Well I am trying out this new format of scrolls. I've had a lot of fun working on my scrolls over the years. Yeah, it's been years, 12 puddle-years to be precise (3 OOC years), since I started my scrolls. I've worked very hard on them, spent hours creating guides and maps, and spent time writing my thoughts in my journal. It's been a fun ride but I am ready for something different.
First because I need something new to keep me interested, but also because of the lack of feedback I received when I asked for it. I got about 5 letters and a couple of nods in town, and some of them were mostly about the new look or about a broken link somewhere. There are much more hits than that small feedback seems to suggest, so what does that mean? I'm not sure, but it's not very encouraging. It's not really nice but I have to be honest about it. I've spent so many hours working on those scrolls that I need to have the feeling that it makes a difference, that people appreciate it. The vast majority of the time it feels like it didn't make any difference at all. No newbie came to me saying how it helped them adapt to his new life in Puddleby. I wasn't made a Friends of Dawn by my former clan as someone who helps newbies. No one came to me saying "hey I liked your map of the scarmis pen, would you like to come with us, we're going there?"
Then there's the fact that most of the feedback I got was by people interested in my journal and asking for more entries. I kinda painted myself in a corner with my journal entries. It became a chore to write a journal entry because in my mind it required something important to happen and then it involved a lot of technical tweaking just to write an entry, with all the indexing, linking and other stuff. So it wasn't easy, and writing your thoughts should be easy and straightforward. Otherwise you wait until something big happens, and then it's an even more daunting task.
So here in this new format I can write my thoughts more easily, without worrying about anything else but what I feel like writing about. Perhaps nobody will read it but writing a journal will help me. If others read it and enjoy it, all the better. So I'll try this and see where it takes me.
Drablak
Followers
7 comments:
Hey! I get the painted-into-a-corner feeling, too. I'd put off writing about something big 'til I had enough time to "do it right", then a bunch of other stuff would happen, but I felt I couldn't write about it until I'd done the big thing and the next thing I knew, it'd been ages since I'd posted. Bleh. Sometimes big stuff just doesn't get written about, or waits 'til long after the fact, now. I love the green!
Dandelion
Yes you explained it much better than I did Dande, that's exactly how it was with my journal. I'll try this and see if it's easier. One other aspect I haven't talked about is this ability for people to comment directly, which lacked in my previous scrolls. It's another reason for me to try this format. Thanks for being the first to comment! :)
Well, I like your journal and your entries and your guides and your maps. I would invite you to the Scarmis Pit but as I can't go there myself it would be impossible for me to invite you. Maybe more people didn't know about all of your writings because it wasn't linked at more places and wasn't known by many. Advertising is a pain but it must be done so I hope you won't give up entirely on your writing or studies.
Sincerely,
Jeanne
Shaky here.. I used your pages all the time, and miss your maps most of all.. But as your husband, I guess I could just ask ya directly huh?
The one downside to this new design is I can't leave a post except annonymously.
Jeanne:I didn't expect you to take me to scarmis, it's just an example to say I didn't see tangible proof that it was useful. I did ask on my main page for feedback, so those who did visit saw it and, considering the long hours to put up those scrolls, I don't think asking to take a couple minutes (at most) to send some feedback is asking too much. So no feedback gives the sense that it's wasted time on my part. I don't *need* to write newby guides explaining what is "dropping" or what to do when fallen, I do that to help out newer exiles. It takes a lot of efforts to do so. I don't *need* to draw maps, etc. So if it's all for nothing why bother?
Shaky: posting as anonymous isn't perfect, but you couldn't comment at all in the old format, so this is an improvement :) And of course if you need directions you can always count on me. I looked at many solutions for this new journal and I'm not completely sure of the best one, perhaps I'll move to another eventually.
Drablak,
I've always greatly appreciated your scrolls, sorry if I never made that clear before. I've seen some very useful stuff there. Keep it up!
Sunoril
I'm sorry I never gave you direct feedback, but I thought your map of puddleby was the best one out there and I used it daily. Would you consider putting the maps back up? They were a big help to me and I'm sorry I didn't let you know that before.
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