Courting Controversy

I think long-time readers of my blog will agree that I’m not usually one to court controversy. Mostly this blog is filled with my hobby projects, news about my writing, a bit about travel, and the occasional ‘thought piece’.

Yesterday’s blog post, Is Wargaming Getting Too Easy, started off as one of the later. Only after I had written it, did I realize that I had given it a slightly ‘provocative’ title (well, in wargamer terms anyway). Once I realized that, I admit, I decided to run a little experiment. I wondered if I could get the piece to go viral. So, I put up links to it on a number of forums and Facebook groups of which I am a member.

The effect was nearly instantaneous. Comments started flooding back. In only a few hours there was so much discussion going on in different places that I could no longer keep up with it. Overnight, the blog has become my 7^th most viewed blog-post of all time (with about 5,000 views, so we still aren’t exactly talking a global scale here).

There has been a lot of interesting discussion, most of it civil, though there were a few calls of ‘elitism’. In a few places I joined in the discussion, and at one point even updated the original post (to include the final paragraph). It was all kind of fun and exciting, briefly.

This morning though, I felt differently. As I sat down to do my morning writing (the deadline for Ghost Archipelago: Gods of Fire is looming), my head was still buzzing with all of the discussion. I couldn’t help myself, but I checked all of the various threads again. This, of course, only increased the headbuzz.

I got my writing done this morning, eventually, but it was a real struggle.

I have learned an important lesson. While it is certainly fun to watch my blog numbers scroll up, it isn’t worth making that a goal. It isn’t fun to try to keep up with a conversation that is moving at the speed of the internet, and breaking into all kinds of sub-conversations. More importantly, it isn’t fun to have your head filled with endless chatter, even on a topic you find interesting.

So, it is time for me to withdraw from the conversation. Many thanks for everyone who posted here on the blog. This part I enjoy. One little conversation that I can follow and control. My own little corner of the internet, with a select group of people who actually come here because we share perspectives and interests, even if we don't always agree on every point. 

Tomorrow - back to figure painting!