A Role Playing Games Blog
Non-RPG
Technorati = FAIL
5January 27, 2009
Recently I added a few new features to my site. One addition was a Technorati widget that should show my blogs authority, sites that link to me, Technorati tags and more. Alas this widget had several problem. At first it fails to load regularly and even when it loads my authority stays zero, although it says four on the Technorati site. I then found a much simpler widget that should only show a nice graphic of the current blog authority. This also doesn’t work and only shows a simple HTML link to my profile page. *sigh*
When I check out my Technorati profile page I notice that although the information about sites that linked to my blog is fairly up to date, the most recent entry in the “Latest posts” category is 109 days old!!! From my current standpoint Technorati seems to be severely broken. I have tried to “ping” manually but this hasn’t helped much.
So, what’s wrong with Technorati? Have other bloggers noticed the same faulty behaviour or is it just me? Any help or advice would be appreciated! And while you are at it, check out blog.beetlebum.de. It’s a german cartoon blog created by the artist who created the cool artwork above.
A look back on 100 posts!
4January 22, 2009
Behold the 101st post on Stargazer’s World. When I started that blog in August 2008 I had great plans and much greater hopes but of course nothing happens exactly as planned. There were some pleasant surprises and also some unpleasant ones. But all in all I am very happy with how Stargazer’s World has turned out. And I have the feeling that 2009 will be a great year for the RPG Bloggers community. But let’s talk a bit about the last 100 posts…
My most successful post is surely “D&D 4th Edition Firearms“. It was the most viewed post during the existence of this blog and quite a few people have been linking back to it. I have to admit that I haven’t actually have the time to playtest the firearms rules since we haven’t been playing D&D 4th Edition that often lately, so if you’ve done so, please let me know.
The most controversial post was probably “Some 4E myths“. When I wrote that article in October I thought that a lot of people were bashing D&D 4th Edition because they had some misconceptions about the game. The discussion got quite heated when 4E fans and 4E critics started to bash each other relentlessly. But luckily the whole controversy about D&D 4th Edition has calmed down a little since then and the 4E fans and critics peacefully coexist on the RPG Bloggers Network.
My personal favorite post is still “Roleplaying music – Five essential soundtrack albums“. I always use a lot of music in my gaming sessions and there are five soundtrack albums that I believe should be part of any GM’s collection. I also included some short audio snippets, so you can check out the music before you buy the CDs in your favorite shop. When I remember correctly it took me hours to complete this post, but it was worth every minute.
During the last two months of last year I suffered from some kind of winter slump and the quantity and quality of blogging declined. I am also not happy with how my steamfantasy campaign Asecia turned out so far. In November I posted about my ideas for a reboot of the setting but I haven’t had the opportunity to work everything out. Perhaps some of you have some ideas on how I can “save” Asecia. During the last weeks I started writing about the SF campaign idea that has been floating around in my head for some time. And I am really interested to see how it will turn out.
I also want to thank all my fellow RPG bloggers. I am always amazed about the quality and quantity of posts the Network is churning out every day. And I have special thanks to the Chatty DM who helped me a lot during these last months.
At the end of that post let me give you some statistics on “Stargazer’s Blog”:
- Total number of posts: 101 (including this one)
- Total number of approved comments: 370
- Number of (unique) visits: 8711
- Active WordPress plugins: 10
- Technorati authority: 4 (don’t let the widget fool you, and if you know how to fix that, let me know)
- Google Page Rank: 1
- Cups of coffee consumed by me during the writing of that post: 2
What are your thoughts on the last 100 posts? What did you like? What was not to your liking? What would you like to see more/less? As always I am interested in your comments! So please use the contact form on the About page or use the comment section of that post! Thanks!
Please wear your helmet!
9After several months looking at the same old theme I got tired of the look of my blog and so I decided to give it an overhaul. I’ve already found a new theme that’s pleasing to the eyes and that can be easily modified to suit my whims and I am currently playing around with some options. So, please wear your helmet at all times!
UPDATE: The Ratings plugin and the forum are gone for good. Both weren’t up to my expectations, so I removed them. I also removed the Google Friend Connect because it was almost impossible to integrate into the new theme. I hope you guys can live without it.
Forum
1You probably already know that I love to try out new features for my blog. Some time ago I read about Simple:Press forum and I had to try it out. Today I finally set a small forum up that you can now use to discuss the blog, roleplaying games, whatever you wish actually. Check it out and let me know what you think!
UPDATE: I have disabled the forums.
UPDATE #2: I reactivated the forums.
Ratings!
0December 19, 2008
As you may have noticed these blog uses a ratings plugin that allows readers to rate each post from 1 to 5 stars. I added this feature to give my readers another opportunity for feedback. But alas it is not used as I as hoped.
So, why should you rate the posts in the first place? To give me a hint on how you liked that post. Not everyone likes to write comments and rating a post is a simple way of expressing your thoughts. You thought that the post was just awesome, then give it five stars. And if you think it was abysmal, just vote 1 star. So it’s easier for me to see what kind of posts you liked, where I have to improve things.
I just ask you to give me some hint on where to improve my blog. And if you have some more elaborate ideas, on what I could do to make “Stargazer’s World” a more interesting place, feel free to write down your comments or contact me via the contact form on the about page. Thanks!
And by the way, there are some posts that still need some love, so check them out, while you are at it. 
- Retro review: Traveller
- A Colder War
- D&D Character Builder is now in Open Beta
- Game Geeks Video Podcast
- Scribd gem: Dragon Fist
UPDATE: The Ratings plugin didn’t want to cooperate with my new theme, so I had it shot!
My thoughts on the RPGBloggers Network
6December 18, 2008
Stargazer’s World has been a member of the RPGBloggers Network for quite some time now. And since the last weeks of the year are always a good time to look back at what you’ve achieved during the year, I decided to write down my thoughts on the state of the network.
Drinking from the firehose
In early September trying to follow everything that was written on the network was like drinking from the proverbial firehose. With a lot of new members to the network the amount of new posts in a given time was mind boggling. If you posted at the wrong moment, your post never even appeared at the network’s front page. This was very frustrating for a lot of us and the powers behind the network worked hard to get this problem solved. I am not exactly sure how they did it but it seems to work much better now. But perhaps some of the blogs aren’t that productive anymore. Or they changed the layout of the site, so that more post appear at the front page. Perhaps one of the people in charge of the network can give us some hints.
Black box
Something that bothered me for quite some time is the fact that the network feels like a “black box”. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I would really see some more information on the inner workings of the network. For example who decides which article is worthy of being “featured”? I also would like to see some monthly updates on the state of the network. I know that a lot of people are interested in such stats as how many posts we had on the network, how many new blogs signed up et cetera. Perhaps these updates can also be a great place to promote great overlooked articles or where the people behind the network can rant about some things. In my opinion the network could be much more than what it is now.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the RPG Bloggers Network is the best idea since sliced bread, but there’s always room for improvement. Or do you think anything should stay the way it it? I am especially interested in the thoughts of the people who started it all. Has the network turned out as expected or where you totally baffled by the way it went?
WordPress 2.7
2I’ve successfully updated to WordPress 2.7 this morning. The update process was even easier than I expected and it seems everything is working fine for now. Please let me know if you encounter any errors! Thanks!
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