Friday, June 17, 2011

Changing the Subject

This is one of those blogging PSAs from your Uncle Jim.

I see some people around the 'net complaining about echo chambers and being sick of certain subjects.

Guess what? You don't have to deal with it. You can change the dialogue and make everyone talk about what you want to talk about! It's a simple two step process.

First, ignore the things that annoy you. Stop reading the posts, the comments, and for crying out loud stop bitching. By complaining about it, you give it more power. You're another voice in the chorus.

Secondly, write about something that does interest you. Write in a way that generates interest in the subject and encourages discussion and debate. Write about a subject robust enough to carry several points of view on the matter.

Congratulations! You've successfully changed the subject and people are talking about something that interests you!

If you do that regularly, you're going to find yourself with a following and soon enough you're creating the trends that someone else is getting tired of hearing about.

It's all about building the environment you want to be in and taking the opportunity to share that ideal and build a community around it. You can't rightfully complain about being stuck with the options other people give to you if you're not bothering to do anything yourself.

Show the world how it should be done.

9 comments:

  1. Well said and a nice sentiment and theory but it doesn't always work that way.

    I talk about what I want to talk about on my blog and don't really care if no one else discusses it on their blogs.

    At the same time I'm not under some false impression that I'll wake up tomorrow and see too many posts on other blogs about Champions, Superhero RPGs in general, Star Trek, Mekton or Comedic Games.

    The 'net is going to be full of D&D. We're going to discuss shields now and initiative again in three months. Then it'll be hit points. Or is it armor class. I don't have my schedule in front of me. There will be another four or five versions of Basic.

    D&D is nerd and geek football. It's the common denominator game for the masses. It's easy to understand, available and flexible enough to tweak to your liking. However, if I thought for a second my mention of Teenagers from Outer Space would start up a slew of TFOS articles on the web I'd be pretty delusional.

    I'm not complaining but I am being realistic.

    People complaining should indeed bring up a new topic for discussion. Just be prepared to be talking to yourself a lot of the time.

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  2. I've stopped at talking to myself too :P

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  3. Hypocrite. That's what it was like *before* you started hawking your wares. You are on the record as despising content that isn't published in book form as if that was a sign of quaility. It is one thing to masquerade as part of the community so you can heighten awareness of your products, it is another to pontificate on themes for discussion in a format you have stated you have no respect for. Un-fucking-believable.

    The only service you Zak and Grognardia provide is hoovering up the morons so they don't make stupid comments elsewhere.

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  4. Well thank you for being a hoovered moron.

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  5. Let's stare at that and see if becomes a clever riposte.

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  6. Again, Kent, if you're going to be pretentious we really need to nail down your grammar and usage, sweetie:

    "...if IT becomes a clever..."

    I KNOW you can do this, ok? You could be the next William F Buckley, but Kentaluh, APPLY yourself, ok?

    Alright, see you next time.

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  7. You need not fear those things which strike wonder in your heart, gollum, wholesome air and light for these are not heavenly marvels but ordinary things a man can take for granted if he will but lift his head out of the stinking muck.

    ReplyDelete