Greedy Goblin

Monday, February 20, 2017

My blog was much more alive back then

As I'm indexing old posts, I realized that I had 30+ comments despite half as much traffic. Both me and my commenters engaged "trolls" who - often in a primitive manner - defended social thinking.

Today I don't engage them, I just moderate them out. I'm annoyed by them as they repeat the same old crap that was disproved almost a decade ago. No, just because he writes, a friendly social guild will not complete any meaningful content. No, "getting skillz" will definitely not let you rise out of the masses who all believe in "skillz".

Maybe I am wrong with this approach. Maybe I should engage with these people if my goal is to change their thinking. I have to accept that - despite I spent 4 years in EVE - I couldn't weed out the 0.01-ing. It's not a philosophical thing, it's not something pressed by Goons or protected by corrupted devs. It's a simple idiocy coming from lacking any clue about economics. And I failed to exterminate it. I'm pretty sure that if I'd go back to EVE, I'd find the market full of 0.01-ing idiots.

Does moderating every single idiot who says "market is about 24/7 sitting and updating orders" helps? Well, it helps with me feeling better. It probably helps the choir I preach to feel better. After all, seeing these idiots hurts. But does it help the World? Wouldn't it be better if I'd take the time to not only throw a link to them (which they won't read), but answer their retarded arguments the zillionth time?

I start to see that by moderating out idiots, I'm just creating a sterile ghetto for educated/rational people which acts like a closed facebook group. We are happy about being not idiots and make absolutely no difference.

On the other hand I see how much different I was back then. These things were new and I enjoyed debating them. Now they are trivialities. I've argued for them over almost a decade, I've seen all possible counter-arguments and defeated them. It's very unlikely that any 0.01-er could tell me anything that I haven't seen at least 100x.

I admit that I'm frustrated by this lack of progress. I mean my position about 0.01-ing is something obviously true and would greatly increase the income of anyone who listens. If people can't be convinced about that, how could they be convinced about social stuff? On the other hand my high hit count on business tip posts show that many people are interested in them and want to learn. So maybe I'm doing it right and moderating out the idiots was the right call. After all, most readers never commented, just read.

I don't know. The thing is that I enjoyed blogging and playing more back then. Maybe the two were connected and if I find a good game, it will be enjoyable again! Like many of us, I'm hit hard by the gradual "accessible gaming" + pay-to-win changes of games. The question is: can I increase blog quality and enjoyment without the games I write about getting better?

23 comments:

nightgerbil said...

The reason freedom of speech is so important is so we can challenge the idiots. We can laugh at the ones who think the international jewish conspiracy sank the titanic then rip their argument to shreds and in so doing convince all onlookers. It is important as it allows me to float my hypothesis that Germany lost ww2 because the german general staff were actually incompetent and when hitler realised this he took over, but sadly didnt realise the importance of reserves, which is why germany lost a war it SHOULD have won in 1942. Now I may be wrong and this also may be offensive to the nazis are total evil people, but it can only be debated if I can suppose it into intelligent company.

The third reason freedom of speech is important is what you touched on: it allows you to convince someone they are wrong. Tell them. Teach them. Show them. Yeah your doing it for the hundredth time. Gevlon part of my IRL job is teaching people to fill shelves in a supermarket. Im good at it, been doing it for nearly 20 years and I have to say Im bored of it, but I keep going by treating every newbie as an individual. I get to know them then Im able to help them. You wouldn't think it was hard to teach people to rotate the stock and put the newer dates at the back but...

You will never convert the ignorant if you don't engage them and talk to them in their own language as to why you have a better way. If your really trying to teach more then a sleect few? maybe you need to stop overly moderating? and to allow yr followers to help you in the comments as well.

Anonymous said...

I'd like you to consider your comments section from the point of view of the bl,og reader. I believe that some very good points are often found in the comments. But if I see an unmoderated blog with countless idiotic posts I will stop reading. I just can't be bothered to sift through the trash to find the rare gems. You have been pretty good at moderating this blog so far and as a consequence you comments are worth reading.

Cathfaern said...

I think you don't have to do all the work. It's the backdraw of the pre-moderated comment: you see it first so there is no chance for anyone else to answer it before you. So maybe don't moderate these comments but don't bother yourself to answer them. Just enable them and let other commenters answer. If they don't, you can still answer it later (or correct the commenters if they're mistaken).

maxim said...

You can't be a proper teacher if you don't well and truly enjoy repeating the obvious stuff.
Price of admission.

As for the games not being interesting, you really have painted yourself into a corner on what you consider to be interesting. The world of games is big and really has something for everyone, but sometimes you need to get out of your principled ivory tower and get down and dirty into searching for stuff you like.

Unknown said...

Your most essential problem is your target audience.
You are reading for intelligent, disciplined people, who are eager to learn tricks in computer games.
Guess what, intelligent, disciplined people don't play games. They are too disciplined to do it :)

Gevlon said...

@Nightgerbil: the main problem is that very few bad opinions are presented in a good way (not a coincidence). The 0.01-er won't present a reasonable argument (as he would realize he is wrong while creating it), but something like "lol u just wanna kill the competition to keep all the iskiez nolifer XD". This statement doesn't actually contain any information why 0.01-ing is right or why is my post against 0.01-ing is wrong. It merely says that I'm secretly 0.01-ing and try to scam others from doing it. Which is an ad-hominem without argument in the topic. Most moderation is done with fast-reading the post for swear words and l33tspeak.

Now we can agree that a 100% insult post is worthless. But what about a post which is half insulting, half making some point? Should it be answered or should it be moderated?

Unknown said...

TBH, you did have your own version of "Scrubquotes" (the "morons of the week" posts) which can be a good way to preach to socials. Apparently public shaming works wonders for them, plus you can include links to relevant educational posts - if someone complains about you crashing prices on item X you can publish that along with a link to one of the many posts where you explain that selling a lot of items at a lower price can indeed be better than selling a few at a high price (despite your core audience not needing a tutorial on multiplication).

I also suggest putting in more time into these posts in terms of explaining what the moron of the week did wrong. For example, you used to post snapshots of people losing ships in EVE without much in the way of an explanation. I do not play EVE so I had no idea what the screenshots meant; I presumed it was usually some combination of putting valuable stuff in an unsafe ship and/or piloting a valuable ship/cargo to an unsafe place, but it's perfectly reasonable that some random social that wondered into your blog via reddit had no idea what the post was supposed to teach despite being an EVE player who understood the screenshot perfectly. In fact, one could argue that a random EVE player could assume you were merely posting these screenshots to "harvest tears" because that is the norm in the game/community.

This doesn't even require you to select and start playing your next game, as you can have your audience send you screenshots of M&S behavior that you can post and comment on.

nightgerbil said...

I agree garbage comments are garbage. "lul you sux get a girl rofl" contributes nothing and isn't worth reading. Where the line is, I think varies for each person and as this is your blog the line is your line. Its where you think it should be. I would like to make the case though that without catering to fools and the mentally 12 you could still engage more people in debate even if their arguments are flawed and allow yr readers to share the load a little in educating them.

Anonymous said...

I believe anyone using insulting language, no matter what they say with the insults, should be moderated out. There is no debating with bullies that need insulting to complement their positions...

Anonymous said...

I'm interested in reading the 0.01-ing article. Can someone please post a link?

Gevlon said...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=greedy+goblin+0.01

maxim said...

What follows is a highly political link that you might disagree with heavily in terms of pure political agenda. I am not interested in discussion political agenda.
It is, however, a pretty good example on how to marry insults and content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCEmk-U57zo

Unknown said...

Moderating/censoring comments leads to an echo chamber and much less traffic.
Why do you care about traffic? Kylie Jenner gets much more traffic on instagram by uploading "sexy" pics... No one is smarter after looking at theses pics... Yet, she and her wallet are happy...

If every "trader" in EVE would stop o.o1-ing, most "new" traders would not be able to raise to the immense wealth the happy few really rich traders possess.

"Smart" traders make profit from theses market bots and can heavily influence whole market segments...

Provi Miner said...

I want to take a moment and talk about .01 ism. why fight against it. I agree you post blog "why not .01" Then all the people who follow your path get rich while those that believe .01 is the way to go stay where they are.

Consider the .01 a spender and those who follow your path the savers.

you should view your "market" ideas in the same light as a good economist would view his advice. My point is you need the .01's to help you make isk doing it your way.

Gevlon said...

@Provi miner: I don't need them. I need buyers. They are just noise.

Provi Miner said...

exactly gob's they are the noise that lets you and those with two brain cells walk away filthy stinking rich. Oh by the way code took a major hit last week, supposedly the corp is for sale at around 80 bil and miner bumping is supposedly going to be archived. MC getting dunked by provi, goons unable to project and getting their stuff wrecked, Eve is fun and seriously just come back as someone other than gobs and you can make the game even more fun. I miss you and screw falcon even with his help no one cares enough anymore for it to matter (not even him).

Druur Monakh said...

Regarding 'insulting language': Calling somebody a 'Moron and Slacker' is an insult of itself, so you maybe don't have much of a high ground to sit on.

Regarding 'the same old crap that was disproved almost a decade ago': when it was disproved a decade ago, why do people still bring it up? Maybe the disprovals weren't popularized properly, or maybe your disprovals were simply wrong.

You never seem to question your core philosophy, and I think that is one of your problems.

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth. I started playing eve relatively recently. Every one always refers to a sort of a cliff or a wall that new players face and often drives them away. Every piece of advice I received on the matter told me to find a good corp, once you're with bros, once you're in the right social circle, the game will work out for you. Personally, I found this blog to be the spark of inspiration I needed to move past that new player wall. Unfortunately I alao found this blog posthumously, so to speak. You may never come back to eve and I would find that a shame, but it's not like your work in the game was meaningless or wholly negated by 'anyone in particular'. I believe you once remarked that you favored eve so well because you knew that your work had persistence. Well it does, even after you've quit and stopped playing.

Anonymous said...

The reason you don't get comments is because you refuse to allow any comments that disagree with your opinions. You're nowhere near as smart as you think you are, and frankly you became boring. At first I used to enjoy your fumbling around, but as you progressively became more unhinged and paranoid you stopped being funny or entertaining. There was also that period where most of your posting those awful text tables and Grr CFC/CCP.

Gevlon said...

I just don't see what value is in allowing comments like yours. It's nothing but ad hominem attacks.

Anonymous said...

You allow comments like that, and yet refuse real criticisms or legitimate advice.

Gevlon said...

Because all of them are like that. I realize that the guy who writes "i got dank iskies w 0.01ing an got myself a Nyx in a year so stfu" really means that and believes that his feedback is valuable, but it's not.

N said...

There is a minimum level at which I do think you should moderate out comments. Letting people make an argument against is a good thing, but letting them just spam common arguments without any attempt at elaboration adds nothing, especially if they're doing so in a vitriolic way. Vehement and poorly thought out comments only make the argument veer towards negative emotions and don't get anyone closer to understanding or even thinking.