Monday, February 2, 2009

This round is on the house

Hello everyone!
Don’t be shy. Come forward and grab yourself the drink of your choice. Nethergarde Bitter is very popular. If you want something more exclusive, pick Plugger’s Blackrock Ale (I’m afraid we’ve only got a few bottles of it). Or get real drunk on Rumsay Rum Black Label. And there’s Fresh Apple Juice for the kids. Have whatever you want - it’s all on the house. You see, today we’re celebrating an anniversary. It’s exactly one year since I wrote my first blog post.

It wasn’t until a few months later that the blog achieved the name The Pink Pigtail Inn and went international. But I was born as a blogger on February 2 2008 and I wanted to acknowledge it somehow, even though I know it's a little bit self-centred.

I’ll quote a few passages from my first post:
“This blog will be about my second life. The life I live inside World of Warcraft in the shape of the gnome mage Larisa, born on Kul Tiras, nowadays living on the Stormrage server. I don't quite know where the blog will go. Maybe it will just be a few diary notes which no one but me will ever read. Maybe it will catch the interest of a few more people. Most of all it's a way to get out a few of all those things which are bubbling in my head. All the impressions, the questions, the experiences I've had along the road. A lot of things happen in the virtual world. When you think about it’s not ONE game, but many, there are so many ways to see it and play it. So... welcome to meet WoW from the point of view of Larísa.”

As you see my idea about what this blog would be about was pretty vague and I’m afraid it hasn’t cleared a bit over time. What I wrote one year ago is still valid. I write about stuff that comes into my mind and I don't have any system or idea about direction. It just happens.

What I didn’t know when I wrote those lines was that the blog actually would catch the interest of a few more than me and a couple of guildies. I’ve gone from almost zero readers to over 200 subscribers. To me that's a huge number, enough to make the inn feel nicely crowded, but not so many that I get scared. In comparison to many other blogs, PPI is still smallish. I know for instance that Gevlon, who got into blogging pretty recently, already has more than three times as many subscribers. When he started out I gave him a little piece of advice. I think he felt he wanted to return this service, so he wrote me a few lines, suggesting me how to gain a bigger audience:
If you have ideas that you are hiding because it does not match the "approved" and "nice" ideas, post them. Granted, you'll be bouncing trolls from your inn, but some really interesting people might come in.
He also added:
Or maybe you shouldn't take this advice and keep your inn a pleasant and nice
place where people love to come.


And it’s the second path that I’ve chosen to follow. I’ll never ever gain any huge audience since I honestly don’t provide any kind of useful information and never try to provoke people on purpose. But that doesn’t matter because I value what I’ve got higher: a relaxed atmosphere, no pressure and an infinite freedom to rant about whatever I want to, without considering the effects on my visitor counter.

During this year I’ve produced over 250 posts, which is amazing to me; I still can’t understand where all the words came from. It’s like a book when you put it together. I’ve had a ton of fun writing them, that’s for sure. Like when we fought that silly mage war, which forced me to actually look a little bit closer at my talent tree, even though I never managed to write anything insightful about it. (A continuation of it seems to be upcoming by the way.) Other posts have been rather sad or frustrated, rants about my struggles to cope with my shortcomings, losses of friends or my problems to make my gaming work with my real life. The blogging is no doubt an therapeutical outlet to me, as it is to many other bloggers.
After this first year, I feel as if I've eventually been accepted as one of many contributing members in the WoW Blogosphere. I’ve gone from trialist to member. Hey, I've even got a link from BRK! That was my proudest moment as a blogger ever, I all but fainted when I found out.

Enough of ranting. I've written enough of retrospective meta-blogging posts during this year. If you're a new reader of the blog and want to hear a bit more about the person behind this blog and her ideas (or lack of ideas) about blogging, I suggest that you read the post where I interviewed myself.
So. At last. Here’s to all of you who regularly come here and contribute, by reading, commenting and linking to the inn. Without you I wouldn’t be celebrating this anniversary. All credit goes to you for helping to keep this place going.
Thank you all. And cheers!

20 comments:

Suicidal Zebra said...

Happy Blogging Birthday Larísa, from snowy England.

Anonymous said...

Happy Blogoversary!

I wouldn't say gaining an audience is about giving "useful" information though - at least, for me, I'll read blogs I find interesting.

A blog can have a lot of information, but at the same time be flat and stale. A blog with personality is much more fun to read, and I think your blog has that just right.

Here's to the beginning of another year of blogging - keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

Yay!
Happy BlogDay... of course we all know the true purpose of a 1st birthday is for the adults to get drunk, while the kids entertain themselves... so hears to a few more!

krizzlybear said...

Have a good one! I'd leave a nice comment here, but I'll simply save that for a post of my own. Truly, congratulations.

Klepsacovic said...

Bah, useful information be damned! Facts are all over the place and not all that hard to find. Opinions and experiences expressed in an entertaining and interesting way, those are more rare.

There are plenty of FAQs for useful information. I've yet to find a FAQ titled: "What it is like to be me in WoW."

Anonymous said...

Grats on a year!

Now you'll never be able to stop blogging, even if you wanted to. :P

And I think you should make an FAQ called "what it is like to be me". It would be AWESOME.

Gevlon said...

Happy birthday! I hope there are many-many posts are to come in the following months/years!

Anonymous said...

Happy Blog Birthday!

Information without a personal twist to it is just - information. That's what wowwiki and those sites are for.

Information viewed from a personal perspective gives you something to think about, and will maybe change your own way of looking at things.

So cheers, and keep on blogging your way :-)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations.

When i was thinking of starting my blog i emailed 4 people who's blog i read and enjoyed and you were one of them.

You were also the first to reply and had some fantastic advice and even now i send the odd email so you are like a teacher a lottle bit to me.

Our blogs are nothing a like at all but i know if i have a question you will be kind enough to answer me.

Unknown said...

Happy bday! Have really enjoyed reading your blog in the past 5-6 months. Keepem coming!

Anonymous said...

Gratz!

And FYI, your blog has been one of the best things to happen to mine! :) More on that in a post...

Anonymous said...

Happy BlogDay, Larisa. :)

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the one year anniversary - that really is quite an accomplishment!

Dwism said...

WoW (pun intended) thats a lot of posts. And a lot of great posts too ;)

Ill join in the Choir and say Happy Blogoversary !

Amber / Obsidian Dragon said...

/cheers!

Rohan said...

Congrats!

Anonymous said...

@Suicidal Zebra: thank you! And grats to the snow! Wish we had some more over here. The ground is white, but not much more than that.

@Faulsey: Thank you very much!

@Gnomeaggedon: A few more...getting drunk... what are you suggesting? May be some interesting posts upcoming if I follow your advice.

@Krizzlybear: oh dear, you make me curious! Thank you anyway!

@Klepsacovic: thank you, that felt comforting. I couldn't provide any useful facts even if I wanted to. But maybe there's no need.

@Euripides: aaawww... This inn will never close you say? Is it a blessing or a curse? About the FAQ: isn't that exactly what this whole blog is about? What it's like to be Larísa.

@Gevlon: thank you!

@Tessy: thank you and thanks for stopping by! It's been a while since I visited your blog last time, which is a shame. You seem to be actively blogging again and I'll try to catch up now.

@Esdras: thank you! It's really my pleasure if I can be of any help at all. I'm still learning this stuff and certainly don't feel like any expert. But it's nice to see new bloggers coming up and making themselves at home in the Blogosphere.

@Herc: thank you!

@Kyrilean: I'm glad that a few readers have found their way to you through my blogroll. Your blog has its given place there. It's very well written, intelligent and interesting in every way you can think of and you deserve a bigger audience.

@GoW: Thank you! By the way, having you here, I must say that I really really liked your new layout! Well done.

@Sophie: thank you!

@Dw-Redux: thank you! And once again: welcome as a new blogger. I hope you'll find it as fun as I do.

@I like Bubbles: /Cheers!

@Rohan: Thank you!

Brian W. Smith said...

Congrats on the One Year Larisa, its tough to come up with enough material almost daily that you're willing to post, but you manage to do it, and keep it rather fresh and interesting. I look forward to the next year of your posts.

Fish said...

I will stick with volitile rum, its cheap and you can turn it into rocket fuel, so I'm sure it packs a whallop :P

I can't believe your blog has only been around a year. It seems like I've been reading it forever lol

Anonymous said...

@Goshon: the blog is and will always be a day-to-day project. So I have no idea if this blog will still be around in a year. But I'm glad you like it!

@Fish: have another bottle please!
Actually you've probably been reading it much shorter, It wasn't until may-june or something that The Pink Pigtail Inn was lauched. But time works a bit differently in the blogosphere, in my opinion. One year feels like a lifetime.