content is a courtesy, and i treat it as such. Even if i dont find it new, or useful. With that said i am not infallible, and will read your insights in the future.
Posted by Nightbird on 2016-01-29 16:41:55
I'm confused. You addressed harvestmouses' comments, but then, again, at the end of your blog you set 'restrictions' on who should comment?
Posted by NerdBird on 2016-01-29 16:43:33
Part of the problem with the rating system, it is anonymous so it seems some people on the site just down-vote blogs for lolz. My latest blog is getting down-voted for of the lack of tractors in our upcoming match. :-)

I love the fact that people brought up socks and hats in the replies; this is perfectly to your point. At the same time though, it is their right to reply how they see fit.

I find your blogs rather dull. I am pretty new to the site but I have been playing BB since I was 16 back in the 90's. I play bloodbowl for the competition, the enjoyment but mostly entertainment. Since finding this site I have been fascinated and found the various tournaments, smacks and the ability to easily build teams rapturing. You have really yet to develop a team beyond a handful of games, you play only in ranked, and you are not entering any of the competitions like RRR's and Smacks. You write your "blogs" on a site where there are a lot of experts and seem to take their knowledge of the game with a grain of salt as though you are forging new paths in a game that has the basics down to a pretty specific science.

Another thing I would point out is that you don't add any comments to other blogs and I don't see any dialogue in the forums from you (where some pretty good conversations and advice get rolling I might add). As thought provoking as a few of your blogs have been, you don't really engage in the conversation. I think it is an odd way to learn the game and then gripe that everyone doesn't stay on topic. We all take VAGUE subject matters a different way and process the aspects of it we find appealing (or not) and run with it.

Most of us, I believe, are here for entertainment and frankly, I am not entertained by dry posts where the author absconds from the conversation and scolds people for trying to have fun.

Just some thoughts sir. Keep up the blogging though, I usually rate everyones blogs a 6 because they are just throwing their thoughts out into the public and I enjoy it. It's a lot better than all the quiet folk in the background..... ;-)
Posted by WingedHuman on 2016-01-29 16:46:28
Turn that frown upside down...

And Kill all menz.

Keep up the good work mate.
Posted by jdm on 2016-01-29 18:23:07
To echo Nerdbird, a great way to improve the comment section would be to get involved with it yourself. Then you can start conversations with readers and generally steer conversations away from hats and towards socks.
Posted by studmandudebro on 2016-01-29 19:14:08
i rated 1, first place for you friend
Posted by pythrr on 2016-01-29 19:31:45
"My latest blog is getting down-voted for of the lack of tractors in our upcoming match. :-)"

AS IT SHOULD BE

TRACTOR-LACK IS DISGRACEFUL!
Posted by keggiemckill on 2016-01-29 20:12:18
Agreed. Death-Tractor all menz
Posted by Uedder on 2016-01-29 22:38:31
1) Don't care about ratings
2) Intervene in the comments section

Basically you make blogs that sound like insights on the game, then give a very brief insight, and throw questions to the crowd. Then you don't reply to the answers they throw back at you.

You want to make this interactive? Then you should be more interactive.

You want to give your own insights? Then be more insightful.

I think most people on Fumbbl have much and more to say about any aspect of the game, so when you dig into an analysis of the game, most expect you to dig really into it. It's a hard crowd to impress.
Posted by PainState on 2016-01-30 00:39:39
This advice will get you far

There is no such thing as quality standards of a FUMBBL blog entry.

Write what ever the hell you want.
Posted by Cavetroll on 2016-01-30 01:24:50
PainState and pythrr are masters of writing blogs that get high ratings.
Posted by pythrr on 2016-01-30 05:35:19
i iz?
Posted by PurpleChest on 2016-01-30 15:36:41
Look, you really shouldnt look at, or care about at all, the ratings you get. As many have said they are formed for a variety of reasons, personally tend to vote a rating based on the amount of squirrels/owls in the post.

Also it is YOUR blog, write what the hell you want, some people will be getting value out of it.

However, those people gaining value from it are the very very new to fumbbl. To be blunt your analysis so far is childlike in its simplicity. Like a new football fan saying 'the ball going into the net is a good thing, the team should do that more.'

There are some massive nerds and geeks here that have thrashed all the major issue to death hundreds of times. With statistical models, computer aided predictions, diagrams and all sorts of other serious tools. And some of them are going to ignore you, some are going to mock you, or attempt to deepen/challenge/develop your themes. To see this as other than a good thing is a little odd for someone trying to learn the game, but a thick skin is sometimes required, the intersection of good social skills and good gaming analysis skills does not seem common.

My advice is to keep doing whatever you wish. It is YOUR blog. But you might get a little less friction from those who understand the game far better than you if you titled and styled the blog a little differently. Someone was doing something very similar about 2 years ago, but all their blogs were titled and toned as the impressions and musing of a new player upon finding BB. Yours tend to come across as someone who believes they are an authority and speaking to others from a position of knowledge and strength. Frankly, you are not.
Posted by koadah on 2016-01-30 16:49:38
People have said don't care about ratings.

You do need to keep your ratings above 2.5 or your post will disappear from the front page and fewer people will see it.
Posted by NerdBird on 2016-01-30 21:43:51
Sooo...all these comments and still no replies from the OP. O.o
Posted by SalTheChin on 2016-01-31 05:25:05
Thanks to Uedder for a useful reply. I wish I was more insightful, but I am still very new (six dozen games). Sometimes I have good insight, but mostly I am trying to learn the basics. I am considering reducing my post rate to one or two a week and trying to increase the quality/length of my posts.

To everybody who provided some encouragement, thanks.

To rest of you, Blood Bowl is an opaque game. If you want more people to play, you should be nicer to the new guys. When they are actively trying to figure things out, mocking them is worse than saying nothing.
Posted by pythrr on 2016-01-31 09:36:43
PFFT

it's the internet

everyone mocks everyone
Posted by Wreckage on 2016-01-31 16:39:06
@sal, your insights are great. What you're lacking in experience you're making up for with your remarkably well developed reasoning skills and common sense (less common than one would think). You draw a lot of correct conclusions. And people shouldn't judge you based on who you are but on the quality of your content.

You've also been given support by some excellent coaches in this and previous blogs. If you can put into perspective who said what, you'd probably find that people are overall very welcoming and supportive of your contributions. Phtyrr for instance is not someone you could ever please. His mind just doesn't work like that. And that's ok because it's the internet.
Posted by the_Sage on 2016-01-31 23:18:15
I doubt that's true Wreckage; I think pythrr is probably pretty pleased about a bunch of things, but still sounds like a curmudgeon when discussing them. =D